When Corey’s mom dies, she ends up having to move cross country to live with her absentee dad, who she hasn’t seen since she was three. Her plan is to put her head down, finish school and then get out of there. But things never go to plan. Enter Sonya, the girl Corey finds herself more infatuated with than either of them like to admit. Enter Curtis, the absentee dad who wants to try to fix things and who actually cares. Coley’s summer has gotten a whole lot more complicated.

I actually really liked this! Yes, if you detected surprise in those five words, you are correct. I’m gonna be honest, I went into this expecting to be bored, or even a little annoyed. This is partly because there are always these reports of celebrities writing books when writing is never something they’ve ever before expressed any interest in. I don’t know if this was Kiyoko, but I’m wary of celebrities who suddenly have a book to publish, because was it ghost written? Was it written horribly—really horribly—and then edited five million times after the publishing deal had been made? Or does the celebrity actually have a hidden talent for writing? Hint, it’s rarely the last one. I often feel annoyed at these celebrities getting huge advances for poorly written books when it could go to so many more deserving authors who have made writing their livelihood.

But I truly don’t think this was the case with GIRLS LIKE GIRLS. Was the prose out of this world? No. But it was enjoyable and I found myself absolutely flying through it. I found Coley lovable, and although it slightly annoyed me how she kept going back to Sonya after all the shit she’d pull, I loved their relationship. Their relationship was sweet and wholesome, and I found myself rooting for them. I loved Coley’s budding relationship with her father, and how despite her reservations, he kept trying.

I feel like the only negative thing I have to say about this book is it could have been longer to develop everything outside of Curtis and Sonya. I would have liked to see Alex and Coley talk a bit more, especially about sexuality, and I would have liked to see a bit more of the aftermath from what happened at the end. It felt it lacked in some places, bits where I wanted more. I wanted to see more of Coley and Sonya together as a couple, rather than just sneaking around not entirely sure what they’re doing.

All in all, I liked this more than I thought I would. I definitely watched the video a few times while reading this and I Get it now. I Get it.

Thank you, Netgalley, for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This really just didn’t do a lot for me, but I’m glad it exists. I obviously love Hayley Kiyoko and am thrilled that she’s writing books (and hope she writes a lot more).

I do think this would appeal to high school aged readers more — but there was too much drama and not enough compelling characters.

Sometimes celebrity written books are vanity projects to earn extra cash. I don't get that feeling from this book at all. Kiyoko is cementing her skills as a solid writer beyond her musical abilities.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for providing an eARC for an honest review.

3⭐️

Were you blessed with watching the life changing GIRLS LIKE GIRLS music video by Lesbian Jesus herself Hayley Kiyoko? WELL I WAS! AND NOW I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH RECEIVING AN ARC OF THE ORIGIN STORY OF GIRLS LIKE GIRLS!!!

Coley is all alone. She’s 17 years old and was forced to move to a rural Oregon town after the loss of her mother. After a near-miss accident has meets Sonya, and her world stops. After the events of Coley’s life, she’s not sure if she is worthy of love and with the battle of internal homophobia, she’s not sure if she can make it work with Sonya and Sonya isn’t sure if she can risk it all for Coley.

I absolutely hate rating this so low but the writing just wasn’t there for me 😩 Hayley is an all around goddess, she’s Lesbian Jesus for a reason, but this book just needed a little bit more editing and fine-tuning. Hayley’s poetry really shines through and is a beautiful way to show sapphic love, it was just the dialogue that lost me. The storyline was fantastic and based on just vibes this was perfect. Girls Like Girls shows us the story BEFORE the music video and really ties everything up so well. This story is about acceptance, healing from grief, and being able to fully love yourself. And after I finished this I had to watch the music video again, for a full circle moment.

