Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Friday I’m in Love

Author: Camryn Garrett

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Black Pansexual MC, Black characters, Black bisexual vegetarian character, FF romance

Recommended For...: young adult readers, contemporary, romance, LGBT, FF romance, coming out

Publication Date: January 10, 2023

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Age Relevance: 14+ (cursing, religion, teen pregnancy, sexual content, HP mention, religious trauma, romance, cultural appropriation, racism, underage alcohol consumption, death, homophobia, bullying, white saviorism, forcing out)

Explanation of Above: There is slight cursing in the book. There are multiple mentions and a scene showing the Christian religion and there is some implied religious trauma discussed and mentioned. There is romance and slight mentions of sexual content in the form of teen pregnancy (mentioned) and a couple of jokes kids make. There is one HP mention, however it is in the context that the author is transphobic and there is an alternative book suggestion given. There are mentions and scenes of cultural appropriation, racism, and white saviorism. There are brief showings of underage alcohol consumption. Death is mentioned. There are scenes and mentions of homophobia and threats of being outted. There is some bullying shown as well.

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

Pages: 288

Synopsis: Mahalia Harris wants.

She wants a big Sweet Sixteen like her best friend Naomi.
She wants the super cute new girl Siobhan to like her back.
She wants a break from worrying--about money, snide remarks from white classmates, pitying looks from church ladies . . . all of it.

Then inspiration strikes: It's too late for a Sweet Sixteen, but what if she had a Coming Out Party? A singing, dancing, rainbow-cake-eating celebration of queerness on her own terms.

The idea lights a fire in her, and soon Mahalia is scrimping and saving, taking on extra hours at her afterschool job, trying on dresses, and awkwardly flirting with Siobhan, all in preparation for the Coming Out of her dreams. But it's not long before she's buried in a mountain of bills, unfinished schoolwork, and enough drama to make her English Lit teacher blush. With all the responsibility on her shoulders, will Mahalia's party be over before it's even begun?

A novel about finding yourself, falling in love, and celebrating what makes you you.

Review: I loved this book so much! I was immediately enthralled by the writing and the story flowed so well. The book dealt with a lot of heavy topics and also poverty, but did so in a very delicate but firm manner that I think a lot of teens would appreciate seeing and reading about. The book did well with the character development and world building. I loved the plot and I rooted for the character the whole time I was reading. The book also did well with the HP mention and I loved the alternative suggestion of Percy Jackson.

The only issue I had with the book is that I felt like the romance was a bit too fast and there were some fast paced moments that I thought could have been slowed down and better explained.

Verdict: It was great! I love it! Highly recommend!

This was so cute!!

I loved Mahalia, she was funny and awkward and had no problems saying what she was thinking.

I did think the other characters could have been more developed. Mahalia’s relationship with her dad never really changed or went anywhere, so that didn’t really add anything to the story.

Mahalia and Siobhan were adorable and the singing scene near the end was the cutest.

Overall this was a quick read, sometimes a little too rushed, but funny and sweet and it has a heartwarming ending.

This was such a beautiful and meaningful book to read. Every girl dreams of having her sweet sixteen, but what about a sweet 17/coming out party? It was honest with its perfect mix of confidence, vulnerability, anxiety, struggle and self-acceptance. It is great book for ANY reader, but also for anyone who wants to just share with the whole who they are, on their own terms. I loved every single character in this book, "flaws" and all. I found myself lining up the characters with people I have met/know in my life and I feel that is what a book like this so special. I will be sharing this with all my friends & not to mention the fabulous music featured in the story. I love a book playlist, so here is mine giving some love to Mahalia with (almost all) covers of her love playlist.

- Paradise by Céu
- I Prefer Your Love by St. Vincent
- If It Isn't Love by Joseph Soul
- Edge of Seventeen by The Wind and the Wave
- Make Me Feel by Janelle Monáe
- Pictures of You by Lit
- The Only Exception by Katelyn Tarver
- Don't You (Forget About Me) by New Found Glory
- Electric Relaxation by Excel Mixmaster, Louie Bello
- Just Can't Get Enough by The Saturdays
- Walking on the Moon by Cas Haley
- Stand by Me by Florence + the Machine
- I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Deborah Cox
- Bad Reputation by Avril Lavigne
- The Best by Landon Austin
- No Diggity by Tyler Ward
- Lose My Breath by Destiny's Child
- Head Over Heels by Hoobastank
- Every Little Thing She Does in Magic by Ra
- Friday I'm in Love by Phoebe Bridgers

This is the sweetest, loveliest story but it’s not a light read. Mahalia is dealing with a lot. Her mom’s sick, they live paycheck to paycheck and she doesn’t feel seen most of the time. When she gets a crush on the new girl and it starts to feel reciprocated, she starts to imagine a coming out party (great idea; I want one!) and this party takes over her life.

