Riley Redgate is now one of my favourite authors. She could write about monkeys in space and I would read it. Always choosing to write about such interesting and culturally relevant topics, Always with characters that are so unashamedly themselves and Laila is no exception. Her different identities being so visible on the page, particularly her pansexuality, were just amazing to see. This book struck a chord about writing, about love and about living.

This was definitely a book filled with tons of diversity/rep such as a f/f romance, a pansexual bi-racial Ecuadorian plus-size main character that has anxiety, a sassy Korean lesbian. Like, this was so wonderful and...relatable. I'm not a huge fan of contemporary books but holy crap did I adore this book so much.

On the surface, Final Draft is a book about the creative process and how far we push ourselves in the quest to be something more. It is about Laila getting out of her comfort zone to impress an unimpressable woman, risking friendships and family to make the fictional more real. But beyond that, this is a story about how stretching too far beyond ourselves can be damaging and how wanting to be something more doesn't need to mean changing everything about who you are. It is an insightful and heartfelt look at depression and anxiety, all wrapped up in a story about friendship, the love of the written word, and the most understated, beautiful exploration of sexuality. A true winner, and a rightful follow up to Noteworthy in every conceivable way.

Final Draft by Riley Redgate (Amulet Books)
I got this as a physical ARC from the publisher. Books about writing are just the most fun and this was lovely. I enjoyed following Laila in her quest to impress her new teacher and I am super excited to see what Riley writes next.

Rating: ★★★★

I am a huge fan of Riley Redgate's Noteworthy, so I was really excited to pick this one up, but it didn't work for me as much as her previous novel did. I enjoyed the premise of coming-of-age as a mixed-race young woman dealing with both personal and creative dilemmas. But I found that the plot was a bit scattershot and the characters were less fleshed out than I would have hoped.

I really enjoyed the last Riley Redgate book that I read so when I saw her newest book was going to be about an aspiring writer I knew I needed to read it. And it was an okay read, but not my kind of contemporary.

One thing I will say about this book is that it is very serious and heavy. It deals with some serious issues that a lot of teens, and people in general deal with. This isn’t exactly a flaw in the book, it was a good book, and for the right reader they will probably really love this book, but I am not that kind of reader. I prefer my contemporaries to be more on the light-hearted side. I like a lot of humor mixed in with some more serious real life moments. But a book like this which packs a heavy punch isn’t my kind of read.

But I can be okay with a serious and issue based book if there is a solid plot and I don’t know that this book really had one. It’s more of a character-driven read, which is common for contemporaries, but it felt more like a slice of life kind of book and lacked cohesion for me. It just took the reader from moment to moment with the main character without much purpose. What was her goal... personal growth? To get better as a writer? To figure out who she was and what she wanted with life? All of the above? And yes, this is the way life is, we don’t all have clear goals and visions and end up falling down weird and twisted paths that we regret. But for me, that’s not a compelling read. Again, not a flaw of the book, just a personal preference.

One thing I did like however was the characters. I felt like Laila was one of the most honest and relatable characters I have read in a long time. I loved that she was plus size and proud. I loved that she looked nothing like her sister and the part where people pretended to see the resemblance is so my experience. I also liked that she was having a hard time dealing with loss, and depression, and wanted approval. She was very real and very relatable. And she definitely needed to be likeable because this book was so character-driven. If you didn’t connect with Laila it would have made the rest of the book very challenging.

I also feel like the relationships and sexual identity here was really well handled. I liked that Laila wasn’t hyper focused on love and being with someone so then when she did have feelings for them it caught her off guard. And I liked when she was dealing with her sexual identity and realizing that maybe she was attracted to a girl. It wasn’t exactly a struggle but it wasn’t obvious either. I think a lot of young readers will be able to relate to Laila in that respect as well. It was a good book to read for Pride Month because I think it dealt really well with the sexual identity of the character.

In general, I think this was an okay character-driven read. It had a likable protagonist who is struggling with a lot that I think people will relate to. But from a plot standpoint I didn’t connect with the story.

An aspiring author of sci fi has her ambitions overturned when her new mentor is a literary fiction writer. Has a lot to say about genre and writing, not all of which I agree with -but interesting none-the-less.

It’s always interesting reviewing books a long time after you’ve read them. It really shows whether the book has staying power or not, especially for someone like me with terrible memory!

