I wanted to like this one more than I did unfortunately. Though made for a young adult audience, I still found the writing to be a little too juvenile for my taste. There were many times the story began to drag and I feel like I would have enjoyed this much more had it been a 100 pages shorter. However, I still loved the plot at its core. A lesbian princess who fell in love with her civilian friend?? I also loved the incorporation of the palace aesthetic along with a boarding school vibe. Unfortunately the pacing of the story really threw me off in the end. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital copy!

Princess Rosemary is only out to her parents. Danni is only out to her bestie. This book is filled with cute & expected mixups as they long for each other. Mix in the angst of high school, fake dating with a heaping of royal gossip and you get “Nobody in Particular.” Each girl goes through their own journey to not only fight for love, but figure out who they are and fight for themselves.

Sophie's books just keep getting better! I loved this book so much; it was the perfect bit of escapism I crave in a summer read.

This books follows Rose, a princess who has recently gotten into a scandal and is trying to salvage her image and fix her friendships.

If you've watched Young Royals on Netflix then this definitely gives off the same vibes, both following a student and royalty who just happen to fall in love with each other but make it sapphic which should’ve made it better but it didn’t :( their chemistry just wasn’t flowing the way i like. i had a hard time connecting with the characters. they just didn’t feel fully fleshed out but nonetheless it was cute and fast paced which i appreciate!
And on a positive note, i did like how the author wrote about friendship breakups, family dynamics and first love!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Nobody in Particular has been one of my most anticipated reads of this year! I thoroughly enjoyed the dual points of view with Rose and Danni; as well as the dynamics between the girls and all of their shenanigans! I feel every dynamic in this book felt authentic and natural, there was never a point I felt the timeline or emotions shown felt unbelievable! This is my second queer read this month and I'm so happy with it! Catch it in your local bookstore for some good old pride month resistance with circulating queer books!

Sophie Gonzales is just so skilled at writing YA romances that are quick and fun to read, and this is no exception. And it's a royalty romance on top of that? An all-around good time

We need more LGBT books like this! Rose and Danni are such a cute and perfect couple who end up facing a lot of trials and tribulations surrounding their relationship. I could see so many young people in general being able to empathize with this couple and really feel seen.

This was super cute! I usually struggle with contemporary romance, but this one was pretty good. There was really good build up and I enjoyed all the characters. Nothing was cringey or too pop culture, which I really appreciated. My only gripe would be that some of the royalty aspects felt too unrealistic, but I feel like I have that issue with every contemporary royalty story.

Overall, I think this was a win and would definitely recommend it to my sapphic romance readers!

Sophie Gonzales is one of my auto-read authors. I love her and the stories she creates. While this might not go on the top of my list of favorites from her, it is still a strong story with a sweet romance that grows on you as the story progresses. While the drama was a little tiresome (if well written in that regard), the story was overall engaging and the characters interesting and well-written. I will continue to read anything Sophie throws my way.

Thank you St. Martins Press for the gifted copy of Nobody in Particular. This was such a good love story; I love reading the forbidden love trope, and I also appreciate that this has strong sapphic vibes. Readers will love seeing Rosemary and Danni's predicament unfold throughout the pages!

This was another fun story from Sophie Gonzales. Danni is a gifted pianist who wins a scholarship to an exclusive girl's boarding school in the fictional country of Henland, a small independent country within driving distance of Paris and Brussels. She never quite fit in anywhere she was and was in fact bullied severely in her previous school. So, she is surprised when beautiful and stylish (read "wealthy) Molly befriends her and helps her navigate the shark-infested social waters of Bramppath College. It turns out that Molly is the ex-best friend of Rosemary, the princess of Henland and it's not long before Danni realizes there is a lot going on that she doesn't understand. And yet, there is a definite connection between Danni and Rose that she needs to decide how to navigate.

In many ways, this story reminded me of Red, White, and Royal Blue, as well as The Princess Diaries, and I think fans of those books would enjoy this one. However, I liked some of the more serious themes that were explored in this book including outing someone against their will, homophobia and queer identity, what it means to be a public figure who is always under the watchful eye of the press (and what it means to date someone who is a public figure), bullying, underage drinking and drugs, the importance of mental health, as well as dealing with grief in a healthy way.

This is definitely a perfect summer escapist read and perfect for lovers of YA novels, queer or otherwise.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I didn't have high expectations for this when I first read the setup - boarding school romance crossed with secret Royal-commoner romance - but this book happily surprised me. The main characters, Crown Princess Rosemary and scholarship student Danni, are written as such fully formed characters, with their anxieties and fledgling hopes at finding each other that their story steadily riveted me. The slow burn of their connection gives readers a chance to discover their individual backstories, including a tabloid scandal in Rose's recent past that she needs to stop running from. This storyline, involving the death of a friend, packs an emotional wallop that the author handles beautifully. Author Sophie Gonzales has such a natural touch for making the characters feel three-dimensional, with even the side characters and villains (yes, of course there's royal court intrigue!) never feeling like cardboard tropes. I cared so much for these characters by the end, which makes this such a refreshing read in this genre. I'll have to read more of Sophie's work to see if this is her signature.

