Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Gloria runs a bed-and-breakfast together with Nadine, the chef, and Lissa and Louisa, who work as waitress and maid. They are also all lesbians and werewolves. And nevermind how well they get along, they are not a pack and Gloria is not their alpha. But another pack who wants to settle down in their territory does not really care about these nuances.

Gloria is a fascinating character, she has a military background, which she had to give up after she was bitten. While she keeps some contact with her family it's not much. She also doesn't like alphas, she herself is definitely not an alpha, but she is fiercely protective of the people she cares about.

Nadine is a black woman (which is sadly never explicitly mentioned in the book, it is only said that she has black curls, which might not be explicit enough for some readers. I'm happy about the cover for this because it shows it a bit better, but imho it could have been a bit more explicitly expressed in the story itself) and she hates conflict because of a bad ex-alpha, who treated his pack really badly. Her past is only ever hinted at and I would have loved some more explanation of it, but it definitely still made my heart ache for her.

There are two main couples in the story and they are lovely! The story focuses on them getting together, but the have had feelings for each other before that. There's also not that much focus on the romance, which was nice, but rather on how life as a werewolf works and their everyday life at the bed-and-breakfast. I also really liked Damien, their gardener, who has a green thumb and just kind of dropped by and never left. There's also Eben, who's bi and it's explicitly mentioned even though it doesn't play a big part of the story. It was still nice.

There were some typos, but since this is an ARC I think they will still be fixed and I didn't include it in my rating.

All in all the story is great and mostly carried through the characters. There's not that much action going on, but that fit well with the story. I don't think I've ever read a domestic story about lesbian werewolves, but I'm super happy I did. The only minus point I can think off is that I felt that the women's past was barely mentioned, which I would have enjoyed for more character development. (The story could also easily have been a bit longer, I quite liked the writing!) So anyway, if you enjoy lesbian romance stories that aren't 100% focused on the romance and stories about werewolves without gore, this is the perfect story for you!

A wonderful alternative to Everything-Everything, this book features an actually housebound MC and her blooming romance with her next-door neighbour Luke. I picked this book up because it was recommended by bookavid so much that I couldn't help but feel hyped for it, but I still feared that it would feature a cured-by-love mindset, something which I've seen happening so often I lost count in stories featuring f.e. depression. Thankfully this didn't happen at all. The ending made me cry happy tears (and I was close to tears several times while reading) and I can't even imagine how powerful this book must be for people suffering from agoraphobia, disabilities or other mental illnesses that make it hard for them to leave the house.

The story features Norah, a girl with agoraphobia, anxiety, depression and OCD. Not long after her first panic attack caused her to faint and end up in the hospital, she has been living at home with her mother, has been home thought and only ever left the house to go to her therapist. This is a weekly struggle and Norah suffers a lot from it. One thing you don't ever forget during the novel is how real it feels because Gornall doesn't shy away from showing Norah's struggles. It's also clear throughout the book that Gornall knows what she's talking about, which makes it even more powerful. Norah struggles with her problems on every single page of the book and the books ending is simply wonderful and so, so hopeful. Something I wish I had been warned for was the self-harm. Norah self-harms by cutting herself a few times in the book and it caught me unexpectedly, so be careful. (She also self-harms by scratching her skin, which she refuses to see as self-harm, which felt really relatable to me because I did the same thing and also refused to see it as self-harm. I definitely love that it showed that there are more than one way people can self-harm)

While the romance didn't blow me away, it was still very sweet and Luke is a really sweet guy, who never overstepped Norah's boundaries or pushed her to do something she wasn't comfortable with, except once, for which he apologized and did research after to get better, which was lovely to read. (Also Norah was allowed to be pissed at him for a while for hurting her, which definitely made me enjoy their romance more than I would have otherwise) My favorite part is still that while Luke supported Norah in getting better, it is shown explicitly that it was her own strength that helped her in the end, which was wonderful to read.

Also, I really love Norah. I love how her life is narrated, her daily struggles, the terror of going outside, her OCD about getting sick and needing things to be in a correct order, her relationship with her mom. I love that it's just her everyday life and how her mental illnesses influence that and yet it never gets boring.

So if you're looking for a wonderful book about mental illness with a side-dash of romance, no love-cures-all twist (yessssss) and a simply wonderful ownvoices story about agoraphobia, OCD and depression, please read this book, because it is honestly so good.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a mix of murder mystery and fantasy story. Luke has been murdered by faeries, and Finn, his twin brother, wants to investigate his death, which means he has to enter the faery realm, which might be the worst decision he ever made.

I was intrigued by this book as I like stories about faeries and the cover is lovely (there isn't actually a lot of foresty stuff going on which is sad bc I love descriptions of forests, most of the story is set in Sparkwood, both the human one and the fairy one). I really adored the fact that Finn and Luke were both bisexual (the bi twins as they jokingly called themselves) and how they had different struggles in coming out. I also enjoyed how the fairies were described.