I read Final Draft in May, and while I probably couldn’t give you a concise synopsis, parts of it have definitely stayed with me. Laila was a great protagonist full of complexities and heart. She is probably the most diverse character I’ve ever read being pansexual, biracial, Ecuadorian, suffering from anxiety, and plus size, but I never felt like it was a tick-box-of-diversity book – Redgate made Laila 100% real. It’s a wonderfully modern coming-of-age story for anyone who’s ever felt different. So basically, for everyone, right?

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!

Having read and ADORED Redgate's previous two books, 'Seven Ways We Lie' and 'Noteworthy' previously, as soon as I saw this on Netgalley I knew I had to have it. Redgate is one of those hidden gems that I wish more people read because she just GETS the teenage voice and her books are always so diverse and relatable. Also? This was about a girl wanting to be a writer, and though I feel like I'm always reading about reader MCs, I rarely read about writers!

This book certainly had Redgate's signature style, with a sense of humour, great characters (especially side characters - MC Laila's friendship group was awesome, particularly Hannah, and her writing teachers were also great) and a simple but well crafted plot. I liked that she didn't fall into the old tropes when it came to Laila's crush on Samuel. I really thought that the note she read was going to turn out to be 'A HUGE MISUNDERSTANDING', but it wasn't and that was okay. We moved on. I also loved the romantic twist towards the end of the book! I don't want to spoil anything but I am HERE for LGBT+ relationships, and I shipped this so hard before it became a thing and I SQUEALED when I realised it was canon.

I will say that I did feel a little disappointed that I didn't connect with this book on the same level that I did with her previous books. Laila was a complex and well-written MC but I didn't fall for her or her plight like I did Jordan in 'Noteworthy'. Her personality was a little more reserved than I like. I also felt that at times there were too many threads going at once and it meant that some petered out to nothingness. But isn't that the way in school? Things FEEL like they'll be the end of the world and then just...aren't. Beyond that, Redgate covered a variety of great topics including masturbation, LGBT+ sex, race (YAAAAS for a pansexual, biracial MC), grief, friendship, drugs, and of course coming-of-age. I liked the second half a lot more than the first and definitely felt that the end was well worth the wait.

Laila loves writing and is good at it. Unlike most things in her life, her writing can be exciting and interesting. But suddenly, the creative writing teacher that means so much to her is gone and she has to contend with a professional writer who does not believe that she’s lived a full life. Doing what she thinks will enrich her writing brings the longed for “life experience” that her teacher believes will lead to better writing, but she experiences real tragedy and pain at the same time.

Unfortunately, it took me several months to get through this book. The combination of summer school and a serious reading slump meant that I got through almost nothing this summer. It didn’t help that the beginning section of this novel is slow to build and somewhat difficult to grasp. I’m not usually a fan of stories being interjected into a narrative arc, and that held here. Laila is an interesting and complicated character who still has a lot of room for growth, but I felt like her character had the same issues that her writing teacher described as problematic in Laila’s own writing. The redeeming qualities came in the swiftness and build of the plot which kept me interested once I got through the first fifth of the book.

The next book from Riley Redgate was one I was excited and nervous about. I received an ARC from NetGalley and then proceeded to not read it for about two months. This book was completely different to Noteworthy but I still found myself enjoying it.

Final Draft is about a teenage girl in the last year of high school as her beloved creative writing teacher is involved in a car accident and replaced by an award-winning, best-selling author. Her old teacher, Mr Madison, was her biggest fan but Nazarenko isn’t so impressed. On her advice, Laila starts to branch out and do wild things in order to experience life and make her writing better.

This book was not what I expected. Going from what I had assumed from the blurb, I expected to be very annoyed at Nazarenko thinking she was going to be one of those people who talk about only those who suffer are truly creative/writers/insert word of choice here. However, now I’ve finished the book, Nazarenko really grew on me. I think she’s not a good teacher, if you only give people a mark without telling them why then they’re not going to learn anything, but I think her advice to Laila to go and out live life was mostly good advice before she was basically telling Laila to live outside her comfort zone. Plus I love what she wrote on Samuel’s paper.

