Giving this three stars because it was written by lesbian Jesus, but I didn't LOVE this one. I thought the relationship was a little confusing - they were very serious about each other without having really said much. Definitely felt like this did a lot of telling rather than showing.

I grew up on the “Girls Like Girls” music video so I was so excited to see Hayley finally continue on the story of Sonya and Coley like I’ve been begging her to. It was definitely an entertaining read that kept me captivated until the very end. Even though I’m no longer the “core demographic” for this YA story, I still really loved it. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends, especially those who loved the song and video.

This book is surprisingly nostalgic--AIM, Live journal, and many early 2000s references. I thought the view into Sonya's mind through her online presence was an interesting way to do dual POV, although it was a little confusing for the first few chapters.

This is a book I wanted to read in 2010, but now feels too recent (and painful) to be historic and too sad to be enjoyed outright today. Maybe in 20 years this will be an amazing historical queer romance, but right now it makes me sad.

Two girls are in love. Nobody is out. Homophobia is rampant. And one of them is doing everything in her power to hide. It's believable and real and honestly sad without much happy to counteract. I wish there were more moments of job sprinkled throughout this book.

Pretty much none of the characters are likeable. None. Curtis *maybe*. Maybe. They are dealing with stuff but also lacking in redeeming qualities. The highschool era are toxic and that is not addressed, the adults are....absent? And there's room for depth that was not explored.

Overall, feeling kind of sad and unsatisfied by this one--but really, give it 20 years and this book will likely ve excellent realistic historical fiction.


**Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!**

Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced Readers copy! I loved this story and fell hard for the main character. Would recommend

Okay so, for being Hayley’s debut novel, I was thoroughly impressed! And it wasn’t a typical memoir like celebrities typically write. No, this was a whole ass teenage queer YA novel that was genuine and you could feel the love she put into this one.

This one has mentions of a loved one and suicide, so please check trigger warnings to keep yourself safe. This book follows Coley, who moves in with her father after her mother’s death. This is a man she never really knew, she’s a 17 year old teenager who’s working with the grief of losing her mom, and is low-key questioning her sexuality. She meets a group of friends and begins exploring with them, but finds herself oddly attracted to one in particular: Sonya. Similarly enough, when it’s just the two of them, it seems like Sonya may be feeling the same way - but pulls back in fear of how friends and family would respond.

This was a great coming of age and coming out story, and I just WOW. Can’t say enough how much this surprised me.

When I first heard about this book, I was absolutely ecstatic. This song and the music video had a chokehold on me at one point in time (and still kind of does tbh). I’m not going to sugarcoat this. I think Hayley Kiyoko is a better singer/songwriter than she is an author of a ya novel. That doesn’t mean I think the book was bad. I enjoyed it at times. But, other times, I was kind of bored.

Sometimes I thought she was stretching a little bit and trying to force some of the scenes from the music video in. Frankly, some of this book felt underdeveloped and unfinished. I think the story was better told in the music video. Everything we need to know about these two characters was already in that video.

Some of the ending felt rushed to me. I would have liked to see it expanded beyond that moment to get a glimpse into where the characters end up. Some of the chaeracters felt underdeveloped. I would have loved to learn more about them and just see their individual characters fleshed out a little more.

Overall, this was a cute, queer romance story but I don’t think I’ll ever reread it. I’ll stick to listening to the song and watching the music video on repeat.

I really tried to get into this book, but I just couldn't.
I think young adult just isn't for me; I'm so removed from that generation that I just get impatient with YA books.

I hope others like it because I do think it is important to have LGBTQI+ books for young adults!

Poignant, thrilling, heartbreaking, and relatable. There was so much I empathized with in Girls like Girls and wish I had books like this when I was younger. Kudos to the author

3.5/5 Stars

After the unexpected loss of her mother, 17 year old Coley moves in with her absentee father in rural Oregon. There she meets popular girl Sonya, who she is instantly drawn to. As they spend more time together, they begin to fall for one another but try to keep their feelings hidden from those around them.

