The perfect YA summer read.

That's the best way to describe this book. Is a really cliche but cute story about finding yourself and realise what being in love means.

The characters were likeable, fun and relatable for a lot of readers, going trough feelings a lot of us felt at some point in our life. The story itself was fun and cute and perfect if you are feeling down and need something that will cheer you up.

It's also a very important book because it allows young girl to see themselves reflected in a story.

A solid 4 starts

Rounded up to 3 stars because I can't help but be intrigued by a queer coming of age book. I did think this book was a little slow to start but I kept going because the description of the book sounded like everything I loved. I loved the disability representation. Once I finished reading I found out that Keah Brown also wrote in Disability Visibility which I loved so extra points there. My main complaint is that it felt like the writing was a little young for them being 17. I liked how close the friendship was to start but it didn't feel super romantic because the writing style being younger than the age bracket in my opinion. All in all was a summer YA read that I would recommend to my young queer girlies who are on their own journey to self acceptance.

Thanks Netgalley for providing a copy of the book in exchange for a review! 

I picked up this book because it struck me as a cute, quick, fun summer read and in some ways it did deliver on those expectations. I loved the friendship dynamic and the MCs loving relationship with her parents. But, the writing was unpolished and distracting in some places and the narration made the MC feel strangely young considering she is supposed to be in her late teens. Some of the descriptive langugage could have been chopped down for more brevity too. I caught myself frequently skimming the pages to get to the substance of the plot. I was close to DNFing, and took a bit longer to get through the story than my typical reading speed.

That said I did feel like the author did a good job at capturing the feeling of having an adolescent crush (and the cringe that is usually involved) and exploring how to navigate those feelings when they are for a close friend. I think the author touched on important topics with this story and brought in some good representation but ultimately the writing distracted me from fully enjoying and immersing myself in the story.

This one was fun and I loved the queer and disability rep so much, but I wish the characters would’ve been 15-ish because they read younger than they were. Still a good book, but one I wanted a deeper connection with in the end.

This was quite cute! What made this stand out was the diverse set of characters.
The story was enjoyable while reading but I didn’t find it particularly memorable.
That being said, I encourage others to try it out! There might be something that stands out to you.

Speaking as a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, its a rite of passage to be madly in love with your friend at some point. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but man oh man do the feels hit you hard. Consequently, this book will hit home for all the folks who can relate to being in love with their friend while amide an exploration of their identity. It was sweet, sad, and heartfelt. A delightful read, the only thing that could have made it better is if I was sitting on a beach while reading it.

This is a joyful, fun and quick read. I really like how diverse the book is; with a disabled bisexual black MC, Andrea, and a Chinese-American wlw love interest, as well as the casual representations of other side characters, some being disabled like Drea herself, and countless other minor characters that are POCs and/or queer just being there and living unapologetically and joyfully.

One thing that I don't really like about this book is the writing. I feel that it is at times too childish and a bit cheesy for a Young Adult book. It could've suited the Middle Grade genre better. Some of the dialogues were unnatural, and there were transitions between paragraphs that felt stilted or too abrupt.

Overall, this is still a nice book, and I hope there are more books with representations and joyous love story like this.

Really wanted to love this one. It sounded so cute and heartwarming. In a way it was, and it was an enjoyable read but I can’t get pass the way the main character sounded so childish for her age.
The whole plot is definitely some that will make you giggle and perhaps relate with but I don’t believe the main audience for this book is me. I recommend it for those who want a nice ya read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

Loved the disability representation! But the characters felt like they were written much younger than they actually were supposed to be for some reason. I kept forgetting that they were all supposed to be around 17 and not like 14...
Despite that the last 30 pages also felt a bit rushed and I would have loved some more cute moments between the new couple.
Still recommend it tho as a cute little summer book about young love with a disabled main character, written by a disabled author!

Cute story with a fun premise, I read it in one night!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

NetGalley. ARC Educator 550974


A wonderful telling of summer. It will have you immersed right along with the characters. The diversity of the characters and handling of disabilities makes this a great read for kids and adults alike. Some may feel it's too juvenile, however I did not.

this was the perfect summer read (although i read it in the spring time). it’s all about the main character making the most of her summer after spending the last one recovering from surgery. she is also coming to terms with her newly realized bisexuality and her crush on her best friend. i thought this story was very cute and perfect for the summertime.

DNF - this is written at a lower YA level than I typically read and I just couldn’t get into it or feel connected to the characters.

**I received a free copy of this eARC from Netgalley for an honest review**

I thought I'd really enjoy this book, because it has all the tropes I love to read about (and some things I experience in my daily life, so it's also relatable): bisexuality, LGBTQIA+ themes, disabilities, forbidden love, etc.

I was super excited to read this cute forbidden love story. However it just missed the mark for me. It was hard to get through, I didn't connect with any of the characters, and I felt myself lacking the sympathy for said characters. I really thought this was a cute idea for a story, but it just wasn't it for me.

A super cute queer YA with amazing queer, diverse and disability representation in its characters. Definitely a book I want to read again on lazy, warm summer days, just chilling somewhere in a park with this book as company. I really enjoyed this read. It's cute, funny, wholesome and being proud of who you are.

So much of this book was spot on. Keah knows how to write settings. I felt like I was inside this summer: the ice cream, the trips, the sleepovers; I was there. This made the book a fast, enjoyable read. I was happy to escape into this book where nothing catastrophic happened to the marginalized characters.

The language of the characters lost me at times. It felt like they were not acting or speaking their age. The writing felt forced as if no one working on this book has spoken to anyone in this age group lately.

I was happy to review this book as an ARC from Netgalley.

Beautiful, heartfelt, and meaningful. My students will love The Secret Summer Promise. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and will be looking for more by Keah Brown.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This was cute and a quick read, but unfortunately just not for me. I didn't particularly like either the storytelling or the writing. However, it's great to see queer, disabled, people of color in books. More of that please!

Fantastic sapphic book! Definitely for a young adult to middle school audience but wonderful non the less. This is a great book for a young audience because of the representations! It is rare to see queer-disabled characters. This is definitely a young adult teen book despite the critiques from people. I could see my younger self loving such a lovely story and wish this had come out when I was in high school. The characters seem young, but it didn't feel that childish. This is wonderful for a lighthearted romance and coming of age. We definitely need more sweet queer stories.
I can see young sapphic loving this story, and I hope it reaches the audience who will love it!

This was such a cute, feel-good, coming of age story. Although I feel like I’m personally a little to old to be the intended audience of this book, high school me, with my unrequited gay crush on my best friend, would’ve absolutely adored and cried over this book. It’s so incredibly 17 year old closeted queer girl, sometimes a little too much for my taste, with the descriptions of her friends’ day-to-day outfits, but, I as I said, I am 22 and a little too old to fully relate. I love the queer, disabled, black girl joy. I love her disabled friend group and her supportive able-bodied girlies. We need more books with happy endings for queer people, for disabled people, for black people. We need more lighthearted and impactful stories like these being told!

Thank you to NetGalley, Keah Brown, and Levine Querido for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.