Laila, Hannah and Mr Madison were all characters that I made a split assumption on and then I was proved wrong later on the book. They felt like real characters, but Laila most of all as she struggles with her family, her identity and several new experiences in her world. I loved reading about her struggles, her friends and her family, they were all interwoven brilliantly and done in this unique voice that is familiar from Redgate’s last book, but still fit perfectly with the character. Laila isn’t Riley, she is her own character in her own right and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked and identified with her.

The friendship group considered of Leo, Felix, Hannah and Laila is a cornerstone of the book because Laila’s fear about their group getting broken when they split up to go to college is part of what motivates her to follow Nazarenko’s advice and when Laila struggles at the end of the year, her friends are there to help her through it. Laila’s relationship with her friends and family is complicated by when she struggles at the end of the book, they are there to help her through.

This is definitely a book I would recommend, as gut-wrenching and as heart-breaking as it is. 4.5 stars!

I don't think I have enough words to say how deeply this book affected me!

Laila, our main character, is a brilliant heroine, and one with whom I identified hugely. She wants to make everyone happy - parents, friends, teachers - but is coming to the realisation that doing so isn't necessarily making her happy. There's a part of her that wants to venture out into the wider world and have more experiences, and another part of her that's terrified of the idea and resistant to suggestions that she should 'get out more'. She can see this magical time for her small circle of friends fading away, and is struggling to look forward to college when she worries about losing those friends, and having to make new ones there. She feels a huge amount of shame around her body, sex, and the idea of being attracted to other people (and, even more so, having other people know that she feels attraction). I empathised with her so much on all of these things, and I think Redgate described them brilliantly. Added to all of these is her feeling of disconnection to her Ecuadorian heritage (as she speaks limited Spanish and has never visited her father's family there), and her struggle to work out where she fits in - as a Latina, as mixed race, and as a young woman with a body that doesn't fit in with typical American ideals of how a woman should look. She's a realistic, complex character and I adored her.

I enjoyed the secondary characters too. Hannah, Leo, and Felix - Laila's friends - are great foils for Laila, showing her different ways of being in the world, whilst also creating conflict when their views are not in line. Mr Madison and Nadiya Nazarenko provide guidance to Laila in different ways, inspiring her both in her writing and her life. Laila's parents and sister are loving and warm, though Laila struggles to be open with them and let them help and support her the way they want to.

There were a few instances within the plot that really surprised me, in a good way. One in particular I just hadn't seen coming, and I realised it was going to happy about two second before it completely destroyed me. In general, I found that the plot pulled me in and carried me along as Laila went through some of her Senior Year, trying to find time for her writing, her friends, and their favourite television show. I found that there was a really good balance between the different aspects of Laila's life, and I particularly enjoyed the little excerpts from the story Laila writes and re-writes over the course of the story.

I thought Redgate's writing in this book was really on point. For me, she brought Laila to life and made her feel incredibly realistic. Her voice felt real and true to me, and consistent throughout the book. Even as Laila started to move out of her comfort zone, finding herself in more uncomfortable situations, she still felt like the same person, albeit one trying some different possibilities for her life. I think there's always a risk, with YA fiction, that the voice of a young adult as written by an adult might not ring true but for me at least, Laila felt like a real person. She felt like me.

In case you couldn't tell from my review, I adored this book. It let me look back on teenage years which felt, in some ways, similar to my own, with the supposed wisdom that comes from now being in my thirties. This is one of my favourite YA books of the year, and I really can't recommend it enough to anyone looking for a YA heroine with a huge heart, who wants to work out where she belongs in the world.

Love it! It's a page turner. I would definitely recommend this to my friends. This is a wonderfully sweet and story. The author perfectly captured the best of life that I will most remember.. So overall, I give this book 4 stars.

The writing in this book just aches. There are happy moments and there are sad moments, but there's a kind of underlying want to this book that just reaches out and grabs you by the heart. I really, really loved Laila. This is absolutely a character driven book, which is always a favorite of mine, but if you like a lot of plot, this might not be the one for you. The slowburn romance between two girls was beautiful to watch unfold - at the beginning I just wanted to be like, "LAILA, C'MON" because it's so obvious the feelings are there, but the journey is worth it. I would've enjoyed more time with these characters, but I also really like what we do get. It's short and a little bittersweet and I really enjoyed this one.

