Goodreads summarizes How to Say I Love You Out Loud by Karole Cozzoe as:

“Words are strong. Love is stronger.

When Jordyn Michaelson’s autistic brother joins her at her elite school, she’s determined not to let anyone know they're related. Even if that means closing herself off to all her closest friends, including charming football stud Alex Colby. But despite her best intentions, she just can't shake the memory of kissing Alex last summer, and the desire to do it again.

Can Jordyn find the courage to tell Alex how she really feels—and the truth about her family—before he slips away forever?”

I received this novel as an ARC from Netgalley.

I find this to be a terrible description of the novel for several reasons, but my largest issue is with the first sentence of this description, because one of the most important themes of this novel is the power of speech.

Her brother Phillip has trouble with speech due to his autism, and Jordyn refuses to tell people about him because of a traumatic experience in third grade, and because of her embarrassment about his problems. And when I say she doesn’t tell people about him, she doesn’t tell anyone. This becomes a problem when Phillip has to come to the same school as Jordyn when his specialized school is shut down due to lack of funding.

Unfortunately, Jordyn’s reaction to Phillip is not an uncommon one within families that have a member with autism. I could not like Jordyn for it, even with all of the changes she made throughout the novel that led up to her speech at the end. In addition to her way of handling her brother’s disability, Jordyn was a very boring protagonist. I found her mother to be a more interesting and sympathetic character, and I wished we’d gotten more of her.

Because I didn’t like Jordyn or her handling of the situations she got herself into, I really didn’t find myself caring for this novel at all. It also felt incredibly short. I also felt no attraction to Alex because literally all of the romantic things happened before the novel started, and the flashbacks were handled poorly. If I had maybe gotten more of his character earlier on, I might have been able to enjoy the book a lot more. That being said, the cover is cute. However, that wasn’t enough to bring this book review above 2 stars for me.