This ARC was provided for review, but in no way affects the following impartial and unbiased review:
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3*
Pros: LGBT lead. Beautiful wlm romance. Great focus into long-term relationship hardships. Important notes about queer small businesses and queer representation in high schools. Includes feminist points. Awesome introduction on soccer and female soccer players.
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Cons: Lack depth in all aspects of the book. Ending was essentially back to the beginning.

I haven't read YA books in while, so Girl Crushed was a nice break from the NA books I've been recently reading - as it focuses on high school . The book discusses LGTBQ issues, the complexity of high-school relationships, problems teenagers face when deciding their future plans and the awesomeness of small businesses.
Quinn was quite a likable character. I found it hard to relate to her at times though, but her character developed throughout the story. I appreciated how she dealt with the problems in her life with maturity and sensibility. I really liked Jamie, but I wish the author had included some chapters from her POV so that I could understand her relationship with Quinn better. Ruby was my favorite character from the book! I loved her determination and straight-forward nature towards life.
The best part of Girl Crushed for me was how a small business was included in the storyline. It made me really happy to see Quinn and her gang make plans to support Triple Moon, a local coffee shop. The owners of the coffee shop were really funny and they made me laugh a lot whie I was reading their conversations.

I wondered at first why I was approved for a digital galley of Girl Crushed, as YA publicists tend to get far too many requests and can be selective etc.
Anyway, now I know. It’s because if you’re a bisexual reader hoping for an f/f rom-com, this book will slap you in the face over and over until you give up and either stop reading f/f for a while or find some way to have hope again that maybe that next f/f romance will not erase or actively hate on your identity.

I was excited, I wanted to love this book. I did not.

Girl Crushed is a wonderful book that follows flawed main character Quinn through her senior year. She has just been broken up with by her first girlfriend and best friend, and she begins to pursue a classmate she has always been attracted to, Ruby. I have to admit that I do not fully understand the complaints that this book is biphobic. I think Quinn is flawed in that at a young age she did assume every other girl was straight, which definitely speaks to heteronormativity and bi-erasure, but I truly feel like Ruby had such agency in claiming her identity and that identity was seen and respected by present-day Quinn, who did apologize and attempt to correct the ignorance of her younger self. I didn't think Ruby was flighty/non-committal. If anything, those things describe Quinn, who doesn't know what she wants and is confused, and the one thing I do agree with is that it is kind of shitty on Quinn's part to date Ruby while figuring out her own feelings. All in all, I enjoyed this book.

A really great coming of age book about high school relationships. This book touches on first love, LGBTQ issues, small businesses and the community supporting them. I really enjoyed the development of the two main characters and the complexities of figuring out their relationship to each other. I often found myself laughing at the business owners of the coffee shop that were trying to save their business. It's so important to support the community that supports us and i felt this book really touched on that. If you want a light and easy read, this one's for you!

*I want to thank the publisher and Netgalley for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.*

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Upon requesting and even reading Girl Crushed, I didn’t think this book would be controversial. However, I did feel upon reading that there were elements in-text that suggested biphobia, like the list of “straight girls we wish weren’t.” Going off the text itself, I can see it as an issue of the person questioning their identity and the identity of others at face value, but given the amount of misconceptions about bi people and the fact that some people have brought up Heaney’s own hostility to bi folks, it adds nuance to the conversation and how toxic this story is.

For example, without spoiling too much, the ending threw me for a loop as a romance reader. It has an “optimistic ending,” and it’s long been a discussion about how YA romance sometimes has different conventions to that of adult romance. But upon reading the other reviews commenting on the biphobia, it does seem like they’re painting that character as not able to commit to feed into that stereotype about bi people, instead of an unconditionally positive book about acceptance and love.

