I didn't hate this book, but I didn't love it either. I found both girls to be unlikeable, especially Rachel who came off as very bossy to me. Overall, I just didn't connect with the characters and I also felt the story itself was very slow, except for the ending which felt rushed.

This book cover gives me so much life! It was honestly the reason I picked to read it. Enemies to lovers YA romance. A Cheerleader and a film geek, one is wealthy or better off and the other is poor/struggling. Then they are forced to work together and eventually start realizing the misconception they had about each other. It's cute and Romantic and shows how different cultures have expectations of their children without considering what the children actually want. I

The only bad thing I have to say is I was listening as an audiobook and in 1 part i think the author was trying to have an inner monologue and it made the audio sound off like a speaker went out a few times other than that I love it! Author did a great job Narrating!

Also dont know if there's a 2nd book coming but there's a clip in the book that makes me hope so.

This book is really good and was on my TBR for such a long time! I’m so glad I finally got to listen to it. Loved the narration as well.

5/5 ⭐️
Aaaah this is one of my fav LGBT romance books so far this year!! I loved everything from the characters to the plot to the banter! And plus after learning it’s a Rory GilmorexParis Geller inspired romance makes it all the better!

I was in no way surprised that I liked this story because I have owned the physical book since it came out a few years back and I adored the book then. That being said seeing as I love audiobooks I wanted to know about this one and I was not disappointed.
A narrator can often bring new life to a book and that was the case here. I got to fall in love with these characters all over again thanks to Safi's narration. It felt like a whole new dimension was brought to the story and I found myself smiling and laughing right along with the characters all over again.
I would definitely check this audio out even if you already have or have read the book because this really brings the story back to life.

I was excited when I saw the audiobook for Tell Me How You Really Feel was available to request. I really enjoyed listening to it, but I wish the NetGalley Shelf app had better structure so I could speed up the audio (which is something that works really well for me), because unfortunately whenever I tried to listen to it at 2.5x or 3.0x speed, the audio would skip words and make it difficult to understand what was going on.

Sana and Rachel are enemies who are forced to work with each other after an accident happens at school.

The story is really cute and I listened to it in one sitting. The characters have their own struggles and it makes the fact that they have to work together even more interesting. However, I really dislike miscommunication, so that made me not long for their interactions that much.

Other than that, I feel like the representation in this book is pretty cool, seeing that both main characters are not only queer but also people of color.

I enjoyed the book for the most part. I thought it was cute. I liked seeing the different sides of the main characters and how they developed. (Although I didn't particularly love either one of them) I did feel overall it was lacking some sort of connection I craved and the story fell a little flat for me.

I listened to this on audio which could have added to my lack of connection. The narration wasn't my favorite.

Cute story, but it wasn’t believable that these two would make it in the long run. Also teens really do think they are superior and know best don’t they? So I guess it was relatable in that sense. Loved the Gilmore girl vibes. I listened to the audio which was narrated by the author which was fun but I wish there was some distinction between the girls POV whether she did a different voice or had a friend read opposite her. The cover is actual perfection.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audiobook.

This was a cute, quick & easy read/listen! I sometimes find when I'm reading stories with the characters in high school that the main characters annoy the hell out of me, but this (mostly) didn't happen here which was a nice change. I thought it was cool that the author was the narrator as well, and thought it was well done for the most part. The only thing that I had an issue with was there were times where I would forget which character was speaking because there wasn't a lot to differentiate between them. Otherwise, I found this a well written story and would definitely recommend!

Sapphic romance sapphic romance sapphic romance!!!! This was so sweet and I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook. I’m pretty new to listening to fiction books on audiobook and I really enjoyed this one!

(thank you netgalley for the audiobook!)
I’m starting this review of with my thoughts on the narration, after that i will talk about the actual story.
I always appreciate when an author is narrating their own book because they know how sentences were meant to come across. I liked that. However, audio quality wasnt the best and it lagged sometimes which was pretty annoying.
Overall, i couldnt really connect with the characters and the pacing of their relationship was so off. I sometimes found myself confused with what stage they’re currently in (could also just be a me problem tho)
The writing style also didnt help. It couldve used a lot of editing and at least two times someone let out a breath they didnt know they were holding 🧍

I am a little frustrated that my review did not save the first time through this site, so I'm going to keep this short and simple. This book is a perfect example of what a YA queer contemporary romance should be. It does not deal with the long, grueling, and often traumatic "coming out" story. Our two main characters can just simply be, and I love that. Although I think we still need the coming out stories, we need more "normal" ones more. Where queer kids can just be out because oftentimes reading coming out stories can be really painful. This book makes you feel like falling in love for the first time. It brings you back to all of those intense feelings you feel as a teenager. The almost-first-kiss, the real first kiss in the steamy car from the rain, the first touches, a gentle caress of a thumb against your hand, and childishly making out. It feels and flows so ooey-gooey off the page. Aminah's writing is superb and I was impressed with her audio recording skills. It is impressive when the author can both write smoothly and talk it so well. This book belongs in every high school library. There are times where I felt like throwing Rachel off a cliff, but I feel as though that is what makes a good character. Her character development is strong. She makes them feel real and raw. They are realistic teenagers, which is often very hard for adults to do sometimes, because they either try too hard or don't fully comprehend what being a teen is like nowadays. Also I adored the representation between the two main characters. This is a fantastically written and thought-out novel. Thank you for the ARC of the audiobook (are you allowed to call it an arc if it's already out in physical copy?) Anyways, I'm excited to get a physical copy at some point.

