I received this eArc from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book with high expectations and was ultimately underwhelmed. I was excited to read a book with bi characters but found them flat. The pacing felt off and too fast that it made it hard to connect to the story or the characters.

I was also uncomfortable with the way some queer relationships were portrayed, specifically ultimatums to come out of the closet. I wanted to like this book because I’m always searching for books with queer representation but this felt like someone’s idea of queer people rather than true representation.

Some aspects of the book were still entertaining, such as the text messages snippets. I didn’t hate it, but probably wouldn’t recommend it and will forget about it soon.

A delightful take on someone coming into their own as a bisexual person. a heartwarming story of friends and loves and how sometimes someone can be both.

All the Better Part of Me was a rather heartwarming read. Witnessing Sinter figure out his sexuality and deal with the repercussions was compelling even if I did get frustrated with him at times. He was, in all honesty, doing the best he could given the "tools" he had.

Highlights:

*Characters
Sinter immediately captivated me. His love of 80's music, Shakespeare, and emo-style of dressing felt familiar and comfortable. And his career as an actor made his flair for the dramatic realistic. I adored Sinter's best friend, Andy. He was such a perfect fit for Sinter...understanding, supportive, all the things a best friend should be.
The supporting cast was pretty great as well. From Fiona and Sebastian to Daniel and Julie - even Sinter's parents (who I wanted to throat punch often) - they all combined to add depth to the story.

*Romance
When Andy, who is gay, finds himself single, Sinter has to begin examining the thoughts and feelings he's having toward him. Sinter decides to move from London to Seattle, where Andy lives, they come up with an arrangement to enable Sinter to explore his sexuality. It was apparent to me, as the reader, that a meaningful romantic relationship was developing between them but it took longer for Sinter and Andy to figure it out.

*Character Growth
Sinter showed the most emotional growth and maturity over the course of the story. His upbringing in a very conservative family meant he'd naturally have issues coming to terms with his true self. His family was homophobic and didn't like Sinter's way of dressing or his profession making it fairly certain they wouldn't be accepting were Sinter to embrace this facet of his sexuality. While I admit to being frustrated with his inability to come out, I also sympathized. The real growth came when Sinter found himself in a situation no one would want to be in if not prepared. The way he took on the responsibility, the way he handled things and eventually the way he came to embrace "all the best part" of himself was heartwarming.

Overall, I enjoyed All the Better Part of Me . The characters were engaging and the story was relevant. And MRingle's extra gift was the 80's song titles as chapter names. It really did set the mood. ;) I intend to read Relatively Honest so I can get the back story on Daniel and Julie, Sinter's London-based friends, soon.

I'm going to give this book an above 3 rating.
I liked the thought of this book - I don't find many bisexual MCs of color and I loved that. I also love the friends-to-lovers trope, so I just had to request it. And it wasn't a bad book. It just wasn't anything overly special. It's fluffy and angsty (yes, that's possible) and a bit unbelievable and I do recommend this to all who wants to read about characters who develop during the story, figuring out where they stand, who they are and what they love,

/ Denise

I really enjoyed following Sinter through his journey of figuring out that he’s bisexual, and being a struggling actor in London. The writing is quite engaging and, most of the time, it was easy for me to keep reading. I also loved that there was so much representation in this book. However, there were parts of the book that I didn’t like. First of all, I really didn’t like Andy as a character or as a love interest. Considering their relationship and friendship was a big part of the story, I was less engaged and had to push myself through the book sometimes. Other storylines, like Sinters life as a struggling actor or another one that appears later in the book, I was way more interested in, but they weren’t focused on enough for me to be fully invested in the story. I also thought the story was really dramatic, almost soap-like, because there was a lot of unnecessary and unrealistic drama inserted into the story, just to keep it interesting, which I’m not a fan of. Overall, I liked some parts of this book and disliked others, but I’d still recommend you read it if the story sounds interesting to you.

I was really excited to read this one after I received it, but I was a bit disappointed by the end of it.

I wasn’t the greatest fan of the writing style - first person past tense is not my favourite - which was a bummer. When I read first person, I prefer if it’s in present tense instead.

I thought Sinter and Andy’s friendship was super cute and, although I felt that they could have taken it a bit slower, I think it that Sinter should have known that Andy already had feelings for him because he’d accepted their deal promptly.

