I really wanted to like this, going off the summary, but I didn't get very far in at all before I had to put it down. The writing style was not for me whatsoever, and the religious speak was far too overwhelming (and this is coming from someone who was raised Southern Baptist).

DNFing for mostly-me-not-the-book reasons. Although I did find the voice a touch flat and very young-sounding, I was not really prepared for how intense this book was going to be, and I'm just not in a place where I can read it right now.

YA readers who enjoy really tense emotional books that explore difficult parental relationships may enjoy this one.

This book was really cute and something that I think fans of Riptide publishing will definitely want to read. It has so many things like romance, drama, and girls on motorcycles.. The journey that El takes is one you will not wanna miss out on and the book does a great job at touching on what it is like to grow up with overprotective parents and struggles regarding coming to terms with your sexuality especially in the church.
You'll definitely be glad you read this book.

This was a really good Snow White retelling about two girls who have admired each other a la distance for a while, while one of them is suffering abuse from her mother. There’s a cross-country chase with plenty of tension and some really nice character development. Deffo recommended.

This retelling of snow white was utterly perfect. From the very beginning I was addicted.
Mama Glasse is probably one of the most heinous villains I have ever known. She was truly despicable and irredeemable.
This is a story of finding yourself and who you are truly meant to be. Taking that inner strength and truly owning the person in the mirror and I feel Meister captured that beautifully.
Meister was also able to articulate perfectly my feelings on several subjects throughout the book that I have always had trouble putting into words.
The characters in this story are phenomenal. El who has been repressed and abused her whole life but still keeps herself and shows such bravery and selflessness. Riley who is tough but scared and so guarded yet determined. I also Love the incorporation of the seven dwarfs throughout the story it was both unique and well designed.
The love story was sweet and beautiful as both girls found love in themselves and each other. I loved their chemistry and interactions.
The plot was well crafted and had a lot of good twists and turns.
I expected a light hearted romance, but this was a deep, tragic, heart wrenching, inspiring story and it was made all the better for it. I am so pleased to have experienced this story and was completely blown away.

Love Under Glasse by Kristina Meister was unexpectedly good. I rarely give 5 stars to any book, but this one pulled me in and kept be on the edge of my seat throughout with the plot twists. The story is about two very appealing teenagers, Elyrra who comes from a sheltered, fundamentalist background, and Riley, a loner and outspoken lesbian. The story is about how they inspire each other to become stronger, braver and self-confident, as well as, accept who they are.
Thanks to Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Good YA book. Unique story line. Opposites attract. Book picks up pace in keeping with the storyline, very nice pacing especially later in book. You can feel the chase and intensity.

I enjoyed both the pace and the character development in the book, the antagonist was particularly well created, the sheer willfulness to believe they are the good guy always makes for the best bad guy.
A good read, devoured in a day.

3.75 Stars. This was a really solid YA read. It was well written with plenty of drama and some excitement. I didn’t realize it would be so intense at times. It is definitely a YA book that adults can read too. While this is a YA book there are some trigger warnings I think I should mention but I’ll put them behind a spoiler. (Spoiler) [There is an attempted rape. The scene is very exciting but the actually attempted part is very quick. There is also attempted sexual assault, violence and child abuse (mostly talked about in memory). Because this is YA most of this is on the lighter less explicit side but I would not recommend this for younger children. Like I mentioned earlier this was more intense than I expected. (end spoiler)]

As others have mentioned this book is a little slow to start out with, but once it gets going it turns into a page turner. An abused girl is on the run, while the girl she loves tries to find her. This is a YA version of good versus evil. The abuser is such a dark character with no redeeming qualities at all. The two mains El (17) and Riley (18) are the exact opposite and you hope their strength and goodness can prevail.

This is a hard one to review since I don’t want to give away too much of the plot so I’m going to keep my review on the shorter side. The two main characters are wonderful and the writing is well done. While one character grows, the other character has her walls peeled slowly away so as a reader you can connect to both of them. This book is a little dark at times, but it’s not a doom and gloom book, more like a book with hope. If you want a good YA with a little grit, this book is a worthy choice.

Where to start with this book? If I know I’m going to be reviewing a book I usually make notes as I go along. The only notes I made about this is ‘3% in and I am officially in love’.
An amazing book about how prejudice can affect a person and their journey of self love that reflected so many aspects of my life, it felt like the main character could have been me in another life.
With characters that will become scarily real and a series of well choreographed events that lead to a satisfying conclusion, you’ll be left with a small tear in your eye but the biggest smile to compliment it. And after all, who can’t help falling for a badass on a motorbike.
For lovers of The Boy Next Door series by Huntley Fitzgerald but...gayer.

