I want every book Nicola Dinan ever writes because she is absolutely the author for me. I'm 2 for 2 on excellent reads from her, and I am just once again in awe of how she creates a character. Their feelings, their depth, their flaws, their RELATIONSHIPS in every single form. It is all done so flawlessly, so realistically and in such a heartfelt way that I both ended up laughing my ass off at this book and tearing up in public spaces over it. There is such a good balance of flaws with the main characters, and I just love how there is no villain, no clear wrong or right at times, there is just mess and people trying and people struggling at love and friendship and life and ugh. So good, cannot wait for every new book this woman writes because she is officially my go-to for literary fiction that feels like sitting down and overhearing strangers gossip so intensely that you hallucinate your attachment to the people in their lives.

This books was such a vivid mix of beautiful and stark and hilarious and devastating and ultimately hopeful in the wake of disappointment. I envy any reader getting to experience it for the first time. Nicola Dinan writes such real-feeling characters and her voice is one that's been missing from my shelves until now. I am so thankful this book landed in my lap.

Wonderfully lush prose takes you through this story of self acceptance and loss. I rather enjoyed this book and I think I need a few days to process. This book at its core is about falling in love with the idea of someone instead of the actual person and reconciling that with all the messy details that make us human.

I could not put this down and I didn’t want it to end. I loved the use of dual POV & timeline. This story is so real, relatable, touching, and funny at times. One of my favorite books I’ve read this year. Nicola Dinan writes with such wit and charm. I enjoyed getting to know these characters and became very invested in Max’s story and wellbeing. I appreciated the ending and felt like enough loose ends were tied up. I will be re-reading this in the future. This is an amazing novel!!

DISAPPOINT ME follows Max, a thirty-something woman navigating love, identity, and the continuous disappointments of adulthood. When she begins a relationship with Vincent, a man who seems to offer stability and care, past traumas and unresolved tensions begin to resurface for the both of them.


I really liked this one. Max, a trans woman, is navigating life and love amidst feelings of how she sees herself, how others see her, and what it means to live authentically. It’s modern, fresh, unflinchingly honest, and incredibly tender. I’ve yet to read BELLIES but I’m keen to. I think Nicola Dinan has another fan in me.

This was a raw, real look at the struggles faced every single day by transgender people, it was heartbreaking, infuriating, and such a great story about overcoming the stereotypes others place on us. It called out harmful stereotypes and tackled serious issues such as gender identity, transphobia, homophobia, and violence against LQBTQIA+ people. The characters felt real and the situations they were in were very well written.



4.5 stars ⭐️

A delight start to finish. I loved the dual POV. Navigating relationships is a mess and this captured it perfectly

Disappoint Me fits into the mold of other novels on young adults trying to find themselves (millennial ANGST!) were not a lot actually goes on plot wise. I write this not to say I did not like it, just to warn the reader. You need to be into these types of novels! Max works for a tech company and is dissatisfied with her life and wonders where she wants to go with it. The book opens with her falling down the stairs and hitting her head at a New Year's Eve party and not getting the brain scan that is recommended. Max decides it is now time to settle down and find herself a man. Enter Vincent, a lawyer who is quite traditional, and comes from a Chinese family who he is unsure how they will react to him dating a trans woman. But he treats Max well, and she cannot believe what is happening. Underlying this is Vincent's previous experience on a trip to Thailand years ago where he had a complicated experience with a fellow traveler. I enjoyed this one overall. The dueling narratives of Max and Vincent brought interesting dynamics into their relationship.

Thank you to The Dial Press via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

“Disappoint Me” by Nicola Dinan is a book I will find myself recommending to a lot of people.

The writing is beautiful, and the story is relatable. This story raised a lot of questions about what it means to love and forgive. To find your place in not only your own body but in your relationships. Learning to let someone in and to love again. Coming into your thirties and trying to figure out what it means to change.

“Disappoint Me” in my opinion, is an important read.

Une lecture sincère et engagée.