I enjoyed this for the most part, except I absolutely despised Sonya and her friends. I appreciated Sonya's internal struggle with always needing to be perfect, but I'm sorry, she was a shitty human and I couldn't get behind the romance. It was insanely toxic, and unhealthy, I just wanted to save Coley from Sonya. I did like Coley and her relationship with Curtis, her father. I liked watching them learn to trust one another again. I wish the story focused more on them healing from their past and repairing their relationship.

I loved this music video/song and was really hopeful for this book. Just like the music video, the chemistry between Coley and Sonya was strong and written well. I really enjoyed the dynamics between them. And while it was a cute read, the ending was very severe. I think if the ending was given a little more love I would've given a higher rating.

An emotional, summery read that takes place the summer after 17-year-old Coley's mother ends her own life and Coley is forced to move to Oregon to live with her stranger of a father. This very much gave Twilight vibes for a while (moving with your strange dad to Oregon and getting hit by a car on one of your first days there?? hello??). I really liked Coley's character as well as her relationship with her father. With that said, I wasn't a HUGE fan of the sapphic romance unfortunately - Sonya is a bitch for most of the book and it's only at the very end (which has a direct parallel with the "Girls Like Girls" MV which I LOVED) that Sonya stands up for Coley. However, I did enjoy myself for most of the book and this is overall really well written for a debut novel. Lesbian Jesus does it again <3

Ohhhhh I wanted to enjoy this so bad.

The “Girls like Girls” music video was an ESSENTIAL to my coming out, I can’t even begin to express how many times I watched it. But because of that, I feel like I was not surprised by anything in this book. I only finished this because I received an ARC of it. The storyline was not gripping if you lived through the homophobia of the early 2000s/2010s. HOWEVER, if you didn’t consume the horrifying queer media of that point in time/didn’t live through this homophobia it could be VERY enlightening. But that’s just me. This is the sort of book that would be released in the early 2010s, similar to the “Miseducation of Cameron Post” and whatever other horrifying queer stories I was reading in my early teens.

Kiyoko does an excellent job sticking to the era though, 2006. As well as sticking to the “aesthetics” of the music video. But I am of the opinion that if you’ve seen the music video, this book isn’t going to be anything new.

I initially gave this 2 stars because it is the first book in a LONG time that I had to speed up to an unrealistic speed just to get through it but I decided to up it to 3 stars because I really do think this book could be enlightening to people who didn’t live through this. But I did and therefor there was no shock value or anything of the sort within the storyline.

I also have to acknowledge that the audiobook was an entirely queer production and INCREDIBLY well done. I believe Kiyoko used one queer audiobook narrator and the other narrators are herself and her queer friends (including Katie Gavin!) and it’s underscored with sound effects and music.

I still love Hayley Kiyoko and she is crazy talented.

This book!!!!!


Thank you so much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

I gave this a four out of five stars, I really enjoyed this book. I’m such a big fan of Hayley Kiyoko so I have been anticipating this book. While reading this I was picturing the music video in some parts. I really enjoyed this book. I can’t wait to add this to my book collection.

I was really excited when I learned that Hayley Kiyoko was writing a book based on her Girls Like Girls music video. The book expands the story of Coley and Sonya, explaining why Coley is new in town, how they became friends, and how their feelings for one another developed. However, I was hoping that the ending would go farther with showing their story beyond the music video.

Deeply saddened that I didn't love this one. I had such high hopes. However, I found the characters to be unlikable and the story unpolished. It felt all over the place and lacking depth. I know this is a ya book but it still felt very juvenile in nature to me. I found many moments to be stereotypical.

I feel like with a little more time and polishing this author could have some amazing novels under their belt.