Now, about Sinter. Yes, he was kind of childish at times, but Andy wasn’t fair to him either. It took Andy three years to come out to his parents, who were always supportive parents, and he expected Sinter to come out in less than a year to close-minded parents who had never supported his career or dressing style choices. I loved Andy, but I don’t think he was trying to put himself in Sinter’s shoes, considering the later was having a crisis.

In the end, I really enjoyed the 80s references and Sinter’s uniqueness. The story was fun but also heartbreaking and I’ve convinced my sister to read it too, so I guess that’s a win.

For the most part, I did enjoy this book. The storyline was sweet and I really loved Andy as a character. The writing style was fine and I liked it for the type of book it was.

Having not only a bisexual, but also at first bicurious, man as the main character is very different than a lot of LGBTQ books I’ve seen. I think it is going to be an important contemporary novel to many people and may help some figure out their own identity.

There was a little bit of drama that I felt was overkill. I felt like Sinter just kept getting punched over and over again and I was like “When is he going to catch a break?” I also didn’t like how Sinter’s parents were written. I know there must be parents like them out there, but I felt like they probably could have been developed better than “my parents are Christians and they don’t like me”.

I do wish that Andy and Sinter’s relationship was explored a little more. It basically just had them texting to being in love within a matter of chapters. I understand if you know someone for 10 years that the budding relationship might be quicker, but I still felt it was rushed. As with his relationship with Fiona - I was expecting a love triangle like the synopsis hints. I hate love triangles, but if you are going to suggest that there is one, at least write more to one side than just a quick tryst.

Anyway, this book was a solid 3 stars for me.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book... I did in the beginning. I liked it up until the London section of the book ended. I feel like the London section added depths of the book which were removed when the book shifted to America. In addition, I didn't like or agree with a plot point which happens at the end of the London section which has an impact on the American section. On top of that it seems like there was a bunch of things which keep the characters apart which I didn't like. It was a lot of unnecessary drama. I wish the book focused more on the characters their feelings and their goals in life, as opposed to throwing things at them to keep them apart.

It's such a shame that I ended up DNFing this book because I really liked the representation of a bisexual south Asian-American (I think he's Indian-American but I don't want to say that for sure). I loved the Hollywood aspects of the book but I didn't like how that fades when the London sections ends. It becomes less of a focus.

I started reading this book in July 2019, and when I was enjoying the book I read like 40% of it in a few days, but then when a plot twist occurred that I didn't like, I probably read 9% of the book in three months. I felt like I gave the book a strong chance, but unfortunately I didn't like the way it turned out, and it was stressing me out not finishing this book.

I personally wouldn't recommend this book.

An easy yet engaging read. You can’t help but feel for Sinter and his uphill struggle in life. Just when things seem to be going his way, another curve ball is sent out of left field. Has everything I look for in a book.

The draw for me to this story was the childhood-friends-to-lovers trope. It has that aspect, but it ended up being so much more than that. I think the writing was good and I enjoyed the character development making me really feel like I know both Sinter and Andy. I liked Sinter, but I fell in love with Andy which seemed unusual since the story was told in single POV through Sinter. I would have liked a little more of the sexy times to be on the page. There was a surprise that I did not see coming and was glad to see, because I felt a little lag in the middle that made me unsure where things were going. The ending was very satisfying and left me feeling glad that I read the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC of All the Better Part of Me in exchange for an honest review!

DNF @ 31%.

Every once in awhile you'll read a book & just know it's time to give it up. I hate DNF'ing books, but all of my notes up to this point were negative & I had an inkling that it wasn't gonna get better for me.

Admittedly, I was originally attracted to this book due to it's bisexual flag background. I'm always about good LGBTQ+ rep. However, reading this book, it was extremely clear that it wasn't written by an own-voices author. If it wasn't so painfully obvious, than I would have totally been okay with it, but meh.

There was a ton of talking & not enough doing (get your mind out of the gutters--!!!). It felt like Sinter was just providing info dump after info dump & it was the same internal monologue over and over again! Sinter annoyed the heck out of me, y'all. I love stories about characters figuring out their sexuality & coming out, but wow, Sinter's story just didn't evoke any empathy in me whatsoever. Plus, the writing was extremely flat & I couldn't get emotionally attached to anything that was happening.

