The Love Song of Ivy K. Harlowe was a wonderful "new adult" read from a talented author. I appreciate a book where people and relationships are messy and complicated because that reflect real life, the world, etc. It's also so relatable to experience unrequited love that makes us act in incredibly weird, messy, and strange ways. Andie has big 'heart eyes' for her best friend Ivy, and lives with the idea that they will eventually be together in her mind. An unfortunate home fire puts Ivy and Andie in close quarters, but it doesn't end up working the way Andie hopes. As her imagine future also goes up in flames, Andie has to deal with the big emotions watching Ivy's lovelife unfurl right next to her.

One of the author's greatest talents (through her body of work) is the ability to write engaging dialogue and conversations between characters. All too often, authors will filter dialogue so that it fits into what feels "writerly" instead of real. In TLSOIKH, the dialogue is fresh and feels like real conversations between real friends.

Altogether, this is one of those books that I wish had been around when I was younger and in the throes of unrequited love. There is no neat little bow or a cute package, just reality and raw human emotion.

A charming coming of age story I fell in love with both of the main characters immediately. A beautiful young adult love story I would definitely recommend this to any teenager looking for a beautiful queer love story,

The story of Ivy, pay very close attention to the title my friends because this is a different kind of love story. Our narrator has a crush on Ivy has every since they became friends when they were younger. But spoiler alert if you think this is the kind of book where the girl gets the girl after professing her love (after a lot of liquid encouragement) you would be sadly mistake like I am. Our narrator details the love story of Ivy from an outsiders looking in kinda prospective. While I was reading this book that made me a little bit furious, but now that I’m on the other side looking at the reading experience as a whole I gotta say that is was actually kinda magical and heartbreaking and touched my soul. And the best part is the narrator didn’t even see someone else was pining after her. I feel like I want another book about her love song now. Overall this was an amazing read and such a beautiful reading experience. If you’re looking for a different kind of sapphic read give this one a try!

This book is not what I thought it was going to be. I don’t want to read about a love story from the perspective of the the jealous unrequited best friend. I’m just not enjoying this perspective at all so I’m DNFing. It was an interesting choice but not for me.

The Love Song of Ivy K. Harlowe, is a gut-wrenching novel. That I myself put down a couple of times of how close it hit to home. The book is about finding your own path and how to live with all the mess that is life.

The cover and title definitely had me curious and I enjoyed some aspects of the story. The relationship between Ivy and Andie was just a bit much and I wish the main character would’ve realized sooner that she deserves so much more.

This book took me entirely by surprise. I was a bit wary going into this, because I was worried that jealousy would take over too much of the book, and at first, that's where it seemed like the book was going. Andie was focused entirely on Ivy, her best friend, and was constantly jealous (and sometimes quite petty) to the people Ivy slept with. But slowly, it became clear that the narrative wasn't going to be about Andie winning Ivy necessarily, but about Andie starting to live for herself, and move on.

As soon as I started seeing these threads of the story come through, the book became more bearable, and I find myself getting more and more tangled up in the web of relationships and friendships Andie's found herself in. I was invested in seeing where Ivy and Dot's relationship would go, despite the sometimes negative lens we see the relationship through. I was even invested in Andie's relationship with Elizabeth, even though it was clear that it wasn't always a two-sided relationship. This book was overall full of drama, but in a good and realistic way, that aligned with the main character being in a relationship while also being unable to get over her best friend.

This book takes a turn for heartbreak somewhere at the end, with all these plot points seeming to come to a peak at the same time. There's suddenly so much going on with everyone, but I thought it was overall really well done, with no particular story taking over. This is where the title of the book really starts to make sense, and I like how the book chooses to close Ivy's love story while keeping Andie's door open for the future. Some of these final chapters were absolutely heart-wrenching, and it's hard to go into details without spoiling, but it's both really hard to read at points while still being beautiful in it depiction of certain events.

The characters in this book are all a bit of a mess in their own ways, but I loved that we got to see the full spectrum of queer emotion in this book, from joy to pain to heartbreak. There's such a diversity in the depictions of love and sex and romance in this book, and it was honestly great to see. There is also a lot of drinking and partying, with some drugs here and there, but the book isn't blind to it nor does it reward this risk-taking, without labelling the entire partying scene as 'bad'. It creates a clear divide between dancing and enjoyment when hanging out with friends and riskier activities that often come along with it, and even after bad things happen, there is still joy to be found in the music and dancing with each other. I also really like how all the characters seemed to grow as the story went on, learning to live with their own choices and the consequences of them as well as just the growth that happens when you're young (since everyone was around 17-21).

Overall, I ended up really enjoying this book (if enjoyment is even the right word... this book broke my heart), and I think it's great to see more books about all-queer casts where not everyone has to be perfect and wonderful. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for other books by this author!

I might be biased because I adore Hannah Moskowitz' other books but I thought this was a beautiful and delicately written story perfect for older teens.