We all deserve a party and a love like this. Highly recommended.

Mahalia wanted a sweet sixteen party but unfortunately she couldn’t afford one, but then an idea strikes her, what if she had a coming out party? She is certain that it will work out, and throws herself at the organization of the whole party. But she didn’t think that it would be so much work, and soon finds herself overwhelmed. Will everything work out in the end, or will it be a fiasco?

I appreciated how the author included every day struggles in the life of a teen, and how she didn’t put these issues behind butterflies and rainbows. Because life isn’t always easy. So Mahalia who is a BIPOC and queer just wants to enjoy her teen life and find romance, but in her life there is so much going on that she can’t just do that. Enjoy her teen life.

The characters are likeable, the story is accessible and I read it in one sitting. This is how much I enjoyed my time reading this book. I liked every single thing and can’t stop gushing about “Friday I’m in love”. You have to read this beautiful coming of age story. There’s no other choice! And can we please talk about that beautiful cover?

I will be honest, this was almost a DNF for me. I am so happy I kept at it. I was annoyed with Mahalia for a good portion of the book. She was ignoring warning signs and problems and instead focusing on her party and her crush. Then it clicked…this wasn’t just a Sweet Sixteen, this is a young woman claiming her coming out, and making it purposefully joyous. Rather than make it an easy process, the author had her go through real life struggles. Which is refreshing! What tipped me from frustration to adoration of Mahalia is when I realized the entire book we are watching someone dealing with constant anxiety. All of the sudden I understood exactly what she was doing, she was just trying to focus on the thing she wanted so she didn’t have to face everything else. Reader, I cried. 😭

Having said all that, I really appreciated the Mahalia/Naomi friendship. And the romance with Siobhan while hot/cold ended up very cute (also how high school is that?). If anything this book may have taught me that YA may not be my genre anymore. I mean I am 30 I knew it would happen soon that I would stop identifying with the teens!! It was a very cute and sweet story, frankly we need more happy LGBTQ reads!

From the premise alone, I knew I'd love Friday I'm in Love. I've adored Garrett's previous books like Full Disclosure. It's easy to get swept away in the romance of Friday I'm in Love. In the dance parties, sparks across tables, and butterflies. But I think where I loved Friday I'm in Love the most were the themes of family and dreams. The ways Mahalia's has to balance her dreams and her finances. The realities of her economic hardships and those responsibilities.

I loved this one! This was a great book about finding and staying true to yourself, as well as helping your family and navigating friendships and relationships and the highs and lows of high school. 4 stars.

5 Stars

Friday I’m in Love follows Mahalia as she works to throw a coming out party after not being able to have a sweet sixteen due to her family’s financial problems. As Mahalia works to save up money she meets Siobhan, the new girl at school, and begins to catch feelings for her. As time progresses, challenges upon challenges begin to arise as Mahalia tries to prevent her party from collapsing before it even started.

This story is full of humor and queer joy, but Friday I’m in Love manages to tackle the struggles Mahalia faces in her own life. Camryn is able to write a beautiful story that highlights the complexities of life as Mahalia works to navigate through the various aspects of her life: finances, her parental relationships, juggling school and a job, her best friend, and her crush on Siobhan. While highlighting the complexities of Mahalia’s life, Friday I’m in Love manages to tackle issues of racism, identity, and class differences creating a perfect balance between the more serious and fluffier moments.

Mahalia is a fun and exciting protagonist that many readers will be able to relate to. When everything seems stacked against her, she preserves and doesn’t allow anything to get in the way of her goals. Friday I’m in Love is perfect for its target audience as Mahalia is sixteen and she acts like it. While her life isn’t perfect, she still continues to stay hopeful that things will turn out better. She faces challenges along the way making the best decision she can at that moment and if she makes mistakes, she learns from them.

Friday I’m in Love encapsulates themes of queer and black joy directly seen in the adorable romance between Mahalia and Siobhan. The romantic aspect was done so well with cute moments thrown in while having them face the challenges that arise along the way together. Friday I’m in Love captures the complexities of coming out and the challenges that come along it, but by the end creates a more hopeful and celebratory tone for the future.

