The following review was posted on my blog on Tuesday, May 30th, the day of publication. It has already been posted on Goodreads. The blog post includes links to order the books and to its Goodreads page, so readers can add it to their to-be-read books.




“And one day you learn: it’s not that you’re not like other girls.
It’s just that you’ve never met a girl like you.
And then, you do. You meet her.
And suddenly the songs make sense.”

Genre: Young Adult
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 1 fire emoji
Content Warnings: Discusses parental death, suicide, and hate crimes. Describes homophobia, and emotional and physical abuse.

Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new, right? Well, this was something new for some. “Girls Like Girls” follows Coley after she is forced to move to rural Oregon after her mother’s death. Things are as bad as they can get when she meets Sonya and everything immediately clicks into place. But being together wouldn’t be wise, so repressing it will be the way to go… Until it isn’t.

In all honesty, this YA novel would’ve been exactly what I needed in high school, and I think that’s what hurt the most. This story was healing in a way that only people who somewhat struggled with their sexuality will probably get, but I am so so thankful this story is being told.

This book, based on the viral song by this very own debut author, was both heartwarming and heartwreching. Hayley Kiyoko’s writing voice is wise but at the same time childish; exactly what you’re looking for in novels with teen-aged main characters.

I would definitely recommend this read. If you’re looking for a short, coming-of-age queer book, then look no more—“Girls Like Girls” is exactly what you’re searching for.

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ARC provided by NetGalley and Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: May 30, 2023

This was just the read I needed for June! I can only hope to find more books with the same vibes and story line!

Girls Like Girls ended up just being okay for me. It was enjoyable enough to finish, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care much about the characters or their relationships with each other.

Despite understanding Sonya’s motivation for her actions, I found her to be so toxic and felt like Coley would have been much better off without her. The best chapters in the book are when Coley begins to foster a relationship with her dad and starts her job at the hibachi grill - there was so much growth in those pages!

* Sweet
* Earnest writing, at times felt a bit tooo young adult for my liking
* Such an acute description of young love and the budding queerness
* Gay teen dreams
* Sweet for fans of the music video, solid YA
* Definitley more plot driven, took me a while to get into

I really wanted to love this but I had a very difficult time getting into it. It appears as though this is a fairly unpopular opinion, but it really just left me wanting more.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this eARC.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the arc.

GIRLS LIKE GIRLS by HAYLEY KIYOKO was one of my highly anticipated reads after my love for the music video the book is inspired by. At the time of its release, the music video was something that I didn't know I needed and I think was a pivotal moment of realization and acceptance of myself. Learning about the video being expanded into a book, I couldn't have been more ecstatic. It felt like being given the behind-the-scenes or full script of something that we only saw glimpses into. The story makes many references and connections to the source material: keeps the original character names, continues with scenes from the video, references, includes, and expands on aspects of the video that might have been glimpsed such as the side characters, clothing, and room decor. While I did enjoy the intentional efforts to stay close to the video, making the story feel like an expansion not a loose retelling, I struggled with just about everything else. To summarize my issue with this book was it felt lackluster and unfinished. There was a character and information about them mentioned once, never to be discussed again. Plot points felt random and disconnect as if multiple stories were being told. The ending was rushed, I would have liked to see more after the music video's ending to see where certain relationships and behaviors went/changed but didn't. There were just so many aspects of this that needed room to flourish and have more depth just for them to go nowhere. Reading this was like seeing a present under the Christmas tree, its shaped like something you've wanted for months, you open it up, and its just some socks and a notebook. (this is a terrible example but you get the point). 2 stars.

I really enjoyed this book. I think coley is way too good for Sonya but I really enjoyed how this book isn’t just about her relationship with her. I loved the focus on family and the parental relationship, her father teaching her about her self worth, and just the vibes of being a messy teenager. I really enjoyed getting to see coley come into herself and stand up for herself by the end of the novel.

