Una historia contemporánea que trata algunos temas duros como la negligencia parental, las enfermedades mentales y lidiar con la pérdida de seres queridos, todo ello a través de una protagonista adolescente bisexual, Grace. Todos los personajes son muy complejos y tienen unas relaciones un tanto complicadas, tanto familiares como románticas. La narrativa es preciosa y está llena de simbolismo. En general una lectura a la que le cuesta un poco arrancar y parece dejar algunos cabos sueltos, pero transmite un mensaje agridulce de desánimo y esperanza.

A lovely YA story that was emotional, fun, and endearing. Such a great read!!

How To Make A Wish was an interesting ride from start to finish. I loved the romance between the two girls and I especially loved that the main character fully identifies as bisexual, by name, with no shame. The book touch on many different themes, but it always felt concise. The book had a very intense build up, to the point where the reader is just wonder how far Grace is willing to let herself be pushed until she can't take it anymore. Throughout the book I shared her frustration with her mother and each time I thought I was completely done with her I always thought of how I would react towards my own mother in the same situation and discovered that, in reality, standing up to family is hard, especially for a teenage girl. The book really speaks to the strength of not just Grace, but of all these characters who endured so much. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone into LGBT representation, interesting family dynamics, or just a fan of a well told story.

There are elements of this young adult novel that I enjoyed immensely, despite one major trope with which I struggle. A neglectful parent is a particularly difficult representation, and for it to work, it must be handled delicately and with care, and I am not totally convinced by this one.

Maggie, Grace’s mother, is a woman who lost her way when her husband died, and has done very little in the intervening 15 years to get herself together, and parent her child with support and love. Grace is often the adult, looking after Maggie when she goes on benders, or walks out on her latest boyfriend. Grace makes sure the bills are paid, and cleans their house. She has basically been raising herself. Luckily, she has a best friend Luca who stands by her, as does Luca’s brother Macon, and their mother Emmie.

Grace is a dedicated pianist, and has plans to audition for music colleges and leave. Sort of. A sub plot involves Grace’s indecision about her future. These swings back and forth (actually, about almost everything about Grace’s life) is a strong realistic part of the story. Grace desperately wants to live her dream, and leave her mother’s unpredictability behind. But can she trust that Maggie will be able to look after herself? Experience has shown Grace probably not.

Another sub plot involves Grace’s love life. When Eva moves to town after the sudden death of her mother, Grace feels a strong attraction. There is a terrific discussion about bi-sexuality at one point in the novel, which was extremely pleasing to see. The obstacles to their love are not Grace’s reluctance to identify as bi or Eva’s sexuality (she is definitely gay). It’s more about Eva’s grief, and Maggie’s sudden interest in ‘saving’ her. Grace knows her mother will ultimately let Eva down, and she’s caught between loyalty for her mother, and her need to warn Eva. These kinds of conflicts keep the novel gritty and real, and stop it from falling into a ‘just a romance’ label.

While I understood Grace’s dilemma—it’s okay for her to criticise her own mother, but not for anyone else—I was also impatient with how much leeway she gives this woman. Maggie has moved them into a new house with a new man who happens to be the father of an ex boyfriend of Grace who shamed her on social media when Grace broke up with him. This is another interesting subplot. What Jay does is unforgivable, and results in Grace being even more alienated from her peers. When Jay slowly learns the truth about life with Maggie (it’s truly awful), the author attempts to redeem him, and yet, when the opportunity arises for him to apologise to Grace for his treatment, an action that would have gone a long way to raise his status in readers’ eyes, it doesn’t happen. He rescues Grace, then is off on his merry way, seemingly unaware of how hurtful his past actions had been. I was disappointed.

I accept that Grace had to reach the conclusion herself that Maggie is the only one who can save Maggie, but given how much emotional abuse Grace has endured, I am surprised it didn’t happen earlier. When Eva tries to say, ‘at least your mother is still here’, it’s a moment of clarity for the two girls, and for readers. There are many moments of hurt and healing here, but unfortunately, I didn’t believe a lot of them. But there are also many other strong elements – the small coastal town setting, especially the lighthouse and its recurring motifs, Grace’s dedication to her passion, and the depiction of her friendship with Luca, which is flawed but true. There is also a strong message about grief—there is no right, or only one way to grieve. Everyone must be allowed to find their own way through it (unless of course, it means someone else has to suffer, Maggie!)

Copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley and read with thanks. Out on May 2nd (in the US). Recommended for readers who love their protagonists strong, despite external and extenuating factors, who like their romance sensual, like a slow burning fuse, sparking in fits and starts, and the banter is flirty. And for readers who realise that life is not always happy and fair. Grace’s ability to endure, and then take positive steps to look after herself is a triumph. Eva’s despair is as real, and Emmie, as the adult who attempts to help both girls, is welcome and much appreciated.

Thank you for approving me to read this title. I really enjoyed it, but it didn't inspire any words beyond that, so I will not be reviewing it.

RATING: ★★★★★

Grace Glasser has spent her entire live moving from one stranger’s house to another, dragged along by her unreliable mother from one failed relationship to another. Grace feels trapped, emotionally, because she feels like she has to stay by her mother’s side, rescue and save her, because she isn’t capable of doing it herself. But Grace has dreams – she wants to live her own life, she wants to be a pianist, and to attend a top music school in New York. But she has to survive her mum’s latest boyfriend, who also happens to be the father of her ex-boyfriend. While she attempts to lie low, she meets Eva, who drags her into midnight adventures and feelings she was unprepared for.

I went into How to Make a Wish with the expectation it was going to be a light, fluffy, f/f summer romance. What I got was much more nuanced and developed. It was about grief, loss, and mothers. Both Eva and Grace were motherless in different ways. Eva recently lost her mother, suddenly, and she grief-stricken and lonely, and Grace’s mother has never really been a mother, she’s flakey, unreliable, and emotionally manipulative. Grace has always had to be the responsible and grown-up one in the relationship, their roles were reversed, and Grace’s homelife was unstable. How to Make a Wish was an emotional read and did make me tear up a lot.

How to Make a Wish is a character driven story and it is the characters that make you fall in love with this book. I loved Grace, I loved her loyalty, even though it was often misplaced, I loved her passion and her compassion. I loved her vulnerabilities and strengths, and her dreams and fears, she was a fully fleshed out and complex character who went though an immense amount of character development. I loved that she finally managed to break away from her toxic relationship with her mum and I loved the support she received from her best friend and his family, it was truly a beautiful relationship. Eva was another favourite. She was scared and lonely and had a hard time adjusting to life without her mother. I loved her character arc, especially concerning her dancing.

I loved the romance. I loved their chemistry. Eva and Grace found comfort in each other, in their adventures and nights up in the lighthouse eating peanut butter. I really loved that relationship – an incredibly heartwarming relationship.

The romance isn’t central to the story. Grace and her relationship with her reckless and unreliable mother really took centre stage. I think this book had a really important message concerning toxic relationships. That just because it’s your mum, doesn’t mean you can’t leave. It doesn’t mean you have to give 100% into that relationship and get nothing in return. Just because it’s your mum, it doesn’t mean you have to love them and support them unconditionally and I think that is a really important message. The relationship was written honestly to show what it really was – raw and complicated but unhealthy.

How to Make a Wish is an authentic, emotional, and heartwarming read that I highly recommend.

All seventeen year-old Grace Glasser wants is her own life. A normal life in which she sleeps in the same bed for longer than three months and doesn't have to scrounge for spare change to make sure the electric bill is paid. Emotionally trapped by her unreliable mother, Maggie, and the tiny cape on which she lives, she focuses on her best friend, her upcoming audition for a top music school in New York, and surviving Maggie’s latest boyfriend—who happens to be Grace’s own ex-boyfriend’s father.

