* I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.

Skylarks is about the life of Joni after a wealthy company buys out her family estate, slowly forcing its working-class tenants to leave so that they can make more money. Joni slowly joins the grassroots campaign to reclaim their home. While working at her part-time job at the library, she meets Annabel, a girl who comes from an upper-class conservative background. They clash a lot in the beginning until they slowly find a middle ground with each other, while Joni struggles to keep her family together. It is quite a heartwarming story that touches on poverty, class divide, grassroots projects and inequality.

However, I didn't really enjoy this as much as I thought I would. It was quite irritating to read, there were odd moments that felt jumpy, with moments that dragged onto long, and I just felt impatient reading this. The plot's good, just not engaging enough. Joni and Annabel were cute though, I like that they bounced off each other and learnt a lot from each other.

There is also a scene were Joni is very ableist. She's rightly upset that her father is not receiving the benefits he needs, but she points the finger to her next door neighbour and says that they get more even though she looked well. This was quite horrible to read and it isn't challenged in the novel. Joni also accidentally outs Annabel to her father due to a misunderstanding and while Joni acknowledges her mistake, it's quickly brushed off because her father is already aware and then, again, quickly forgotten about.

Overall, a novel about the conflict of wealth and social class while two girls fall in love. It was quite pleasing to read, but I did find it dull in some moments.

This book was so enjoyable.
I'm usually not a big fan of contemporary books but this one really hit the spot for me.
The lgbt aspect was so well written and real. which is so important as a lgbt individual myself. it wasn't glorified or exaggerated for story telling purposes. it was real.

I really enjoyed this book! I feel like there need to be way more f/f teen romances around and I liked how this one was more than just a simple love story. The conflict was realistic, and I just really loved the characters.

Skylarks has received far too little attention in the YA world. It's a beautiful book with hyper-detailed, realistic explorations of class and socioeconomic status that I really enjoyed. It accurately captured how poverty can reign a person's emotional life. I loved the family dynamics, the character development, and the prose quality. I hope Skylarks finds many more readers.

Joni is a rare working class heroine in YA and when we first meet her she is conflict adverse. However when her home is at risk she realises that while 'putting your head above the parapet' puts you in the line of fire, some things are worth fighting for. She has a flawed but loving family who feel very real. You probably know Joni and her family.
Annabelle is a rich girl who had a pony growing up and drives an Audi and she starts volunteering at the library where Joni works. The girls fall for each other and struggle through the issues of financial imbalance in a relationship.
This is a quiet book with big ideas and I absolutely loved it. I devoured it in a day and am off to read Countless, Gregory's debut as she has a contemporary style I really like. She uses plain language but hones in on small moments that give her work emotional resonance.

There was only one thing I would nitpick at and it's something I see quite often. In a book with two girls who seem to be exclusively homosexual the word lesbian is never used. It's a word that's gone out of fashion but as a lesbian I really hate that, I think the connotations are buried under a heap of ageism and misogyny. But that's a rant for another day.

I loved this book so much, it really resonated with me. A YA book which focuses on money issues is sobering that I realise now was missing from the shelves! A lot of people will connect with the book and the characters. It may not be as dramatic as the book, but some people might have a similar story.
It was brilliantly written and easy to read. I flew through it!

"I guess that's what happens when you don't say the stuff you really want to; it builds up inside until it comes crashing out whether you like it or not"

* * * *
4 / 5

Skylarks is a cute, thoughtful, contemporary f/f YA romance centred around British class struggles. There's two sides to this book: the enemies-to-lovers romance with the rich girl on one side, and the difficulty of being a poor working-class family on the other. Skylarks is full of emotion and a quick, engaging read.

"I know we're moving more and more each day to a point we're not going to come back from and still be the same people"

Our main character is Joni, a realistic teenage girl who is doing her A levels and worrying about how her parents are going to make ends meet. Her older brother is involved in "the cause" and "being woke", fighting for the little man, but Joni is just worried about making sure her family is alright and that her little brother doesn't feel isolated from his peers. At least until the housing estate her family lives on is bought out and the rent jacked so far up they can't afford to live there any more.