Please note that there are several triggering and heavy themes throughout the book like mentions of suicide, loss of a loved one, grief, mental illness, homophobia, internalized homophobia and struggling with identity and sexuality.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, Hayley Kiyoko and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy for an honest review. I love you all! 💕

I had high expectations for this because I loved the Girls Like Girls music video when it came out, so what could be better than that but in longform? Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. It read too much like an actor pretending to be an author, with way more telling than showing. There was so much drama and wistfulness that it crossed over to artificial. Don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate the sentiment of this story, but the execution was lackluster.

This was a masterpiece and I’d like to live in this book and be friends with these people and just idk. I needed this so much and I’m so happy our teens will have books like this.

I DNFed around 35%. The fact that Hayley Kiyoko wrote this book is what intrigued me but ultimately, I think I'm over slow-burn YA romances. I didn't find the characters very compelling and the story wasn't fresh enough to keep my attention.

Hayley Kiyoko really shocked me on this one. I was expecting a good story with okay writing. However, I found the writing to be really up to par with all other YA romance authors. There was a lot of unpacking of trauma in this book without it feeling gratuitous. I really enjoyed the way we got to see both characters POV, but in a more creative way than just alternating chapters.

great book and I enjoyed the characters growth. Loved the friends and how this all worked out. I enjoyed the characters journey to finding oneself and others. I hope to read more by this author again.

2.5-4 ⭐️ (very conflicted feeling)

I have a lot of thoughts about this book and I’m very conflicted on how I feel, I think I need to re read multiple times before I can know one way or the other because I personally think I wouldn’t like it nearly as much if I didn’t have the history I do with the music video. It was definitely a worthwhile read if it peaks your interest although I do wonder if the book can stand on it’s on away from the legacy of the music video and Hayley.

Fun, cute, something I think a lot of students will like but definitely wasn't perfect for me (as an adult, but I'm not the target audience!) I would be happy to have this in my classroom, but I'm not rushing out to buy it, either.

This is a little difficult to review. I liked the idea of this book, and I liked the song/video it’s about, but the execution wasn’t great. The book was so repetitive it was predictable. And then there was the end. That in itself ruined it all. BUT the narrators and sound effects saved it for me.

Ok so let’s talk about the writing style. I couldn’t put it into words, but as I was talking it out to my mom about it, it finally made sense. It was so repetitive. Like they kept cycling round and round. It was like a weird adult relationship and they wouldn’t leave each other because of the kids or some shit. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was also so toxic. One of them didn’t even want to admit that they liked the other and she was being hurt so bad. And I hated that. She didn’t deserve that at all. Then there was the ending. All the things that were building up and building up finally happened….. And then it was over. It felt so rushed. Like it hit the climax and then it was over. I would have liked it more if she had finally given us some time together instead of them fighting and all that. And then for the one person to give them an ultimatum and she still went the other way. I was so annoyed.

The romance was mostly nonexistent. It was so much of them going back and forth and her not wanting to out herself. Which, understandable, but you don’t get to continue hurting her and leading her on the whole time. You don’t continue to hurt someone you say you love. If she loved her she would have left her alone until she was ready. Especially since she knew she couldn’t resist her. It was hurting me to read that part. The actual romance didn’t exactly come out until the ending. And even then it wasn’t a good one.

The actual reason I rated this so high was because I read the audiobook version. The narrators were fire, there were multiple narrators, AND there was some special sound effects in there too. It made me feel like I was in the middle of the story. Like I was in Oregon with them. And it helped that one of the narrators was one of my favorites, Nadus. She has done so many audios and they’re all good. If nothing else about this book, I liked the audio and was really impressed by it.

This was ok, but I don’t think it was executed right. I do think it just needed a few tweaks here and there and it would have been ok. But without those things I was a bit bored and I don’t think it landed well. It’s unfortunate because I liked the song and the music video, but this just didn’t hit the same.