Un roman qui aborde avec beaucoup de sensibilité des sujets comme l’acceptation, le pardon, la sexualité et la transidentité. J’ai beaucoup apprécié cette volonté d’éduquer sans jamais tomber dans la leçon de morale. Vincent et Max sont vraiment touchants, très humains, on prend plaisir à les voir évoluer au fil des pages. Leur parcours, à la fois personnel et relationnel, met intelligemment en lumière les préjugés et les difficultés auxquels ils sont confrontés, sans jamais verser dans l’excès. J’aurais simplement aimé être un peu plus convaincue par leur histoire d’amour, qui manque parfois de profondeur à mon goût. La conclusion m’a également semblé un peu précipitée par rapport au rythme global du récit, mais l’ensemble reste très cohérent. La plume est douce, sincère, et on tourne les pages sans même s’en rendre compte.

Une lecture à la fois tendre et percutante, qui ouvre les esprits sans jamais forcer le trait. Une belle porte d’entrée vers des sujets encore trop peu explorés en littérature.

Merci à Netgalley, à Nicola Dinan et aux éditeurs pour cette lecture.

This book has fully convinced me to be a Nicola Dinan fan. It feels like languishing in the summer heat by the pool while also asking some really deep questions about life and love. Are you the same person you were 10 years ago? What can you forgive? It had me hooked, & I can’t wait to see what Dinan writes next

Disappoint Me is a rare gem in the literary romance space—smart, tender, and refreshingly honest. At its core is Max, a trans woman, reluctant lawyer, and one-time poet who’s still figuring out how to live fully in her own skin.

Enter Vincent: a corporate lawyer with a charming exterior and a complicated past he’s not quite ready to unpack.

What makes this novel stand out isn’t just its beautifully drawn queer characters (though that alone would be reason enough to read it). It’s the way it captures the universal anxieties around love, identity, and forgiveness, without ever losing its sharp wit or emotional precision. Max’s internal monologue is wry, vulnerable, and painfully relatable, especially as she second-guesses whether she can truly be loved or if she’s just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Meanwhile, the dynamics with friends and exes add texture that feels delightfully messy and real.

While Disappoint Me doesn’t shy away from heavy themes like grief, queerness, and the ghosts of our past, it does so with a deft, literary hand—and just enough humor to keep things buoyant. It’s not a fairy tale romance, but it is something rarer: a story about imperfect people trying to make something meaningful out of the mess. And honestly? That’s the kind of story that stays with you.

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan is a heartfelt novel filled with fully fleshed out characters and deep empathy. If you’re looking for a book this summer that is centered around relationships without feeling overly formulaic, but resembles real life, be sure to pick it up.

Max and Vincent meet at a time when Max is feeling less than inspired by life. Her soul-sucking job and a New Year’s Eve injury are not helping the situation so when Vincent shows up, Max welcomes the change and before she knows it she’s falling for him. As things become more serious between Max and Vincent, a major mistake from Vincent’s past comes to haunt him and has the potential to drive Max away. Max is forced to try to reconcile her feelings for Vincent and her identity as a trans person, after learning about his past.

The story flashes back and forth between the past and present, told from dual perspectives. Sometimes I feel like this format can cheapen the experience, but due to Dinan’s excellent writing it ended up adding to the authenticity and tenderness within the storyline. It helped create understanding and empathy for Vincent once his mistake is revealed rather than having the reader simply write him off as a jerk.

The build of the relationship between Max and Vincent felt real. I would not say that Dinan And Sally Rooney have similar writing styles, but the level of intimacy between the two main characters, I could liken to a Rooney-esque relationship — but make it queer. Dinan shapes what makes each character human, perfectly. They are flawed and not always likable, but always relatable. I thoroughly enjoyed being in their heads and understanding their motivations.

Nothing like a funny and witty and slightly depressing literary fiction to remind me that to be a woman is to forgive and suffer and fantasize / harp on domesticity at all times 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

I thought this was incredibly well done and the characters were really intriguing to read about. Def going to check out her first book, Bellies!!! Thank u to the author and publisher for the advanced reader copy, this was such a good read 😛😍😇🤭

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. The cover of this book grabbed me immediately, but unfortunately, I think the cover was ultimately more interesting than the story. Nicola Dinan writes beautifully, but the characters all fell a bit flat for me. The book is very readable, and I appreciated the dual POVs, but I wasn't particularly invested in any of the characters and I’m not entirely sure why. I also did not care for the ending. It didn’t need to be a poem. That felt like trying a little too hard to be literary and Dinan’s writing is strong enough on its own that she didn’t need to resort to that.

