This was so fun. A unique and sweet and well written story, I loved this. I loved the world it built and the people are so well done.

This book that I did not finish needs to come with a trigger warning for Transphobia. Instead of educating, the author's have created a book where there is way too much misgendering. The story was a well thought through story, but they need to do some more research on transgender issues.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

I gave up very soon after starting this book. The writing wasn't for me and I just couldn't relate to the characters.

You read about this book and it sounds like an interesting lesbian love story set in a writer's conference. Color me intrigued. Unfortunately, the premise was the only interesting thing about it. The characters were a bit one-dimensional and the plot features a trans character that could not have been humiliated more by one of the self-centered protagonists.

It was really hard to read this  book and see how the trans character got treated and in what way the author wrote about her... misgendering etc...

it just made me mad....

Honestly when I first heard about the book I was thrilled. It sounded really good, and when the blurb and the cover were posted I was hocked. It was so good looking and the blurb really enchanted me.
Then I saw some reviews from a few early readers and worried deeply about their critique and feared the book wouldn’t be “good”, in fact I worried I would DNF it.
But because I try always to be fair, I read book by myself first before I judge them and then, when I got my ARC and had time to read read it I honestly was able to say: I really liked it.
Yes, I am fully aware of the controversy topic(s) the book contains, and if you read the book and in addition to it the guest post on my blog (see above) you know what I’m talking about: it’s the harsh treatment of a transgender side character, Orly, who is a target in a bully by another side character and within constantly misgendered by several characters.
The book is written in 1st person present tense, switching between Tess’ and Soph’s POV, and has with them what you call unreliable narrators. All those things are mentioned in the editor’s note in the preface of the book and the publisher’s website. I recommend to take the warnings really serious and read them before starting the book, to make yourself aware of what it means to have unreliable narrators, to have two girls who are exploring things for the first time. And have sometimes different opinions and the display of a behaviour by the characters some readers might find offensive or making them uncomfortable.

But honestly this is one of the strengths of the book in my opinion. Yes, the characters aren’t flawless, yes, they sometimes feel superior or if they know everything, especially Soph is learning the hard way what it means to be not the number one anymore. She has to deal with competition, has hard times to adjust as easy as she always think she is. She is a crowd puller, knows how to popularize, as a girl coming from the big city New York. She is popular and is genuine, she isn’t malice whereas she sometimes comes across as a bit naive, although she knows – or think she might does – a lot of things. Soph is a charming character, and I liked her very much, in fact in parts I saw myself in her.
But it’s clear from the start she is raised in a privileged manner; she is prosperous, means she has money and can get what (and whenever) she wants (it), is able to stand for herself – isn’t shy in showing this loud and clear – and hasn’t (mostly) to worry about things.

Different to her is Tess; the shy, timid girl who wears mostly pink clothes and is working hard on her parent’s dairy farm and knows what it means to worry about a lot of things: whether it is money or what it means to being not out in a homophobic town, which isn’t not only for her an important topic and definitely influences her.

When both girls met in the writing camp literally two worlds are colliding; and not only theirs.

What I loved about the book was the display of different shapes of friendship, what it means to fall in love for the first time and how toxic groups and the dynamics can be when problems occur and what it means to stand up for important things and how illusional people sometimes are in beliving they are doing something good, when in fact they aren’t flawless and maybe have a lot of privileges, even if their intentions are good. The book is sometimes heart clenching, heart breaking in the behaviour towards Orly, the transgender girl who has to deal with harassment by Chris, who is digging deep in trying to find information about her to make her uncomfortable in the group.

Next to these topics I loved the writing topic & the creating process behind. The writing camp was charming and the idea a delight. I had so much fun in reading the “technical” components of the writting and how the girls improved their writing. I also loved the individual stories, the different mediums they’ve used and what they mean to them. I had a great time in reading more into the metaphors & the similes, see behind the topics, the way how you can interpret their fictional works differently and which gave you an insight of the characters while reading.
Soph & Tess are really interesting yet definitely not flawless characters and I think the authors are definitely able to show this within the book.

All in all, despite the heavy, heart clenching topic, the unreliable narrators who made the book so – I won’t say entertaining because it doesn’t summarize my emotions properly – unique and in parts enriching I was hooked by it.
A book doesn’t need to “please” in all parts and definitely not all readers, and truly, this book has its problems, because of the characters and their behaviour, but honestly I could get a lot out of it and I really cherish this experience. 🙂 Therefore and because I was so fond of the writing camp topic and how sweet Soph and Tess were together and – even not flawless, but it makes them so human and charming – how they were shown individually I give the book 4 out of 5 stars. 🙂

Disclaimer: I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley and the publisher (thank you!) in return for an honest review

The biggest problem I had with this book is the way the trans character was written and treated.  Since I am cis I can't speak on behalf of the trans community, but I do want to share my concerns. I couldn't find any own voices reviews, but if you know of one or have written one please let me know so I can link to it!