Elyrra is the teenage daughter of an ultra conservative senator and his wife. The danger is that Mama Glasse has been using surveillance equipment and harsh rules to police her daughter so all of El’s so called secrets are met with grim consequences. When Elyrra finds out that Mama is shipping her off to conversion therapy camp to cure her of her lesbianism, desperate measures are taken by El.

Riley is a young woman with a tough exterior but a gentle spirit who is also El’s secret crush so in true Riley fashion, she takes personal responsibility for El and hits the road on her motorcycle to find her. This is the heart of the story, what the blurb promises, but doesn’t jump off until the 1/3 mark and I wished it had moved along more quickly.

Once the story starts rolling, the author kicks into another gear and it’s a lot of action and tense moments between Mama’s men in black and Riley as they race to find El first. The author does a great job developing both mc’s, peeling back to reveal vulnerabilities and raw emotions, showing their internal struggles with demons of the past, and the most touching, El’s loving blog entries dedicated to other isolated lgbtq youth as well as being love letters to Riley. It is a genuinely seamless mix that layers the story wonderfully. I could feel El getting swallowed up by Mama’s ugliness and the panic to run. I understood Riley’s fierceness and courage against society’s racism and homophobia, but also the affection she felt for El.

The ending zoomed along in dramatic fashion with a lot of fervent “I love you’s” and hair raising rescues but this is a story about a 17 year old and 18 year old who are crazy about each other and ready to take on the world together so I was happy. No hesitation in recommending this solid ya story or in saying that I will be in line for this author’s next book.

Finding out you’re a lesbian is never a simple journey. When your parents are powerful bigots, it’s almost impossible. El’s life is entirely lived under her mother’s eyes. Her mother decides what she wears, what she eats, what she likes and who she dates. For most of her seventeen years, El has gone along, feeling she had no choice. Then she fell in love with Riley, out lesbian and daughter of an ex-con. El documents her (unrequited as far she knows) love of Riley on her blog, discovering a whole new world and community. When she finally finds the strength to run away, her mother sends goons after her. Then Riley gets in on the hunt but for very different reasons, hoping for a very different outcome.

Love Under Glasse is a contemporary fairytale, with a terrifying and manipulative evil queen and her very brave daughter fighting for her freedom. It’s a story of badass girls more suited to riding metaphorical dragons than ponies. A tale of despair turning into hope, of fears turning into love. It’s about friendship, solidarity, community and the power of the internet, about standing up for yourself and fighting for others. About good overcoming evil. It speaks of everyday magic and poetry.

It’s tough and heartwarming at the same time and feels like a friend you’d want on your side in rough times, very much like Riley and El.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“You’re just going to have to trust me. I know where you are. If I wanted you caught, I’d just send someone to get you. But I want you safe. So eat. Sleep. Do your good deed. Then meet me. I’ll be waiting. You want to see the forests? So let’s ride.”

I’m highly recommending Love Under Glasse. I really really loved this book. I never wanted it to end. When I first read the synopsis I was a little worried that the book would start off with El running away and we wouldn’t get any context for why Riley would be so willing to go after her. Instead, we got a lovely few chapters to see them start to come together and for Riley to get to know El and unknowingly help her decide to get away from her mother.

It takes almost all of the book for them to come back together again and usually that would annoy me. But honestly, I really liked seeing their personal journeys and how the things they learn about themselves contribute to them being able to come back together. Riley reading El’s blog and seeing how El felt about her for years and kinda falling for her through those entries was different from a lot of books I’ve read. And seeing badass Riley get flustered when El started saying those things to her in person was too cute.

Now that the gushing is over: content warnings for this book include child abuse, homophobia, assault, and at one point El’s mother has her put in a hospital on the grounds of mental instability. If you’re looking for a book with some angst and some fluff, this is for you.

From the beginning Meister manages to bring the reader into El's world, capturing so completely the overwhelming suffocation that she feels in her day to day life and leaving the reader gasping for breath.

As El progresses through her journey we see a different side to her and this in itself changes your perception of the situation, leaving you wondering where she will turn next.

Meister crafts characters so layered in their personalities that everyone will find something to relate to.

A tale of solitude and friendship, Love Under Glasse is an enticing read and well worth a space on your bookshelf.

