2.5 stars
The blurb caught my attention and the title Love Is Love appealed.      This was an easy read, finished in a couple of hours...more of a novella than a novel and possibly due to it's length the issues experienced by characters Emmy and Jude were not explored as fully as I'd have liked.  

17 year old Emmy has a serious lack of confidence, poor self image, and she  doesn't feel she belongs anywhere.   After feuding with her mother one too many times she threatens to leave.   To her surprise her mother decides this is a good idea and sets the wheels in motion for her to go spend some time with her aunt and uncle in Vancouver.     Her high fashion, ultra popular cousin Paige takes her to a coffee shop where they catch up with her trans gender friend Jude.       Emmy finds herself instantly attracted to him but more than just a physical attraction she likes who he is and how he makes her feel.    Jude and Emmy fill a need in each other which for these two is a unique and special feeling.    As author Mette Bach wrote in her Acknowledgements girls like Emmy should get the guy and  guys like Jude should get to be the romantic love interest. Like the concept of this book but hoped for slightly more from this story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I liked this book, quite a lot actually. It was just very short, and I feel like it could have been really great if the content was expanded upon. It's nice just to see a well represented trans character in a YA book though, who has themselves at least somewhat together and knows the person they want to be and are striving for that.

Emmy was an interesting MC, but I wanted to know more about her past. We're thrown into her story in the middle of things, when she's being sexualized by a pretty skeezy seeming guy, and when her family life is already in a pretty big upheaval. I'd like to know more about Ron and Brendan, and why she ultimately dislikes the some so much. I'd like more too about her relationship with her mother, and why it's so rocky. I mean the obvious answer is that it all goes back to the death of her father, but it would be nice to see more.

I'd like to see more of Jude too, and how his own live evolved from his days as Judy to being who he truly is, inside and out. It would be wonderful to build on their relationship, and more about the trials that come with all of the emotional and physical changes.

All-in-all it was good, and the author dealt very well with the material. I just wish it was longer!

I'm not sure I can describe how much I disliked this book. I was excited for diverse characters and a unique love story. Instead I got a story with half-developed characters who apparently like each other? I kept reading hoping it would get better, but no such luck.

Love is Love is one of those books that I actually ugly cried too. It is also a book where a character that was so unlikable in the beginning of the book did a miraculous thing and became likable towards the end. I also finished Love is Love within one night. I started it with every intention of putting it down after an hour and going to sleep (I read in bed) and I ended up staying up and finishing the book. This book is that good.

I couldn’t stand Emmy at the beginning of the book. She wants to be popular, so she gives the popular guy at school a blow job (and not a very good one by the description) and she spends the night at his house. When her mother calls her out on it, which she had every right too, she calls her mom a whore. Why a whore? Because her mother moved on from her father’s death and is living with a man who takes care of her. She also says a few other things that were pretty unforgivable. By the end of the first chapter, I really couldn’t stand her.

Then she moved to Vancouver and I slowly started to see her in a different light.

My changing of opinion of her was when Paige told her that Jude was trans and used to be Judy. Emmy was kinda like “Ok” and treated Jude like a normal person when she met him. What impressed me was when she asked Jude what pronoun he would like for her to use (he, she or they)….after doing some research on the Internet. I think that Jude was impressed and touched that Emmy went through that effort.

Emmy was still a mess, though, and I felt bad about it. Living with anxiety and eating to deal with my emotions, I can totally relate to because I do it and have pretty severe anxiety. Add in that she has low self-esteem and feels that she needs to sleep with people in order for them to like her and that she was still dealing with her dad’s death and I felt awful for her. Honestly, I think that her friendship and eventual romance with Jude was the best thing that happened to her. What I didn’t like was that Paige and her mother kept telling her to stay away from him. Paige’s reason: Jude wasn’t a nice guy and she didn’t want Emmy mixed up with him. Then she goes and introduces them which made me go “Huh, why did she introduce them“. Now, Emmy’s mom, I can understand. She didn’t want her to get hurt and she wasn’t exactly thrilled that Jude was transgender.

