This was a thoroughly enjoyable, very queer story about growing up, figuring out your identity, and the evolution of friendship.

Hawkins, the school mascot, has a giant crush on head-cheerleader Regina. When Regina finds out, she decides to use Hawkins as a free tutor for Chloe, Regina's girlfriend. Chloe and Hawkins discover that they used to know each other, back when Hawkins loved princess dresses. Regina includes Hawkins in her friend group.

The author does an entertaining job playing with tropes (cheerleader, but also wicked smart; athlete but motivated by computer science, etc) while creating engaging characters who you're rooting for throughout. Despite it being a high school romance, there's less cringe awkwardness than some books (and I am allergic to awkward, so I REALLY appreciate that). I'd recomment this to almost anyone late middle school and up.

I picked up an e-arc of BELLE OF THE BALL on @netgalley and when I tell you this was the fluffiest cutest *I wanna squeal right now* little YA graphic I am not exaggerating.

Pick this book up when it releases March 21st if you like:

- a sapphic love triangle (all 3 are girls!)
- cute nerdy shit like gaming & manga & renaissance faires
- different body shapes & ways to be femme
- different ways to approach high school & college
- swoony art (give me all the blushing please!!)
- a romcom w/ low-steam a la heartstopper
- a brazilian author/illustrator (book has brazilian rep too)
- a happily ever after!

Will you be reading this one in March? If you're a teacher, this one works for both high school *and* middle school, by the way .

Turns out the only way to get me excited about sports is make it gay and super cute. Hawkins asks out her longtime crush Regina, captain of the cheerleading team, straight A planner and long time girlfriend of Chloe. Regina see's this as an opportunity to bring in Hawkins to tutor Chloe, a superstar athlete whose grades are seriously threatening Regina's 10 year plan for them.
This was such a perfect graphic novel. The story was adorable, the characters were fleshed out and the art was too cute! Will be recommending to everyone once it's out.

Feels like a whole (short) manga series in one book. The characters are wonderfully expressive, and there's so much happening here. The changes in the relationships don't feel rushed, and I loved the different voices and how much the characters grow from past, present, and near-future while still feeling like the same person.

It's so great to see these kinds of stories these days, with unabashedly queer characters who are uniquely themselves. It's also great to see them grow and change without exaggerated emotions, just realizing that who you are at the beginning of your senior year may not be the same person you are at the end.

What an unmitigated delight. This is NOT the direction I thought this one was going to go in and I absolutely loved it. Loved the normalized queer relationships, loved the enemies to friends to lovers thing, loved it all. And the art! The pink tones! I can't wait to see more from Mari Costa. GREAT book.

Belle of the Ball is a sweet sapphic YA romance. It is technically a love triangle, although it does not read anything like a Twilight or a Hunger Games love triangle does. This one centers around three seniors in high school who are preparing for the next step in their lives and navigating how those next steps change their current relationships. I absolutely adored the art style in this book and the diversity of body types the author represented. This is a quick read and I would definitely recommend it to the Heartstoppers crowd.

This was adorable! I understand the comparison to High School Musical and Mean Girls, but this felt way more wholesome than both of those. Chloe and Hawkins are a couple of my new favourite characters, and I love the consistency with the colour throughout giving it a great feeling. The art was so adorable, too, this is one that I felt like it could've gone so many different ways with the ending and although I'd have loved for it to have worked out differently (I'm always a sucker for poly relationships being more common in media) I doubted it was going to happen anyway, so I'm very happy about the end of this anyway.

** Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced e-copy of this graphic novel in exchange for a fair and honest review. **

Hawkins is content being a wallflower and the school mascot. But when she finally gets up the courage to ask out her longtime crush, Regina - the head cheerleader and most popular girl in school - she's shot down because Regina is currently back on with her on-again-off-again girlfriend Chloe. But Regina sees Hawkins' crush as an opportunity and asks Hawkins to tutor Chloe free of charge, knowing Hawkins can't say no to her. But Regina didn't count on Chloe and Hawkins having known each other as kids and she definitely didn't count on them restarting that friendship.