Thanks to Wednesday Books, St Martin's Press for my ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my own opinion. I started reading this a while ago but had read GREAT things about the audio and waited to grab that from my school’s library. An all queer cast including one of favorites, Natalie Naudus, narrates this coming of age romance which also includes sound effects - an amazing listening experience!
Set in 2006, complete with LiveJournal entries with associated pop songs and carefully curated and timed AIM away messages, Girls Like Girls reminded me of many things I’d forgotten about the mid-00s. This made me wonder if its audience is older millennials, banking on their nostalgia (which worked!).
The book further expands the author’s music video for the song Girls Like Girls from 2015 which is a lesbian anthem. I watched the video (probably for the first time!) after finishing the book, and I enjoyed seeing the inspiration and thinking about its interpretation - I think that was done really well. I feel like the ending was quick and could have gone a little deeper, but it was written to mimic the ending of the video/song. While a quick read, the subject matter isn’t light, including teenagers dealing with realistic topics like divorce, parental pressure, drug and alcohol use, and parent death by suicide. I was impressed with the way this all was handled. As I mentioned, this seems to be written for YA readers that aren’t actually young adults, and I am not sure I’d recommend it to my students. The cover is also beautiful - the gold outline of the letters shimmers in the hardcover version!

It must be sapphic summer as Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko was my fifth sapphic read of the summer. Girls Like Girls is set in 2006. It is about Coley who has moved to a small town in Oregon to live with her father after her mother dies by suicide. Coley forms an intense friendship with Sonya, a rich girl. Only, it is more than a friendship. The girls have to come to terms with their feelings and their sexuality. Sonya feels that if she comes out, she risks everything -- including her family and being able to see her sister. But, well, everything is just so intense -- as it is when you are young.

Lord did I feel old reading this book. I too once had a Livejournal like Sonya -- we get excerpts of Sonya's live journal. We also see AIM away messages too. (An aside -- maybe I like Teams chat so much because it reminds me of AIM a little) Anyways, there were some things that I wanted more of from this book - like what happens after the end, ha. Girls Like Girls does reflect some of the attitudes of the time -- there is homophobia depicted. Ultimately though, it is a first love kind of love story with all the attendant feelings that come with that. Kiyoko's book is a quick read and for sure one to add to your summer reading list.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Coley is a 17-year-old and in the summertime she found herself alone, forced to move into rural Oregon after losing her mother. She doesn't want to risk her fragile heart, but when she meets Sonya she's right away attracted to the girl. Coley fears she's not worthy of love. Traumatized and alone, everyone she has ever loved left her and she doesn't want to lose Sonya too. Besides, she's never been with a girl before and she's scared to risk everything. Both Coley and Sonya realize that, by pushing things down, they risk losing them all and by only embracing their feelings and risk they could give their attraction and love a real chance to life and thrive. Will they be able to do it?

If you are like me and fell in love with Hayley Kiyoko's Girls like girls, you will certainly fall in love with this coming-of-age romance inspired by the song, because it's unbelievably amazing and beautiful. With care and sensitivity, the author deals with Coley's sufferings, traumas and insecurities and with both girls' fears and hidden truths. About how easy is to hide yourself, without putting yourself and your heart at risk, but, also, how brave can be opening yourself to the world and, yes, risking to be hurt, but still risking, also, to be loved back. It's a wonderful story about being yourself and realizing you are worthy of love and being loved back, about risking and being brave and I truly loved everything, from the setting, their pasts, their growing bond and their beautiful and intense love.

I was super excited for this book but it felt a bit flat to me. I struggled to connect to the story and the characters. It had some interesting things going on though. It is based on a song and music video by the author, which I found cool even though I had no idea about it until reading this book. After finishing the book I went and watched the music video and it was fun to see certain sections that had connected to the book that I'd just read. The book takes place in 2006 so there were some fun nostalgic things popping up like AIM and live journal. I also thought that the way the author did the different POVs was interesting. Coley got the traditional story narrative as her POV and Sonya got live journal entries where she shared her thoughts, feeling, struggles, etc. That seemed unique. Overall this was an ok read, maybe if I had been a fan of the song it had been written about back when it was first released, I might have enjoyed it more than I did. I know there is a fan base out there for this book so I do recommend checking it out even though I personally didn't care for it.

Content warning: homophobia, death of parent, suicide, bullying, violence, grief, toxic relationship