I absolutely loved Jude and I think that the author captured what it was like for a transgendered man is like in the real world. From the reactions that his parents had (and unfortunately there are parents who do not love unconditionally) to the issues that he was having getting surgery on his top half done to the fact that he really liked Emmy but was scared to act on it, it was perfect.

The romance between Jude and Emmy was very slow and at times I really thought it was in Emmy’s head (because she was a bit obsessive). But when Jude confessed his feelings for Emmy, I felt tears well up and I didn’t stop crying until the end of the book.

The end of the book was kind of happy ending. There was no declarations of love and I didn’t know if Emmy and Jude would actually stay together but it was perfect.

How many stars will I give Love is Love: 4

Why: Memorable characters, a good storyline. This would be a book that I would encourage my children to read

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Older Teen

Why: Language, sexual situations

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

Emmy, 17, is not doing great ever since her dad died. Her mom, remarried, is tired of dealing with her moods and sends her from Winnipeg to Vancouver where Emmy can live at her uncle’s. Emmy is not really getting along with her cousin, Paige, but when she meets Jude, a trans guy who’s a friend of Paige, she’s instantly smitten.

I liked Jude. But... I didn’t like Emmy, Paige, Emmy’s mother or anyone else… Except maybe Emmy’s uncle?
The book was very short and felt more like a novella than a full novel, but it was still filled with drama, too much drama.
Emmy annoyed me most of the time and the connection between her and Jude didn’t seem genuine…
Basically, the synopsis seemed really interesting but the execution disappointed me...

A sweet love story. Delicately tackled some difficult issues facing teenagers. It opened my eyes to a lot of the different insecurities faced by teenagers. A nice read.

This was an enjoyable book, but too short. There were a lot of aspects of Emmy and of Jude that were not fully explored and there were moments in the book where it seemed a particular conversation would occur later, but never happened. However, I liked how the author portrayed Jude, the transgender character, both in a respectful manner and as a complex person who was defined by more than gender identity. Emmy's fears and vulnerabilities felt genuine. It was a good plot point to have Emmy discover that Jude, who she viewed as hip and cool and out-of-her-league despite her crush on him, had his own insecurities, including whether she would like him. The overall message that we love who we love and that there are people out there who will love us despite our perceived flaws is an important message.

I have a bit to say about this book, so please be patient while I figure this out.

In truth, I was expecting this book to be much more harmful than what it was, based off the publisher provided summary on NetGalley and Goodreads. I knew this was going to be stuffed full of problems the moment I saw the cover and read the summary, and here's why: Jude, the trans love interest, is deadnamed in the summary, a common ploy that publishers do to try and draw people in with ~diversity~. Jude is also described as a "bad person" but it is never explained why he's a bad person. Besides him being trans and being "bad", that's all we learn about him from the summary. I was also concerned with the body type rep in this book, as the way Emmy being overweight was described was really iffy. 

And while this book wasn't as volatile as I was preparing myself for, there was still plenty of problems within. The best way to describe Love is Love is basically saying that it was well-intended, but ignorantly executed. 

Throughout the book, I was waiting for poisonous comments to come for Jude, by Jude, or any number of other things. I just knew it was going to hurt. Specifically, they came from one character, Emmy's cousin, where she misgenders Jude constantly and calls him by his deadname. The cousin even introduced him to Emmy by his deadname, and she would always do it behind his back. Paige, the cousin, was one of the worst people ever, and she is constantly spouting transphobic remarks all throughout the novel, even going as far as saying being trans was a "phase" and that Jude wasn't right in the head. She's extremely disrespectful, full of herself, and--well, basically think of the mean, popular girl stereotype. That's basically her in a nutshell.

While most of the transphobia came from her, it was still spouted left and right, but thankfully not from Emmy. She actually defended Jude once, when Paige called him "she" behind his back, and I really appreciated that--until Emmy started becoming obsessed with Jude because he was so different and interesting. There was one scene in which Emmy was speaking with her mom, and her mom was going off on how being transgender wasn't normal, and that Emmy needed to be in a normal relationship. This conversation cued the second fucking time Emmy called her mother a wh*re. Jude called her out on using that as an insult, but the way he did it was so infuriating that I didn't even care that he did it--it came out as ridiculous and like he was oblivious!