I don’t know how to feel about this book. It’s generally cute, but every so often, getting hit in the face with these biphobic moments, and the sting of the ending that came out of nowhere killed my enjoyment. I say if you want to give this a try and form your own opinion, then give this a go. But given there’s so many other LGBTQ+ books out there, I would be hesitant to recommend this with any enthusiasm.

i'm so sad i can't love this book. i really wanted to, but the overwhelming amount of biphobia is so disappointing to me as a bisexual person. it's not outright (i.e. saying bi people don't exist) but its woven into every comment the MC makes about "straight girl this" and "straight girl that" because "i'm a lesbian i know when girls aren't straight" and never acknowledges the possibility those girls could be bisexual or any other sexuality other than straight.

you're still bisexual if you've only dated men.
you're still bisexual if you've only dated women.
you're still bisexual if you've never dated anyone.
you're bisexual if you date a cis, trans, nonbinary, etc. person.

i kept reading this book thinking these offhand comment made by the MC would get better and grow over time as she falls for a "straight girl" who isn't so straight after all, but nope. i'm angry i couldn't love this more because i relate to the MC's break up SO much. my first relationship and break up was so similar and i really connected with that but i can't get past the obvious biphobia in the book. i don't know what the authors intentions were with all these comments but it's really harmful and erases bisexual people. we exist and we're valid no matter who we've dated in the past.

Deep sigh. Another flop.

Girl Crushed is about a girl named Quinn navigating high school having just broken up with her girlfriend, applying to colleges, dealing with her parents' drama, trying to save her favorite coffee shop, and developing feelings for a new girl.

This book was a disappointment.

After being sent home due to COVID, I went on NetGalley and requested a bunch of cute looking romcoms as a little pick-me-up without checking how they were doing so far on Goodreads. But I saw the low rating this one has when I went to add it to my shelves, and I knew I had probably saddled myself with reading a book I wasn't going to like. Nonetheless, I do at least attempt to read all of the books I get approved for, so I sat down to read this morning with as much neutrality as I could muster given my pre-existing bias against the author.

The book was still a disappointment.

A mediocre story with no character development, no chemistry between the characters we're meant to be hoping will get together, and no interesting plot. Quinn's favorite coffee shop is struggling, so she raises a little bit of money and hopes it'll be enough, but who knows?, because the book ends abruptly without any form of epilogue or conclusion. Quinn has two love interests in the book who we are told she has chemistry with, but I never felt even a spark between any of them. She has gossipy, annoying friends, she's hypocritical and unkind to her ex. There was literally nothing I liked about this book, and while there was nothing I really hated about it either, I was so deeply unimpressed and uninterested that I certainly would have DNFed this if it hadn't been an ARC.

There are so, so many better romcoms (and queer romcoms!) out there, so save yourself the time and go for Tell Me How You Really Feel, Her Royal Highness, or any of the other great f/f stories available to you. Give this one a pass.

dnf at %40 :(


You know when you start counting the pages to the next chapter? It happens mostly for two reasons:
1- you really, REALLY, love the chapter and don’t want it to end yet.
2- you are reallllllly bored and just want it done

It’s the latter in this case...

-

I was so excited when i got this cute book, and it's mostly my fault for not reading more about it before requesting it but i really like going in without knowing much.

this caused the problem of me being bored and not getting why they still want to be together, and at this point? i dont really care who she's going to end up with :/

The book made me feel bored from the first %20 of it...
i felt like the characters are plain? i don’t know i saw people saying they were unique and for me? i couldn't figure out who's who sometimes...

(maybe considered spoilers:)

I liked some aspects of the characters but i felt like they are somehow toxic together? She didn’t trust that jamie was with her because she wanted to be, and jamie kept on nagging her and her new crushes even though she’s the one who asked to brake up

and the mc kept wanting to make jamie jealous.. i just felt so bad for Ruby..

It’s kinda annoying.. i know they are teenagers but still.. i felt they are being forced to be that way? i don’t know that’s how i was feeling reading it...

And i feel bad for Ruby because the main character is %100 biphobic..


i also heard that the author is problematic..

Overall I really enjoyed this story! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. My review is going to point out a few questionable parts of the story but will not have any spoilers for the plot or anything important.

The MC definitely says some questionable/bi-phobic things closer to the start of the book. For example, makes a list of “straight girls I wish weren’t” and just assumes the girls on the list are straight because they have dated boys.

There’s also a part where she calls another girls outfit “at least bi” which rubbed me the wrong way, as if being bi was not quite good enough on the queer scale.

However, these views are challenged later in the book and the MC definitely grows and learns, which is important to point out.

I was not hurt by the rep in this book once I finished it. I overall enjoyed reading it and look forward to more books to come from this author.

