A coming of age YA rom-com about a queer, Jewish girl trying to navigate an internship, friendships, love, and life.

“Dead fish can’t break your heart. They can only teach you about the world and what it means to exist in it.”

After witnessing her relationship crash and burn, Shani did not expect to literally crash her car into a girl as her mom dropped her off for a paleichthyologist internship in DC. Recovering from the brutal middle finger from the girl, Shani arrives to stay at a house filled with eclectic characters. While she agrees to help her roommate with a dog-walking gig, she soon finds herself back in the path of Mya, middle finger girl. What started as an icy, hateful meeting transpires into something more as the icy atmosphere begins to melt.

The romance aspect of the book was realistic in the sense that they were two queers exploring their heart and feelings. Throughout the book, Shani grows as an individual and it is beautifully displayed through her emotions and actions as she begins to truly excavate her heart. This was such a quick, fun read that delicately touched on sexual assault and the importance of consent.

OH MY GOD this book!! got me out of the worst reading slump of my life, and is for sure a new favorite. the romance, and plot, the setting: everything. when i tell you that i needed shani and may to be together, i mean it. wyd if not reading this book?

What a cute, heart-warming quick read! How to Excavate a Heart has all the elements of a perfect YA romance set during Christmastime. I could definitely see this story being made into a movie during the holidays and becoming a big hit!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperTeen for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Absolutely loved this warm hug of a book! Shani is desperate to escape the memories of her recent break up, leaving her mom in New York while she does an internship in DC. She meets a girl, and soon she has to reconcile her fears about being in a relationship and taking a chance on something real and healthy. Set during the holidays, this is a snowy, cozy story about love, friendship, and family.

I loved this book so much it makes me insane. The romance is so awkward and stumbling in all the best most realistic ways. For me specifically this book reminded me of my best friend so much that I physically want to hug it to my chest and never let go because it feels like talking with her. Even the heavy parts are handled so beautifully it takes you gently through a very hard thing and I just cannot say enough good things about this book I love it a truly bonkers amount.

This was recommended to me by a student, and I really enjoyed it! Both main characters were well fleshed out and relatable. Bonus points from me for Judaism and cute dog. There was one sideplot that seemed a little off to me the whole time, but otherwise a super fun, cute read.

This book was so fun!!!! I thoroughly enjoyed every page. I appreciated that it was an enemies-to-lovers plot where you know they will get together, but truly don’t know how they will manage it—who could have guessed how Shani and May would find each other again after the near-vehicular manslaughter? I found all the elements of how they fell in love very compelling, from running into each other at the museum to sharing their interests in paleontology and meteorology with each other to getting snowed in together on Christmas.

All of the characters in this book were very refreshing and unique—the elderly lady who takes in random college girls in need of housing, the eccentric paleichthyologist, the corgi who is truly just along for the ride. Shani's relationship with her mother was super relatable and I think lots of readers will see themselves reflected in Shanis' complicated feelings towards her mom. Some of the background characters were a bit underdeveloped, but that’s pretty reflective of Shani’s one-track-mind and didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book.

The one element that I wish had been developed more was the character of Sadie. Sometimes her past actions and motivations were a bit hard to grasp because we really didn’t know her very well. This makes sense, since her relationship with Shani is over when the book begins, but since Sadie is such a big part of Shani as we know her, I sort of wish there’d been some flashback scenes that would let us meet Sadie more than just in her brief text conversation with Shani at the end of the book.

I also found Shani's relationship with the barista sort of cringey and overall unnecessary to the plot, but probably other readers will find it funny/charming.

I like that this book is about college freshmen but is written for a YA audience—I would have absolutely loved a book just like this when I was in high school.

I absolutely devoured this book. I typically take several days to weeks to finish a book, but this one was done in two nights. I couldn’t put it down!

The story is relatively simple - but in a good way - and the characters are well developed and endearing. I’d highly recommend to anyone looking for a new queer romance to read.