Here's the catch--while the transphobia wasn't running as rampant as I was expecting, harmful stereotypes and beliefs were being subtly woven into the storyline. Jude's deadname was "Judy", which is a type of naming convention for trans people that has frankly gotten annoying. It's like Robert/Roberta or some shit. Then there was Emmy's basic stalking of Jude, and insisting that he was different and special because "he wasn't like other guys" because he was trans. It was almost like she was saying that she was in love with him only because he was transgender. Bach's handling of a transgender character was commendable for her first try, but Jude's character was so stereotyped that I was nearly screaming. 

And this isn't even getting on how fatphobic this book is!!

I knew from the start that Emmy would have low positivity. Okay, I'm fine with that, maybe I'll relate to her on that level. But Emmy was so poisonous towards herself and other people, it was horrible. And, while most of it was her being self-deprecating, she was often mentally attacking other heavy people, and skinny people. She was just so negative I took a long break from this book, if only to prepare myself for the last half. There were even scenes in which Emmy was basically working out to impress Jude.

Emmy was described as a dog quite a few times, as well as a troll another. And this book isn't even written in first person--It's third person limited!! It was so toxic and I can only imagine young teens reading this and seeing themselves described as a troll.

Not as main, but Emmy was also mentioned to have anxiety, and take anti-anxiety medication . . . and I just have to say that nowhere in this book did it obviously come into play. Bach was trying to subtly include Emmy's anxiety with never directly stating it was her anxiety doing this to her. Bach kept skirting around subjects, as if they were too big to tackle and this behavior just belittled them. 

Final Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Overall?

When this book wasn't being insulting, it was just plain infuriating. Emmy was such an uncomfortable character to read about, because not only did she body shame to the extreme, but she was obsessed with Jude. Literally obsessed. And Jude just felt like any standard caricature of a random guy. There was nothing special about the characters, nothing interesting--just confusing or hurtful.

Would I Recommend?

I wouldn't waste my time on it. Especially trans readers, I found it hurtful with the stereotypes at the least, and the misgendering at the most. Bach didn't end up writing transphobic lines as I was expecting, but Love is Love could still very well be seen as harmful with how subtle the other problems are.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story begins with a young girl named Emmy, who is dating a boy that is bad news. Her mother is tired of of dealing with Emmy and ships her off to her uncle and aunt in Vancouver. As a teenager, Emmy has a lot of emotional issues and only views herself in a negative way. Through her cousin, she meets Jude,a transgender man who Emmy met years ago but he was Judy.

Jude and Emmy fall for another, hard and fast. But insecurities about themselves push these two to the brink.
As this is more of a novella, there isn't much touched on the transgender issue but it is a lovely story that shows love knows no boundaries.

This book is an eye opener! The reader forgets that Jules is not physically a boy as he is so obviously emotionally one. The author brings the characters to life with great skill.

There should be many more books like this one.

I fell for this book on NetGalley from the title alone. It is something I believe in my soul. The blurb gave me more information as to what direction that love might be heading.

There are some who might not get it. But not only does this book cover an unusal love interest, it addresses all of our insecurities. I was surprised at how I still have many of the self-doubts that the main character has.

This is a book designed for the teen but works well for all the young at heart.

What I think I liked best about the book is how the author explains how one chooses to go through the procedures to become the opposite sex than of their birth. How one should restrain judgement when looking at another is a great theme here.

The book ended to soon. I would have loved to see what happens next. Maybe there will be a book two?

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

A sweetly unique and timely love story. The characters in this book are believable and worthy of the reader's care and time. I enjoyed reading this book and definitely would like to see more by this author. (Just my opinion.)

3.5 stars

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this story and am glad I took a chance on it. It's told completely from 17-year-old Emmy's point of view, so the reader gets an inside to why she is down on herself. I felt for her, being a teenager sucks, lol.

Jude/Judy comes across as rather one-dimensional which was a little disappointing, I would've liked to know more about the struggles a transitioning teenager has to go through. With that said, I enjoyed the story nonetheless.