I didn't care for this title. It just didn't capture my interest or drag me into it's world. I was just bored at times and I didn't fall in love with the characters. It just ended up being a really tough read.

One of the few NA books about lesbians. Loved to death the disability rep. Moskowitz is still an amazing author.

I really loved this book. It is the first “new adult” sapphic book I’ve been able to find! The Dot situation was weird but it was interesting.

This was a unique story. I haven't read a ton of LGBTQ books and I wanted to read a little more so I requested to read this book. Andie has been crushing on Ivy. Ivy is a beautiful mess and also Andie Best friend. It a story of love and coming of age. It definitely has a bunch of adult topics so definitely check those out prior to reading but overall it was a good read and I enjoyed it.

So often, people fall for someone and expect it to work out. What if it doesn't? What if you've never even said anything? What do you do when the person you love, loves someone else?

I really, really loved this. It had my favourite brand of queer characters who are equal parts messy and unsure yet so very relatable, and Moskowitz’s prose was compulsively readable!

There are so many parts of this story that hit close to home, so many quotes where I read them and paused because….damn, I am in this picture and I’m not sure I like it because I felt incredibly seen.

Also, the way the narrative was framed? With the protagonist functioning essentially as a secondary character? THAT WAS SO EFFECTIVE. I LOVED IT. And you know I will always, always be a fan of stories featuring chronic illness/condition rep, written by chronically ill authors. I really appreciated the nuance this perspective is able to bring when exploring characters who become disabled during the story (ie. starting out able-bodied), and the conversations they have—both internally with themselves and externally with their friends and loved ones.

I didn't love this book, though I didn't dislike it either. It wasn't really for me. Some of what I found confusing is mentioned in other reviews. The narrator is not the main character. Also, we should've know this from the title - Ivy is the main character.

I think ultimately, I didn't like this book because I didn't really like the characters. Or I didn't relate to them. This is a NA book and I am an old adult/parent. I had some issues with the drinking and drugs. (view spoiler) Also, as a monogamous demisexual person I had a hard time relating to the poly highly sexualized activity in the book. This made me judgmental about the characters. But honestly, I understand that is my own stuff and nothing about the book itself.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book. This book is one that I believe a lot of people are not going to be able to read this. The author has listed the content/trigger warnings in the beginning of the book but I will give you the highlights, there's a lot of unorthodox behavior with partying (in not the safe way) and toxic friendships.
There are a ton more intense scenes especially towards the end with panic attacks and post traumatic stress disorder symptoms so if that is something you are not comfortable reading please don't read this.Other than the items listed above, there is a lot of self-discovery when it comes to friendships and relationships with one person impacting someone's life not necessarily in the romantic sense. There's a variety of representation in sexuality and illness which was a pleasant surprise but there were some moments that I did not necessarily agree with but with the story plot the way it was, it definitely fit. Overall, this book is definitely going to stick with me although reading it itself can be a tough experience for emotions and for someone who has difficulty understanding love it can be especially tough. Because of these points, I have to give this book a 4 out of 5 stars

The Love Song of Ivy K. Harlowe had one of my favorite tropes — falling for your best friend. As a person who can relate to that in a very close perspective, I think this book did the deed perfectly. I absolutely loved this book and will recommend it to so many people!

I really liked that this book was on the "older" side of YA (Andie and Ivy are 19 and turn 20 by the end, and Dot is 17 and turns 18 by the end) because I'm about to be a college freshman and I hope I can continue reading YA for as long as possible without the characters seeming so much younger than me...
It was also nice to read about a character who's in love with someone but realizes that it's not reciprocated, as it's easy to think that "friends to lovers" easily happens in real life.
The things i didn't like were pretty much the same things I didn't like about this author's other book, "Not Otherwise Specified." First, there were TWO different bars/clubs in town that were okay with serving alcohol to high schoolers (why is this such a common thing in YA books?) Second, I really didn't understand why Andie was so obsessed with Ivy, as she wasn't even that good of a friend, and I had to listen to Andie talk about and romanticize Ivy's "troubled past" repeatedly. I just don't like characters that are idealized as perfect. And I know that the representation in this book was important and I liked that nearly everyone was queer, but can we have a story about queer teenagers/young adults that doesn't focus so much on partying and drinking all the time? Because the parts about Andie helping her parents with their strip club and Ivy's interest in fashion were so good, but they were always overshadowed by the repetitive bar/club scenes in which Andie obsessed over Ivy and her latest hookup.

I had such a hard time getting through this book. It was slow, I didn't connect with any of the characters, and I couldn't even enjoy the romance because of the way it was told. Andie is so obsessed with Ivy, which was more weird and annoying than anything else. It had potential, but it's just not enjoyable to read.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley.

Epic all Queer cast! As a lesbian I love being represented in books. Beautiful and moving!