I will end this review with a positive note & that is -- I really liked that the chapter headings were all '80's songs.

All the better part of me by Molly Ringleader follows Sinter through the exploration of his identity. Sinter starts off considering himself a straight male, but as things progress through the book, he realizes that isn’t his true identity. I really liked the idea of this book and the transition of the main character which made this a quick read.

I struggled with the rating of this book since it was labeled as a new adult LGBTQIA but it read more like a young adult novel. The conversations between Sinter and Andy are mostly via text message and read younger than the ages of the characters. At the start of this book, it didn’t bother me as much but as the book took on deeper/more adult issues this became more and more apparent of an issue.
The other thing I struggled with is the amount of things going on in this book, between the identity of the main character, the family issues, and the twist towards the end of the book, it turns out to be a lot.

What I did enjoy most about his book is the use of consent between Andy and Sinter. It was clearly laid out at the beginning of them figuring out what they were, that there were boundaries and those boundaries were respected.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing via Netgalley for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book. I enjoyed the Bi nonsense. It has a lot of Tropes and enjoyed those tropes. Is the plot of this book realistic? Not fully. But sometimes it nice to read fluffy angst where you know everything will work out in the end.

This book does have darker stuff like questioning your sexuality and gaining the courage to come out. There's also the idea of staying closet if you're Bi because it might never come up. It kinda goes over how self-denial is bad and how Sinter is messed up by having done this for the past. So as a Bi-romantic person, I was fine with the rep. He's questioning and messed up with how he was raised so that rep for someone else. Not my personal experience, living my Tumblr live s

Now time for one of my famously weird tangents: There is a British character called Sebastian in this book, which is fiction code for posh arsehole. Sorry, any Sebastian out there. This character is Trans (rep is not a spoiler, yes sometimes a nice surprise but also I'm allowed to talk about it in reviews). In non-expert or in my non-lived experience, the trans rep is fine. Sebastian is his own character. My problem is that being trans means that he picked that terrible name for himself. No arsehole or old fashion parents here to blame. Also, Sebastian speaks very working-class and is roughly the same age as me so I must conclude that he named himself after the crab. My point is that Sebastian is a weirder name than Sinter. It's a Rom-Com myth that they exist. Sebastian is the lead singer of a band, so enjoy that YA Readers.

The rest of the Englishness stuff is fine. It's very rom-com but go ask an English person. Not a lot of British TV movies get made, it definitely sounds more like an indie film than a TV movie. Miniseries are more our thing. It doesn't really matter because its in the effect of a fun plot. Who needs reality?

Overall, I gave this book 5/5 stars for Queers Messing Up. I really enjoyed this book, it's fun Angst which a constant fanfiction reader so I'm here for it. This is the Bi Rom-Com that I've never gonna see when I'm the same age as the character because I'm 26 now and close to the Grave. There are also lots of Queer named characters so I'm happy. I think enjoyment will come down to the tropes you're okay with or like. I know some people will hate the tropes (see Content warnings) in this but I'm fine with the execution. This is not the best book ever, but it made me aw a lot.

There's a playlist for this book made up of 80s songs in the acknowledgements/chapter titles, and as we all love the 80s I made that playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ex31veWRCdLcKdLf1iwdW

CW: Accidental Pregnancy; Adoption; Abortion mentioned; Homophobia; Parents messing you up; Disownment; Being Outed;

Sadly I didn’t finish this book. I just couldn’t connect with it.
Thank you NetGalley and publishers for giving me this book to read. In exchange for my honest review

Thanks to Net Galley and Central Avenue Publishing for giving me the privilege of reading an advance copy of this title.

“All the better part of me” is a lovely romantic comedy with a lead character that makes everyone fall in love with him: men, women, and readers! The major complications of the book appear halfway through and took me by surprise. I don’t want to spoil the plot twists, but difficult issues are deftly handled by writer Molly Ringle.

My favorite thing about this read are the tiny details that bring the characters to life: eyeliner and favorite shirts and flirty texts. Sensitive readers should be warned that the text includes a fair amount of eroticism and Andy’s voice is somewhat overwhelmed by Sinter’s, but these are small critiques that do not detract from a fun, sweet read.