NOTE - I feel it only fair to mention the cover does not resemble the main character, something I wrongly assumed. Emmy is an overweight awkward teenager.

Copy received via NetGalley

Thanks(!) NetGalley for giving me a chance to read and review this book!

Short Blurb:

Overweight and unhappy at home, Emmy gets sexually involved with a popular classmate so that people will think that she is worth liking. When she realizes that he is just using her, she decides to leave her home in Winnipeg to stay with her uncle's family in Vancouver. Emmy has always been intimidated by her perfect cousin Paige and Paige's cool friends, so she is surprised to find that the coolest of them is transgender. Emmy is instantly attracted to Jude (who used to be Judy), and starts hanging out at the coffee shop where he works. She even performs at the poetry slam Jude hosts there.

Emmy is never sure where she stands with Jude, and can't believe that such a confident, charismatic guy might actually be interested in her. Both her mother back in Winnipeg and Paige warn her away from Jude, saying that he will just use her and she will get hurt. But it's not until she almost falls again into the trap of casual sex to boost her self-esteem that Emmy realizes it's worth it to put your true self out there for real love.

Cover Review:

The cover is simple, yet alluring and I'd have definitely picked up the book and read more about it!

Review:

Love is Love is a heart touching story, one of the best I've ever read. The only thing I didn't like about it was its length. I wish it hadn't been such a short read! I wish there was more to it.

My favorite character was without doubt Jude. He's just the kind of guy that a girl deserves. He's fun, kind, caring and oh so understanding. At the same time, he's also not invincible as most guys are pictured in most novels/movies. He's not the kinda guy who hides his pain, atleast not from someone he trusts.

My least favorite character on the other hand was Emmy's mom. Sure there were others who weren't so good but what Emmy's mom did hurt me the most. How could she have so easily sent off her daughter? And then again, how could she ever think that she can dictate who Emmy should fall in love with? I hate that woman for being so blind to her daughter's pain.

My favorite parts were all of the Emmy and Jude parts, every single one of them.

The writing was capturing, compelling, while the story was something that'll stay in my heart forever.

If only it hadn't ended so quickly...

Love is Love gets 5 stars for its brilliance and for being so beautiful.

This is another short "love" story in a similar vein to Same Love which I reviewed positively a day or so ago, but I was not able to give this the same rating for a variety of reasons. I liked the idea behind the story, and I appreciated the diversity it exhibited, but it felt far too trite, simplistic and shallow, and the characters far too caricatured for me to rate it as a worthy read.

I'm not a cover-lover, so I normally don't talk about book covers because they have nothing to do with the book's content and my reviews are about writing, not about bells and whistles, or glitz, or bait and switch. That said, I have a couple of observations about this cover. The first is that the person depicted in the cover image is gorgeous in the ambiguity and androgyny they represent, and I loved it for that. I'd like to read a story about that character, fictional or otherwise! The second observation is actually the problem: this cover has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with anybody or anything in this entire book! So why was this cover used?!

I know that authors (unless they self-publish) have no say in the cover they get stuck with. I'm truly sorry about that, but this is a price you pay when you go the traditional publishing route, so this cover problem isn't a factor in my review. This is just an observation. I don't know how publishers can get it so wrong so often, and I'm forced to speculate on motive here, because whatever that is, it's certainly nothing to do with what the author is saying or trying to do with what they wrote!

I just wish publishers were more sensitive to a book's content than they all-too-often prove themselves to be when they slap a random cover on it. I know some people, particularly YA fans, get orgasmic over covers, but mature readers (and by that I don't mean old, nor do I exclude YA readers) do not. While many of them may appreciate a well-done cover, the bottom line there is that they're all about content. I'd rather have a lousy cover with a brilliant story than ever I would a gorgeous cover with a poor story. Reference The Beatles 'white album' (so-called) for sustaining argument!

