Tag: lgbtq+

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i read 5 | lgbtqia+ books

hello everyone! today i am going to be doing another i read 5. and if you couldn’t tell from the title, i’m going to talk about five lgbtqia+ books. since, i feel like i really want to read more queer books, since i hardly read any, which i really want to change in the future, and this would honestly be a good place to start.

anyway, for the five books i’m going to be talking about. i’m going to talk about the rep in each book, characters, and romance, since most of the books have some sort of romance. but, i did dnf one of these books, so i’m just gonna talk about why i dnfed it, instead of everything that i already mentioned. and of course, i’m also going to list out the trigger warnings for each book.

you should see me in a crown by Leah Johnson. so, i gave this book 3/5 stars. honestly, this book was honestly so cute, but i feel like my biggest issue was that we were just being held at an arms length, which is so unpopular, cause i feel like everyone loves this book so much.

trigger warning– homophobia, panic attacks, racism, chronic illness, death of a parent, medical content, bullying, hate crime, vomit, grief, terminal illness, mental illness.

rep– so, i honestly don’t remember what the actual sexuality of this book is, since i don’t really think they mentioned it, or at least gave a label. but, i just honestly loved the rep so much, since i feel like it was just so realistic and raw. but, besides the queer rep, there was anxiety rep, Black side character with sickle cell anemia.

characters- honestly, the characters were good, but not amazing. i honestly feel like they were normal high schoolers, and that they acted like you’d honestly expect them to act. and also, there of course was some friendships, like the biggest one was Liz and Jordan, which is something i honestly really liked. and everyone in this book was just so pure, which i honestly liked so much.

romance- the romance of this book was honestly so good. like, i just really liked the romance, and how they all got along so well, and they were just so freaking pure and so sweet. like the whole concert part? it honestly was so adorable. and i honestly very much liked the romance and how it was portrayed, even the romance was more of the side plot, in my mind, since i feel like the main plot is the prom talk.

honey girls by Morgan Rogers. so, i also gave this book 3/5 stars. honestly, this book was so beautiful, so that was something i honestly really loved, and i really liked that it was so beautiful, but it just wasn’t for me, which honestly sucked. since, i feel like it was to dark and deep for me to honestly like, and honestly just couldn’t really get with it at some parts.

trigger warning- self harm, mental illness, racism, panic attack, homophobia, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts, medical content, sexual content, toxic relationship, death of a parent.

rep– from what i remember, i believe the that the sexuality of Grace and Yuki are both lesbians, which in my mind, was just done so well. but, as Grace is also Black and then Yuki is Japanese- American. then, for some of the side characters, Ximena was bisexual, and then Agnes i believe was unlabeled. but, also Yuki whole roommate group was queer, but i’m not really sure if they actually said their sexuality.

characters– honestly, i feel like the characters in this book were so well developed. like, they were so well developed it was honestly so crazy, since they were just so cool and so well rounded. and i honestly really really liked that these characters all had their flaws, and they weren’t perfect or anything like that. which, is something that i honestly really liked in this book.

romance– honestly, i feel like the romance was kind of a mess. like, to me, i think that it was kind of a mess. like, this book did kind of dive more deeper into the mental health aspect of this book, and i feel like the romance just feel to the side, and not in a good way. but, i am kind of happy that we did get to have a more coming of age story, then shoving this romance in there, and take away from the story, but there still definitely was still romance.

stay gold by Tobly McSmith. i gave this book 5/5 stars. honestly, i went into this book not really thinking i was gonna like it, since i know some people didn’t like it, but then i read it out of spite since SE Hinton thought it was a rip off of her book, and i honestly loved this one so much in the end.

trigger warnings- transphobia, hate crime, homophobia, dead naming, suicidal thoughts, violence, bullying, emotional abuse, physical abuse, medical trauma, body shaming, misogyny, dysphoria, use of slurs, alcoholism, self harm, public outing, death of a loved one, harry potter mentioned.

rep– if you couldn’t tell from the trigger warnings, this book has trans rep. but, i also feel like there are a few side side characters, that were really only mentioned like once or twice, that were gay, lesbian, and bi. but, they were only mentioned a couple times.

characters– personally, i really liked Georgia and Pony as main characters. i honestly feel like Pony was super shy and also very sympathetic and just so sweet. where Georgia is kind of a fire cracker and just a fun person with quirks and flaws. so, they were both such cute characters and i honestly really liked them together as a couple and even as friends. and also, i just thought it was so cool to see them interact.

romance– honestly, i feel like this book was told to be this whole ‘to all the boys i’ve loved before’ story, and this super cute romance, but it honestly wasn’t it. like, it was such a harder read then something that was just super sweet and cute. but, i also felt like it took a while to actually get into the romance of this book, which i guess had it’s pros and cons, but i feel like they should have just marked the romance of this book better. and honestly, they had the best banter and they had so many cute jokes, which i honestly liked so much.