I loved this queer YA romance because it hasany things inlove: forbidden love, royal pressure, boarding school drama, and the kind of quiet, intimate touches that sneak up on you and wreck you in the best way.
Itwas a really emotional story about identity, pressure, and figuring out who you are when the world’s already decided for you.
Definitely recommend and, not to mention the stunning cover

"Nobody In Particular" is the story of a teenage princess, Rose, and her first girlfriend, Danni, an American girl who transfers to their preppy European boarding school at the start of junior year. Rose's sexuality and Danni's status in her life must be kept a strict secret because of Rose's position in a majority-Catholic country.

This was...an interesting book. Having now read two of Sophie Gonzalez' books (this and If This Gets Out), she does the whole "I can't be gay" storyline well. It's a story that can feel tired for all us queers who have read and watched zillions of coming out stories over the years, but Gonzalez' writing helps the story remain fresh. This story is very character focused, but there is still an external plot that carries things along.

Characters:
There are a lot of characters in this story, and some are more dimensional than others, but not how you would expect. You would expect Rose and Danni to be equally well-rendered, with Molly and Eleanor and maybe Alfie one rung down, and everyone else less so as they extend away from the story. However, while Rose was a very interesting character--shut off due to trauma and the pressures of measuring up--Danni fell a bit flat. What do we know about her? She wants to be a pianist, but she's scared about the spotlight. She's been bullied. She likes Rose. Okay, that's all well and good and informs her actions throughout the story, but she doesn't seem to have any flaws. Once, she expresses a fear of being hurt and uses that to hurt Rose, but she hurts herself so badly in the process that it still doesn't seem like a flaw. I don't know. She often reads like a neutral party even though she's one of two leads.

On the other hand, Molly is incredibly well-developed. At times I wondered if this was going to become a throuple because of how well realized she was. And then Eleanor, who has almost as big a role as Molly, is sort of nothing. She likes A boy and does silly things about it, but otherwise she adds little. In general, I enjoyed this group, but I think the narrative space could have been portioned out differently.

Plot:
The plot was good. A few things felt rushed, but that might be the teenageriness of it all. For example, the love story feels like it progresses very quickly. Rose and Danni go from nervous flirting to utterly obsessed with each other. I could have done with some further relationship development once the relationship was established, because it felt like as soon as they got together, they were planning for the rest of their lives. Again, though--teenagers. There is one other example of something that is danced around early on, seeming like it's going to be a major catalyst for the plot going forward, and then it gets revealed and the feelings resolve themselves sort of quickly. Again, it's really only relevant later as part of the Molly subplot, which goes to show how much weight she carries through the story.

I almost wonder if this could have just been Rose's story and Rose's POV, but that is one of my least favorite critiques to get as a writer so I will leave it there.

Prose:
Pretty dang good, mostly because it was so funny. Rose, in particular, was very witty and sarcastic and that came across very clearly in the prose of her internal narration.

Overall, I liked this book! We love to see sapphics get a happy ending, and these two were sweet.

I keep thinking I'm too old for YA but also will not stop reading Sophie Gonzalez. This is again a great sapphic story from Sophie. I think a royalty story is always fun and I think that this will resonate with a lot of teenagers.

I was really excited for this one. I have been reading Sophie's books for a while now and have enjoyed them. This one was a bit slow and sad for me. I found it difficult to keep reading. I wanted more lightness to the romance. There was almost too much secrecy and the plotline leading to Danni being outted made my heart hurt for them. It just seemed they didn't really get a chance to truly enjoy each other. It was just all drama around them which is probably somewhat accurate for a royal romance but I wanted more banter.

I'll still pick up Sophie's books and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this one. I also had the audiobook which was well produced, and the narration was great.

Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales is a YA Forbidden Romance that had me crying and laughing at times. The cover is what drew me in, but the characters kept me wanting to know what happens next.
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you so much, @NetGalley, for providing me with this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
#NetGalley

Sophie Gonzales delivers yet another beautifully written, emotionally rich queer romance story, this time with a mix of royal drama at a girl's boarding school. Danni and Rosemary are complex, flawed, and vulnerable, and I loved their alternating, highly contrasted perspectives. There are numerous heartfelt moments and beautifully portrays first love.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars.

Nobody in Particular is about Danni, a 'nobody' who has moved to a new country and got a coveted music scholarship to a boarding school and there she makes friends with the crown princess of the country, Rosemary, and all the rich kids at the boarding school. It is Danni and Rosemary's romance, with all the pitfalls of a same-sex relationship and teenagedom.

I really enjoyed this book, it's not my favorite by Sophie Gonzales (Never Getting Back Together, I bow at your feet) but it's probably my second favorite that I've read. I've found that a lot of stories like this fall into the same pitfalls. (You know what I'm talking about: being ashamed, hiding the relationship, breaking up with you because my family wouldn't approve, those ones.) And I am happy to report that this book happily leaped most of these hurdles. It felt like a unique take on the royal relationship story that has been so popular recently, and I really loved both Rose and Danni.

My detractors. I really struggle with a book that kind of normalizes drug use in teenagers, I just don't want to read about it, and this did fall into that 'rich kids are always on drugs' stereotype that I really don't like. My second issue was more a vague feeling and that was that there were some serious things that just didn't affect the story enough for me. The two examples of this were Danni's stage-fright, and Rosemary and Molly's past. Both of these were pretty serious issues, and I was really interested to see how the story resolved them, and I found myself... mildly disappointed by how they kind of just faded away.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and the story, and I would recommend it.

I thought this was super cute and I liked the relationship and it's progression. I didn't love the plotline but the romance was such a selling point.