I really wish I could rate this book higher, especially since it is one of the few books I know that has a bisexual character that actually calls himself bisexual, and that not only once, but a few times, which was really nice.

However, the word building was lacking, which makes it really hard to understand the fairy world or picture any of the places. I also think the fairy mythology could have been explored better, like this I didn't really get a feeling for the fairies, which was one of the main reasons I picked this book up. There's also no real exploration of Luke's past beyond a sentence here and there, which did nothing but make me more and more curious without it ever getting resolved. Same with the history of the town or any other characters. The characters were also quite flat which makes it very hard to really relate to any of them. Then there were some annoying plot holes (what happened to Luke's diaries?) and the fake dating thing was not really explored which was a disappointment, as it could have been used much better. This made it hard for me to really buy the romance, which also felt a bit rushed. Generally, the story could have been built out more, which would have made the story way more intriguing than it was.

All in all the story had a nice premise, I liked the twist at the end and I love that there are bi characters, but its potential wasn't really fully explored.

Sadly this story was a huge miss for me. I won an e-copy in a goodreads giveaway and was super excited to read it, but sadly it didn't really work for me. It also wasn't at all what I expected. (I had hoped to be shown their friendship and why Ariel is in love with Dana, how they live together and so on, but there's barely anything of that....)

The story was really confusing, mostly because the character's made no sense at all. They were apparently 30+, but they acted like teenagers, doing stupid impulsive things like running off to Vegas and getting engaged to a girl you've know for a week or so. Now, of course, people older than 30 can also act like complete idiots sometimes, but it was just way too much in this story.

I also felt that there was way too little build up in Ariel's and Dana's relationship. If Ariel hadn't told me every two pages how in love she was with Dana, I probably wouldn't have realized it at all, since their interaction is not much. It also made the cheating storyline feel incredibly bad since I didn't feel the chemistry between these two. Skyyler (yes, with two y's), Dana's fiance, is never treated like an actual character and despite having proposed to Dana, she doesn't get a real closure after Dana breaks up with her (she's said to not even have been angry which?!?! makes no sense, they wanted to marry each other and then her partner cheats on her and breaks it off with her and it's just??? no reaction?? I hated it). It was similar with the other characters, they were all quite flat and boring.

Also, the time skip at the end (30 years in the future) felt really forced and weird and messed up the story for me even more? I know it's supposed to be cute and give us closure, but it just confused me even more. (f.e. there's a quite explicit sex scene in the novel and in the end it's supposed to be a "how I met your mother" kind of story and just??? gross????), so yeah, not a fan at all.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have heard a lot about Juliet and I was super excited when I was finally able to start reading it. And boy, honestly, it did not disappoint.

Juliet is from the Bronx, in a secret relationship with another girl and on her way to her internship with feminist writer Harlowe. Her summer will definitely not be a normal one and she is so ready for it. (and honestly, so am I).

Juliet is a really fascinating character, wry and funny and interested in finding knowledge. She's also a fascinating narrator and I loved how her story was told, it was just amazing. Knowledge about being feminist and a lesbian and a round, brown girl and how all these identities can ever fit together. It's a lot about discovering herself and about growing as a person and about growing up. When Juliet goes from the Bronx to open-minded Portland, she is thrown into a new world full of white people and feminists and weird confusing new terminology. I loved how Juliet always stayed open to various concepts, even to those she ultimately rejected and also that she didn't accept anything unflinchingly, but thought it through first.

JTAB also deals with racism, microaggressions, sexual assault, lesbophobia and entitlement in LGBT+ spaces. It was all dealt with very well and I really loved reading this book. And while I'm white, I loved to see how Juliet confronted the racism and white-centrism in feminism and LGBT+ spaces and I can't imagine how it must feel for latinx LGBT+ people.

Juliet also gets the best haircut I've ever read about in a story and I love it a lot. It means a lot to her and symbolizes change and she is happy with it, no one gives her shit about her decision, she is just allowed to be herself and grow and change and it's great.

Another thing I enjoyed is about how much love this story is. About familial love, about friendship love, about first love, about summer love, about the love of and through words, about the fierce love in friendships between girls, about how abundant love is and in how many forms it can come and how neither form is somehow less important than the other.

My favorite scene was probably the Sci-Fi workshop that was only open for black and brown women because I love seeing acknowledged how important safe spaces can be. (Also Juliet's story sounded super interesting, and I'd love to read it)

Sometimes it felt a bit too much with all the LGBT+ explanations, even though they made sense in the context and were interesting to read, they slowed the story down a bit, which is probably my only complaint about the story.

In the end it's a really, really great book and I loved it a lot.