Now, in the beginning of the book we get a warning that the two main characters are 'unreliable narrators' and there's a link where you can find trigger warnings for the book (which I do applaud!) but... That's honestly not good enough.

I'm going into details of how Orly was treated, so if that's triggering for you, you might want to stop reading.

At the writing program, Soph and Tess meet a girl named Orly, who we soon learn from Orly's roommate Chris is trans. You know how we learn this? Because Chris tells Tess that Orly is a guy. Chris constantly misgenders Orly and says she 'feels unsafe', but in actuality she's trying to 'get a story' out of it to sell (she wants to be a journalist), bullies her and tries to get all the girls at the program to be against her. There's a horrible transphobic 'prank' played by her and a lot more nastiness, but in the end, Chris is kind of forgiven. I'm not saying that the authors condoned this kind of behaviour, but they didn't do enough to condemn it either. In a lot of ways it even felt like the authors were trying to get us to sympathise with Chris, by showing her crying, letting her tell 'her side of the story', Tess continously trying to be nice to her and trying to be her friend and she even says 'All I was trying to do was understand both sides and not leave anyone out' CHRIS IS A TRANSPHOBE THERE'S NOTHING TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THAT AND HELL YEAH YOU LEAVE HER OUT 

Not to mention, Orly and how she was treated by the other girls felt like it was just there for the development of Soph and Tess, two cis characters. When the novel starts, Tess tells us she has an interview to get into a certain school, in which she has to describe a recent incident where she took the lead. Guess what incident she's takes the lead in!!

Meanwhile when we meet Soph she tells us that her mom doesn't get that 'it's completely safe for her to be out' and 'it's not the 1950s. For about 90% of the novel Soph is constantly pressuring people to come out of the closet and preaching that 'it's better for everyone to come out'. I get that this was to emphasise that she's from a big city or whatever, but I'm Amsterdam which is supposed to be a very LGBTQ+ friendly city and I don't tell everyone that I'm bi?? Because I don't know if that's safe?? I also just don't understand how someone can be this naive. Soph is from New York - are you seriously saying that she's never experienced or saw someone else experience any form of homophobia? Even when Tess tells her it's not easy for her to come out, that her friend was beaten up by his father, Soph still doesn't get it and even says 'You know it's better to come out, Tess. Everyone is safer if we all come out and find each other. Don't you want to live without having to keep that secret?' She doesn't think of Orly's situation when she finally realises that coming out isn't the same for everyone, but it did feel like Orly was being used for this purpose.

Orly plays a big part in this story and so does the transphobia, but the story is never told from her perspective, just the two cis main characters who are basically her cis 'saviours' and that just felt wrong to me, especially since all of this was used just to further Tess and Soph's stories and development.

Another thing that really pissed me off, is the fact that Tess' sexuality was basically used as a plot twist. Like I said, we are told Tess and Soph are unreliable narrators. I don't know in which way Soph is an unreliable narrator, but Tess is one because throughout the entire book she keeps the fact that she's gay and that she's in a fake relationship with Joey to protect him from his homophobic dad from the readers. It made it feel like Tess' sexuality was a big plot twist, especially the way it was revealed, which just left a vile taste in my mouth. There was no reason to keep this from the readers. The romance would've been relatively the same except build up better because now it seemed to come out of nowhere.

There's also bi-erasure as Soph immediately assumes a girl is straight when she talks about her boyfriend. Other sexualities than gay and straight exist.

This book is just such a mess and I doubt the finished book will be much different, considering how big the transphobic arc is (which you don't even get from the blurb, which is really insensitive considering how triggering all of this can be). I really wanted to like this book, as it takes place at a writing program and has sapphic girls falling in love. I thought it would be like Fangirl (Tess writes fan fic and excerpts of that fan fic are shared) but gay, but instead I got this mess.

NOTE: I may have forgotten to mention a few things as I've marked A LOT of things (mostly problematic stuff, a few just... bad writing which I didn't even touch upon because that just feels insignificant in the light of the problematic aspects), but these are my biggest problems with this book.

I just could not get into this book. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you. I hope to be able to review for you in the future.