I've loved Hayley Kiyoko ever since my preteen self discovered the Girls Liked Girls music video and watched it I don't even know how many times (though I could not have told you then why I liked it so much lol). I was so excited to find out about this book, and even more excited to get my hands on an arc of it. At this point I'm willing to sell my soul to get my hands on a physical copy ASAP.
I gasped the moment I finished this book because I couldn't believe there wasn't any more! I didn't want this book to every end. There was so much good teen angst that I loved, but it also touched on a lot of real issues that had my heart hurting for Coley. I loved the conflict and the ups and downs because it felt so real, and I think the writing style helped with that too. I also was thoroughly amused by the fact that her dad has the same name as mine.

I love Hayley Kiyoko's music and was so excited to read Girls Like Girls. I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint.

Girls Like Girls tells the story of Coley's experience dealing with the aftermath of her mom's death, moving in with her distant dad, and her interest in Sonya. The book tackles a lot of heavy topics (death of a parent, homophobia, suicide, grief), but I think Kiyoko handles them well.

Overall, I thought it was a great debut and recommend it for readers who enjoy queer YA and/or Kiyoko's music.

This book left me wanting. I don't know what I wanted, but it needed more development on all characters. Most of the characters felt one-dimensional, and the relationship was not good. I was actively rooting against them by the end of the book. I enjoyed the setting, both in location and time. The livejournal updates were fun, but I feel like they could've been used to a greater extent to further the plot.

I received this book through NetGalley in and exchange for an honest review.
I, like many baby queers in in the mid 2010s, watched the Girls Like Girls music video religiously. Being able to dive deeper into the story and get to know Sonya and Coley in all their flaws was truly a blessing from Lesbian Jesus Herself.
Though this did read quite like a 2013 “I’m not like other girls” teen novel, it was still so cute and heart-wrenching, and infuriating in the best possible way. I was quite annoyed at Sonya a lot of the time, but I understand that she had a god-awful mother and also that this was set in the early aughts, so she gets a little bit of leeway.
I loved Coley and ached at what she had to go through, and related to her and her mom’s depression. I just wish we could have gotten to see a little bit more of Coley and Curtis after their breakthrough.
The ending, too, felt a little bit rushed. I wished Coley would have put up a bit more of a fight and/or that we got to see what happened after what is the end of the MV and the book.
Otherwise, this was a fun, short read and a pretty excellent debut for Our Lord and Savior, Hayley Kiyoko.

As someone who has experienced a cultural reset that is Hayley Kiyoko's Girls Like Girls music video. I was excited to see how this book would deepen the storyline and the relationships between the two main characters. Yet, I was disappointed to find the character arcs half-baked and elementary dialogue coming from teenage voices. Despite how underwhelmed I felt, I would recommend this for young readers as a starter for sapphic romances and exploring one's (i.e. a teenage girl) sexuality. And even though it's a risky decision to leave the 2000s/early 2010s cultural references in this book, I would rather have that than newer pop culture references that may make this book more cringe. An admirable debut from a wonderful singer with a respectable fanbase.

I love the idea of creating a novel from a music video that tells a really great story. However the book didn’t have the same impact. Though this is YA, the writing felt too simple even for that. Not my favorite but I hope this does get in the hands of someone who loves it.

GENERAL INFO

Year Pub: 6/1/23

Date read: 6/8/23

Format: Kindle

Source: e-ARC- I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Page Count: 320

Setting: small town Oregon

Genre: YA, CR

Tropes: LGBTQ+, friends to lovers, interracial romance

Standalone/Cliffhanger/Part of a Series: standalone

HEA/HFN ending: no- ambiguous

Epilogue Included: no

Character(s)POV Spoken: h Coley

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Synopsis/Plot Summary: Coley feels alone. She's forced to move with her estranged father to a small town in Oregon after her mother's death. On her bike she almost gets hit by a car and meets Sonya-one of its passengers- who she is instantly attracted to. Coley doesn't want to be abandoned but Sonya's pretty homophobic and closeted-can she truly open her heart to Coley?

M/F-M/M-F/F-M/M/F-etc: F/F

Representation: sapphic romance, biracial h

Contains Cheating: no

Contains Children: 17 and older, h/h both seniors in high school

Flashbacks: yes, Coley with her mother

Jealy/Possy/OTT H/h : Coley's a little jealous seeing Sonya with Trent


CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Heroine: Coley

Heroine Description: New girl in town. Half Asian/half white. Very sarcastic, honest almost mean. Blames her father for abandoning her and her mom 15 years ago.