Working at the local library, Joni meets rich girl Annabel. Annabel who is only there for something to write on her UCAS form, who doesn't need to give her spare money to her parents, who doesn't need to schedule her shopping habits around sales and coupons. Their relationship develops in a rather predictable don't-like-each-other to tentative-friendship to will-you-be-my-girlfriend territory. Just as your heart starts to feel all warm and light, the reality of Joni's life comes crashing back in. Right in the heart.

"I know this seems mad, but there's something in the stillness in the water, the way she seems lost"

One of the things I really loved about Skylarks is that it isn't about the struggles of being gay. Don't get me wrong, I've read and loved lots of those kinds of books (The Miseducation of Cameron Post!), but sometimes it feels like all f/f romances are either pure steamy romance or they have all their conflict around the difficulties of coming out. Instead, Skylarks' tension is derived from the conflict of wealth and social class. Yes, there is a little bit about how Joni's friends and family reacted to her sexuality, and how she wonders about Annabel, but it isn't a key element of the book. It was refreshing!

Skylarks is a thoughtful f/f romance novel that is really, delightfully, British. I don't read a lot of books that are so obviously (in terms of class and politics) set in the UK, that Skylarks was an absolute delight.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of Skylarks

Skylarks is a book that I hugely enjoyed, and I don't think that the synopsis above does it justice!! Because whilst the relationship between Joni and Annabel is a vital part of the story, this is also a book that looks at class and wealth in the UK. The portrayal of Joni's family is largely careful, sensitive, and painfully real. This isn't 'poverty porn' - they aren't flawless, amazing people living incredibly moral lives, unencumbered by possessions or wealth. They're realistic characters, reflective of a significant portion of the UK's population, who struggle every day to get by in a country that no longer offers the opportunities and support a previous generation might have expected.

Joni's awakening to the unfairness of the world around her - something she's always known, but which has recently become more obvious - is slow but painful. She becomes involved in local politics, and sadly also learns the darker side of activism, particularly in the age of twenty-four hours news and social media. Gregory tries to strike a balance between the two sides of the situation, and I think she's largely successful, showing that there are good and bad people, and good and bad decisions on both sides, and also people doing good things for bad reasons and vice versa. The climax of this main plot is both satisfying and unsatisfying, in the way that real life so often is, and whilst there was a part of me that wanted a more radical ending, I think the ending Gregory wrote was far more realistic.

The other main plot is, as covered in the synopsis, the developing relationship between Joni and Annabel. Annabel's family are as wealthy as Joni's aren't, and they run in very different circles. The contrast between Joni and Annabel's family is a familiar one - poor but loving and supportive, rich but emotionally closed off and judgmental - but is well-drawn. Joni's parents have their own problems to deal with, and whilst they're supportive of Joni's sexuality, they do take issue with some of the other things she gets involved with. Annabel's parents are unpleasant, but they're not demons, and much of their unpleasantness if linked to their wealth and perceived class, rather than any particular social politics. I really enjoyed following the development of their relationship, and I particularly enjoyed that, whilst it was important to the book, both girls grew in their own ways and were shaped by factors outside of their relationship.

Skylarks is a book with a lot to say, and by and large, it says it well. It's lovely to read a book with queer characters where the focus isn't on coming out, and particularly one that focuses on larger issues around wealth, class, politics, and how all those factors can impact relationships. Particularly when so many contemporary YA novels are set in America, or in big cities elsewhere, reading something that spoke truly (at least, I felt it did) to life in a small town in the UK is refreshing. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys contemporary YA which takes on issues whilst building strong characters and wonderful relationships.

I was not a big fan of this. The premis is great but the execution isn't. I was bored for a big part throughout this book and I skim read the entire second half. I wish I could have liked this but I didn't.

Enjoyed this short YA contemporary novel. Joni was a likeable protagonist and her home life struck a chord with my own younger years.

The relationship between Joni and Annabel was a nice touch though the ending was somewhat predictable.

I wasn't really sure what this book was trying to be if I'm honest but it is worth a read.

What drew me into this book 100% was the cover. And can you blame me? It’s beautiful. So to find out if was an f/f book I was even more excited.