Tess is thrilled when she learns that her application to attend the Young Women's Writing Conference has been accepted. Tess's life on a dairy farm in a small town in New Hampshire is a far cry from the life led by fellow conference attendee Sophonia. Soph leads a life of privilege and luxury in New York City. In fact, her parents are some sort of exiled European royalty.

The two young women are almost complete opposites in every way. Tess is straight. Soph is gay. Tess writes anonymous Fan Fiction online and Soph writes rhyming poetry. Tess is an introvert and extremely shy. Soph is an extrovert who is a social butterfly. Tess plans to go into the army while Soph is applying to the prestigious Minerva College.

So, when these two girls are thrown together as roommates, neither one is sure of how to befriend the other, but both are determined to try. 

Meanwhile, next door to their room are Chris and Orly. The tension between them is thick enough to cut with a knife. Chris fancies herself a feminist and a journalist, while Orly is planning to write a memoir about growing up in a small town. Chris may believe she is a feminist, but she is NOT. Orly is a trans girl which would not bother any true feminist, but Chris constantly refers to as her as "him." She wants Orly banned from the retreat and her prejudice and discrimination are horrible.

How in the world are these young women all supposed to get along?

I have read some reviews of SNOWSISTERS in which people are upset by the inclusion of misgendering and discrimination in this story. However, it is the character they should be upset with, NOT the authors. This behaviour was included in the story because, unfortunately, there are still many people in the world that act just like Chris (or worse) when it comes to trans people. It is necessary to inform readers of the existence of this type of prejudice so that we can do everything possible to eradicate it. Tess says it best when talking to Soph: "It's-it's a hard world, Soph. It's hard for everyone in different ways."

As the Writing Conference progresses, so does the bonding between the attendees. Not only do they learn to improve their writing, they also improve their relationships and some form bonds that may last a lifetime.

This book is a glimpse into the lives of young women struggling with their identities and trying to decide what they want for their future. This applies to every teenager, whether gay or straight. They all need to find their place in the world and to do so while dealing with the massive changes in their bodies and minds that comes with adolescence.

The only issue I had with this story was with Soph's diary entries. They are written in short verse and they seem very juvenile to me and as if they were written by a younger person. They definitely do not seem like they would have been good enough to gain her admittance to an elite writing workshop. Here is just one example of Soph's diary entries:

"A powerless night with
three turns messy.
I'm surprised what comes
out with Hennessy."

I believe that more books discussing being gay, trans, or pan and about coming out are necessary, but I look forward to the day when they are no longer needed. #WeNeedMoreDiverseBooks

I rate SNOWSISTERS as 4 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

On the surface, this book is about a week-long writing retreat for high school girls and follows two girls from different worlds (the upper society and the rural farm-life) and beneath that...actually, there's just that.

I'm struggling with finding something good to say about this book.
I do want to note that the authors/publisher even include in the beginning of the book that the two girls Tess and Soph are 'unreliable narrators' and still.. I don't feel like that's a good enough excuse for this book.
There's so much going on in this story which I simply did not like, to the point that I started skimming around the 60% mark.
Throughout the entire book, a trans girl is frequently and deliberately misgendered. That in itself made this almost unbearable to read at times.
Besides that, the characters - especially our protagonists - had absolutely no personality whatsoever? Soph is a girl from a rich family and it's exactly the cliché you imagine. Tess is the stereotype of a girl growing up on a farm in the middle of nowhere? I just wanted more for both of them, some inner struggle or some actual goal they wanted to reach - because the ones they had felt like ones that were just randomly googled. Even worse was the "writing" they went to the retreat to improve. So, Tess writes fanfiction (which is looked down on by her peers) and Soph writes sophisticated poems in a rhyme scheme that read like my diary entries about my crush from second grade. Nope, I'm sadly not kidding. Literally nothing happens in Tess's excerpts except for traveling, more traveling..and okay, one or two interesting ones waayyyy too late in the book.
I feel like this book had a case of the too much - too little balance. There was too much cliché, too much stiffness to the dialogue. You could tell that this story was trying too hard to not sound didactic - and ending up reading just like that. The other part was the too little - we get too little development, too little personality, too little actual plot.

All in all, this book just missed the mark for me. While I do understand that transphobia is a very real thing, I don't feel like it needed to be written about in this toxic way.
That being said, I do want to applaud the publisher for including a trigger warning list because I think it's a really important staple that needs to be included in more books!