Friday I’m in Love is perfect for readers looking for a cute contemporary story that is a celebration of both queer and black joy, while being to balance more serious moments that follows a loveable and determined protagonist.

I got an ARC of this book.

First off, look at that cover. It is GORGEOUS. I was so excited to see a visibly queer Black woman on the cover. I needed this cover.

The rest though is just sort of eh. There were so many good lines spaced out in the book. The joke about Greta, the granola boss, who had “locs”. I was laughing so hard, it was a great call out of white people trying to appropriate culture and just being gross about it. There were a few other lines like that, like the discussion of To Kill a Mocking Bird. It was so wonderful. Those lines were buried in so much weirdness. The last line or two in the book talked about being with her two favorite people and making out in the back of the car. It was wild how bad it was.

The plot was a lot. There were so many plots jammed into one book that did not have the length to give any of them the attention they deserved. There was the rich/poor plot, the romance, the coming out, the dad, and the party. The worst of all the plots were the dad plots though. They felt so thrown on. She pretty much cut her dad out of her life and she runs to him randomly when she is sad? Why? Then sitting for an hour for a milkshake is ok, but a ride that is 10 minutes is too much? It didn’t even make sense when the dad did appear. Taking out the maybe three or four pages that were dedicated to him actually appearing wouldn’t have harmed the book, it would have made it stronger since there would have been one less plot to lose.

There there was the avocado guy. The random middle aged white dude that was sobbing in the grocery store. He kept coming back. He came to a grocery store to visit two Black teenage girls. How is that not super creepy? Him appearing as a plot device in the first scene, cool, weird, but cool. Him appearing multiple more times in the book? Super weird, in a bad way sketchy weird.

So much of this book was weird, but I wanted to like it. It was amazing to see some of the character. It could have been an amazing book if it was given twice the length or half the plots were cut. It just needed a lot more or a lot less to be amazing. There were even references to how weird and creepy that the MC was being, comparing her to Edward Cullen. Then she kept doing it. I am just lost at a lot of what happened.

Last weirdness that really threw me off. The scene when the dress comes from Etsy and the MC mentions that etsy doesn’t have logos on their boxes…did Garrett even google Etsy? It isn’t a company that sells anything. Each store on Etsy is run by an artist selling their own stuff. So of course the Etsy logo doesn’t exist on the boxes. It was just so annoying to see that detail thrown in there.

Queer contemporaries never fail to win over my heart! Friday I'm In Love follows Mahalia planning to host a coming out party instead of a sweet sixteen while juggling her finances, college applications and a new crush. This book expertly handles the joy of teenage life as well as the difficulties life throws at us. Garrett does an excellent job at portraying one's thoughts while coming out and how personal and elating it can feel. Mahalia and Siobhan are the cutest ever! If you want to read a story about Black queer teens which is both relatable and heartwarming, this one's for you.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

This book was the chef's kiss. We have all had a crush and wanted to plan our own celebration. This book is reminiscent of Pretty in Pink but with flair and a more in depth look into the character's psyche. We have all been Mahalia at one time or another. An excellent read.

It's not Friday, but I loved this book! Having read Camryn Garrett's first two novels, I had high expectations for this and was not disappointed. Mahalia plans a coming-out party for herself, which would be a joyful enough storyline, but this is so much more. Readers journey with her as she navigates complicated familial relationships, grapples with what her future will look like, struggles financially, and of course, figures out how to come out to those who do not already know she is queer. And, as an added bonus, readers are treated to a. delightful romance. This book hit every note I wanted and more and I will absolutely be buying a copy for my classroom library!

It goes without saying, Friday I’m in Love is a book that should be accessible to every single teen who wants to read it. It’s so much more than a simple coming of age/first love story and while Mahalia coming out as bisexual is in fact the endgame, not to mention winning the girl, this book is also a story of hardships and perseverance, of falling in love but also loving yourself. It’s a story that addresses truth in history, politics, racism, celebrates diversity, and shows readers exactly what performative allyship looks like. If this book did anything besides charm me and make me think outside of myself and my own little corner of the world, it would be also making me want to read more of Camryn Garrett’s work.

Friday I’m in Love is an angsty and joyful and, more to the point, a sharply realistic story about dreams, desires, first love, and the things that stand in the way when almost every outcome and opportunity is determined by parents and money—or rather, the lack of it. Mahalia Harris didn’t have a Sweet Sixteen party because her single, hardworking mom couldn’t afford it. That hasn’t stopped Mahalia from dreaming of a different sort of party, though, and she’s determined to save up enough money to make it happen.