So this book follows a girl named Joni. She’s not in the best situation with her family as they’re struggling a lot financially. She’s worrying a lot about it and works a low wage job at a library. A girl named Annabel starts to volunteer there and she’s the daughter of a right wing politician. Initially Joni doesn’t like her because she’s really posh but for no real reason. I think it’s meant to stem from her being bitter and judgmental because she’s so poor and Annabel is so rich but it was more so poorly written hate to love.

This was overall pretty disappointing. I was pretty bored most of the way through. I found the romance to be pretty rushed, and the book isn’t too much like its blurb. It was really slow to get to the romance. I think it was attempting to be a hate to love, slow burn, Romeo and Juliet sort of thing but it wasn’t really executed too well.

There was also this moment of ableism. Joni is mad her dad isn’t getting a lot from his disability pension and to elevate this point she says another person gets more when she ‘seems fine’. This is horrible, invisible disabilities exist. If she was mad she didn’t need to do it this way.

It was mostly just dull though. It wasn’t terrible but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.

Joni and her family have been living paycheck to paycheck for as long as she can remember. With a Dad who can’t work due to a back injury, Joni and her family have to pull together and support each other to keep afloat. Then Joni meets Annabel, rich and privileged – everything Joni isn’t. But, there is something undeniably between them. A spark. The closer they become, the more Joni thinks she might be falling in love. However, when Annabel’s parents find out about them, there are some differences that can’t be overcome. The odds are stacked against them.

Skylarks is going to be one of those books that I will be gushing about and be recommending for a while. It is elegantly written, with a heartfelt and heartwarming story. It is a story that, at its heart, is about love. A book that is beautiful both inside, and out.

Skylarks is a book that is so desperately needed in UKYA. It features a working-class main character where money struggles are a prevalent worry. Her family lives paycheck to paycheck and worries how they will do their next food shop. They live on an estate that is being sold to a private company that is hiking up their rent and forcing them, and their neighbours, out. It is an estate that is looked down on, they live in the same town as the wealthy and yet their town is different. As someone who grew up on a council estate, whose mum did all sorts of hours to put food on the table, and as someone whose family survived off the weekly car boot sale, I appreciated this representation and it is so sensitively done. Skylarks is a book that discusses poverty, class divide, social inequality, and protest in a really great way.

Another one of my favourite things about Skylarks was also the family dynamics. I loved the sibling relationships, and I loved Joni’s relationship with both her parents. So often when working-class families are portrayed in fiction it is usually in such a negative light, with absent parents who don’t seem to care about their children. So, it really means a lot to see a working-class family shown in such a positive light full of mutual support and affection.

Skylarks also had an adorably awkward romance between Joni and Annabel. I loved it and it felt realistic given their situations. Joni and Annabel had some really great chemistry but also had a lot of conflicts because Joni is working class living on a poor estate where she and her family think constantly about money, living paycheck to paycheck. Whereas Annabel comes from a wealthy family where she gets whatever she needs, and a lot she doesn’t. However, we soon learn not to judge based on first impressions as Annabel’s life isn’t all that is seems BUT I like how it didn’t totally try and persuade us that ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ because it can do for a lot of poor families.

So, yeah, Skylarks is a book that you will see me gushing about for a while so PLEASE do yourself a favour and pick up a copy.

This was a quick and lovely read that touches on some relevant and relatable topics. I'm sure many will appreciate and enjoy it, not only for the wlw representation that's so desperately needed in YA literature, but also for the message it carries (and that beautiful ending).

What a beautiful gut-wrenching and thought-provoking story! This is the contemporary I didn’t know I needed in my life!

“The future is like that great white sky above me- I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to write on it. What I’m allowed to.”

In this novel we follow Joni, a seventeen-year-old girl trying to help her family deal with their financial issues and juggle schoolwork and her jobs. We learn she is an openly gay character in the beginning of the book, and while I was glad to read about an LGBTQIA+ representation we don’t often see portrayed in literature, I was even more pleasantly surprised when I realized that the book was not just about that, because I didn’t want to read a book primarily focused on romance and romance alone. This is more of a personal preference matter, but I usually read romance books in between other hefty novels to keep me out of a reading slump, and I honestly didn’t want this book to be a filler. Well, rest assured it was anything but that!