What a disappointment. The worst part about this book is that the book itself isn't THAT bad. It isn't great, but it's not a terrible addition to f/f queer YA. The issue lies instead with the author and her history or biphopic behavior. She has publicly stated that bi women who marry a man are actually straight and just asking for attention. She has tried to apologize but it was half assed and not authentic. She's basically a part of the very small portion of the queer community that shits on everyone who isn't gay or lesbian. SPOILER ALERT: ALL THE IDENTITIES WITHIN THE QUEER COMMUNITY ARE VALID AND AMAZING. THERE IS NOT LEVEL OF SUPERIORITY ASSOCIATED WITH BEING LESBIAN OR GAY.

I really want to not review this book at all and just send yall on your merry way in avoiding this one at all costs. But, I was given an ARC for netgalley and feel obligated to actually review the book.

Summary: Quinn and Jamie break up right before their senior year of high school. Quinn then sets her sights on Ruby (described as classic manic pixie dream girl who is assumed straight only because she has dated a boy). Quinn and Ruby become friends. Then more than friends. Ruby is depicted as kinda flaky and unable to make a commitment; turns out shes actually bi and yay lets show bi characters as commitment phobic and afraid of relationships. Cool. Jaime and Quinn actually get back together at the end because OBVIOUSLY lesbians are superior and can actually commit to love and relationships. Gross.

The best part of the whole book was the Triple Moon Coffee Shop owned by two older gay women (who once dated, but are just friends now) and all of the drama there. I really enjoyed Dee and Gaby and would love to have a queer space available to me that could make such a difference.

Overall, this book is average at best, but the terrible comments by the author have blacklisted her from any all of my future reading and I hope you'll do the same.

Quinn has been dumped by her girlfriend right before senior year. They were friends before they got together and have promised to remain friends. We get to watch Quinn awkwardly navigate her senior year of high school with her friends. This a funny, fluffy book.

DNF at 54%. Nothing horrendously wrong with it, I'm just sooooooooo bored. It feels like nothing as happened and I'm having a hard time caring about any of the characters.

This book had potential but fell flat due to its awkward pacing, underdeveloped characters, and overt biphobia. I found myself skipping paragraphs of text because I was bored with extensive details on high school dynamics that did not affect Quinn, the main character, or her friends at all.
Quinn was so fixated on popularity, her public image, and the idea of dating Ruby that she became unlikeable. Her tunnel vision made her an unreliable narrator when I don't think that was the intent of the book. I thought her struggles were trite and unrelatable.
Ruby was a character who had so much potential but was treated as a manic pixie dream girl in a book about queer women. That is a strange combination. Her only role in the book was to be the object of Quinn's affections and that's it. I found that aside from being rich, a singer, and bisexual, I knew nothing about her at all. Additionally, her bisexuality was treated poorly. She was shown to be noncommittal, emotionally distant, and only served to show Quinn that Jamie was the perfect one for her instead. This is a classic trope of biphobia. Bisexual and pansexual women are not sexually wayward and unable to commit. This book fully implied that in all aspects of Ruby's characterization and is frankly a disservice and an insult to queer girls who want to read books about themselves.
Ruby's characterization got me so heated, I didn't care enough about the rest of the characters and the book did nothing to attract my interest.

On a side note, I want to also acknowledge the author's insensitive comments about bisexuality that were seen on twitter. Although there was an apology, those sentiments are clearly deeply rooted and have manifested themselves in this book. This book is harmful and needs a much bigger edit to ensure it isn't offensive to queer women.

Woof. I just basically request stuff from Netgalley with a cursory glance at the plot and didn't entirely realize that there was Something Going On with this book...

I found the story itself overall fairly enjoyable - some laugh out loud lines, I appreciated the plotline about shifting college plans, and the whole thing felt very authentically young adult, as in written in a way that actual teenagers would connect to. I wouldn't necessarily say that I particularly liked Quinn, the MC - she spent a lot of being self-centered, obsessing over each text conversations and overanalyzing the timing of little thing, forgetting or not really caring about things that were important to those around her - but I did find reading through her POV to be relatable, especially for a teen. I was a little put off by the way Quinn's anxiety was described: she twice mentions seeing a therapist, though apparently to help deal with her parents' divorce, and she's certainly an overthinker (again, relatable) but the mention in the last, like, 10% of the book that she has semi-frequent panic attacks seemed to come out of nowhere. Would have liked better and more consistent grounding of that aspect. I also found the ending a little bit abruptly done, and wonder if it had to be to avoid ruining the hopeful note there - had the narrative lasted longer, I'm not sure the romantic relationship, the bookstore, or Quinn's relationship with her father would necessarily have positive outcomes.

