A copy was provided by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review 
 I wanted to care more about the characters than I actually did. I wasn't rooting for them as a couple. I didn't enjoy the romance arc, and thought the characterization was very thin. 
 I requested this book because the blurb said Victor is gender fluid. Nothing in the text indicates that he is genderfluid. He's a femme cis gay man who does drag occasionally and never on page. The blurb has since been changed, and it no longer refers to Victor this way. As a non-binary reader, I was excited to read a romance with a genderfluid protagonist, and was disappointed that this book wasn't actually what the blurb indicated. 
 I thought Isaiah was a jerk, who also didn't feel realistic to me as a queer character. He is depicted like he magically went through life without ever experiencing any direct queer hatred, or witnessing any, he seems very clueless about the realities of being a queer person, which makes no sense at all, even for a masc queer football player. He cannot imagine what it's like for his femme queer husband who is an exile because of queer hatred, or his gender independent (and possibly trans and/or non-binary) bisexual teen child (who was my favorite character, by the way). 
 I liked Evan a lot, and wished that I got to see Victor and Evan's relationship build; that felt like it needed more screen time. I wanted so much more for Evan than a parent like Isaiah who could not get even the most basic aspects of daily reality as a gender independent teen, and doesn't even try. It felt like this gender independent, possibly trans and/or non-binary character was there primarily to teach Isaiah about gender and being openly queer, and especially to further the romance plot. Evan's gender and queerness should be more than a plot device. Especially in a book that had a blurb misrepresenting itself as a story with a non-binary main character. 
 I don't mind some fantasy in my romance if the story and writing sells it, but this story was the sort of fantasy that just didn't work for me; I couldn't buy it, couldn't suspend my disbelief. The odd mixture of queer activism, experiences of queer hatred and bullying, and a completely clueless queer main character who cannot empathize with his queer family members pretty much at all...felt very off to me. It honestly felt like very little research went into the writing of this book. It made the story itself feel incredibly improbable. 
 This is compounded by a marriage of convenience for immigration reasons arc that also felt very unrealistic, both because I didn't feel like Isaiah's actions and proposal were probable, and the actual references to the immigration process presented queer marriage as a route to citizenship as if it was simple and easy. It basically handwaved away any obstacles or difficulties the characters might have in this process. It also struck me as deeply unrealistic that they thought Victor could easily move to live across the country from his husband during the immigration process and it would be no problem. I am not an immigrant, so I cannot speak in more detail to the impact of this sort of simplified portrayal, but this is an issue that we need complex nuanced stories engaging with, and unfortunately this story is not that. 
 The moments when Victor was talking and thinking about Isaiah's Blackness and the contrast in their skin tones while they were having sex made me uncomfortable, especially as he was topping him sexually, which carries a potential power dynamic. That said, I'm a white reader, so I cannot speak to this issue in more depth. 
 I was disappointed that we neither got to see much of the sports or the dance, or get details about the daily experience of being a dancer or an athlete. That was another reason I was drawn to the story. What I love about romances centering characters who are devoted to the arts or to athletics are those kinds of details, the way they illuminate character. 
 Instead of being a window into who these two men were, it felt like these vocations were there to prop up the very simplified masc/femme framework in the story. It seemed like this line up of stereotyped opposites that we were supposed to fill in the blanks of, instead of getting deep or nuanced characterization: masc/femme, football player/dancer, het passing/queer activist. This made for a story that felt steeped in misogyny and femme hatred, deeply othered both Victor and Isaiah's kid for not being masc/being openly queer, and felt like it reproduced the queer hatred and heterosexism that the story seemed intended to challenge. This aspect of the story more than any other, made the book feel as if it was only written for an allo cis het audience. As a queer reader, this made for a difficult read. 
 I really wanted this book to be good. I was so excited to read it. And unfortunately, found it deeply disappointing, pretty much across the board. 
 Trigger Warnings: (view spoiler)[ Threat of death if character is unable to get asylum. Bullying, including physical violence. Queer hatred. Gender policing. Misogyny and femme hatred. Brief moment of diet talk and fat hatred. (hide spoiler)]