All About Romance is a YA novel about a non-binary teenager in the North East looking for their big romance. Roman Bright lives in Tynemouth with their mum and brother, appearing confident and uncaring at their school and around their two best friends, but still unsure after they were messed around last summer by sporty JJ. When anonymous postcards signed by ‘Big Red’ appear in Roman’s things and then Big Red seems to be painting murals around school, maybe something exciting is happening to Roman, but will they get too caught up in the excitement, even with new boy Beau to keep them grounded?
As a queer YA book set in the north of England, All About Romance definitely stands out, showing one teenager’s experiences of growing up different in a small town and trying to deal with that. Consequently, Roman is your classic flawed young adult protagonist: they frequently don’t see things from other people’s points of view and get caught up in their own ideas of what is happening. Supporting characters like Roman’s mum and best friends are there to try and help them have a bit of perspective, and also to provide support to Roman, showing that despite difficulties at school, there’s still people around them who love them for who they are. It’s good to see Roman as a teenage non-binary character whose story is not about coming out, and who is allowed to be a sometimes annoying teenager who throws out too many pop culture references.
The main narrative, about the mysterious wall art and postcards, is pretty predictable (it’s easy to work out almost instantly who it is) and fairly similar to Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, so will appeal to people who like that romcom kind of plotline where you know that the protagonist is misunderstanding something, but don’t yet know the full story. A few elements of the writing style didn’t work for me (there were a lot of asides in brackets, possibly too many), but this book brings what people are likely looking for from the genre: a heartwarming story that still has some tough moments for characters, exploring queer characters at school and how they ultimately carve their own spaces. As an adult, it makes me hope that queer teenagers do get to have the freedom to make mistakes and be themselves and grow, even though I’m not really the target audience of the book itself.
Fiendfully Reading 
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