Her attempts to lay low until she graduates are disrupted when she meets Eva, a girl with her own share of ghosts she’s trying to outrun. Grief-stricken and lonely, Eva pulls Grace into midnight adventures and feelings Grace never planned on. When Eva tells Grace she likes girls, both of their worlds open up. But, united by loss, Eva also shares a connection with Maggie. As Grace's mother spirals downward, both girls must figure out how to love and how to move on. (via Goodreads)
I received an eARC from Netgalley and the publisher, HMH Books For Young Readers, in exchange for an honest review.

I'd heard nothing but good things about How to Make A Wish, and once I started reading it, I realized why so many of my reader friends loved reading this. Unfortunately, I really didn't love it the way they did.

I'll start with some trigger warnings: child abuse, alcoholism, gaslighting, ableist slurs (crazy/lunatic used fairly regularly), suicide references, attempted rape mentions.

There was one really big reason that I didn't fall in love with this story.

Throughout the novel, I couldn't help but wonder why the hell nobody had called child protective services on Maggie regarding Grace's childhood. Maggie's mess was kind of an open secret around town from what we see in the novel, and they'd lived in the same town their entire life. Grace was really good at hiding it at 17, but she can't have been when she was younger. Emmy at least knew, since she ripped into Maggie for leaving Grace home alone for days at a time, as did Kimber - it's noted that Kimber lent her a pair of shoes when hers were literally falling apart.

This really ruined a lot of the book for me, because there was so much that Grace should not have had to deal with if the adults in her life had done literally anything that they were supposed to.

I also wished that there had been something truly done with Jay/Julian - at least for an apology for what he did to her. That plotline felt really unfinished to me.

The cape is called Cape Katherine, but the girl from the lighthouse was named Hattie? I feel like her name really should have been named Katherine, the way most oral legends go.

That being said, the romance in this novel was sweet. I loved that Grace and Eva got to develop, fight, and fall in love while dealing with their separate traumas in a very teenager-y way. I loved their dedication to their crafts of piano and ballet. I loved the great representation of a bisexual relationship, which was ownvoices for the author. Eva is a mixed ballet dancer, and the trouble she had in that was discussed very well.

Overall, this was a three star read for me. I completely understand why others loved this book, but it just wasn't meant for me overall. It might be for you, though! If you think it might be, you can pick up a copy at Amazon, Indiebound, or your other favorite bookseller!

three stars

Disclaimer: All links to Indiebound and Amazon are affiliate links, which means that if you buy through those links, I will make a small amount of money off of it.

How To Make A Wish was a sad and ridiculously sweet look at two girls falling in love and finding themselves after the impact of their mothers on their lives.

I adored this book just as much as I hoped I would. Ashley Herring Blake’s writing is so easy to read – I flew through this book in less than two days, reading like 250 pages in one day because I just couldn’t put it down. Blake understands her characters well and continuously plays with the idea of outward perception and reality – who Grace’s mother appears to be and who she really is, who Grace is, who Eva is.

Lets start with the diversity on this book. Grace (MC) is a teenager who will discover of being bisexual as she starts to have feelings for EVA, a lesbian and POC teenager who is gonna to moved in with Luca (Grace BFF) after her mother died. Plus Grace will discover that she always been attracted also by female since she was very young — I especially loved this because I am so tired of the “you are straight or you are gay” sentence. News flash people: you can be attracted by different gender!
I need to say a few words on Luca — My personal favorite character!
I loved Luca so much! And I really liked the fact that the author didn’t create any kind of romance between Luca and Grace even if she could have. Luca has always been there for Grace and their relationship made me think about Lucas and Haley friendship in One Tree Hill. We definitely need more F/M friendship in book.
Since Grace’s father died her mother Maggie has gone wild: drinking, careless regarding other people lives and especially her own daughter’s, having sex with the first man who she would have met at a bar. Maggie could be the portrait of the worst mother on earth! Some parts were so hard to read for me especially when Grace keep follow her no matter what! I understand that Maggie is her mother but some things where so unselfish that I couldn’t read it.
I fell in love with the last chapter of the book where you are enlightened about the title of the book “How to make a wish”. I personally love when something like this happens.