As far as content is concerned, I was frequently disappointed in the story-telling, and this is where the real problems lay with this work. It was too simplistic, and the main character, Emmy, was not a likeable one (nor did she look anything like the character on the cover, so no match there). She wasn't strong, nor did she become strong. She showed zero growth, which is sad because she was sickeningly immature. Instead of a girl turning into a young woman with purpose and drive, all we got was an unchanging, needy, whiny, and self-pitying mess.

The worst part about all of this was that she knew exactly what her problems were, but never once did she exhibit the strength to try changing herself, or even evince signs of some development of a will to change. She was a weak and uninteresting character who did not remotely deserve the reward she got. There was no justice in this book, and this was a problem.

I don't typically care about genre any more than I care about gender. A person is a person, and a main character is a main character, but what this book most reminded me of is a genre of novels that I do detest, which is the one where the woman runs away from a bad relationship back to her home town where she meets the love of her life. I despise that kind of a story, and while this novel was not quite that bad, it had a lot of the hallmarks of such a story.

Emmy is so desperate to be popular that we meet her blowing the school hot guy, Ty, in some disgusting stairwell one night, just in hopes that from this she will become popular. How that thinking ever made sense is a mystery. All it told me was that she was profoundly stupid. I didn't mind that. I can work with that, because my hope was that she would wise-up and grow a pair, but she never did.

Emmy is 'overweight'. That's never actually defined, but that's not necessarily a problem, especially not in a society where anorexic actors and models are perversely considered the standard of beauty. 'Overweight' is not a problem unless you're unhealthy with it, and Emmy is, because she's overweight from binging on junk food for emotional comfort.

She knows this perfectly well, but never once does she even consider stopping the rot. Instead, she hangs around like a maiden trussed to a tree, awaiting her shining knight to come shield her from the dragon of life. This is why I did not like her. Throughout this whole story she never initiated a single thing; she was never the actor, always the one acted upon, and her inertia, passivity and complete lack of metaphorical balls was sickening to read about.

The Saint George in this story is Jude the somewhat obscure, the artist formerly known as Judy, who is a guy who was unfortunately born in a woman's body. Again, he looked nothing like the character on the cover, so no match there, either. Other than that, we never really get to know him.

Jude is living as a guy but has had no surgery yet. He's trying to save money for it, but is of limited means, so it's taking a while. He's a barista, and Emmy meets him when she visits his establishment with her cousin, Paige, whose parents Emmy is now staying with in Vancouver, having fled Winnipeg fit to be Ty-ed. Paige also looks nothing like the character on the cover, and she's such a caricature and a non-entity, it made me wonder why she was even in the story at all.

The story-telling effectively ends here, and instead of a flowing tale, what we get is a series of vignettes from this point onward. Emmy, who writes poetry that we never get to read, is all but forced onto the stage at the coffee shop on poetry night. She's laughed off the stage, but we never learn if the laughter was at her, or in enjoyment of the poem she read. We're left to surmise it was at her, but this incident never goes anywhere else. She never comes roaring back. Instead, her poetry drops out of sight after this. In the same vein, she starts cycling, but paradoxically goes nowhere. The poetry felt like it ought to have been an overture to her regaining some confidence, and the cycling a lead-in to her getting fit, but the cycling disappears as well!

Another vanishing act is her father's notebooks. Her father is dead and her mother has married a guy Emmy doesn't like. Those issues are never resolved either, but in staying with her uncle, she discovers that he has one or two of her dad's notebooks from when he was Emmy's age. She takes possession of them, but she never reads them - or if she does, we're not party to it, so it's yet another dead end street. Her stay in Vancouver seems full of them.

Emmy begins fantasizing about Jude, gazing at him simperingly whenever he's around, and the attraction seems to be entirely physical - at least that's the most common part that's shared with us: that he looks like he ought to be on stage or on the big screen.

Although some token attempts to broaden his appeal are made, they're too few and too shallow to be believable. Consequently, the elephant in the room here is not Emmy despite her lackluster attempts to convince us otherwise. The problem is the complete lack of any viable reason why Jude is interested in Emmy, because we're never offered a glimpse of any such reason. He just falls into line with her fantasies and is won effortlessly. She doesn't deserve him and we're never given any reason why she should.