I've been wanting to read this one for a long time and have seen it featured on almost all sapphic recommendation lists so I had really high hopes for this one.

I liked the characters but I found Rachel to be very annoying. I tend to DNF books that have annoying MC but thankfully it has both the MCs POV so Sana was always there to balance it up. I know this played a lot into their general personalities but yeah.

The plot of the book was predictable but still enjoyable nonetheless. I liked the writing specially pertaining to parts about Sana's family and career talks, found some good quotes there. Also liked the whole Helen of Troy project Rachel had going.

The parts I didn't enjoy were the miscommunication trope towards the end and a couple or so scenes here and there between the MCs. But the ending made up for it, I would say.

My only problem with the book was the sentence "Urdu was Hindi, after all" in the first chapter.

Overall, it is an enjoyable one-time read, recommended to YA contemporary and sapphic lit lovers.

Rating; 3.5

I loved this story! It felt real and the characters were relatable. It felt like a situation I could find myself in.

This book wasn't for me and I am sorry to say I did not completely finish this. I decided to take a chance on an audiobook, but even though I can understand why it could be fun for an author to read her own book aloud, it didn't work out all that well. There was no distinction between characters and I personally didn't like the way she was narrating it.
Rachel is not a nice a person so it didn't feel like it was possible for Sana to make the turn from enemy to lover..I don't know. It just wasn't for me.

Rep: Muslim biracial lesbian MC (Persian & Indian), Jewish Mexican lesbian MC

This is an enemies to lovers wlw story. It has good sapphic and POC rep. The two mcs already have their sexuality figured out, so it was nice to see that instead of a coming out story for a change. It also doesn’t mention any labels. Both of the characters and their families are POC.

I liked that Rachel’s movie was about Helen of Troy, because I love Greek mythology. Kinda random but I also liked that Sana was playing Overwatch. I used to play that game all the time.

The story and characters were alright, but I found myself losing interest at some points. I just wasn’t super into the story. It was ok, not great.

The narrator is good. Only issue is that the audio got muffled for a phrase or two 3 times, around 32% in. It’s cool that the author got to narrate her own book. I also find that it would have maybe been good to have a dual-narration to help distinguish the two characters a bit better because I had a hard time doing that. She also didn’t do any accents or change her voice much when speaking as other characters unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book.

This book was fine, but just not for me. The narration was also fine, even though the breathiness of it annoyed me at times, but that's a me problem. Again I didn't love this, but it's mainly because I can't fathom how on earth Sana could be in love with someone who continuously treats her like sh*t. Honestly for 60% of this book Rachel is unbearable. She was so rude and just completely unlikable. I don't mind an unlikable character, and I also don't mind the enemies to lovers trope, but it just didn't make sense. She had no real motivation to hate Sana. Sana was always nice to Rachel, and for no reason Rachel decided to hate her and be mean to her. Technically we do get a reasoning, I just think it was some weak bs. Rachel also has a redemption, but I still didn't like it. Sorry Rachel, but I would never

I really loved the LGBTQ/POC representation in this book. Unfortunately, I found myself losing interest in this audiobook throughout the story. It felt like some parts of the plot were used to add length and not really move the story forward. While I am not against recommending this title to my teen patrons, it wont be the first title I suggest.

Rachel is one project away from securing her place at one of the most prestigious film colleges in the country. The only problem? Everyone around her is incompetent and she just fired her lead actress. After a dispute with her advisor forces her to cast her greatest enemy in the lead role, Rachel has to re-evaluate her goals, her project, and her judgements of Sana. Sana has spent her whole life training to be a surgeon. She does not drink alcohol because it could possibly cause hand tremors later in life. She has taken every pre-med class her school offers, and has an early acceptance to Princeton. With everything falling into place, why can't Sana relax into her pre-planned future? Getting roped into her enemy's senior thesis project doesn't help. But as Sana gets to know Rachel better, she begins to see the value of letting other people into her inner world and being honest about her feelings. Will Sana and Rachel be able to finish the film in time? As sparks begin to fly, and familial tensions threaten both girls, no one thinks they can make the deadline.
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I loved this book! A refreshing and diverse YA romance that features a true enemies-to-lovers arc. I have listened to a lot of audiobooks and it seems fairly rare for the author to narrate a fiction audiobook, but hearing the author read these characters felt so right. She placed the emphasis in all the right places, and her love for these characters and their stories shone through. Each character had a distinct and meaningful arc beyond the romance, and this was a YA story with genuinely high stakes. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for their next enemies-to-lovers story!

firstly, really happy to see the representations POC queer/sapphic relationships getting not only book deals but audiobook deals too! getting to listen to the author narrate her own book is always exciting since i think that is the best way to make sure the text is represented as intended when being read aloud. aminah mae safi did a great job voicing the characters and bringing out the emotion in the text.

however, i do think that this book would have benefitted from a dual-narration. since the book sees from the perspective of both main characters, having too different voices would have made it easier to distinguish perspectives. additionally, i feel that having two different voices would have allowed for a more personal experience due to the individuality in the voices.

in general, the story was fun and kept me interested till the very end. this is YA so definitely more suited for younger audiences. i didn't have any problems with the plot - even if it was a little cliche i think that the sapphic book genre deserves a bit of that fun since i find sapphic books are most often riddled with tragedy.

the pacing felt steady throughout the book, however, the ending felt quite rushed. it was a happy ending that was a little cheesy but, understandable for the YA audience.