I'm dnfing this because there's a trans character in this who was consistently misgendered by a side character and was not called out for it. I don't know if she's called out later but she did it twice and the character narrating had the chance to stop her and did nothing. The character misgendering her was also written as a super flat 'bitchy' character, who kept mocking Tess for writing fanfiction. That's still not okay, no one was stopping her from misgendering the trans girl.

Thank you to NetGalley and Duet for letting me read and review this ARC.

The premise of this book was promising. I kind of love a boarding school/camp YA tale, and the scenario of a writing conference was a fun setting for this tale. There were good things about it, particularly the way the authors spin the transphobic storyline into one that's LGBTQ+ positive. I think the best thing about this novel was the way the different backgrounds of the characters allowed for the various perspectives to be explored.

My main problem is that the writing was kind of clunky. I found it difficult to keep characters straight, and reading as an eARC, it wasn't easy to flip back to check. As characters were mentioned, I found myself trying to remember who they were. The character of Chris seemed very unlikely, too. I understand that transphobia like this absolutely exists in the world, but the character's actions seemed unrealistic and didn't really match with what she kept describing as being "unsafe." The way the other characters responded, or didn't respond, also seemed really unrealistic, especially out-and-proud character Soph, and the conference staff.

<b><u>Review trigger warning</u></b>: transphobia mention (it’s tagged)

<b>Actual Rating: 2.5</b>

There’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news is that this book has, you heard me, <b>gay. witches</b>. The bad news is that they are not actual characters in the book; rather, they appear in a TV show/fanfic within the story. But, gay witches aside, this was such a <b>fun, refreshing, and diverse read!</b> I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was. It definitely wasn’t perfect, but I had an enjoyable time.

Before I begin, I want to give <b>major props</b> to the publishers for including a link to a list of all the content/trigger warnings for each one of their books! Other publishing companies, take notes, because content warnings are <i>so</i> important to include so that readers can make smart choices on what books to read (and not to read) and can avoid books that may be detrimental to their mental and emotional health. (For those interested, the list can be found <a href="http://interludepress.com/content-warnings">here</a>.)

This book really had those winter vibes, and it got me into that cozy, holiday mood that I’ve been missing out on this December. It’s a great rainy-day read, especially if you want the <b>winter feel but without any holidays</b> attached!

The characters were well-written, though not much of anything new. For about the first twenty percent of the novel, the narrators were largely interchangeable to me, and I wish that the voices had been more distinct in writing. Their actions and lives were certainly different, and yet their voices were the same. Soph’s character development was stunning, and definitely one of my favorite parts of the book. However, the other girls at the conference, save the main few such as Orly, Chris, and Yin, all blended together in my mind, and it would have been nice to get some different characteristics from all of them beyond physical descriptions and who was/wasn’t transphobic. (more on this later)

The writing flowed well, which was nice, but it often felt lacking in emotion, and did a lot of telling instead of showing. I didn’t really mind this, since it was an easy-read, but it would have been nice for it to give me <b>SOMETHING</b> more to think about besides what was on the page. This also made the romance have not as much chemistry as it could have, and in general the writing did not blow me away.

The plot in this book was <b>slightly cliché</b>, but it was a sapphic love story so who cares anyway?? I also loved the cabin setting and the inclusion of some of my favorite tropes such as <spoiler>the roommates trope, the making-food-together trope, and the oh-no-the-power-has-gone-out-whatever-shall-we-do trope</spoiler>.

This book is also fandom-positive, which I always enjoy, and it was nice to see fandom as more of a natural side plot instead of the main focus of the book.

Sounds like a pretty sweet book, right? Right?? <b><i>RIGHT???!!??!?!??</i></b>

There were two (and a half) things that really bugged me though. How unfortunate.

First, <b>bi erasure</b>. There is one part, during Soph’s narration, where all the girls are chatting at a pizza parlor and Soph is wondering if one of the girls had a girlfriend, and then the girl says this: <blockquote><i>”’A guy at my new high school asked me out – if it weren’t so far, I’d introduce them so I could see what Max thinks of Evan.’”</i></blockquote> I was like okay, cool, cool. But then Soph ruins it by commenting in the exposition like this: <blockquote><i>”So, not her girlfriend, and she’s straight.”</i></blockquote> And I was just sitting there like <i>bruhhhhhhhh,,,,,,,,, bi people exist too you know</i> and it would have been nice to not having Soph make those comments. I thought that this could have been part of Soph’s character development, but it wasn’t. And that made me sad.

Now I’m going to talk about the trans rep and some issues I had with the way it was written, but I’m just going to go ahead and mark the entire section as spoilers (though all spoilers are minor). <b>Trigger Warning for transphobia</b>.