I've only recently started getting into graphic novels and finding out what elements I like and what I don't. I highly enjoyed Belle of the Ball. The artwork was nicely done and captured the feeling of the story.

This book has an adorable take on an LGBTQ love triangle romance. Hawkins crush, school cheerleader, Regina is unfortunately dating Chloe. Knowing about Hawkins' crush on her, Regina enlists her to tutor Chloe, who is less thrilled about being tutored by a girl with a crush on her girlfriend. Highly recommend!

I actually liked this even more than I thought I would. It's sweet and charming, a story focused on growing relationships. I can definitely see this becoming a favorite on the YA shelves.

The first few pages can be a bit meh, but the story picks up good and it's just a good book, with artwork that compliments the story (and a story that compliments the artwork). I especially loved the last few pages as a kind of epilogue.

/ Denise

If you love Heartstopper, you will love this book! It's so heartwarming and deep despite it being a typical "slice of life" graphic novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thoroughly charming and relatable. I'm handing this one to fans of Kiss Number 8.

For Libraries: Definitely for teen collections.

To be honest after the first couple of pages I almost didn’t finish the book and what a mistake that would have been! I am so glad I picked the book back up and kept reading. I absolutely ended up loving this book. I think I was afraid it was going to be a mean girls kind of story and I really didn’t want to see Hawkins get taken advantage of. Instead the story took a wonderful turn for Hawkins and the ending made me swoon. I can’t wait for this book to be available so I can get it for my high school library. I know my students are going to love it and I will love book talking it too!

This is a refreshing twist of the nerd-cheerleader-football player love triangle that runs entirely on girl power. This sweet lesbian teen love story will appeal to Heartstopper fans.

I absolutely adore Costa’s artwork. The use of one main color always gets me and reminds me of Heartbreaker—which is a good thing, The theme of finding yourself and figuring out who you want to be is a great one, especially for the intended audience. Costa flawlessly shows the stress of senior year of high school for both teens that have their lives planned out and teens that aren’t sure what they’re going to do. This graphic novel also gives our protagonists a happy ending, which is always what I want out of a story.

I need to start by saying I loved Belle of the Ball. The coloring was awesome, the characters were likable, and the romance was adorable. That being said, I am just teeny tiny bit disappointed because I really thought I was about to get some polyamory,

Let me explain. Our main character, Belle, is rejected by a popular, overachieving cheerleader, Gene. Gene then convinces her to tutor her hot jock girlfriend, Chloe. This is a great setup for a throuple. However. it became pretty clear that the romance was going to be between Chloe and Belle. And I loved them. I swooned a few times. It reminded me of several fanfics I love, which is a compliment. But the whole time I could only think about how well they would work in a polyamorous relationship. These three characters care about each other a lot, and it is very, very sweet. I just kept wanting more.

To be clear, this is very much on me. This isn't being sold as a polyamorous story. But I just wanted it so badly. Still, I liked it a lot. I think maybe kids who love Hearstopper and Check, Please! will love this too. I am a real sucker for queer sports romances, so this really worked on that front. A love triangle between a cheerleader, a star athlete, and the mascot is such a great concept that I legally need to give this five stars. A truly great queer graphic novel that is full of joy, all sorts of love, and great conversations about identity.

This was so good! It reminded me a lot of Heartstopper. I loved all the characters and how they interacted with each other. The story was fantastic as well. It was so cute! I would highly recommend checking this one out if you like cute, slice-of-life graphic novels.

This book is so precious! It's a very sweet lesbian story with lovable characters and delightful art. There are only three characters with any real development, but they are of course the focus of the story, and all three are developed well. This is one I'd be happy to re-read numerous times as a comfort read. Wholesome and wonderful.

this wsa really cute. the illustrations were cute and i loved having a sapphic graphic novel. the relationship between the football player and nerd was cute but a bit predictable

This is so lovely! This is a great graphic novel and was so inclusive! The relationships created by the author are so sweet and wholesome, and this would be such an impactful read for young wlw. I can’t wait to promote this as much as it deserves!