answer.
It's complicated."
An LGBT Coming of Age story! (Pub Date: Jun 14, 2020)
Honest review based on an ARC provided by the author through Booksprout. Many thanks for this opportunity.
This is a straightforward story about falling in love but feeling not worthy of being reciprocated.
(I will use the they pronoun for the character but they never specified which they prefer, so I'll follow the norm.)
It's not that things were okay before for Charlie, but their feelings could be repressed until meeting the new girl Eliza. Her hair, the atmosphere surrounding her, everything called their attention. For some reason, Eliza is retributing their attention and the two eventually become friends. Now, they need to decide how to tell her they are not a he, as they look to be.
I love the little details here, especially how their best friend Jonny accepts so well Charlie's identity. It's heartwarming to a point it brought me a few tears. I also loved the description for the first time they see Eliza and how she attracted them. The development of the romance was cute on their part.
What I think could be better was that Eliza herself didn't feel very real. She talked a lot about her story but it felt that was being given a profile, I missed some more showing in the middle of all the telling. The book as a whole would benefit from more developing, actually. I don't think it felt rushed, but it felt shallow at times. The main conflict is well portrayed, the part involving Charlie's feelings on coming out, but everything else deserved more time for us readers to develop our connection. Especially the romance, which is what most of us look forward when picking this.
This isn't a book I call forgettable, though. And it's easily read in one sitting, too. So if you're looking for a cute and quick LGBT story, this is it.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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