This book was a lovely introduction to the Brown sisters and to Talia Hibbert’s work as a whole. I didn’t totally connect with Chloe and Red as characters, but I did enjoy them, and I definitely thought their relationship was very engaging. 

There were a few things that bothered me (like the Harry Potter reference and some of the descriptions in the sex scenes—I just think everyone should be banned from writing the phrase “pretty pussy” ever again), but I really enjoyed this book overall and would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a good contemporary romance.

I didn’t expect or even want to like this book, but I ended up really loving it. John Green’s musings on the human experience were interesting and insightful and frustrating and relatable in all the right ways. The balance between the more personal aspects of this book and the more academic aspects was just right.

This book is a lovely and reflective look at what humans have done to the world and what the world has done to us without ever claiming to be a complete or objective account of anything.

Please note that this book was mostly written during the COVID-19 pandemic and talks about pandemics and plague and mental illness and death quite a lot. These topics are handled as sensitively as possible, but the book still might be hard to read because of that content.

Some favorite quotes (I listened to the audiobook so I don’t have page numbers and some of these might be slightly off):

I found that last line especially interesting in light of John Green’s novels, particularly The Fault in Our Stars.

I have decided not to rate this book for now, but I might change my mind about that at a later date.

Shai and Gaotona are both really interesting characters (to the extent that interesting characters are possible in such a short book), and I really enjoyed their dynamic. I also thought that the emperor made for a fascinating third main character who’s only barely a character but whose past and future loom over the whole book.

I also really enjoyed the magic system and the way it tied into the discussions of what makes a human and fed into the dynamic between the two main characters.

I’m not totally sure how this book was supposed to be connected to Elantris, but that’s probably because it’s been several years since I read that book.

There’s nothing wrong with this book, but it was very predictable and I wasn’t in the mood for it and my Libby loan was about to end. I might pick it up again some other time.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley, but there was too much transphobia for me to make it very far into it. I would have tried to finish it if I thought the author was getting at something interesting, but that clearly wasn’t going to be the case. It was basically just the cis main character getting used to her trans cousin and the rest of the family being transphobic about and to the cousin. Also the way the narrator talked about race was strange to say the least. The writing wasn’t that bad, but I had no interest in the characters or the story.

I’m definitely planning to go back to this book at some point because I think it’s very good, but I need to take a break from it. I think I need the weather to be warmer to be in the mood for it.

I don’t know why I thought reading this would be a good idea. I’ve kind of been going through a vampire phase lately, so I thought I’d try this one out, but it’s so full of racism that I can’t do it. Maybe if you’re more of a vampire person this is good to read for the lore and the importance to the genre and whatever (possibly the origin of the somewhat sympathetic Confederate vampire thing, which, yikes), but I don’t care enough to put up with it. Maybe some other time when I’m very desperate for something to read.

This is a very aesthetically pleasing book with quotes from a diverse selection of queer activists, authors, and artists along with photographs of most of them. I appreciated the forward from the author as well as the little biographies at the back. I think this would be a nice gift for someone who likes coffee table books and/or infographics (I mean that as nicely as possible).

I was really pleasantly surprised by this book. I'm morally opposed to real person fanfiction shipping real people on principle, so I was wary of the whole concept of If This Gets Out, but it was executed really well.

Ruben and Zach are two members of a popular boy band who fall in love and have to keep their relationship secret, and that relationship definitely forms the emotional core of this book. But the plot also gives time to the other two members of the band, Angel and Jon, and explores some difficult subject matter pretty gracefully. 

I really appreciated the bisexual representation, which Sophie Gonzales always does excellently. I enjoy forbidden romance, and I thought that aspect of the book was also executed well. The familial relationships were difficult to read—one of the characters has an abusive parent, and there's another truly awful parent character in the book as well—but they were difficult in a way that felt realistic and was acknowledged by the characters.

The audiobook narrator put me off a little bit at first because he sounded quite a bit older than the characters, but I got used to the narration pretty quickly.

If you like secret relationships and fictional celebrities and queer young adults, you'll probably enjoy this book!

I just want to reiterate that it very much reads like a One Direction fanfic at times, and the knowledge that the book was at least partially inspired by that sort of thing did make me pretty uncomfortable.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book was very sweet, and I’m glad it exists. I’m also glad that it’s gotten a new name and cover with Melissa’s chosen name.

I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Jamie Clayton (Nomi from Sense8), and I definitely recommend it!

With the exception of Melissa’s friend Kelly, who was by far my favorite character, this book had an oddly binary and simplistic view of gender. I think this is mostly because of the young main character and young target audience, but I still think there could have been more nuance in the conversations about gender.

In some ways, this book feels like it’s aimed more at elementary school teachers than it is at trans kids. I think it could definitely be helpful for kids who are questioning their gender or how to come out, but I think some scenes could also potentially be dysphoria-inducing.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading it, though, cause I think that Melissa’s Story is overall a very nice little book about a trans girl’s fight to show the people in her life who she really is.