3.5stars
This was the first book I ever read by the author and I really liked it! It’s also an LGBT book, which I hadn’t read many before so I was really excited to start this one!

How to Make a Wish is a beautiful story about family, love, and friendship. It’s also about letting go, about following dreams and about loss. It has a lot of emotion and it’s slightly bittersweet. But it sure was beautiful!

This book talks about two girls that fall in love with each other – Eva and Grace. Eva’s mother died. And Grace has a very difficult life; her father died when she was two and her mom lives a completely unpredictable life, where she is the one getting taken care of, instead of the other way around. Her mother is there but she isn’t present as so.

I found their romance the sweetest thing ever! Eva is an extremely sweet girl and it’s impossible not to connect with her. She is warm hearted and she doesn’t mind showing what she feels. And Grace is the complete contrary. She is a lot harder to get to know and a lot more closed. She is an adult in the body of a teenager. She is used to taking care of her mother and trying to fix things. She feels angry, unloved and helpless. But she feels that she can’t ask for help because doing that means showing the reality of her mother. She doesn’t have many people she trusts, until Eva comes along, and gives her the strength to wish for herself, to fight against it, instead of with it.

Even tho Grace’s mother did everything wrong all the time, it’s impossible not to feel compassion because that’s how Grace feels. Through the story, we understand why she is like that, and that, independently of everything she does love Grace.

It’s true that her actions are terrible. She doesn’t think, she doesn’t see reality… She lives in a world apart, inside her head. She drinks her guts out and she goes with anybody who may appear. Always saying that everything is just fine and drowning her daughter with her. But Grace was always there for her. Trying, hoping, whishing.

I felt that this book was really realistic and beautiful, the writing was also very pleasant and fast to read. I think the moral of this story is really important and the romance was just adorable!

I may or may not be in love with this book and it's characters. (read: Luca) (WHERE’S MY LUCA MICHAELSON??)

Not the encompassing love I have for Becky Albertalli or Victoria Schwab, sure. But it comes pretty damn close.

It’s not a very good or original story, per se: but I wanted a cute contemporary. And I got more than that. I got a cute contemporary that I finished in one sitting. I got a cute contemporary that made me feel, that made me think.

● The romance: It gave me butterflies in my belly and a smile on my face. Yes, it’s that cute.

● The relationships and character development: Although this is more or less advertised as a romance, the protagonist’s relationship with her mother is a huge part of the book. I won’t say much about this because it goes into the direction of WAY TOO SPOILERY take it from me, it has some of the best character development I’ve ever read.

● LUCA MICHAELSON: I’m sorry, did I mention I love him? Honestly, #bestfriendgoals

This is one of those books that's hard for me to review. Because while I LOVED some parts of it and want to flail about those, there are also parts I really didn't like that kept me from loving the book as a whole. But those things are personal issues I have with the book and therefor might not bother other readers. But if I list those dislikes, I might keep people from picking this book up, which I don't want because I still think lots of people should read it. Am I making any sense whatsoever? Probably not. Oh well.

How To Make a Wish is about Grace and her mother Maggie. They have a complicated and dysfunctional relationship in which Grace has had to be the grown-up more times than she can count. And this really is the heart of the story. This mother-daughter relationship that's kind of messed up and needs a lot of work and is actually not very healthy. And while I loved parts of this side of the story, I had some problems with it too. Which relates mostly to the characters, but I'll get back to that. I did love how it developed, even if it got a bit too dramatic sometimes etc. I loved that romance wasn't a cure for anything in this book and that it ultimately came down to the mother and the daughter having to fix stuff together. But I also love that it didn't all wrap up in a neat little bow with rainbows and sunshine.

I also want to give a shout-out to the awesome friendship between Grace and her best friend Luca. I LOVE that they're not more than friends and it never even gets hinted at that it could be more. It's just a fantastic, platonic friendship between a boy and a girl and YES. THANK YOU. It's possible, people. Romance need not be involved every time.

Speaking of Luca, I loved him and his family. He was a great friend and I loved his mom and brother and honestly wouldn't mind having a book about them alone. Though I did kind of want more of Luca's girlfriend Kimber and his brother Macon. But we can't have everything, I suppose. I also ended up liking Jay and Pete, which I did not really expect. But I did. So yay.