The story opens at her best friend Naomi’s Sweet Sixteen, where Mahalia meets a girl, loses the girl, and then thinks about the girl a lot. It would seem Mahalia’s dreams have come true when Siobhan reappears, this time as the new girl at school . . . except Siobhan has a boyfriend, Danny, the most annoying human being possible. Mahalia is simultaneously heartsick and beyond annoyed because Danny? Really? So what’s a girl to do when her crush is apparently not only straight but taken? She contends with all the other stuff going on in her life—SATs, college applications, class projects, how to get away with doing the least possible work at her job without getting caught, an absentee dad whose second family comes first, a mom who’s rarely home, not to mention watching her bank account slowly dwindle away on bills and other expenses while still dreaming of and planning for her Coming-Out party.

Mahalia’s voice is strong, and her vibrance and tenacity, her pain, and her hopes and dreams are clear, relevant, and relatable. This book has Pride woven into it, through and through.

FIIL is an adorable story about a 16-year-old who wishes to have a Coming Out party instead of a Sweet 16. She doesn't come from money, but she works and hustles her ass off to make this day a dream come true. Life came at her fast, and now she's juggling bills, a new crush, parental drama, all the phobias you can think of, college pressure, etc.

I found myself relating to this book more than I thought I would, especially when it came to the pressures of college and battling teachers about their one-sided lesson plans. Garrett captured teenagers' burdens while trying to multitask for the rest of their lives.

I rated the book four stars. It was a quick and enjoyable read.

This book should be added to all high school libraries. It deals with a lot of issues teens face on a daily basis. But there's also a lot of hope and joy among the pages. I loved this book. It helps you understand the struggles especially younger people in the community feel. The main character Mahalia is very relatable watching her story unfold was so cool. The inclusion of LGBTQA themes is so important. I am looking forward to more from this author

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Friday I'm In Love follows high school junior Mahalia Harris as she scrimps and saves for the Coming Out Party of her dreams. But as she plans and prepares -- and flirts with the cute new girl in school -- the responsibilities she's shouldered grow ever heavier, and Mahalia worries that the party of her dreams will never be a reality.

This was such a sweet book! With all the fluff and humor of a contemporary rom-com, Friday I'm In Love still takes time and care to tackle tough issues in Mahalia's life, particularly issues of racism, identity, and poverty. This is a book that strikes a perfect balance between the adorable joy of youth and love and the complexities of being a person. Fans of rom coms will find a lot to love, while those who look for more depth in their YA reads will definitely not be disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Camryn Garrett, and Knopf Books for Young Readers for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

First of all, let me say-- THAT COVER!! I loved Garrett's book, Off the Record, last year, so I would have picked this book up regardless, but the gorgeous girl in the big rainbow dress totally drew me in. This was a nice YA read that I enjoyed! For me personally, I didn't quite love it as much as Off the Record, which I was sad about being queer myself. However, I think I'm just past the target age and totally think that this will be a hit with some younger readers. Garrett has a very authentic voice that does a fantastic job of handling pertinent struggles that young, Black, queer girls face. There is a little bit of everything in this book from family struggles to the joys of first love that make it a well-rounded read. I loved the character of Siobhan, and I honestly would have loved to see more from both her and Naomi because the secondary characters really shined for me. I already can't wait to see what Garrett writes next, and this book solidified that I don't mind cheesy romance plots when they are rainbow colored!

I was initially drawn in by the gorgeous cover of this one and I loved the idea of a Coming Out Party in lieu of a Sweet Sixteen. However, I think this was a case of the wrong time for me because I was just not overly invested in the story.

I did enjoy the music woven in throughout the story. I also loved the realistic nature of Mahalia having to budget accordingly to try to make her party happen. I did think she was just a little too self-involved throughout though. I appreciated her friend calling her out on this.

I also wasn't the biggest fan of the romance. Siobhan seemed to be leading Mahalia on for a lot of the story especially since she had a boyfriend. Then she would go through phases of ignoring Mahalia only to later just say 'sorry' and everything be ok. For me it just didn't make it believable that Mahalia would still be so invested in her.

I also wanted more from the actual coming out party than what was included.

I have seen a lot of love for this one so I think it is one many people will enjoy and be able to relate to, but unfortunately it wasn't for me when I read it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I loved this book. It was a great coming out story and full of first loves and so many sweet moments. I could not put it down.