I loved this sapphic ya romance book! It was so nice to read. I fell in love with all of the characters, especially Rochelle! I always love an academic rivals to lovers book. The competition is always so fun. This was such an amazing read that had humor and also had its romance.

Where do I start? This book was soooo great! I loved it. It was such an awww moment type of book. I really did enjoy reading about Rochelle and her friends. I loved her growth with Amira, it was such a cute trope in my opinion. I loved Rochelle's growth in the book as well, she had wonderful character development. I cannot wait for it to be publish, I will be buying this book when it comes out next year! I hope that everyone who reads this book has the same enjoyment that I read reading this book. It was such a cute story about queer love.

Rochelle Coleman is a high-achieving, no-nonsense high schooler with her sights set on attending Wharton, even if it means enduring a job alongside her charming academic rival, Amira Rodriguez. Rochelle's drive and focus on her future are intense, but her unexpected feelings for Amira pull her into uncharted emotional territory. Rochelle decides to work for the summer at the beloved community Horizon Cinemas, a historic Black-owned theater. The quirky crew of Horizon Cinema adds a vibrant and humorous energy to the narrative and feels like a close-knit family. The theater's struggle to survive shifts Rochelle and Amira to work together to save Horizon from a series of mishaps. Their growing chemistry develops naturally and believably, which is sweet. It is a delightful read that balances light-hearted romance, coming-of-age challenges, and community spirit. The story is bound to leave a smile on the reader's face.

I received an ARC ebook for my honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins

If We Were a Movie is a perfect little YA romcom. It’s sapphic and actually funny. I enjoyed the cast of characters. Everyone made me smile or chuckle at some point. So glad Zakiyah N. Jamal has published a novel. Talked about this on IG & TikTok. Thanks for the ARC!

I enjoyed this book; the characters were adorable and very much relatable too. They made the read fun and enjoyable. Also, the main character Rochelle was great, and her determination was admirable. Plus, the relationship between her and Jennie was my favorite throughout the whole story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This book is by no means a masterpiece, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s a simple teenage romance that is enjoyable to read and easy to get into. The enemy to lovers plot is well done. The reason they became enemies feels childish and dumb, which is perfect because it happens when they are in the 9th grade. (I would have definitely hated someone for a dumb reason then), it makes the characters feel real. As someone who just started college, and finished applying a year ago, the stress and high achievement the characters show will connect many young people to this book. I also loved the movie theater setting and the connection it gives the characters. Overall, this is a sweet book which would be great for highschoolers and young college students. I would give this a 4/5, and I would definitely recommend it to my friends.

A sweet YA romance that brought this middle aged lady back to that time of discovering myself and my passions. I loved seeing Rochelle navigate love, friendship and her relationship with her family.

First, a big thanks to the author, Zakiya N. Jamal, the publisher, HarperCollins Children's Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to be able to read
this YA coming of age/romance fiction novel, If We Were a Movie. I will share my review to Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble upon release.

Amira and Rochelle were very cute characters and this is the kind of book I would've loved to have been able to read as a teenager. There's a lot of representation, as the movie theater in the story is a Black-owned theater and both characters are queer POC. The two have to work together to save the theater and keep an important space in their community open. In coming together, they learn more about each other and discover they have a lot more in common than they thought. There was lots of sweet moments that had me feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Even though it's a queer story, the common themes of queer stories present which can become tired aren't here. There's an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers theme that I found really sweet and enjoyable to get caught up in, even though the enemies part isn't super strong early on.

The cover is super cute, the colors are pretty, and the girls are really cute and enjoying a moment at the theater, so it sets up the story well. The characters are really relatable, and the story itself feels like it could happen. It's nice to have a fun rom-com without too much competition or major traumatic events occuring. This story is a great example for a healthy teenage friendship and community power. I look forward to reading more from this author!

If We Were a Movie is one of the best books that I have read in a while! Zakiya N. Jamal did a fantastic job with this story and fleshing out the details of the plot in a believable and relatable way. Throughout the book readers experience topics of friendship, love, and balancing personal goals with trying to live up to what you think are the expectations of others. There are so many hidden nuggets of life lessons in this book for readers.

I highly recommend this book for lovers of stories related to friendship, movies, supporting small Black businesses, enemies to lovers story lines, and queer romance!

It was a fine read. The theme of the cinema is pretty nice. I like how all the characters are connected to each other and I like the different personalities, although it feels like the side characters are a bit one-dimensional, but with the amount of them, I see that it’s impossible to give each of them depth.
I could connect to the characters on a ground level, as in, I understand their reasons and I understand their wants and goals. But not really beyond that.
There’s a lot of representation. It’s nice to have a black sapphic couple.
The foreshadowing was a bit too obvious. I feel like the plot twist would have been so much better if the foreshadowing was reduced by a lot.
After a while, the plot started dragging a bit, and I found myself a bit bored because it felt the same.
I read this because I was interested in the romance, but reading it, I especially didn’t like the history of their relationship because… what? Also, Amira honestly felt like she was just genuinely mean at times, and I think that wasn’t the intention of the author.