Hero Likability Rating: 4

Heroine: Sonya

Heroine Description: Competitive dancer, goes along w/ the friend group
Heroine Likability Rating: 4

Secondary characters:
Curtis-Coley's father
Trenton-Sonya's ex, annoying frat boy attitude
SJ-Sonya's friend
Alex- the cool guy, nice to Coley
Brooke-Sonya's friend, has a thing for Trent
Tracey-Sonya's mother

CONTENT WARNINGS/TRIGGERS
Loss of parent, grief, homophobia, mental illness, mention of suicide, not h

AUTHOR OVERVIEW

Hayley Kiyoko
New or read before & any favorites: new author to me

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 4*

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: yes

Would You Read More Books by this Author: yes

I ended up giving this book three stars because it was okay, but not overly memorable and I didn't find there was anythink hooking me into the story. So I was fine while reading it, but I never really felt pulled to pick it up. I did enjoy Coley's story and getting some insight into Hayley's Kiyoko's narrative about her own coming out experiences and first love, because I do follow her on TikTok, but beyond that I wasn't super impressed.

I also thought the ending did a lot in the final pages that gave me a bit of whiplash. It was definitely jarring and a bit confusing, so that resulting in me feeling like the pacing was a little bit off.

That being said, as a librarian I know that my students will like this and I did buy it for my library. This will be an easy sell for the baby gays who are familiar with Kiyoko's song and it's a solid addition to our LGBTQ collection. I do think kids will be less critical with this that I am.

After a traumatic event with her mother, Coley is forced to move to a new place with her dad who she hasn’t seen since she was three. Coley meets a group of “friends” and finds herself spending more time with Sonya. Coley and Sonya have a friendship, but could it be more?
I wasn’t a huge fan of this book. The writing style was much different than I typically like. The book is much longer than it needs to be and tends to drag on. I did enjoy Coley’s journey to self discovery and she became much more likeable by the end of the book.

This was a pretty fun summery YA contemporary romance about a girl who moves to a new town and falls for one of the *it* girls. I thought parts of it were interesting and I liked the main character but I HATED the love interest, couldn't understand their connection at all, and felt like the ending was rushed and unsatisfying. Since I'm not familiar with the song it was inspired by, I could be missing a lot of the *nuance*, though, so keep that in mind when reading my review.

This was an enjoyable YA queer romance. Was the writing the best ? No. Were there missing storylines ? Yes. Were the characters great ? No. But I still enjoyed it and finished it in one sitting.

The idea of the book was great, the execution lacked a little. There was so much that the author tried to pack in the amount of pages, which left some inconsistencies. The book represents mental health, parental dynamics, struggling with finding yourself and sexuality well, which readers will be able to relate to. It also represented a lot of homophobia from the other teens, and it broke my heart.

The characters were very one dimensional, Coley wasn't really likeable, she was made out to be a tuff cookie, but she came off as way too sarcastic, way too bitchy, too blunt. The author tried to made her funny but I didn't find she was funny, just rude. BUT for young readers I do believe it would be relatable and represent the confusion and hardships at that age.

The ending happened way too fast for it to be believable. Coley did a complete turnaround in 2.5 seconds which I felt could've been more developed. Although it wasn't my favorite read, it was a fast read and had a good concept.

✨️Thank you to @netgalley & @wednesdaybooks for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Diving back into this world created by Hayley Kiyoko in the song and music video for Girls Like Girls felt so good. I loved everything about the book and I really resonated with and connected to the characters. We need more stories like this.

Based on the hit music video, Girls like Girls is Hayley Kiyoko’s debut novel, and it’s just as good as the song, if not better.

I finished this book in under two days, and I could not get enough of it. I really enjoyed how it explored the realness of a young queer relationship, and the struggles of not knowing how it should all work out. The setting, characters and story really made it feel like a summer romance movie, and I loved how it ended. The wrap-up and parallels truly made this one of my favourite queer books of this year.

This was a fantastic read, and the perfect book to start off Pride Month. Thank you to NetGalley, Wednesday Books and the author for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.