if it makes you happy by Claire Kann. i personally dnfed this book. honestly, i could tell pretty quickly that i wasn’t gonna like it, and i almost wanted to push threw this book, but i honestly couldn’t get into this book, since it was just so bad and i couldn’t get into some of the things that happened.

trigger warning- body shaming and fatphobia

why i dnfed- honestly, the point of this book that i kind of clocked out at, was how they talked about the ‘ungirlfriend.’ like for one, what the actual hell is that, and two why can’t you just call her your ex or something, and like then they would back track and be like, well their friends, but like not friends, but like friends. and i also feel like the whole plot of this book was just a mess. like, i don’t even know how to explain it, since i feel like it was just kind of all over the place.

her royal highness by Rachel Hawkins. i gave this book 3/5 stars. honestly, this book isn’t groundbreaking or anything, and hell the writing was kind of choppy, but i still really had fun reading this book at parts. and it was also fairly short, which was honestly fun, so i liked that part of it. but, it was honestly nothing special.

trigger warning– death of a parent, death, homophobia, bullying, violence, vomit.

rep- don’t quote me on the actual labels, cause i’ve seen people say both, but i believe that Flora was lesbian and Millie was bisexual. but, i’ve seen a couple different people say completely different things. but, i honestly really liked that we got to see the whole, i’m going to go to this boarding school and fall in love with a royal classmate, but queer. which, i just thought was super cool.

characters– honestly, the characters in this book had pros and cons. like, i feel like they both balanced each other out, which was super nice. and i mean, the only characters i feel like had some development was like Flora and Saks, cause the whole book Millie just talked about how much she loves Scotland over and over again. and she had like no motivation at all, which was so stupid.

romance- honestly, this romance is weird, since they were both kind of liking each other threw this book, but just like being a bitch to each other. so, that was honestly kind of annoying. but, i also feel like there was fluff in this book, but it also had too much random crap about school and friend drama, which just got to be annoying after awhile. and i mean, if you want a cute HEA, this book will be for you, but if you want a good plot and romance, i wouldn’t read this.

anyway, that is all for today! this was honestly a bit of a longer post, since i did kind of talk about more books in here, instead of just one. but, all of these books will have a full review, or the first three already have reviews, if you want to see my full thoughts. but, i hope you enjoyed this post!

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as far as you’ll take me review

hell everyone! today i am going to be talking about as far as you’ll take me by Phil Stamper. i gave this book 3/5 stars. happy pub date to this book! and also thank you so much Netgalley and Bloomsbury YA for an arc of this book! my review will be honestly and won’t be changed by the publisher or author.

trigger warning- bully, toxic relationship, manipulation, hemophobia, religious homophobia, body dysmorphia, eating disorder, self harm by not eating, use of a queer slur, public outing with no consent, almost sexual assault, harry potter mentioned (Stamper tweeted that this was gonna be taken out in the final version of this book.)

i’m going to be completely honest, i was so excited for this book. so many people have been hyping up his other book, so i was excited when i got an arc. but, this was just not it. the description makes it sound like such a cute coming of age, but instead this book was so triggering to me and i almost hope i never read it. and weight talk is such a huge issue, which is kinda way i don’t read a lot of books with plus sized since i’ll get really triggered, and i never really expected it in here cause nobody was talking about it. but, yeah, it was quite triggering in my mind.

with that being said, i personally i thought the weight talk was so toxic. like, it really was just not it, especially how they talked about it. but, to a degree i really liked how Marty’s family and friends kind of talk to him about it. since, i feel like that is really truthful. and this is just my own opinion as someone who dealt with this, so someone could think completely different and that is okay.

and i can kind of touch on the outing of Marty since it happened to me but mine was completely different, which i don’t really want to get into. but, i do feel like it just didn’t make sense, not really why he was outed, but the outcome of him being outed. like, i really felt like he would go on and on about everyone being homophobic, where everyone was so supportive. so, honestly that just made me so confused kind of.

but, i feel like the portrayal of anxiety and the unhealthy relationships were honestly so good. like i feel like Stamper really talked about it, and didn’t like brush it off like a lot of people do. and i really like how Stamper went into depth about talking about how Marty wants to fall in love so bad, that he has blinders on in order to find love and fit in.

so, now i’m going to touch on the whole almost rape scene cause this was pretty much dropped. so, basically Pierce wanted to have sex, and Marty didn’t really want to or anything cause he was so self conscious. so, Pierce tries to like take Marty’s boxers off and that was pretty much it. like we got a fight between the two, but then it was like dropped, completely. which, this feels like such a big thing that could be talked about, since i feel like i YA we never get books that talk about same sex rape, but they just dropped it.

this is probably just me, but i feel like there was so many different characters and little plot points that were brought up, especially Pierce and Shane’s friends, and they kind of got pushed off a cliff or something. since, they were this part in the start and middle, but their plots just ended, and never got fleshed out or anything. which, was super annoying.

