Thank you to Net Galley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for the ARC. I did not read it before being archived, but took it out of the library.

Unfortunately, this was DNF for me. The characters did not really feel like they were in a YA novel which took me out of it. The characters seemed like overly dramatic adults. It wasn't for me, but I am putting down three stars so the rating won't be affected.

I really wanted to like this since the boarding school setting is always intriguing to me, but the love interest being a teacher and all of the teen drama that comes with that is not a good look. Just lots of ick for me.

I wish I would have read more reviews before requesting this one. It was a struggle. I did not like it at all.

This is one of my favorite boarding school books I've read. It captured everything that I wanted, but in a way that felt down to earth and was a refreshing take on what it means to be a kid at boarding school. I liked the romantic arc alongside watching as the protagonist was living her best messy life. The way that family was worked into the story was also refreshing to see, particularly in a boarding school setting. It was just a messy time that was a perfect way to escape for a bit and live with these characters that felt complex and reflective of teenagers in a way that doesn't always happen when I read YA. And each character felt fully realized, they didn't blend together and so the reader got a really nice array of characters to take in and experience.

Admittedly I just could not get into this book from the get go. While I know teenagers do get crushes on teachers, there is still something so cringe and repulsive having to read about it. I easily get secondhand embarrassment and tried but ultimately DNF’d.

I had a hard time connecting to the main character (which, duh, I'm a 30 year old woman...but it was more than that - I found her vaguely unlikeable from the get-go when she was upset that her *teacher* was engaged -- yikes). I warmed up to her over time, but I still think this one wasn't really for me.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

This was unfortunately a DNF for me. I had high hopes but after I started skimming through it and discovered things like having a teacher as the love interest of a 15 year old and then cheating is involved later on, I don't think this is my type of book.

I would definitely categorize this book in the "upper YA" category, only because a lot of people will yell about the things discussed casually by the fifteen year old protagonists. Eh, I guess they haven't been around high-school kids recently if that sounds unrealistic to them? The voice in the narrative was very distinct and compelling but the plot was a little all over the place. Overall, I think the voice shines through enough to make this book enjoyable -- especially for teens (the target audience).

Cartoon cover with a blurb about true love? Summary that says it's acidly funny? Yes and yes! Unfortunately, neither of those things happened for me.

Gracie starts the story off by finding out the teacher she is in love with is getting married, so she confronts him and it's just off-putting right away. Were they in a relationship? No. The teacher had no clue. But she's crying in her room for hours. Right away, this is not a character I'm here for. But onward I read. Angst. More unnecessary drama. More angst. While very realistic, it doesn't make for a compelling story. Also, nothing she said was funny. It was just bitchy. Followed up with "I know I am being a bitch but..." There's only so many times I can read that line before I want to put the book down forever.

Then we meet Wade, the whole heart of the story. One minute she hates him and the next minute she loves him. More angst. We don't find out his secret until close to the end of the story. And then that's it. It leads to a weird ending that I just didn't care about. But I should have. It should have been an ending that I felt more upset about.

Another book I just skimmed through to see how it would all end. For the realism of how melodramatic teens can be, I'll give it an extra star. Unfortunately, this book just didn't do it for me.

This was a cute little novel. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more from this author.

This took me far longer to read than it should’ve but it was a solid young adult novel. It wasn’t the most interesting or memorable but it still fit the mark for its intended audience.

I listened to this book on audio and it was excellent. I will be featuring this book in an upcoming YA reads that you must listen podcast episode.

This one wasn’t it for me unfortunately. I think it was too YA for someone as old as me and while I generally enjoy YA for the cuteness factor that was missing for me here I found it cringey and uncomfortable.

The three stars are almost totally for the great dialogue and the cover. Unfortunately, the rest of the book fell flat for me. I didn’t find one single character likable. The story had some odd pacing and a few things fell on the problematic side of subject matter. I cannot recommend this book.

Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

I received an e-copy of this story for an honest review.
Mercedes Helnwein has written the utterly perfect chaos that is Teenage Life! The emotions, angst, hormones, and complications of family. Also thrown into that mess is school, peers, boys, girls, drama, learning about love, and sex. And, on top of all that, you have to learn things like Math, Science, English, etc; you know, those things that are supposed to help you become a “Successful Adult”.
Utterly. Perfect. Chaotic. Teenage. Life!
I laughed, cried, snickered, hurt, rolled my eyes, and shook my head a lot while reading this. But, mostly, I thanked all the Gods and Goddesses in the known Universe that I was no longer a teenager myself.

I enjoyed this book and it was good reminder of all YA has to offer. When I was younger, I read a lot of YA. And after this book, it's something I hope to do more of. I enjoyed the characters and the developing story. I appreciate all that Helnwein put into her debut!

This is going to be a hard one to review. There were things that I liked about this book and things that I didn’t care for at all. I am glad that I decided to go with the audiobook for this read because I think that narration was very well done and helped me stick with the book. Overall, I would say that I did like the book and the things that I liked were very well done.

Let’s get the things that I didn’t like out of the way first. The book opens with a scene between Grace and the teacher that she claims to be in love with. This isn’t a normal crush on a teacher that I maybe could have understood, although I wouldn’t have liked that either. This love for her teacher was way overdone and really made my skin crawl. Unfortunately, it popped up several times in the book. The book would have been so much better without this plot point. I was also kind of bummed that the book didn’t give me the happy ending that I hoped for but it was realistic so that isn’t such a huge deal.

There were a lot of things that I did like. First of all, Wade. I liked everything about this character. He was a genuinely likable character despite the things that he has been through. I actually liked the fact that Grace wasn’t all that nice. She said what she thought and didn’t try overly hard to fit in with her peers. She did have a lot of insecurities which we know since the book is told from her point of view. I liked the fact that the author addressed some tough issues in this story.

Jesse Vilinsky did an amazing job with the narration. She was able to really bring Grace and the rest of the characters to life. I thought that her voice was perfect for Grace and I loved the emotion that she put into her reading. I believe that I liked this book a lot more because I decided to listen to the audiobook.

I would encourage anyone who wants to try this book to do so. There were a lot of things that I found enjoyable about the story and I am glad that I decided to pick it up.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Wednesday Books via NetGalley and purchased a copy of the audiobook.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an e-ARC of this book, and I apologize for my late review.

This book unfortunately did not work for me. Although it was beautifully written (most of the book), the main female protagonist was awful. I get that sometimes it works... not liking the MC I mean... but this was not the case. She encouraged not once but twice to two different people to kill themselves, that does not have a justification. A big no for me. No matter the age, no matter the context, we cannot keep joking around this topic, nothing excuses it. This would have triggered me awfully five years ago, today it just gave some flashbacks and then I continued my day, but you cannot know how your audience is going to react. I truly hope that little sentence was removed on the final draft or that a content warning was added on the beggining of those two chapters.

Wishing the author the best in future projects. Thanks again for the opportunity.