Thank you to NetGalley and Abrams Books for a advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I was very excited to read Bi, as I feel like bisexuality is typically under-represented in books and other media covering LGBTQIA+ topics. This book is a lot of history and science, and seems to be well researched. There are great discussions on bi-erasure, which is something we all need to discuss more.

This book just wasn’t great in my opinion. The author inserts a lot of her personal thoughts and conclusions in places I feel it wasn’t warranted. The writing is a little bit disconnected and I got lost at points, wondering what the point of a certain section was. I am glad I read this, as I learned a lot. Hope to see more books on the topic!

Read this book! This one warmed my heart. I absolutely loved the fat rep and the woodsy setting. I relate so much to the female main character. I loved the fade to black/closed door romance. I can tell this story was so special to the author and it shows in her writing. The relationship was a bit rushed for me, but overall loved this one.

I was not feeling the love in this one. The fact they were so in love with each other just was not easily believable for me. I loved the fat rep, especially a fat person on a reality tv show!!!! But this book just was not it for me. 

A big thank you to NetGalley and AvonBooks and Harper Voyager for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Spoiler: it’s great

A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone (releases September 20, pre order now!!)

CWs: mentions of body shaming, fatphobia, mental illness (bipolar disorder), biphobia, sexism, death of parent, sexual harassment, grief

We NEEDED this book, y’all! This book has a fat porn star female main character who does not spend the book wishing her body was different - and her love interest loves her for just how she is. What a concept! I love how the authors handled the descriptions of Bee, her body, and just overall the fat positivity of this book.

I love so many things about A Merry Little Meet Cute. There’s a whole cast of queer and recially diverse characters. It takes place on the set of a Hallmark-esque movie set in a snowy Vermont town during Christmastime. There is so much Christmas, everywhere. Nolan, the male main character, was formerly in a boy band, so there’s lots of boy band mentions. There’s a good bit of steamy scenes, and some of them are pretttty steamy. 

Two other topics this book handled so well are mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder, and sex workers. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I just really appreciated that, overall, sex work was not shamed and I think this will help readers view sex work in a different light. 

Highly recommend this book, especially for my fat pals. This is the perfect holiday read (or anytime, really) that will make you laugh and cry, and fall in love with these characters. 

Going into this, I did not know what to expect. After reading Freshwater, I think I made the assumption this book would be similar. But it is so, so different, in a good way.

This romance is full of queer characters, strong friendship, and some steam. I flew through this book & really enjoyed it. It’s really good on audio, too. Definitely recommend!

 highly recommend (but only after you read the content warnings) 

Thank you to libro for the advanced copy of I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED by Jennette McCurdy 

CWs: eating disorder (see below), death of parent, vomit, fatphobia, dieting, alcoholism, schizophrenia, physical and emotional abuse, drug abuse, child abuse

I was not expecting this memoir to be so amazing. I watched iCarly but never really followed Jennettee or heard much else about her, but hearing the story of someone who I watched on TV growing up, and hearing her struggles while to the world she seemed so happy and living “the dream.” OOF. For me to have related to some of Jennette’s struggles hit hard. 

This book has 80+ chapters that are short but powerful. Highly recommend on audio - Jennette narrates it and does a fantastic job. 

Regarding the eating disorder CW, there are detailed descriptions of eating disorder behaviors and actions. I would not recommend it if you are recently recovering or experiencing an eating disorder. Some of it was hard to read.There are specific weight, calorie, and size mentions. 

This is a cute, quick read about best friends to lovers. I felt the plot slow at points. I was never really fully invested in the romance between Lyric and Kian, so it was hard for me to get behind their romance. I loved the plot, but it was not well executed, making me enjoy it less.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

CWs: panic attacks/disorders, mental illness, Chile abuse, drug/alcohol addiction, abandonment, emotional abuse

Representation: Black plus size MC, Black side characters, anxiety, depression, PTSD

We need more books that show accurate and relatable depictions of mental illness. Slaughter does, what I think is, a stellar job of this in this book. Slaughter managed to portray PTSD from childhood trauma without sugarcoating it, which is something I have seen in a few books. I loved how the two MCs did not try to gaslight each other, but instead understood what the other was going through and how to respond to their anxiety and mental struggles. I also feel like mental health for Black folks is extra stigmatized, so I’m glad books like this exist.

I wasn’t super invested in the insta-attraction and it was hard for me to envision. The plot dragged a little. And also the over use of the southern accents irked me. Being from Tennessee and having many relative with heavy accents, I don’t think anyone says everythin’ or anything’. Not every word ending in -ing needed the G dropped! Anyways, rant over

Overall, liked this book & would recommend to anyone who struggles with anxiety and/or PTSD and wants to see themselves accurately represented in a romance novel. There’s also some good steamy scenes!

Thank you to Montlake and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Representation: Black lesbian MC, biracial (Black andJapanese) lesbian mc, queer side characters, Black side characters

I love the premise of this book. Of coming home. Of a Black queer couple. But this was a tough one to get through. A lot of the plot points didn't seem well thought out to me and I did not feel like we got good character development. The dialogue felt a bit forced. 

Thank you to netgalley and JKP for an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Prefacing this review that I am not non-binary and this book was not written for me. However, I enjoyed learning so much about being non-binary and non-binary experiences. I am constantly unlearning things society caused me to internalize about gender and gender binaries, and this book definitely helped me on my journey to continue to unlearn those things. 

I enjoyed this book, but not sure I would recommend it. The writing style and tone  is very casual. The reader is constantly referred to as darling, which didn’t sit right with me. In reading reviews by non-binary folks, they found it to be patronizing. Which I can definitely see. I am really glad we have a book dedicated all to non-binary folks, but it is hard to get past the writing style. I also think intersectionality could have been considered in more of the discussions. 

I hope we continue to see more books with non-binary representation, especially self-help books for those exploring their gender identity.