I was provided a review copy via Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

I NEED MORE.

REP: trans girl, non-binary, queer characters, POC, anxiety & panic attacks

I was so invested in this story and the characters! What a great, diverse, queer story. I laughed so much during this and ah, I just loved it so much. It was so pure but also talked about mental health and break-ups. The illustrations were very colorful and detailed, I was fully immersed into the Avant-Guards world.

As a hockey fan, I approve of this book! It was so light-hearted and definitely nodded at the NHL, for sure. I loved Bitty's character and his passion for baking!

Read this for school. I'm not a big DC fan and I really wasn't compelled to continuing the story but I think it might've been a different experience if I wasn't reading this for a class. Quite frankly, I was confused at parts and some things that happened were questionable because of the age of this novel. But, the illustrations were well done.

UGH. This book was incredible. Fredrik Backman just knows how to write hockey and his characters are always so complex. But, he does play dirty and plays with my heart :/

Vinny Gold has bad luck. His crush moved away on Valentine's Day, his dog died and his parents announced they're getting a divorce. Oh, and he turned 15 and began to break out with terrible acne on his face.

I want to preface this review by saying I think I should've read this the year it came out because it really doesn't fit the current age. However, this book is pitched as "set in 1977", yet there's not anything implemented to keep reminding me that the characters are living in 1977 aside from the last 20 pages (the dance scene) and the music selections. No pop culture references whatsoever. Also, I probably wouldn't have known Vinny was calling the girl next door, Patsy on a rotary phone if it wasn't placed on the back of the cover (in my edition at least).

I really liked the premise of this book since it's some of my favorite tropes: anonymous romance, girl next door. This book reminded me of one of my favorite books, Paper Towns and the movie, A Cinderella Story featuring Hilary Duff - a classic - However, this book just fell flat for me. Vinny's only purpose throughout the book was his neighbor, Patsy - a girl he goes to school with- and anonymously calling her every night at midnight. He doesn't make friends, just gets bullied and his only "buddies" are his dad and his new step-dad. For a coming of age book or just a book set in high school, I felt like Vinny's storyline and character arc really lacked. But, I will say I understand if the author's intent for this was because of his age and he was really coming into himself.

Vinny talks a lot about his heritage and religious beliefs as he's Italian (from his mother's side) and Jewish on his biological father's side. But, as an Italian, I had a hard time believing Vinny was Italian because his mother is an awful cook, they say "spaghetti" instead of "pasta" and they don't really do many things that convience me they're Italian aside from their names.

I also felt like Vinny's parents divorce and his mother re-marrying was really quick and confusing. Overall, I feel like this book just needed more depth.

"There were dozens of pictures, drawings of the things that made Ivy happy, self-portraits, all the colors of her world, all the things that made her feel like her. Liking girls was part of that, but it wasn’t everything. It was one piece in a bigger puzzle, and when you put all the pieces together, there was Ivy"

What a sweet, heartwarming and heart-wrenching story about a 12-year-old girl who loses her childhood home due to a tornado wiping it away. Ivy is struggling with internalized homophobia by living in Georgia and overhearing the teens and adults in her life talk about anything but liking the opposite sex. Ivy is artistic and such a sweet character. I loved Ashley Herring-Blake's writing, something about it is so delightful! This was such a great middle-grade book about a young queer girl figuring out her sexuality, but still questioning it. I highly recommend!

I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

TW: talk of death, hate talk, girl-shaming, alcoholic parent
Rep: bisexual mc

I really was excited to read this book but unfortunately, it didn't deliver or meet my expectations. Iliana and Rhodes have been sworn enemies ever since an incident occurred last year changing Iliana's life. This incident led her to resent Rhodes, her best friend's roommate.

This novel is told in dual perspective between Iliana and Rhodes who both attend the same boarding school in the South. They are arch enemies in real life but secret lovers and co-authors of an Alice in Wonderland comic online as I-Kissed-Alice and Curious-In-Chesire. I really appreciated the elements of multimedia scattered throughout the book and getting to see pieces of the comic was really fun. However, I wished there had been more! It felt like the author was just telling me about Alice and Chesire's chemistry rather than showing me through the messages. They didn't really have a lot of conversation nor did I really get to know their story of meeting online.

Both characters seemed to have the same voice, they weren't distinct. I was often confused while reading each chapter because I would forget which character was speaking and flip back to the chapter header. The story was confusing and it really had a lot of potential. However, more of the characters lives, struggles and personalities should've been given more detail so I could really get to know the characters besides just that Rhodes is wealthy and Iliana is poor. I did enjoy Griffin's character, though and how he had to hide his love for ballet. This story really showed all aspects of art whether it's visual or modern art.

A big issue I had was with the mental health representation. Rhodes claims to be depressed and her therapist mentions it but her therapist is THE WORST and is only used to "cure" Rhodes' creator's block. I really would've liked to see Rhodes mental health be focused on instead of just brushed off by giving her a really bad therapist. There's also A LOT of talk about death and dying and I'm not sure if that's just me personally but it's a triggering topic.

Another issue I had was that the whole book is a lot of girl on girl hate. Iliana is really rude and selfish toward her friend Sarah and Sarah doesn't even do anything about Iliana and Rhodes' toxic relationship. No one is a "good friend" in this scenario. The first page opens up with Iliana exclaiming her hatred for Rhodes and by the end of the book, they're both calling each other bitches.

Lastly, I was afraid that this book would be very white-washed because of the change in the cover art. The author expressed on social media that she wanted her characters to just be two white queer girls because she didn't want to take away any marginalized people's voice. However, this book was VERY whitewashed. We have one black character, her name is Sierra and 26 pages left in the story we see some diversity with the characters at the Capstone finals. We really could've had more diversity in this book between the friend group, just saying.

I would like to read more from this author because I feel that she does have the potential to write something good. I just didn't enjoy this one all that much!

A western graphic novel with a queer romance and trans main character? Yes, please! I really enjoyed reading this and the representation was great and subtle. My only complaint is that some of the text was cut off in some parts, so I couldn't read the full conversation between the characters therefore I was left feeling confused. Overall, I'd recommend!