Overall, it’s a decent book, and I believe a lot of sapphic people out there would like reading it.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it. This is everything I expected it to be and somehow more. If you're into something queer and cute please pick this up

I really enjoyed “If We Were a Movie.” Naturally, the adorable cover caught my eye. However, it's the story and characters that kept me reading. I absolutely adored the main character, Rochelle. She was smart, funny, charming, and so much more. I wanted to be apart in her friend group really bad and work at the Horizon.

I need a stronger word than “perfection” to describe this book. What a true delight this book was! Brimming with sweet and solemn moments that I couldn’t get enough of.

I really enjoyed this YA romance. I think the LGBTQIA+ representation was well-done, especially as it was not a story about coming out or discrimination like many books are. The author paced the story well, so that the enemies to lovers trope was believable, There was a large cast of characters but the author did a great job of making each one unique and believable. My only criticism is that I wanted there to be a twist at the end of the mystery about who was sabotaging the theater.

I really enjoyed the characters in this story, and the plot was fun and easy to engage with. I do wish that the author had leaned more into the enemies to lovers dynamic by showing us some of their academic rivalry.

So they're rivals, but we never really see that on the page. And they're in academic competition for college, but it takes place during the summer. There wasn't really any chemistry between Rochelle and Amira, which unfortunately means there was nothing to save this book from the stupid movie prankster plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books | HarperCollins for allowing me to read this book!

I thought this an adorable book! YA romance is a genre I do not have great experience with, particularly contemporary. I at times struggle to feel the connection between characters, or find myself too buried in emotions to contemplate much else other than the angst. However, If We Were A Movie was filled with heart and hope enough that I found myself enjoying very much.

There are, of course, emotional aspects of the book, with Rochelle's deceased father, her reasons for the why of college, her realization about never being a teen again, Rochelle's conversations with her mother, and Rochelle's social struggles. She is incredibly relatable, and any teen with anxiety, romantic or social struggles, ambition, or even just with a job? can understand depth of her feelings.

Funnily enough, I was telling myself how relieved I was that there was no third act troubles, just as they happened. But that is the genre, and I think the way it was handled felt mature enough and true to both characters.

4.5⭐️
This book was such a blast! I adored every character; they were all so charming and fun. Rochelle’s determination really stood out. The relationship between the main characters was absolutely adorable. Jennie might be my favorite—she was hilarious!
The friendships in this book were truly something special.

This was so cute! Great sapphic enemies-to-lovers romance for YA crowd. I thought the characters were really well-developed, and was very invested early on in their friendship & relationship. That cover is so perfect for this book, and really fit the story well.

I liked how much Rochelle overthinks things, and thought the author did a great job with her intensity about school while still keeping her a kid. Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins Children's Books, and Zakiya N. Jamal for the chance to read and review, my opinions are my own! This one should absolutely be a hit!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book! All opinions stated below are my own and honest thoughts :)

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 - I loved it!!

Rochelle Coleman is an introverted, hard-working student with big plans for her future. Amira Rodriguez is a bit opposite; she's loud, out-going, and quite popular at school. Rochelle and Amira used to be best friends as a by-product of their mothers' friendship, but a falling out freshman year has had them at each other's throats in competition for academic success. Now, it's the summer before senior year and in order to get into her dream school, Rochelle has decided she needs a job to help round out her application. She lands a job at the Black-owned local movie theater, Horizons. The problem? Amira works there too, and she's the assistant manager, effectively making her Rochelle's boss for the summer. When Horizons starts struggling and an unknown prankster starts wreaking havoc on the theater, these two characters have to set aside their differences in order to help save the beloved local business. But they might find more than just an unexpected friendship along the way...

I absolutely loved this YA sapphic romance! "If We Were a Movie" gave me that nostalgic teen, summer-movie feeling (seriously, a production company should reach out to Zakiya N. Jamal ASAP for negotiations here). The setting of the local, Black-owned theater, Horizons, was so quaint and cozy - it made me want to attend a movie showing there! The details in the scene and character descriptions were thorough and made visualizing every aspect of this book so easy. Each of the characters were unique and quirky and I loved every single one of them. I felt like there was great character development by the main character, Rochelle, both internally and in her relationships with other characters.

The only thing I wish was a little different, is that I would love to see more of Rochelle and Amira's rivalry prior to working together. I feel like their competitiveness/animosity is just touched on as background information and I think I would have liked to see more of it actually on-page. But I do understand that the main driver of the plot is the mystery surrounding the theater prankster, so I get why the book was written the way it is - this is just a personal preference I have.

If you are a fan of friends-to-enemies/rivals-to-lovers romance, YA romance, or books featuring LGBTQ+ and/or BIPOC characters, I would HIGHLY recommending checking out this book. It's sweet, cute, and a fast-paced, easy read. I'm looking forward to reading more works by Zakiya N. Jamal in the future.