An absolute delight!! A highly recommended first purchase for public YA and HS collections where contemporaries are popular.

"They were a writer, She did pageants
What more can I say?"

Teagan is tackling what could be her last beauty pageant, and she's ready to be out and proud. Kay is here for the fandom and the GreatCon, and has a list to accomplish (use they/them pronouns and kiss a girl). The pageant and fandom world collide when they make the same hotel home base for the weekend.

I really enjoyed this! Both narrators really shine in The One True Me and You, and were really easy to root for. I'm kind of hoping for some spin-offs with some of the side characters because I really loved the friends these two surrounded themselves with!

This was a lovely tale of friendship, acceptance, self-discovery, and finding the right person. Honestly, this book is just awesome. I loved the fandom aspects, although I am disappointed that The Great Game is not a real show. All in all, I am so glad I read this! Also I would be remiss if I did not shout out the LGBTQ+ rep in this. First off the main ship is F/NB. Then there's just so many out and proud characters in the supporting cast.

Also, I really need to read more books by Remi K. England / M. K. England...

Many thanks to NetGalley & Wednesday Books for this eARC. I really appreciate the opportunity to read this!

I received a complimentary copy of The One True Me and You from NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Though I could not relate directly to these characters, I feel that the coming of age and youthful desires are universally understood. This was definitely an uplifting story of identity and acceptance. Both Teagan and Kaylee hide personal secrets from the public. Fandom and creative talents connect these two individuals (despite a prejudice of pageant participants). Good book. I would read from this author again.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGally for an advanced copy of this book!
The set up for this book starts slow and then connects so sweetly and authentically I couldn't but it down. Both LGBTQ teens and adults who have ever been into fandom will feel soo seen by this book and its characters.
I will be ordering this book for my library and I know my teens will love it.

This book! If you're looking for a fun, swoony, and tension-filled read--with a healthy dose of fandom love--this book is for you! It manages to capture the joy and drama of fandom and the complicated, messy truth of figuring out queer identity with an ultimate message of compassion--for others and yourself. The book gripped me from the start, and I flew through it in less than a day. I highly recommend it!

I can't get enough of The One True Me and You.... It was simply amazing!
Honestly though, this book was everything I hoped it would be.
Such an empowering story, was well written and a fast paced read!
The characters WoW.... Great lead characters.
Beautiful, beautiful read!

This was more than just a pretty cover! I expect this book to be a HUGE success.

I'm not even going to attempt to write a full review because words can't express.... Just read it!
Pick it up for yourself and you will see just what I mean. I highly recommend!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, St. Martin Press/Wednesday Books And Author.for.this beautiful book!
I seriously can't thank you enough for this ebook copy!

I will post to my Goodreads and Bookstagram account closer to pub date!

When you add fanfiction writer, Sherlock love, and beauty pageant contestants that are thrown together at a hotel, mix in a mean girl, you get this book! A super cute, heart warming book about learning your true self. If you're confused about anything, your pronouns, this book can help with it!

Told from alternating points of view, Teagan is competing at a pageant when she finds out Great Con is there too,
Kaylee is a huge fanfic author hoping to meet some fandom friends at GreatCon. There is also the high school mean girl that has bullied Kaylee, and Madison also happens to be a rival of Teagan in the pageant. Kaylee and Teagan run into each other, and there is an instant connection. The girls have to be careful. If Madison sees Teagan with Kaylee, it could ruin her chance at a huge scholarship and Madison could continue to make Kaylee’s life miserable. Many secrets come out and both girls are crying. Can things be worked out so they can possibly have a relationship later on? We find the whole point of fandom is acceptance and supporting each other no matter where we’re from or what we’re like in real life.

4.5 rounded up to five

The story takes place in a Florida hotel over a weekend, at which a beauty pageant and a media con are both booked. High school aged Kay is finally getting a chance to meet up with besties hitherto only seen on social media; Kay goes to a very conformist and socially conservative high school, at which the local queen bee gets away with scrawling LESBIAN all over her locker--as a pejorative.

Oh, and this monster shows up that the con.

But then there's Teagan, who has been doing the pageant circuit for years. This is her last one, her final shot at a much-needed scholarship that will get her to college. But she has to hide her love of girls or she'll be tossed out of the pageant circuit on her ear, and that same queen bee, against whom she's been competing for a long time, has been gunning for her.

Kay is a fanfic writer, and still trying to make some gender decisions, but tentatively leans toward non-binary. When Kay and Teagan meet, it's instant sparks. The rest of the book goes through the weekend as Teagan has to hide her burgeoning romance while being hunted by Madison the horrible queen bee, and Kay begins to gain some self confidence about a lot of things, including sharing writing and deciding on which pronouns fit best.

It wasn't a perfect book [ the queen bee is such a one-dimensional monster whom none of the supposedly hawk-eyed adults ever catches in her cruelty and b.s.--I really hoped there would be some insight into why she's so awful--and both Kay's and Teagan's wins felt a bit too much like plot armor ] but it was such a fast, wonderful read. I loved the friendships, the talk about fandom, the enthusiasm for the emerging feminism in the pageant circle as well as the ups and downs of fandom. I really loved that whiteness was called out, not a default, when differentiating physical types.

Most of all I loved Kay and Teagan, each with insecurities to be struggled with and to be overcome. Their romance is wonderful in its rollercoaster passion and sizzling moments.

Strictly speaking this is not F/F as Kay is non-binary, so I'd make the call that the book is LGTBQ-friendly, and the central romance highlights that.

Review - The One True Me and You by Remi K England

“Does the term ‘lesbian’ even apply if you’re maybe, quite possibly...nonbinary?”

Thank you so much to Netgalley, St Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

--

Only a few pages in, and I’m already laughing. Queers flock to fandom like flies to honey and it’s because they know for sure it’ll be easy to not only make friends, but to potentially find love in this big group of like-minded people. I should know, it’s happened to me more than once.

My found family is a big group of queer folks who I’ve met through various comic and anime conventions, and I’m THAT nerd with D&D tattoos and several OCs.

This book...gosh. This book.

At a weekend long fandom convention, Kaylee is a fanfic author who wants to try using they/them pronouns. Their mother is a hovering phone call every few hours with ‘miss/good girl/young lady’ every time they speak, and Kaylee just wants to be Kay. Dress in more masculine presenting cosplay. And maybepossiblyhopefully kiss a girl.

Teagan is a beauty pageant competitor, and also a huge nerd (but that’s a secret). Her rival, Miss North Carolina, is awful, and can’t find out that Teagan is also a nerd, and also majorly gay.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the pageant and the con are taking place at the same hotel that weekend…

This book is full of so many references that you might not get if you’re not from this scene, but if you are, it feels like coming home. If you’re not, there might be a lot of references that go over your head. I can’t say for sure if it’ll make you feel excluded, because I am part of this crowd, but let’s just say that Kay’s chapters felt more comfortable to me, more ‘at home’ to me, than Teagan’s, even if they’re both nerds.

Remi K England took a book about aspects of my life (tea included) and made it into a real book. A book with a story inside, a book that is going to be published and other people are going to read. I felt this way when I read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, but this is another aspect of it, this is...better.

This book feels like coming home.

Five stars.

This was awesome fun read. A one-sit reading binge. All the best things of fandom, writing, and romance all rolled into one adorable package.I adored both MCs, Remi K. England did an great job of crafting these characters and making them real people with depth and distinctively wonderful personalities.
Read this book. You will LOVE it.

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Griffin and Netgalley for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for an honest review.