Thank you to the publisher and author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It is so rare that a book I hype up so much in my mind actually lives up to my expectations, but this did that and more. I felt every emotion reading this book. It is sapphic, it is Jewish, and my absolutely favorite part - THE DOG!!! None of it would have happened without the star of the show Raphael the corgi. Aka the Loaf Boy. This book follows Shani, who goes to DC for a holiday internship for preparing fish fossils. On the way her mom and her almost run over this girl. Funny way to meet. But then she gets roped into walking the girl's father's dog. Finally we get her name - May. May 'hates' dogs, which kind of made me hate May at first, but I grew to love her quickly. It was a bit of a slow-burn at first, but I love where their relationship went and the struggles they both had and how they eventually talked to one another and worked through it. Also I was just so happy to see a Jewish romance done right(looking at you the matzah ball book). My only complaint is Shani likes Christmas music. Other than that, I literally am going to make my friends read this book to understand me the next time I am bitter about Christmas and they get mad at me for it. The chapter titles were super funny and the cover of this book is stunning, by the way. One other thing I loved - the relationship Shani has with her best friend back home and her mom. It's so rare I see a healthy mother-daughter relationship in books, this showed that so well. I loved this!! Defiantly recommend to my LGBT+ friends.
TW for sexual assault, although it is handled in a good, validating way in this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4706496255

Thank you netgalley for approving my advance copy request!

I’m a little bit bored of “coming out” as a plot point in books but I really loved this book. I loved Raphael and the meet cute of hitting May with the car and ESPECIALLY all the science stuff. My life will not be complete until I live with a 96 year old woman named Beatrice who calls me nothing but “doll”. 10/10 will be reading whatever this author writes.

If you’re going to put a corgi in booties on the cover, I don’t care if it is a YA holiday novel, I’m reading it now. Two Jewish girls in their first year of college meet over Christmas break. Shani is doing a month long internship at the Smithsonian working with her beloved fish fossils. She meets May while doing a dog-walking job. May is equally nerdy loving science and all things weather related. I love that they celebrate Jewmas together. (Going to a movie and getting Chinese food.) These two are new to their queerness. It is a first relationship for May and only a second for Shani. And Shani’s first one didn’t end well. There are other stresses going on in their lives too; parents, flatmates, work, friends etc. This is as sweet as a Hallmark Christmas movie and I love that there is a message for going slow and the relationship shouldn’t be their only focus. I will gladly keep my eye out for other books by Arlow. For middle school and up. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a YA hallmark movie about sapphic Jews and I couldn’t have loved it anymore. The main character is so nerdy and adorable, it’s worth enjoyable to read the story through her experiences. I love all the representation in this book and will be recommending it to everyone.

CW: Mention of SA

Thank you, Harper Collins Children's Books, for allowing me to read How to Excavate a Heart early.

Even though it’s spring right now, it wasn’t difficult for me to imagine it was Christmas Eve instead. I’ve been following Jake, ‘whose a girl’, for a while now, and I’m so happy I cherished their Christmas book. Loved it!

This book is delightful. Jewish heroines in their first year of college, adversaries to lovers, explorations about growing up and coming into your own as a baby queer, queer mentors, very cool and completely incomprehensible (to me) prehistoric science, beautiful conversations about sexuality, complex relationships with parents, bashing the Christian hegemony. A fantastic addition to the diverse sapphic YA cannon.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC.

CW: sexual assault, controlling relationships

This was cute, but I struggled a lot with the main character and that took down my enjoyment level. I was really frustrated with how she was basically rewarded for being terrible at her job, and I hated the weird plotline where she kept flirting with an underaged barista to get free drinks.

this was incredibly hard to put down. something about the simplistic nature of everyday life as a queer scientist, mixed with the beautiful drama of falling in love with the girl who you almost hit with a car is incredible. i'm not personally jewish, but i enjoyed the little tidbits of jewish life that were dropped in. the romance was fun and realistic to read. throughout the book, there were multiple hints to the main character being sexually assaulted and i think the ways she grappled with this realization was realistic and gripping. i am incredibly glad she got the support she needed from her parents and friends, and i loved the talks of consent between her and the main character. consent is important, even in queer relationships. besides from a few typos here and there, i really enjoyed this book.