I thought this would be a fun, quirky book, but this was not what I expected. The main character isn't that likable (no matter your political affiliation). The premise doesn't describe the book's relationships, which is disappointing. I would have preferred if the book was more like the premise.

i loved this book at the beginning. the setting, joan's voice, and her world are so well captured and feel so consuming and real — but as the book progressed, i felt claustrophobic not only in the intended ways but in the lack of movement. the ending didn't change that, sadly. i will look out for future books from this author!

Interesting at points, but drags a lot and felt a bit disjointed overall. I love the author’s writing style and am excited to see more from them, but I just couldn’t get into this one.

Unfortunately this was very much not for me. I was drawn in by the “royal tenenbaums meets fleabag” but I just didn’t get that. The FMC and her entire belief system was so unlikeable that I had a hard time finishing this book. The author’s writing style was great and I will definitely check out her next read - this one just wasn’t it.

Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and Netgalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 31%

In theory, this should have been a home run and one I was so looking forward to. I get that it's satire, I get that it's all vibes little plot, but it just didn't work for me this time. Perhaps something changes later on that would turn things around, but I jumped ship during the Young Republicans convention where an exciting, he's-going-places newbie named Ted Cruz was introduced.

The premise seemed so unique, and I didn’t know quite what to expect with the story and where it would go, but I was intrigued till the very end. This is more of a character study following a 20-something writer named Joan as she struggles with finishing her novel. She is seemingly self-assured and confident in her political convictions, and as we watch her draw inspiration for her stories from her toxic relationships and dysfunctional family, we find that she is quite the opposite. She is a messy, unlikeable character, full of contradictions, but despite this, I found myself feeling empathy for her because the story is much more than the bad decisions that she constantly makes. It is a story of addiction, mental health, grief, and forgiveness, and the struggle to find identity, acceptance, and love. This was a solid read from a debut author!

Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the eARC.

When I saw this compared to fleabag, I could not hit the request button fast enough. I am someone who loves lit fic with my entire being, but this was just not it. Joan and I could not get along, which is typically something I enjoy when reading these types of books; a character who is complex and fleshed out in the most human way possible, but I just found her unlikable to the point of unenjoyment. I truly believe if I had picked up this novel during a different point in my life, I would have enjoyed it, but alas, here I am. Whiteaker is an incredible writer, and I look forward to seeing her future releases that perhaps contain some different views.

Ashley Whitaker's writing is witty, well-paced and engaging. I would read other novels by this author; however, Bitter Texas Honey was not for me. Whitaker does a great job drawing the reader into Joan's mind, but her mind felt like a very unpleasant and uncomfortable place to be for an entire book. Joan is somehow self-centered and at the same time insecure. She's looking to express herself artistically as a writer, but seems to only be a vessel for other people's ideas and ideologies. She's an unlikeable character surroounded by a cast of unlikeable characters and even though I can intellectually understand the satire, I also found that delving into Joan's mind was more exhausting than enlightening.

Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker was an entertaining and funny debut.
The humor is fun Ana her writing is engaging.
I really enjoyed how raw and honest this story is.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.

Bitter Texas Honey is going to be a polarizing book but I think that Ashley Whitaker does a pretty great job with this story, which left me thinking about it for days after I finished reading it.

Our MC, Joan, is about as unlikable as a protagonist can be. She's lazy, entitled, egotistical, and has some pretty disturbing political beliefs to boot. That complexity will probably turn off a lot of readers but Whitaker really put me inside Joan's head and her world.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this to be published debut. Unfortunately I had to call this one as a DNF at about 50%. Something about its description and the actual execution of it was just off. The main character was a mess in a way that was just too much. Halfway through the book, I couldn’t figure out what direction we were going to take to get to the end. It was just a very meandering story. I think there were definitely some good parts to this book, and I think the story has potential, but needed cleaned up a bit. I would give this author a second chance, but Bitter Texas Honey was not for me.

Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker

A fantastically written, character-driven story with an extremely unlikable main character. This one left me with all kinds of thoughts and feelings.

🍯I both loved and hated the main character. She was so fantastically written, but I didn’t enjoy a single thing about her. I didn’t relate to her in any way. She thought she was more interesting and perceptive than she actually was. A complete and honest portrayal of a flawed character.
🍯 The relationship between the two cousins was a highlight. I loved reading their observations about the family and their own hot mess lives.
🍯 There wasn’t much of a plot, not much growth by the end. It felt very ironically highbrow, which I both enjoyed and rolled my eyes at. I’ve never in my life used the word “meta” but that is the word that kept coming to me as I was reading. (And maybe that’s not even the right way to use the word 😂🤷‍♀️).

Fans of unlikable characters with limited self-reflection, character-driven novels, and provocative debuts may enjoy this one.

DNF at 25% I just did not want to spend any more time with these characters. The writing is good, but I had no sense of the story a quarter of the way in.

Points to Whitaker for creating a drifting 20 something female protagonist who is....conservative? This is set in 2011, before this character became commonplace. Joan is not a likable person and everyone else is so dysfunctional that it was impossible to find someone to root for. That said, she's also an intriguing bundle of contradictions but oh so self important. I did like Whitaker's writing style and think she's got a bright future. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. While this wasn't for me, I'm sue there are others who will enjoy it.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the eARC.

Man, the description "a mix between Fleabag and The Royal Tenenbaums" got me, but this was not that. Full disclosure: I DNF'ed this book after 10%.