My main problem with this book lies with Grace, Maggie and Eva. Maggie, and I say this in the nicest way possible, was a horrible mom. And I find it sad that their dysfunctional relationship went on so long without anyone doing something about it because it's just not healthy for either of them. When Eva comes into Grace's life, she changes a lot of things up and while I didn't necessarily have a problem with her, I didn't feel like I got to know her as well as I would've liked. And then we have Grace... who I just didn't connect with. She frustrated me SO much and yes she grew in the story and was developed well enough, but I just wanted to hit her with a frying pan. I'm sorry. I just did. I didn't like how she brushed off her mother's behavior for SO long and how she acted towards Luca sometimes when he confronted her about it. I'm also mildly disappointed that her music didn't play a very big role ultimately. Which is sad because it's so important to her but in the story itself it's just... not.

The romance was both great and frustrating. The latter because sometimes it took over a bit and I didn't like that because I wanted to focus on the other stuff. And sometimes it felt like it was going to make the story in one of those "love cures all" situations. Which no. Just no. But it was also great because the author didn't shy away from anything. This book is very sex-positive with an f/f romance, which I enthusiastically applaud and flail over because THANKS. YA needs this.

In the end, How To Make A Wish has a lot going for it, but it frustrated me personally a lot. I still highly recommend it because this is just my opinion and therefor not necessarily yours. If you're a contemporary fan, you should definitely check this one out.

How to Make a Wish surprised me, and had a lot of the aspects I want and crave in an excellent book. All of my friends who read this book early swore it was amazing and How to Make a Wish really delivered, and then some. This book has complex and fully fleshed characters that you will instantly fall in love with. I laughed, I cried (more like bawled like a baby) and was filled with utter joy because of this book, because of Grace’s bravery and Eva’s strength, and their shared love for each other. This book really is something special and I would recommend it to everyone who loves a young adult book that doesn’t shield away from the sad and messy parts of life, the beauty that exists between all of it and the complexity of loving someone and still knowing they’re not treating you right.

What really makes you fall in love with How to Make a Wish is the characters. We have the protagonist of the story, bisexual Grace Glasser, and her relationship with her mother, a mother who is reckless and acts like a child, making Grace the adult in the relationship. It was truly heartbreaking to see Grace deal with her mother, constantly being crushed by her expectations for things being better this time. Grace dreams of becoming a pianist, but even that dream seems impossible when her mother is completely dependent on Grace. However, there is also Luca, Grace’s best friend, and his mother and their support and love for Grace is endless and beautiful. Grace is basically a part of Luca’s family. Luca knows Grace likes no one else and he loves her so much, despite their ups and downs. Their friendship was one of my favorite parts of the book.

“But it was so easy. Up there, I didn’t belong to a messed-up mother. She wasn’t the grieving daughter. We were just Grace and Eva.”

Then we have Eva, biracial, gay and the love interest of the story, who moved to live with Luca’s family after her mother died unexpectedly. Eva had a hard time dealing with life without her mother, in a new place where nothing is the same, not even her love for ballet. I fell in love with Eva immediately, she is sarcastic and strong, and a character I think many will feel for. When Grace and Eva meet, there was an instant connection. Two lonely, motherless girls found comfort in spending summer nights together at the top of a lighthouse and before they knew it, it became something so much more than just two girls finding contentment in each other. I love Grace and Eva’s relationship because it’s so soft and tender, which is something I really miss in f/f relationships. There is something so incredibly heartwarming about the connection Eva and Grace has and I love how this book shows us the insecurities and complexities that exist with it.

“Then her whole hand slides across my whole hand, and our fingers are all mixed up, pale and dark, lavender on dark purple, wrapped over and around. The tree creaks ominously, but I don’t care. I forget about everything that came before this – every [pissed off] and jealous emotion I had from earlier tonight, gone.”

