I gotta say, I haven’t been totally nailing the young adult selections recently. The Temperature of Me and You by Brian Zepka just left me feeling lukewarm (pun intended).
We meet Dylan working at the small town Dairy Queen, where he meets the very attractive Jordan just before he closes up shop. To say their interaction was explosive is an understatement. Literally, Jordan explodes his Blizzard in his hand before he hightails it out of there. Dylan is even more intrigued and is determined to find this boy. It takes some effort, but Dylan does find Jordan again, only this time, he gets burned. Turns out Jordan is like the Human Torch (Fantastic Four, anyone?) from a strange lab accident that killed his parents but altered his body chemistry. Dylan is the first person he confides this information to.
Unfortunately, that puts Dylan in immediate danger from the company keeping tabs on Jordan. Even as their romance slowly starts to gain some speed, that doesn’t stop more strangeness from happening. Apparently Jordan’s condition is contagious? That was never explained too well in the novel. I also found it odd that it never transferred to anyone else. Dylan may be obsessing over his first love, but he’s got two best friends who he spends an abundance and intimate amount of time with. Instead, we are treated to strained relationships because Dylan is a teen and doesn’t know how to properly communicate. I had to keep reminding myself of this constant frustration.
Even as things got resolved throughout this book, the main action came and went too quickly. I don’t know, I’m kind of at a loss for anything else to say about this book. It wasn’t bad really, but it wasn’t a very deep young adult read like I’ve checked out in the past. Not for me, but could definitely be for some. If you like queer romance and a little bit of science fiction, then by all means check this out.