“I guess that’s what happens when you don’t say the stuff you really want to; it builds up inside until it comes crashing out whether you like it or not.”

So what could be special about another coming-of-age story, one might ask? In my opinion, this was a plot-driven book that managed to create a crystal clear image of who the characters in it are, what role they play in the events of the story and in the protagonist’s actions, which is a rare commodity in young adult literature. Furthermore, I really appreciated that fact that the main character is unapologetically her own person, but because of the events taking place she sort of loses herself and has to deal with the repercussions of such a drastic change, I thought it made the whole book stand out and introduced something new to the genre. Joni might not have money, and that causes her to think that’s the source of all her problems, but she has a great relationship with her family, a tightly-knit group of friends who are really there for her and appears self-driven and personality-oriented because that’s how she was raised to be, and money certainly can’t buy those qualities. Most of these attributes are accentuated when compared to the life of her love interest, which the author handled really well.

“…people are harder to work out than you think. Maybe you’re not supposed to know everything about someone.”

But this book is not just about Joni’s story. The side characters compliment the main plot of the book and vice versa, allowing everyone to speak their truths. They all have stories to tell, overflowing emotions, thoughts and aspirations. I loved how the youngsters in this novel decided to act, to do something for themselves and their people, thus makeing the message of faith in the new generation and the importance of the sense of community shine through all the characters. Now, this is not the type of book that will tie everything up with a nice fancy ribbon on top, and that’s the reason I adored it; life doesn’t work that way, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be happy or whole if you don’t have everything handed to you in a silver platter. It is that bitter-sweet message that I found invaluable. In addition, the writing style was exactly how I wanted it to be, distinctly British, which makes it different from other contemporaries out there, with words and phrases I hadn’t heard before. At first it took some getting used to, but I absolutely loved it and think it adds to its charm. It was the same feeling I got when I read Holly Bourne’s books, which is saying a lot!

“…perhaps nothing will come of this, but now I can feel that belief is there, soaring just like those birds in the sky. Maybe I can believe there’s hope. And that’s worth standing up and fighting for ourselves.”

I would definitely recommend this book to teenagers and adults alike, it was a great read with an ending just like I wanted, a mixture of realistic portrayal of life with a sprinkle of hope and a drizzle of sadness. You will laugh and you might shed a tear or two, but in the end you will be left with hope and wonder, because as the author put it: When you finally get up the courage to shout the truth, people listen.

Here’s my review system in short:
Plot: 4.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing Style: 4.5/5
Originality: 4.5/5
Sense: 4/5
Value: 4.5/5
Enjoyment: 4.5/5
Overall reading experience: 4.5/5 stars

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. It is a tale of love against the odds. Joni and Annabel - their lives are poles apart but they find a connection. This book deals with privilege and fairness but also makes you realise what is really important - family, friendship, being true to yourself and standing up for what is important. It also sensitively deals with same sex relationships.

It is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. I read it in two stints and will be recommending it to my more mature readers in due course.

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH. Great voice, brilliant characters, and a lots of stuff that's lacking in UKYA on the whole: working class characters, discussions of politics, privilege and classism, and a really lovely and endearing f/f relationship. It's honest but also hopeful, thought-provoking and intelligent with a light touch. So great, probably my favourite book I've read so far this year.

I think this is an important book. For one, it normalizes f/f relationships in a context that's for once not necessarily about homophobia and coming out (although we need those books, they just need to be not the only books about LGBTQ+ people). It's important to have stories with f/f and m/m relationships that aren't always about the struggle with the sexuality itself, but just about the struggle of being in a relationship (you know, like straight people in almost all books). And this book really depicted this teenage relationship as just that, a teenage relationship, and all the drama that comes with it. Of course, there were mentions of homophobia and coming out and how they might be problems, but those are not at the heart of this story, and that's refreshing to read.