I loved this book. The characters were written incredibly realistic, as though they came straight out of reality. The main character of Coley intrigued me, and I loved seeing the character development throughout the book. There were moments were I felt so strongly for her as a character that I wanted to fight people for her. I also loved when I could place the book in the music video it's based on, which really took me back in time to when it was first released. I think these kinds of books are essential, not just about gay people, but about gay people still coming into themselves and figuring their identity out, as we see with not only Coley but more intensely with Sonya, especially in this small town where everyone knows everyone. Before I read it, I knew I would love this book, and I was right. The only thing that keeps it from a five-star for me, is that it almost verges on Insta-love, which I am not a fan of, and takes it out of reality for me slightly. This is remedied as Sonya and Coley get closer, and actually forge their relationship, but Coley seems almost obsessed with her in the beginning. Other than that, I truly loved my experience reading this, and will recommend it to everyone,

When Coley moves in with her father in a new town the summer before her senior year of high school, she has some unresolved trauma. Namely, her mother's death and her father's previous abandonment, but also that she is interested in women. When she meets Sonya, a beautiful girl with a terrible ex-boyfriend, she can't help but be drawn to her. The two develop a close friendship but after a kiss, Sonya pushes her away and denies her feelings.

This book is based on Hayley Kiyoko's song and music video of the same name, yet despite having seen the video I somehow didn't see the ending coming. This book was a struggle at first, with the character feeling immature and flat, but dang it, by a few chapters in I was HOOKED and dying to see how everything turned out. There was a not insignificant amount of underage drinking and drug use in the book, which at times felt over-the-top. But perhaps that just wasn't my youth, and in smaller towns there really is nothing else to do. The ending felt rushed, and perhaps, in retrospect, it strove too hard to match the music video. But I was enthralled by the story, and there was something about it that made me keep reading.

Thanks to Wednesday Books for my eARC and finished copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4 stars - 7/10

The release of Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko is the culmination of a long-held dream of the lesbian pop star -- and it paid off in dividends. This is the absolute perfect continuation of Kiyoko's music video by the same title, and a much-needed and to be much-loved entry into the sapphic teen literary canon.

I’d first like to thank NetGalley and the author for allowing me to read this beautiful love story.

This was out the gate a five star read. I loved the characters so much and a true tell is when you can also form strong dislike for some of the characters as well.

This is a story of your first love as well as being confused in sexuality and a coming of age story all rolled into one. It is so beautifully told and really made my heart ache for the characters as they are trying to not only define themselves but also their sexuality and what that means to their friends and family.

Trigger warning for mention of suicide.
This was written so well and I cannot wait to read what’s next for Hayley. I highly recommend this book.

This one was wholly not meant for me. The writing is very 2011 and I am just not about that life anymore. Would recommend to someone who really liked that music video but I am not it.

If you want a Sarah Dessen book from your millennial childhood but make it queer, this is your book. Unfortunately the writing lacked the depth and description to pull my interest in as much as I would have liked.

This book put me through the wringer, I knew I'd enjoy it because Girls Like Girls was a formative lesbian experience for so many people, myself included, and an extended version of it in a book was a dream I didn't realise I could have.

I loved Coley, there was just something about her and her characterisation that hit home for me, and I wish I could say the same about Sonya. I spent half the book hoping they wouldn't end up together, only to let out a sigh of relief when they did.

I was conflicted, but at no point in reading this did I really consider myself having anything less than a good time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book one exchange for an honest review.

This was a pretty decent debut novel, and pretty standard YA romance. I love the song and music video that were the inspiration for this book and it was really nice to see the backstory behind the characters in the MV. I just wish the supporting characters were a little more fleshed out- they all seemed pretty one more. I understand Trenton’s character being kind of flat because I have known guys like that, but the others deserved better.

This was also, as someone who was in high school in 2006, starting my senior year, an absolute blast of nostalgia. The AIM conversations? The flip phones? The LiveJournal entries!?! Complete with mood and music! And the music for public entries being all upbeat pop and the private entries being Sad Girl Music? Exquisite.