Get Real, Chloe Torres by Crystal Maldonado: Review

Welcome to my review of Get Real, Chloe Torres by Crystal Maldonado! It’s the peak book for the summer and one you’ll want to add to your overflowing TBR.

Title: Get Real, Chloe Torres
Author: Crystal Maldonado
Genre: YA Romcom
Publisher: Holiday House
Pub Date: 05/13/25

Description

When Chloe Torres plans the perfect summer to reunite her estranged BFFs—a cross-country road trip to see their favorite boy band!—there’s only one difficulty… getting them to actually go along for the ride.

Chloe Torres’ birthday has always marked the end of summer—but as she turns eighteen and prepares to leave for her freshman year of art school, it feels like the end of more than that. It’s the end of her adolescence, which means it’s time to leave the past behind… but can she really let go of the two estranged best friends she left there?

NOPE. Chloe decides to take one more shot at healing the friend breakup she’s always regretted: planning the bucket-list trip neither girl can say no to. She’s taken care of everything: the car, the hotels, and concert tickets to see their favorite boy band’s reunion show in Las Vegas—stage seats, so close they can fangirl right in front of the boys’ faces. But first, her ex-BFFs have to say yes.

And to say yes, they’d all have to be talking… which they haven’t done since Ramona kissed Chloe, and everything imploded.

But with some clever finagling (and some undignified begging) Chloe gets them all on board. Of course, being in a car together for two weeks brings back old feelings… a lot of old feelings… and soon enough, Chloe wants Sienna, Ramona wants Chloe, and everything is on fireeeee.

This sizzling summer adventure from YA star Crystal Maldonado is a hilarious and heartfelt romcom with a little something for everyone: fat positivity, sapphic romance, a blazing love triangle, ADHD representation, a diversity of Latine identities, a once-in-a-lifetime roadtrip—and the perfect it’s-finally-happening kiss.

Review

“The soft parts of ourselves—the parts that don’t know better, that yearn for love and acceptance and home—can’t help but hope.”

Get Real, Chloe Torres is the definition of a summer book. It has such a whimsical and wholesome vibe to it that really makes it an uplifting story. It’s evident the author respects fandom and the connection it brings, and it made me think of my own fond memories of supporting boybands as a teen. Where my 1D and 5SOS girls at?

And while the book was fun, there were still a lot of moments of realness, like Chloe’s ADHD causing struggles on the trip, Sienna’s feelings about her biological father, and Ramona’s hesitancy to allow herself to enjoy the trip. But all of the hard moments and disagreements were bridged with such joy-filled and heartwarming moments. Not to mention the love triangle was well-done and satisfying. I enjoyed following the girls’ trip, and the formatting of the book added a special element with the bucket list getting crossed off and the itinerary/locations being placed in the chapter headings.

I also don’t know if I’ve ever read a character that’s as nostalgic and sentimental as I am, so I fully understood Chloe’s desire to reconnect with her former friends. I genuinely still think about people I was friends with in kindergarten and wish I could talk to them, so she’s a girl after my own heart, even with her intense personality.

If you need to read something that’s going to lighten your day and make you want to cherish your friendships even more, I’d recommend this one! I would also pay to get a book with Diego’s adventures because he was a hoot and a half.

*Thank you to the publisher for the gifted finished copy. All opinions are my own.*

Author

Crystal Maldonado is a young adult author of inclusive romcoms for fat, brown girls. She has written the award-winning novels The Fall of Whit Rivera; Fat Chance, Charlie Vega; and No Filter and Other Lies, as well as a middle grade novel called Camp Sylvania: Moon Madness, co-written with #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy. Her forthcoming YA romcom, Get Real, Chloe Torres, releases in spring 2025. Follow her everywhere @crystalwrote.