Do you want angst and drama? Then this is the book for you! I kept reading because I couldn't wait to know what happened with the two girls, but one of my main concerns is that the "evil character"is pure unadulterated evil, she's just evil. And sure, there's terrible people in the world... but even then, they aren't 100% evil, right? (Or maybe I'm delusional).

100% on board with young lesbians who ride motorbikes, though.

I really liked this book, the story was unique and it never felt too rushed or too slow.
Highly recommend!

Love Under Glasse is a fantastic YA novel that is dramatic and emotional. Well written and good character development. I hope to read more from this author.

I enjoyed this story so much more than I expected to. Seventeen-year-old Elyrra Glasse’s life is controlled nearly entirely by her bigoted, religious-fanatic mother. Her politician father is so absent he may as well not exist. With every passing day she realises that she will never be the person her mother wants her to be. She keeps her popular blog hidden and writes in her notebook in code. Watching Riley, her school mate and secret crush, gives her inspiration to be braver and more resistant to her mother. To do that, she sees escape as her only option.

Elyrra’s mother is truly awful with absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever. She’s so ghastly that she takes on a caricaturish presentation and I really quite liked it. El has to battle this woman for control of any aspect of her life. She sees Riley as someone she wants to be like; someone who does what she pleases without fear of the repercussions.

Riley is a great character. She’s smart, eloquent and direct. But she hasn’t reached the age of 18 unscathed either which makes her quite a well-rounded personality. El is really easy to like in the way she fights for her right to be herself with so much fear and uncertainty blocking her path.

This is quite a wild and daunting ride to freedom with two really strong, young women as leads. There is no explicit sexual content but there is a lot of love and self-discovery. A lovely read, even though it was quite intense in parts.

<i>Book received from Netgalley and Riptide Publishing for an honest review. </i>I enjoyed this story so much more than I expected to. Seventeen-year-old Elyrra Glasse’s life is controlled nearly entirely by her bigoted, religious-fanatic mother. Her politician father is so absent he may as well not exist. With every passing day she realises that she will never be the person her mother wants her to be. She keeps her popular blog hidden and writes in her notebook in code. Watching Riley, her school mate and secret crush, gives her inspiration to be braver and more resistant to her mother. To do that, she sees escape as her only option.

Elyrra’s mother is truly awful with absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever. She’s so ghastly that she takes on a caricaturish presentation and I really quite liked it. El has to battle this woman for control of any aspect of her life. She sees Riley as someone she wants to be like; someone who does what she pleases without fear of the repercussions.

Riley is a great character. She’s smart, eloquent and direct. But she hasn’t reached the age of 18 unscathed either which makes her quite a well-rounded personality. El is really easy to like in the way she fights for her right to be herself with so much fear and uncertainty blocking her path.

This is quite a wild and daunting ride to freedom with two really strong, young women as leads. There is no explicit sexual content but there is a lot of love and self-discovery. A lovely read, even though it was quite intense in parts.

Book received from Netgalley and Riptide Publishing for an honest review.

The perfect balance of drama and romance. I felt a range of emotions whilst reading. The ending did not leave me disappointed.

5* Wow, wow, wow! I totally did not expect so much from this amazing YA read. A great intro to this author.

This is a book that needs to be made into a made-for-TV film. It's brilliant in how awful Mama Glasse is, and how courageous and decent Elyrra is, and how bad-butt Riley is.

Occasionally you get a book that's even better than its blurb, and yep, this is one of those rare beasts. I can't go into detail or it'd Spoiler the tale, but the things poor El had to do to be able to get away from her mum, who was like the most awful, most stereotyped of evil mothers, but who somehow was made totally believable in what she'd do. I'm pretty sure Mama Glasse was the mother in Kindergarten Cop, just remade a little to make her match this storyline.

The awakening poor El got on her journey to being herself was harsh and I totally hadn't expected the author to take her there, or take me, the reader, there. I couldn't have imagined the things the poor girl went through, and that it only made El stronger was brilliant. I'm pretty sure she'd have talked herself out of where she ended up, had her mother and Riley not come to an... agreement, and I am so glad that she didn't end up scarred and broken. But, I really wish that the evil mother and the various people she recruited had all gotten their comeuppance in the end. I'm pretty sure mummy and daddy dearest will, but that git Jay needs to be shamed like Riley threatened to. Then again, with the ending of the tale, I'm pretty sure he'll be seeing his name in print. Pity that a certain picture can't be included or it'd be considered obscene!

It is a FF YA novel, and I don't tend to read FF, but the blurb made me ask for the book, and I've now discovered an author whose books I'll be tracking down.

ARC courtesy of Riptide Publishing and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.