Maybe it's because I found Quinn somewhat irritating, and because I have a very sensitive awkwardness meter, but I didn't really gel with either of the romantic relationships. They just didn't seem to have a lot in common besides physical attraction and "I just can't stop thinking about her!" crushiness.

I know that this is the book's downfall for a lot of people. Coming at it without fairly fresh eyes, I think there is some time taken to examine the dynamics of growing up queer in a place where you don't have a lot of role models in that arena and are working with a bit of a teenage chip on your shoulder, believing that the things you're experiencing are uniquely yours. (Speaking of, the owners of the bookstore seem to be a bit old-school lesbian - there's a mention or two of the term "womyn" which has a transphobic history - and Dee at least definitely has a "been around the block, seen it all before" vibe that might cause spur such opposition.) And Quinn does acknowledge the way that she and Jamie were fairly self-centered in their efforts to create a network for themselves, believing that they were the center of their own queer universe, and might have given up too soon. But I did find it odd that there's apparently an LGBT+ center in biking distance, they live in the modern era and therefore have the entire internet, and they still end up with pretty regressive ideas about bi people in particular.

I will say that the bi character is explicitly, on the page bi, and does call out Quinn's assumptions about her sexuality. However, given the author's apparent history with biphobia, it is pretty disappointing that she includes the idea of a list at all, and then that she uses a number of of negative tropes for this character, particularly the stereotypes of the sexy bi and flighty bi/unable or unwilling to have a long-term relationship, and that the relationships shake out the way that they do. When you're representing a group that comes with stereotypes like this, I think that it's important to take care with things that you might want to brush off as "just the way the character is!" or "just the way the plot had to go!" or "if they weren't X, that would be nothing!" None of these are static things that you happened into, they're creative choices that you made and could have changed, so I completely understand why people are angry and disappointed about this aspect.

Overall I think it's a fairly middling YA contemporary, but it does have some added baggage that brings it down.

I had an major interest in this book because I love YA but I read the book and was kind of blah. However, as a straight person, I wasn’t away of the “biphobic” behavior of the author until I read it from others.

Currently reading and loving it!!

Special thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the free arc in exchange of my honest review!!

This book was so boring. But the characters are great, well-constructed, sometimes funny, BUT there's something with them and the story that didn't match.

This is so bad. It’s homophobic and awful. Please do not pick this book up. It’s not worth it. I do not enjoy doing not recommend. Bye.

I didn't mean to read this. When I saw the author's biphobic jokes and non-apology on twitter last year, I decided I wouldn't be reading her upcoming book. Then many months passed and I requested it on netgalley without recognizing the author's name until I got 20% into it, at which point it felt like the best course of action was to finish and review it.

I did mostly like the book. It's pretty funny. It has realistic high school awkwardness and lot of sweet wlw content and so many wonderful female relationships, both romantic and platonic and between Quinn and her mom. It was clever and very readable, emotional but never dragged me down. I love Quinn and her friends; less so her love interests, but I appreciated that they were fallible people who sometimes disappointed her, just like real life. There are so few books out there that make me feel like my own relationships are normal and not worthless compared to the glossy, shiny romances you so often get in YA. But this book made me feel like romance can be imperfect, and always is imperfect, but still wonderful.

But I cannot separate that this author apparently thinks bi girls who dare to talk about being bisexual while dating a guy are being cringey and annoying from the book that she wrote. Not when she wrote a bisexual character into her own book, not until she actually apologizes for what she said. It's made the book inaccessible and Ruby's character inauthentic. When Ruby talks about being bi, it reads forced and performative and calculating. It's not a natural part of the book, it's just the author trying to shove in front of your face that actually she totally understand bisexuality now and definitely doesn't mock bi girls, see, she understands bi girl problems! Her voice reads untrustworthy and forced and it mars an otherwise good book.