Considering the ways politics have changed since 2011, I could not stomach the normalizing of right-wing ideology. After taking a pause, I went to read other reviews, and I am happy to see my DNF decision supported by many others who said the MC never grows and doesn't have empathy for others. With limited time to read, I am choosing to avoid books with characters that are the antithesis of what I value. I don't need to love every character (in fact, I love an unreliable narrator or messy human who can't get it together), but a privileged white woman who bounces between beliefs and doesn't have redeeming qualities? Pass.

I enjoyed this a lot but there were also some really messed up things that happened. I would say this is quite dark unless you like reading about Adderall addiction. I was naïve and didn't have a clue. That said, it's very well written and interesting. Give it a try!

Bitter Texas Honey comes out next week on April 15, 2025 and you can purchase HERE.

Conservative talk radio hosts were the most reliable men in her life. Monday through Friday, no matter what she'd gotten into the night before, they were there, like old friends and confidants, like second fathers, like faithful lovers, their voices booming and authoritative, clever and jovial and worldly, always ready to soothe her mind and silence her thoughts.

Joan listened one morning, in January 2011, while she got dressed for her internship, tucking a button-up blouse into control-top pantyhose, sliding on her black pencil skirt, and dry heaving into her sink. She continued listening as she walked the four blocks uphill to the Texas Capitol, her head throbbing, chugging a sugar-free Red Bull, with two more cans clanking in her purse for later. She listened intermittently throughout her five-hour shift, as she tried to piece together the events of the night before, reading through a thread of unsettlingly intimate text messages between her and a man saved in her phone only as "Marine-Dirty 6th."

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Bitter Texas Honey is set in 2011 Texas and has us follow Joan, a 23 year old who used to have more liberal believes but has decided that was all the drugs talking and now makes a conscious effort to aline herself with her conservative family members.

During the day, she works as an intern at the Capitol, but how she really likes to spend her time is by writing. Or… trying to. For some reason it’s become much more difficult when she stopped taking adderall.

It was interesting to take a peek into the mindset of someone with such opposite views to myself. I will admit though, since Joan was fighting herself throughout the novel, I spent a lot of time just waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Joan to realize that she was trying to force herself to conform with her family and their believes.

This one is a hard one to rate, Joan is an extremely unlikable character full of contradictions and by the end of the novel, doesn’t really appear to have experienced any true growth. I had a hard time with the fact that after all that, nothing changed. On the flip side, you can tell that Whitaker is a talented author and I’d be open to looking into her next release.

the thing with fleabag is that fleabag had empathy for the people she hurt and worked to become a better person a little everyday. in <i>bitter texas honey</i> i can't say the same for joan because her political views are so vitriolic that it's so hard to be in joan's mind for over 300 pages. sure a reader can read between the lines to look at how familial ties (both social and genetic) or religion can be so harmful for growth (there's even a bit about conversion therapy for a side character). i actually enjoyed trying to put the pieces together to figure out why joan is the way she is (especially after her short lived time at umiami that wasn't explained well). however, i don't think i can recommend this to anyone because joan doesn't change her political views in the end and that is absolutely tied to how much growth she can go through.

2011, Austin, Texas - Joan West is an aspiring writer and a tea party republican. She doesn’t fit in with her liberal peers, and not sure if she fits in with her wealthy god-loving family either. Joan’s family are addicts, including herself. Like most addicts, they find themselves smarter, and better than others with zero self-awareness.

One thing is for certain, Ashley Whitaker can write. There is not a likeable character in this story…and I kept reading because of it. Think of it like a hate follow. I hated these characters sooo much I kept reading to see how bad they could be or if any of them turned their lives around. It takes fantastic writing to develop characters that can bring out that kind of emotion. They were so alive I wanted to go downtown and park in the Whole Foods parking lot wait for Joan to be there and shake her. A good debut novel, and I honestly look forward to the future stories Whitaker brings us.

Content comments: There is a character in the story that uses the “r” word multiple times to describe someone.

Bitter Texas Honey takes us on a wild romp through Austin Texas in 2011. Joan is trying to find her place in life, she’s not like her evangelical conservative family or her liberal peers in Austin. She’s tried both political parties on and feels above them. Her main goal in life? To be a writer, an artist, a creator. She finds inspiration anywhere she can, or desperately tries to.

Joan’s biggest muse in her life is her wild and free cousin Wyatt. Wyatt is a soft dreamer who believes in the Texas classic nuclear family life, but he’s held back by his demons. His debt, addiction and mental health issues. As Joan’s biggest inspiration she wants to move the world to help Wyatt when he’s in crisis, but Joan can’t see outside herself enough lost in her own haze of addiction.

This is a story of addiction, the many roles it can play and sizes it can take while destroying lives. We learn how deeply generational the compulsion for drugs, sex, love, politics and validation are. We watch Joan traverse through a cycle of men she thinks can appease her as she tries on masculine traits. The whiskey drinking writer, always comparing her latest novel to Hemingway or Kerouac. Socialized with femininity she purposely chooses masculinity not realizing it’s just as harmful.


This book isn’t going to be for everyone, it’s full of very complicated characters that are very of the time. There is flawed language and ideals. I see a lot of my younger self and my family wrapped up within this story. The rhetoric her family has on politics, religion and mental health painfully mimic my live experience. I’ve dealt with generalized anxiety disorder and depression disorder my entire life whether I knew the name for it or not. I know what it’s like to not be heard by your conservative god loving family.

Thank you Dutton and netgalley for this arc!