But what is most prominent in this book is the class dichotomy of working class and upper class. It's about how the rich want to get richer, while the poor struggle to get by, to not be homeless, even when they work more than full time, even when multiple family members have jobs. This book is a great portrayal of that struggle, that constant anxiety that it creates and how hard it is to get out of it (if at all possible, as the rich profit from the poor being kept poor). It really makes you realize how the worries seep into a person, till it can become everything they think of. And how shit just isn't fair, while it should be. This is something that needs to be talked about more.

Besides that, it's also a cute, fluffy love story about standing up for yourself and becoming who you really are. It's about finding strength and voice and courage to do what you believe is right. It's about first love and figuring out how to be in a relationship with someone, especially when your lives are so incredibly different. The romantic moments are so sweet and cute it'll make you feel all gooey inside.

However... I didn't like Skylarks as much as I wanted to. What made me get impatient with this book was the writing. It felt odd and illogical and jumpy at times. It made me want to skim pages just to get through it. I didn't feel like the characters came to live and they kept feeling a little flat and predictable. They just didn't really became real. And I'm a big fan of character driven novels, and perhaps this wasn't really, but I felt like this book could've been better. Dialogue felt sometimes odd and unnatural, the plot felt in many ways very predictable. Nothing seemed really surprising, except perhaps the ending a little. I really got the idea like the plot and the characters were not really a story or people, but rather vehicles to show this really important societal issue. And yeah, it's really important to write about these things and have people read about these things, but I still feel this book could have been done better technically.

All in all a cute, emotional love story about important subjects, but I feel like it could have been done better.

What I liked most about this book is the relationship between Joni and Annabel. They are both very different characters and life isn't perfect for them, they both get to see life from the other side; what with Annabel's family being quite wealthy and Joni's struggling to survive. I also find with quite a few YA books with romance in them, that the problems the characters face are insignificant and very 'teeny', which obviously that's what you sign up for when you read YA fiction. But with Skylarks it's like a breath of fresh air because the problems that threaten their relationship are serious, and they have to be mature. Granted I do think Joni can be immature and not think things through, but at the end of the day she is still a 16/17 year old.

I was praying for a happy ending though, and as unrealistic as I think the ending was and that it seemed a little rushed, I loved that there was a happy ending. The character development of Joni was quite significant, we saw her go from a girl not bothered much by school to figuring out what it was she wanted to do, and she actually started working towards making it happen. With Annabel we saw her finally stick up to her dad in the end and do something to help Joni, and everyone else on the estate.

The main thing i love in this book is the LGBT relationship  Annabel and Joni have together. Its very cute to read and their dialogue is funnily portrayed through the  awkwardness between characters .

Secondly, The settings are very realistic and  described well so you feel as if you're there and can envision what both households are like ,what the library is like ect. The fact the library holds such importance for both girls is great to read as obviously I love a library (lol). As well as the mention of Wordpress.

I like the fact it shows the importance and non importance of money. Which Karen has made non-stereotypical . The rich girl isn't happy and feels alone where as the family struggling for money  appear as a unit and try getting by and are happy as long as the other members are too.

As well as this the different family relationships are shown with great personality.

I feel this book shows that less privileged people should not be made to feel ashamed ect, and is persistently shown throughout.

This Book is a fabulous coming of age and young adult romance that deals with some hard and important topics in a commendable manner so its not intense to read.

I am delighted to have read this book ready for YALC  before its even released.

This is stunning. It's a raw, unflinching look at the social politics, governmental politics and relationships between the classes in the UK and the impact money has on all of these things. Not only that, it manages to organically interweave a blossoming relationship between two girls from opposite ends of the social ladder. I somehow don't think it would have had the same impact had it been a boy/girl relationship; the social concept of the male paying is stripped away to truly look at the impact money has.

I couldn't put the book down. From the moment it started, I was there with Joni and I couldn't put it down. I related to parts of her family make up; I grew up in the Thatcher era and had a taste of this bitterness. I was a fool to think it eased off when her reign ended.

This is the book i've been waiting for all my life. Its a beautiful blend of films like Brassed Off, My Summer of Love and Pride. It has the 'Northern Grit' i've loved about British films, but it's brought it down south showing that the social divide is not just determined on your location.