The History of Us by Nyrae Dawn

Synopsis: Eighteen-year-old Bradley Collins came out a year ago and hasn’t looked back since. Who cares if he doesn’t know any other gay people? Bradley has friends and basketball—that’s all he needs. Even if that means always sitting on the sidelines when the guys go out looking for girls.

When cute film-boy TJ tries to flirt with Bradley while his friends are doing their thing, he freaks. Yeah, he’s gay, but he’s never had the opportunity to go out with a boy before. He’s never had to worry about how his friends will react to seeing him with a guy.

Bradley accompanies TJ on a road trip to film TJ’s senior project documentary. In each city they visit, they meet with people from different walks of life, and Bradley learns there’s a whole lot more to being honest about himself than just coming out. He still has to figure out who he really is, and learn to be okay with what he discovers.

Get it on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1P7mb2Y

Add it to your TBR on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25080325-the-history-of-us

5 Mutha effing stars!

I’m not really sure if you could really categorize this as a romance. It was more about his journey to being comfortable in his own skin and knowing what it means to be a gay person in this age in America.  The author touched on some really great topics in this book, such as how different it is to adopt in America as a gay couple, the AIDS epidemic in the ‘80’s which I remember a little even though I was young.  The conflicting emotions of a gay person who has faith and believes that they will be shunned by their family and church if they came out.  That one really got to me and made me realize that even though I am fully supportive of equal rights I still will never know what it is like to deal with prejudice as a gay person in America. It was very honest and heartfelt.  The title of the book has a double meaning since while it was literally about his blossoming relationship; it also gave insight to gay history.

It felt very original and very authentic to how the reality would be for teenagers who come out now.  While some people like to say, “We don’t care that you’re gay. It doesn’t change how we see you” For some people it doesn’t feel that way.  The author helped me to feel a little of what it was like to not be comfortable in your own skin or even to have that label hanging over their heads.  It was amazing really.

Brad was out but he wasn’t comfortable participating in a gay lifestyle. Never having a boyfriend or even other friends who were gay left him feeling very lonesome I thought.  While TJ on the other hand seemed to opposite in that he had been living a gay lifestyle and seemed quite comfortable and even happy. Their journey was surprising and held lots of humor to break up the seriousness.  I highly recommend this book to EVERYONE!