You can’t discuss How to Make a Wish without mentioning the writing. Blake truly draws you in with her use of words and imagery, and the voice of Grace is one that makes it impossible to put the book down. There are funny and sarcastic moments, sad and heartbreaking scenes, and everything in between, and Blake delivers in her execution. How to Make a Wish has amazing bisexual representation and a masturbation scene that needs to be celebrated since they are so rarely featured in YA books.

All in all, How to Make a Wish is a book you need to put on your radar this spring and summer. This book is so beautiful it hurts. You will fall in love with Grace, Eva, and Luca and see their struggles, their happy moments, and most importantly of all, their happy endings despite life not being easy or fair. This story is about grief, freedom and the complexity of love. How to Make a Wish is a magical mess of beauty, sadness, love, dreams and wishes and a book that deserves all of the praise in the world.

This will go live on my blog on May 7. Kellyvision.wordpress.com

Ever since she can remember, it's been Grace's job to take care of her mother, Maggie. Maggie is fragile and her mood can change at any given second. She'll seem OK but then start dating a jerk. When it ends (and it always does), she'll start drinking and then Grace has to save her. She doesn't like this at all bit Maggie is all she has. And then she meets Eva, another girl who's essentially an orphan. She doesn't want to fall for Eva, because that would mean involving her in Grace's messy life. And yet...

This book broke my heart. Teens with absent parents is a common trope (and complaint) in YA novels and it really works in this one. Maggie is everywhere in this book, and yet it's because of her inability to parent. Even when she's physically present, she's not really there. And that has defined Grace's entire life.

Even when her mom disappoints her, Grace loves her and feels almost doomed to repeat her mistakes. After all, even with all Maggie's faults, it's Maggie and Grace, together forever.

This book is intense but so worth it.

This book is beautiful. It's beautiful for all the things it includes.

I've never read a f/f romance before (other than one sexual scene in an adult novel), so this was new ground for me. And I have to admit, I loved both girls so much. Their snark and flirting were absolute perfection.

Grace's relationship with her mother was rocky and as such, was pretty intense. But it's honest, even if it's tough to read. I think it added depth to Grace and the story as a whole. It also plays a big part on who Grace is and therefore, how she reacts to situations. It makes her actions forgivable. (To some extent.)

As someone who loves character-driven novels, this was perfect for me. I didn't expect an intricate plot. I wanted growth. And I got that.

Strong writing, a vivid setting, and a lovely romance between two girls, one of whom is grappling with the loss of her mother and the other of whom is struggling to balance taking care of herself and taking care of her mother. I really enjoyed this!

How to Make a Wish rendered me speechless, let’s start with that, it is so beautiful and honest that I couldn’t help feel every emotion it conveyed, every one of them. It is just the kind of book that takes a hold on your heart with no intent of ever letting it go, not like you would mind, you really don’t want it to go away.

First of all the writing, oh boy, it’s art. It feels like a punch, it is so powerful  and emotionally packed while being poetic and flowing very effortlessly. What’s most striking about it are the descriptions, they’re raw and gutting and just uuugh, I’m at a loss of words and I apologize deeply for not knowing how to English anymore. One thing I really appreciated is how comfortable Ashley Herring Blake is with writing explicit content (re: sex, masturbation) which in my honest opinion teenagers should be exposed to because it’s par of their reality (not all of them obviously).

How to Make a Wish is the story of two girls broken by their moms. Eva, the love interest has lost her mom and has no other family while Grace, the MC loves her mom more than anything but the latter cannot seem to *see* her. And God help me, I was so so angry at that woman, her behavior towards her daughter made my skin crawl (and the worst of it, is that I know that it is some people’s reality). She was manipulative, selfish and delusional.
Her mom listened and paid attention to everyone BUT her, prioritizing which ever guy is in her life at the moment, and the worst of it all is that she’s oblivious to how wrong and hurtful her actions are. She brushed off Grace each time she was concerned and tried to call her out on them and the girl can do nothing more than that because she loves her mom very much and keeps holding on to that sliver of hope that she’ll get better one day.