I could see a great story here, but it's not the one we got, and the title was wrong. This was far too fast to be love. Infatuation is Lust might have been a better title. I found myself more interested in Jude's sweet-hearted friend, Clarisse. A story about her might have been a lot more engrossing than this one was. I wish this author all the best; her heart is in the right place, but this particular story is one I can't get behind at all, and I'm sorry for that.

This is a romance novella about the relationship between an overweight insecure girl and a female-to-male trans*boy. While this sort of representation is always welcome and was well-done, the story failed to knock my socks of. 3,5/5 stars.

Again, the representation - both of the anxious, comfort-eating overweight Emmy with glasses, as well as the trans*boy Jude - was done well. There was understanding and healthy conversations. Characters misgendering Jude are called out on their unacceptable behavior by both the narrator and other characters. However, a lot of the plot was based on stereotypes and the plot was a bit thin. That is fine for a book around 170 pages thin, but I wish things could have been more fleshed out. It was really nothing more than a cutesy summer-reading romance story, so do not expect any deep discussion about trans*-issues, or much character development. It was enjoyable, though, especially for a middle-grade book!

Just one thing, dear publishers - WTF is that cover?? Is that supposed to be Emmy? Because that girl is not overweight at all, and neither does she wear glasses. Or is it supposed to be Jude? In which case: still shame on you for taking an ambiguous image of Shutterstock of a person who looks much more feminine than someone passing as a boy after transition.

Love is Love by Mette Bach is my first (LGBT) novel I have ever read and I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone. Love is Love, no matter your race, religion or sex. No one should be judged with who your heart lies with.

This story begins with a young girl named Emmy, who is dating a boy that is bad news. Tired of being criticized she decides to move in with her aunt in Vancouver. Thus meeting Jude, a transgender man who Emmy met years ago but he was Judy.

Jude and Emmy fall for another, hard and fast. But insecurities about themselves push these two to the brink. But their love for another conquers all.

Excellent writing, i was impressed with this quick read. Finished it in one sitting. The story line was easy to follow and the characters flowed. Would recommend to anyone looking for a new read in this genre. Thank you for the advanced copy.

I'll post this review on Amazon once the book is open to be reviewed.

4 stars
Interesting book, good message but somewhat shallow

I’m glad I read this book. I found it interesting, but it’s not a favorite. The message of loving yourself is a good one, but the book came across as shallow to me. The writing was okay and I didn’t notice any editing errors, such a rarity these days! The main character is likeable but I didn’t really feel like I knew her well. And I didn’t get a good sense of any of the other characters, either. In my opinion, the book needs more depth and background. It is so simplistic. And I can’t believe the publisher is charging $27.99 for the hardcover. Amazon says the book is only 176 pages (my Kindle says it is only 99!). I know that’s a typical length for a YA novel, but I have to say that I would not recommend the book at that price!

I received a free ebook from the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review.

4* The blurb isn't entirely true, and the book feels a little incomplete, but I was moved by it.

Ignoring the above, this was a decent read. I have two friends who are trans, and I hope I've learned about respect from them, and a little about what being trans means.

I loved the respect that Emmy showed Jude in this tale, and how she took issue with her cousin, Paige, supposedly a friend of Jude's, but who didn't respect the person he was. I also loved how Jude saw the entire person that Emmy was, and that he stood up for her when she was mocked for being a fat girl. I thought the author was sensitive about Emmy's admittedly unhealthy relationship with food, and loved that Jude never had an issue with that.

This is a NA/YA tale, with Jude being slightly older than Emmy's 17yo self, and already he'd been disappointed by 'the system' - his parents who could accept Judy, but not Jude, and the Canadian health care system, that turned him down for surgery. This was sad and hurt him, but he didn't seem broken, which showed his strength of character. His option was to work hard and possibly get a better job so that he could do what he felt he needed to be the Jude he always was and will be.

I loved the line in the dedication - Thank you, Kat (the author's editor), for believing that girls like Emmy should get the guy, and that guys like Jude should get to be the romantic interest. That kind of tells you more about this tale than a reader ever could.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and James Lorimer and Company, for my reading pleasure.