<spoiler>Okay, first it should definitely be mentioned that <b>I am cis.</b> These opinions on the trans rep in this book are coming from a <b>cis person</b>, and by no means am I an expert on trans rep. When this book gets more reviews, and trans readers read it and make comments/have opinions on the trans rep, I highly encourage you to go read and support their reviews. These opinions are also taken from an uncorrected proof.

Okay! Now to discuss. The writing camp that this book takes place at is girls-only, and one of the camp attendees is trans. Her name is Orly and she is the most prominent character in the novel besides our two narrators. Orly’s roommate, Chris, is transphobic and consistently misgenders her, and states that she doesn’t feel safe sleeping in the same room as Orly. Not only that, but Chris tries to get all the girls in on <b>a plan to make Orly feel unsafe and unwelcomed</b>. Not only <i>that</i>, but Chris decides to write an article and send it to a “feminist” (the books word, not mine) magazine on her experiences, and she also <b>moves out of her room</b> and into one of the spare rooms because she feels so uncomfortable around Orly.

Now don’t get me wrong! Chris’s <b>transphobic talk and behavior <i>is</i> challenged</b> throughout the book, but surely not to the extent that it needs to be. Soph is the most outspoken against Chris’s transphobia, and makes a point to include Orly and become her friend; however, for such an outspoken person, she <b>rarely, if ever, vocally stands up to Chris herself</b>. This ticks me off. Tess is more “accepting” of Chris’s transphobia (<i>”If what Chris says is true [about Orly being DMAB], my dad would be furious if he knew I was rooming with Orly;”</i>) however, at least she vocally stands up to Chris more than once throughout the book.

I’m just so annoyed. Chris’s transphobia needed to be challenged so much more, and not just after she did the whole carrot fiasco (I won’t specify what the fiasco is for sake of spoilers – just know it was bad). Chris’s ugly, gross talk was only challenged by any of the characters after she “crossed the line” into a more physical form of bullying. Chris’s language needed to be shot down and not accepted from the beginning, and it wasn’t. <b>Bullying is still bullying,</b> no matter what form it takes. The metaphorical line was crossed as soon as Chris started outing Orly to the other girls. The idea that transphobia is fine as long as it doesn’t include physical bullying is not good.

Another thing that annoyed me is that Chris didn’t completely come around at the end of the novel. Sure, she doesn’t “investigate” Orly anymore, and she tries harder not to misgender her, but she never moves back into her room and is still pretty transphobic. And that annoyed me because the other girls were like “okay,,,, I guess you tried the best you could!!” and then became her friends. I wish that Chris’s redemption arc had been more poignant and that she had overcome, or began to overcome, her transphobic thoughts.

There’s another part that ticks me off at the end, and it occurs when Ms. Forsythe, the leader of the camp, gives a speech and says this (implied to be on the whole Chris thing): <i>”Please don’t add to the attacks on your friends and colleagues. Support your differences and accept them, even if you can’t celebrate them.”</i> And I’m just here like nah, bro, you should definitely learn to celebrate your differences. How that statement came across to me was <i>”Hey, you can think these transphobic and TERF-y thoughts, just don’t say them to other people.”</i> Like, hold on. You shouldn’t be thinking those thoughts. And if you are, you should be actively working to change those thoughts. Celebrate our differences and love everyone for who they are.

(As #OwnVoices reviews by trans readers are published, I will try to link some (with permission) on my review, here). </spoiler>

Another half thing that annoyed me was Soph’s blatant refusal to acknowledge that it isn’t safe for every person in the world to come out. One quote at the beginning reads, <blockquote><i>”I wonder if Freddy’s gay. But he’s never said anything to anyone we know. I have no patience for the closet. If he’s gay, he should come out. Coming out is better for everyone.”</i></blockquote> This felt like a slap in the face, for many reasons that are probably too personal to include in a review, but mainly because Soph legit <b>did not comprehend</b> for <b>90 percent</b> of the novel that it wasn’t safe or good for every person to be out of the closet. I say it’s a half thing, because this <i>was</i> a part of her character arc, but it still was really annoying and not fun to read for a big part of the novel.

To conclude, I just want to remind everyone that my opinions are taken from an uncorrected proof. When the finished product comes out, I will try to pick it up and see if some things are adjusted. This <b>might still be a worthwhile read</b> for you; however, I wouldn’t blame anyone for skipping this one. It’s your decision.

<i>I was provided an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review. All opinions are taken from an uncorrected proof.</i>