and i feel like the writing was just not it. like i feel like it was lacking and just one dimensional. and it just wasn’t good. like the writing and a book was kind of all over the place and i really did not like it whatsoever. so, it probably plays into why the characters were pretty flat.

but, Marty would go on and on about how his mother is from Ireland, and because she is Irish it means he is a England citizen. which, i know the american school system isn’t the best, but i know that it doesn’t work like that. cause, if his mom was born and raised in Ireland, he wouldn’t just get an England citizenship. and i mean that’s kind of common knowledge but whatever.

and i also don’t really understand the whole talk about because Shane is Marty’s cousin and lives in London, and Shane’s mother is Marty’s moms sister. which, makes sense. but, then Shane said that he lived in London most if not all of his life, so just because your mom has an Irish accent, accents just don’t get passed down like eye color and hair color. so, wouldn’t he have a British accent? since he does live in London.

then another thing that was just so stupid was Marty was so confused about what busking was. like i knew what it was when i read this book, and it might just be because i live by a bigger city with busking, i know what it is. and like yeah he was from this small town, he might not be around it, but shouldn’t he see it on tv shows that take place in New York, LA, or Chicago? and he also says like he was looking into the London culture, so wouldn’t he see something about it? like that just didn’t make sense.

but, this book wasn’t for me, obviously. but i do feel like there is some life lessons in this book, which many people will probably like. and hell, i know a lot of people on instagram really liked this book. so, i still think this is worth the read.

anyway, that is all for today! honestly, this wasn’t the book for me, but hopefully it might get changed in the final version. but, thank you so much Netgalley and Bloomsbury YA for an arc! and of course this is an honest review.

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the falling in love montage review

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about the falling in love montage by Ciara Smith. i gave this book 2/5 stars. this book was okay, i honestly found nothing that impressive about this book. it’s kind of disappointing since a bunch of people have been hyping this book up.

this could have just been me, bt i never really like books with those list elements. like where our one character wants to make some list about something they want to do. i’m not sure if i’m explaining it well enough, but hopefully you get the point. but, i did not like the list part in this book, since it wasn’t really explained a lot, and the whole events were kind of glossed over, when it is like the main plot of this book.

with that being said, the reason it was so glossed over, was because the writing was so choppy. so, basically there was be at the most four paragraphs, then it would just have something like “****” that between like four paragraphs. and this just got to be so annoying, since we could not have like a lot of time in a scene, and get all the romance or whatever we could have wanted in a scene, if that makes sense.

and i honestly found this book to be somewhat of one of those debut books, and it has the feel. since it was just so choppy and honestly kind of all over the place. and of course, this could always be changed and worked upon. and honestly i still have a lot of hope for the next book by the author if she works on her writing a bit more.

i probably should have said this before, but this whole book was kind of cool that it was some weird rom com. so, basically this whole book is our two main characters Saoirse and Ruby who go on this adventure about doing all these classic rom com events. i did find this to be super cool and very cute. but, it also was kind of cliché, since so many books do this, and i really only remember them going on a Ferris wheel, and nothing else to big.

i also found Saoirse to be such a baby. she is like 18ish, since she is going to be into college. but, when you expect someone to be going into college they won’t act like a freaking 2 year old. and the only reason she acted like a baby because her dad was getting remarried since her mom got put into a nursing home. and i just found it to be so annoying since all she did was cry about it for like a lot of this book. and i found that it’s hard and upsetting that her dad id getting remarried, but it just got to be a bit much after awhile.

i also think that this whole book could have been resolved if Saoirse just went to therapy. like all of her family issues and everything could have ben fixed and resolved if she just got some help. and it got to be kind of annoying since we were like her therapist throughout the whole novel.

so since that she probably needed some therapy, the romance was kind of shitty. and i feel like if they could have had such a better romance if for one they just talked a little more, and two Saoirse just got some help and didn’t keep everything to herself. and i honestly think that all good romances need a lot of communication, which they did not have.

and i also think all of the characters were super flat. and honestly i just found that everyone was very flat, and that everyone was so underdeveloped. we also never really got any other of the characters interests whatsoever, which is something i really like in books. and that i found that the main character was self centered, closed minded, lacking all of empathy, and very irritating.

Saoirse- i feel like i’ve already talk about her a lot, but i really think she just needed therapy and just needed to have someone to slap her around and have her head get out of her ass for some of the scenes in this book. especially towards the end of the book.

Ruby- i honestly could have liked this character so much, if she was just written so much better. and she just had just better scenes and wasn’t flatter then a post it note. and also if she got a lot more playing time, i would have liked her more.

anyway, that’s all for today! i feel like this was kind of all over the place, and a lot more negative then i would have wanted. but, i still hope you enjoyed this review!

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