Final Draft follow Laila, a senior high school student, as her favorite creative writing teacher leaves and a new teacher comes in and demands that Laila include more real life experience in her writing. Problem is, Laila has never really had some big life experiences. So she becomes obsessed with trying to please her new teacher, and by default, having crazy life experiences. Only, how far can she go before she crashes and burns?

This book was, unfortunately, average at best. I had heard such great things about Redgate's first two books, Seven Ways We Lie and Noteworthy, so I had expected fun, funny and enjoyable. Except that's not really what I got. 

Laila as a character was not super relatable or super likable. She was too high-strung for my taste, and just reading from her perspective made me feel anxious. Not to mention, the more she gets into "new" experiences to impress her teacher, she starts to become a really shitty person. She begins arguments with friends, distances herself from them for no good reason, and starts doing things that she had never shown a propensity for before, like doing recreational drugs when she's not even sure what they are. It just made it really difficult to like her, and as a result, root for her.

The plot, as a whole, was forgettable overall. Even writing this review, I read it two days ago and I can only tell you vague details about the major plot points. Only the romance really stood out, and that's because it's a F/F romance. 

In fact, the diversity in this book was pretty much the only memorable/redeemable quality of this book. Laila herself is Guatemalan, biracial, and bisexual. There are some other LGBTQIA+ characters, characters of color, etc., but I really enjoyed reading about Laila's struggle with being biracial and Latina (i.e. she doesn't speak Spanish well and the shame that comes from within the Latinx community). Her parents are also super accepting and supportive of her sexuality and that was so great to see, especially from a very machismo, heteronormative culture. 

Unfortunately, the best way I can sum up my feelings is "okay." It was a quick and easy audiobook listen, but I guarantee it won't leave a lasting impression in my mind. I am still interested in Redgate's other works, so maybe this is the odd one out in her lineup.

Honestly an extremely relatable book for me. Laila's struggles with her sexuality, body image, perfectionism, creative self doubt, and depression made me feel seen. Some of the sentiments expressed in this book closely mirror my own, to the point that it's eerie.

This book seemed to fall flat for me. I did like the overall plot of the story and there were some points where my emotions got the best of me. That being said I didn’t necessarily feel connected to the characters at all. I kept waiting for something to happen for that connection to take place and it just never did.

I am going to start by saying - I am a Redgate fan, and I will definitely read her next book even though this one did not knock my socks off. Why? Because though I was not fully enamored by this story, there were elements I really liked.

I always love how much diversity Redgate packs into her books, and it never seems forced. Laila was a really complicated and interesting character. She loved writing and adored her writing class, but when her teacher was hospitalized, he was replaced by an award winning author, who was not a fan of Laila's work. She demanded a lot from her, and forced Laila out of her comfort zone in order for her to grow as a writer. During this exercise, Laila learns a lot about herself, with one of the biggest things being confronting her own sexuality. This was a part of the story I found very compelling, and Redgate did an incredible job exploring this with Laila.

I also was a fan of Laila's squad. They were an interesting group with a great dynamic. The dynamic gets a little complicated, but I kept hoping that their friendship was strong enough to weather the storm, because they really did share a special bond.

I don't think the pieces of Laila's writing accomplished what I think they should have. They sort of didn't work for me in the story, but that could totally be a case of "it's me, not you", because I have rarely enjoyed it in books I have read.

This was not a perfect read, but I did have some great take aways, and I felt a LOT of things. There were tears and smiles and frustration and joy too, and I always appreciate feeling the feels when I read.

I've read a book by Riley Redgate before, NOTEWORTHY. Considering that that one was an instant favorite, I was pretty sure that I was going to enjoy this one. What I wasn't expecting was how different it was going to be. If I hadn't already known, I'd never have guessed that these are from the same author. While NOTEWORTHY was light and humorous, FINAL DRAFT is a slice of life and mental health in all its gritty, unpleasant realness. And it is beautiful.

I will admit that I wasn't a tremendous fan of the first part of this book, probably because I had no idea where it was going to end up and was therefore pretty confused. However, when I started realizing what this book was about, it drew me in completely and totally emotionally destroyed me. I don't know how to describe the sheer honesty that is this book. Laila is one of the best main characters that I have ever read about, not because of any particular quality on her part, but because she lets her author show off her craft.

Before reading this, I thought Riley Redgate was a great author. After this, I know that I have only started to see her brilliance.