The cast of characters is probably one of the most realistic cast I’ve ever read in a YA book. They’re all flawed, fight and then make up. I loved the dynamic and energy that were carefully threaded into their relationships which made them unarguably believable.
Grace was such an amazing main character, strong and brave, spoke her mind loud and clear when needed, and didn’t let anybody squish her down. Unless that somebody is her mom. She’s also very closed off to people, had a hard time opening up to anyone in the fear of getting hurt, which she wasn’t even conscious of. Through her experiences, the author very subtly addressed and explained bisexuality. I loved her relationship with best friend Luca, who was basically a brother to her, he was very sweet, caring, supportive and protective of her. He also never shied away from telling her the truth as it is and even though she refused to hear it, she appreciated it in the long run.

Eva is a very complex character, I really liked how she had this kind of quiet vibe of wisdom and she didn’t run away and was never ashamed of her sadness, she embraced it. Again, through her experiences, Ashley Herring Blake tackles biraciality issues and what struggles some biracial kids may go through (and from what I read in #ownvoices reviews, it is one of the best portrayals out there). THEIR ROMANCE WAS HONESTLY SO PURE, OH MY HEART !! It is so true, gentle and heartwarming that I couldn’t help but root for them, they had their issues, which complicated things for them but they ultimately got past them.

All in all this was such a heartbreaking and -at the end- heart-mending story that deals with the loss of a parent, grief, toxic, abusive parenthood and the importance of having a strong support system. It is relentlessly hopeful, I loved how by the end not everything was fixed but you could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

There are aspects of this book that read like your average summer contemporary book. Not average in terms of quality, but in the vibe and setting and style. This book is summery. There are lighthouses and boat rides on the 4th of July and nighttime parties on the beach. And, of course, we can't forget the love story. These familiar elements of the book really helped me to fall into the world and the story and honestly? Just made me want to fast forward to the summer time.

BUT let me talk about all the stuff in this book that is beyond the usual YA contemporary and how it did all of those things very right.

What intrigued me enough about this book that it was one of my most anticipated releases of the year? Well, a f/f romance for one. I'm obviously falling for those constantly. But more than that, the MC is bisexual (#ownvoices) and the love interest is a biracial lesbian. And them falling for each other was just so lovely?? They were snarky and doubtful and tender and I loved them. Grace, the MC, has a couple of really fantastic conversations about bisexuality and what it means to her that I thought were incredibly well done. And honestly, as a f/f romance, there was a lot to like. This hit all my ladies loving ladies notes, and that made my heart glow. Grace and Eva fit in a really fantastic way together and I loved their scenes where they could just flirt and tease and make me grin.

One of the central parts of this book is the relationship Grace has with her mother. That is, their not-so-great relationship in which Maggie is the one acting like a child and Grace is constantly forced to take responsibility. It is a really heartbreaking relationship to read. It is done in an honest and up-close way that makes it difficult to stomach at times, as you see this person constantly doing exactly what you, as a reader, know will hurt Grace the most. It's hard to read, but it is done incredibly well in terms of exploring an unhealthy parent-child relationship, and in terms of seeing how the child in these situations thinks. The way Grace rationalizes things at times is so frustrating, because you're on the outside as a reader, but also it allows you to see how she has been forced to reach this way of rationalizing.

There was some stuff here that was a bit tropey for me. Like, the love interest coming in through a window in the middle of the night. Or some of the little conversations that happen between Grace and her best friend, Luca. It only happened occasionally, and really only at the beginning rather than the end, but those moments would frustrate me. Obviously these aren't terrible, but they would pull me out of the story when they happened a bit.

This was a really lovely contemporary. It hit all the right notes with a romance. It did a lot right in talking about unhealthy parent-child relationships. The external support system Grace had was excellent and I really loved them all. They all felt like real characters that exist out there in the world. And even though we didn't see as much of it, I thought Eva's grief was shown and discussed perfectly. It also leads to her having a whole conversation with Grace about how the ballet world is incredibly white??? Excellent. More of that, please.

In fact, to summarize my feelings, I want more of all of this.