Ok so first things first, I love the cover. Because it's the bi flag, and that just makes me so happy.

I was super excited to read this. A book about a bisexual that actually uses the word bisexual?! So many books/movies/shows imply bisexuality but refuse to label the character, or imply bisexuality and then outright deny it. And when bisexuality is explicitly written about, it's usually about women. Both in fiction and in real life, bi men are underrepresented and ignored, or assumed 'actually gay' or 'actually straight'. (This happens to women as well, but I think it happens particularly to men.) So yeah, just the premise made me excited. Now, I usually prefer to read own voices books, where the writer has similar experiences to the characters. I find that the most authentic stories are written this way. But also, I do strongly believe that writers should write whatever they want, no topics off limit, because if you only wrote your own experiences then you'd be super limited in what you get to explore through fiction. So I went into this with a small backseat worry that it wouldn't feel sincere, or authentic. I'm glad to say that that fear was completely unfounded. I love Sinter, I love Andy, and I loved this story.

Why did I love Sinter so much? Maybe because I grew up in a similar scene. An emo teen figuring things out in a religious environment. The eyeliner, references to noughties emo bands like MCR, I felt an immediate kinship with Sinter. But I'm also so glad this story wasn't another teen coming out story, because I've been finding it hard to find good queer fiction about adults around my own age.

I immediately liked Sinter's voice. I found the book easy to read, his voice distinct, and funny. I found the other characters interesting as well. I felt like, although the book was from Sinter's perspective, I got little snippets of the other characters' lives. They all felt real to me.

And then the plot had me hooked. It was so dramatic, with twists and turns, and I was gripped the whole time. I read the book in two sittings. It would have been one, if I hadn't had to work and sleep! It stomped on my heart, but also made me super happy. I got romance and drama and heartbreak and more drama and more romance and it was just great.

At first I found the text conversations a little jarring. Text convos are not usually something I particularly like in books. But when your two characters are an ocean apart, they need to be able to talk to each other. After a few chapters I got used to the mechanics and they didn't continue to bother me.

I really did love this book, and I'm so happy and grateful I got to read it. I'm looking forward to reading more from Molly Ringle.

I'll leave you with my two favourite lines that made me actually laugh out loud.

'I wasn't gay or bi, just deeply Anglophilic.' 'It wasn't Daniel I was snogging that night, it was the United Kingdom.'

This was not for me. I frequently considered DNFing but I want bi stories to succeed so badly that I kept pushing myself. The thing is, there ARE good bi stories out there—this isn’t one of them. All the characters read like badly drawn outlines of whatever role they were supposed to fill—bisexual character, gay character, straight character, homophobic parents, accepting parents, etc. It’s like someone googled “what issues do bi people face” and then tried to come up with a plot point for each one, which was just ridiculous and occasionally offensive. The writing was stilted & forced (it tried so hard to sound “hip” and “modern” and kept jarring me out of the story), and the plot completely over the top. If you’re looking for a good bi story, look elsewhere.

(Also if you’re hoping for an 80s vibe/nostalgia or some theater geekery, you’ll be seriously disappointed. There’s a few music references, some eyeliner, and one Shakespeare play.)

CW: homophobia

**Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ecopy in exchange for an honest review.**

This book feels hard to review because I didn't love it and I didn't hate it, it was very much a middle of the road read for me. In this book we follow Sinter, an American working in London who's just been cast for a TV movie set in the 80's, as he finds himself unable to stop thinking of his best friend Andy despite the flirtation he has going on with the director Fiona.

This was an entertaining enough novel that kept me reading but there was nothing overly original or unique about it.

One thing that attracted me to All the Better Part of Me is that it had a bisexual character in it, and I think Molly Ringle did a fantastic job of representing that in a respectable and realistic manner. This is definitely one of the better books I've read that has bisexual rep in it. Where the story lost me was the pacing. It felt off in places and rushed in others. But I did enjoy Ringle's ability to weave in her different plots together so I'd be interested to read more by her in the future.

This was such a lovely love story. I really enjoyed the character work and the dialogue. I didn’t realize this book was a spin-off to another book so I’m going to have to pick that one up. I really enjoyed the bi rep in this and was pleased by how well done it was.