Cal Lewis has his life all figured out. Already popular on FlashFame for stories about everything from weekend goings on in Brooklyn to national elections, he’s going to do a summer internship at BuzzFeed News, finish his senior year of high school, move in with his best friend Deb, and go to college for journalism.

That is, until his father, a one-time Air Force pilot and current Delta captain, is accepted into the Mars program.

Cal is yanked out of the life he loves and moved down to Texas, thrust into a carefully scripted, retro life worthy of the Apollo astronauts and their families. Oh, and every waking moment of this is captured by StarWatch’s ShootingStars reality show.

Cal is used to reporting the news, not being the news. His anxiety, and his mother’s, makes things even more difficult, as does the fact that the media likes to drop not-so-subtle hints that the Lewises are subpar when compared to the other AstroFamilies.

Things change for Cal when he meets pilot Grace Tucker’s son Leon and his sister Kat. The latter becomes a fast friend and the former quickly becomes something more. But with the StarWatch people trying to stir up drama to make ratings, is it possible for anyone to get their happily ever after?

The Gravity of Us is a wonderfully sweet YA romance, and I have to say that the pan in me is thrilled to finally read something in which the bi (or pan, there’s no explicit label and we don’t need one because it doesn’t matter) boys end up together rather than having their time with each other and then going their separate ways with girls, which is what tends to happen in most media. Thank you, Phil Stamper, for giving boys this gorgeous example of what’s possible for them. They deserve it and have been waiting far too long.

Do Cal and Leon fall in love fast? Sure. They’re teenagers. As author Preeti Chibber reminded us when we talked to her about Spider-Man: Far From Home: Peter and Ned’s Ultimate Travel Journal, everything happens fast and large when you’re a teenager because it’s happening for the first time.

Do they go overboard? Yup. See previous. But what I appreciate about the way Stamper writes their relationship is that they don’t blame each other for the cracks and fault lines. Both Cal and Leon are able to take honest looks at themselves, see where there might be some room to enhance communication, and work on that. Neither resents the other’s imperfections, and they both have respect for each other’s boundaries – even if the distance is difficult.

Most adults are crap at that so let’s give these 17-year-olds a hand for being wiser than us.

I should note that there’s a conflict. Of course there is. It’s a book and things must come to a head and teeter on the edge of destruction because drama is a necessary plot element in romance, but it isn’t overblown and fits with the characters, their needs, and their insecurities. The resolution is perfect in the context and timeline of the story, and I love that it wraps up with promise but with some trailing threads. Almost nothing in life has a perfect bow, even though many romances would have us believe it’s so.

I also adore the way Stamper runs the larger story of the Mars mission in parallel with Cal and Leon’s; neither is more or less important, neither gets more or less time. This is an excellent reminder that every story, no matter how large, no matter how consuming, has a human component. Every massive enterprise is built by people with passions and loved ones and tragedies.

That’s easy to forget when we look at the monoliths – at a rocket to another planet, a website that can ship us anything the next day, a healthcare network, or a NASA mission. It’s easy to forget but important to remember because those people are our neighbors and our friends, and their children are our children’s friends and significant others.

Remember that YA books are for young adults. They’re intended to guide kids on their first forays into adulthood, into defining moments in their lives. Which doesn’t mean we, as adults, can’t enjoy them as well; it just means we enjoy them differently. We enjoy them as a look back or as a reminder of what it was like to be 17 and in love for the first time so we can better guide our kids when they get there.

The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper is available from BloomsburyKids.