Cover not available
Bloom
Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band—if he can just persuade his dad to let him quit his job at their struggling family bakery. Though he loved working there as a kid, Ari cannot fathom a life wasting away over rising dough and hot ovens. But while interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easygoing guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.
Writer Kevin Panetta and artist Savanna Ganucheau concoct a delicious recipe of intricately illustrated baking scenes and blushing young love, in which the choices we make can have terrible consequences, but the people who love us can help us grow.
Why it's similar
Like Heartstopper: Volume Two, this is a contemporary YA graphic novel featuring a tender, slow-burn queer romance between two teenage boys navigating their identities. Both works use soft, evocative artwork to capture the vulnerability of young first love.
What's different
Bloom is set during a post-high school summer in an American seaside town centered around a Greek family bakery, whereas Heartstopper focuses on British secondary school dynamics.