I was charmed by Disappoint Me, much more so than Dinan's first book, Bellies. Max and Vincent are the two main characters. Max is a trans woman, a lawyer who analyzes contracts as an AI, and is in between boyfriends, bored by the queer London scene. She falls down some stairs on New Years Eve and decides that she's going to make the effort to date -- she will try heteronormativity.

She meets Vincent--a corporate lawyer. Both are biracial Chinese and white, and she is impressed by the fact he has mended his sock, which she notices when he takes off his shoes at her place. The narrative shifts to Vincent's perspective, from the year he took a gap year and spent it in Thailand with his best friend, Fred. There we learn his secrets, about his previous experience with a trans woman.

Max feels out of place with Vincent's friends--all in hetero relationships, but she also feels out of place with her own friends who are partnering off, having destination weddings that just seem pointless. And she is thirty and the questions of kids comes up over and over--but as a trans woman, is she entitled to want kids--does she? Her brother has gotten a girlfriend pregnant, and he doesn't react well, and then Vincent's father has a heart attack. So life is happening for these two, and when Max finds out what really happened with that other trans woman he was with, can she ever forgive him? Are any of us the same person that we were ten or twelve years ago?

Dinan's writing is beautiful and perceptive, and I loved this book! I loved the fact that Max was a lawyer who really wanted to be a writer (same!) and that it's about forgiveness on so many levels--related to family and friends--and how our relationships are what is really important in our lives. I loved the fact that Max is a trans character and the book had nothing to do with his transition--we don't learn about that process for Max at all, because it's not relevant to the story, even though Max's trans identity is very important. It's very character-driven, but there is a huge development for Max that is put in place at the very beginning, driving the book forward.

A tumble down the stairs convinces Max that it's time for a change: time for a stable relationship; time to settle down; time, perhaps, for a bit of heteronormativity. Enter Vincent.

On paper—and in person—Vincent seems like the perfect fit. Attractive, good job, good listener; he's Chinese enough to make Max's mother happy and unfazed by Max being trans. But behind all that there's something else: there's who Vincent was when he was younger, and the choices he made then. And these are neither things he wants Max to know about nor things he can hide forever.

"I decide not to say anything, buckling under the pressure to upgrade by palatability." (loc. 758*)

The book weaves back and forth between then and now: now, from Max's perspective, starting to build this new life with Vincent; and then, from Vincent's perspective, when Vincent is young and stupid and backpacking through Asia. In places I found the book slow going just because Max's side of things is so much easier to take—Max is no saint, but she has her head basically screwed on right, and she has (usually) a strong sense of right and wrong. Vincent was harder to handle; young-and-dumb-tourist is not one of my favourite character types (though it's in here for a reason), and I could feel the Bad coming well before I had a sense of what shape it would take.

Max—and by extension the reader—is asked, then, to decide: what transgressions can be forgiven, and by whom? That is: even if Max decides that she can look past the things Vincent did in his youth, what right does she have to forgive? How do they move forward? And (largely unasked, in the book) is there an element of atonement in Vincent's relationship with Max?

I love how messy things get, if not the things themselves—I don't like my characters squeaky-clean and perfect, because shades of grey make for more realistic and more interesting reading. It helps that Vincent's transgressions are not the worst of the book, but also that there are other characters (e.g., Simone) operating in shades of grey, or rather doing both good things and bad. Max does have to make decisions about the relationship, and what to do with it, as the book nears its end, and I had mixed feelings about the way things pan out. There are a limited number of ways the book could go there (the relationship could end; the relationship could continue; the book could end without the reader finding out what happens). I suspect that I was never going to be entirely satisfied with any of those options, which is actually a good thing in terms of the book—again, grey area. It'll be interesting to see where Dinan goes next.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Wow! What poignant read that encapsulates the queer experience of becoming comfortable in your identity in your late 20s. The author really nailed this book and through Max’s character we were able to explore and experience a story that’s so inherently queer and meaningful. Not only is this book about finding love and acceptance of love (both in friends and in partners) but also about how the experience of Trans people navigating love and partnership. I really felt so deeply for Max and her progression through the story just felt so genuine and real. This story also did such a good job of exploring grief and mortality.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. “Disappoint Me” will be published May 27, 2025.

[3.5 stars]

Max has decided to make the most of her thirties, beginning with finding someone who loves her for who she is. After years of figuring out who she is, Max is ready to live her life as her true self. Vincent could be her perfect match. He's a fellow lawyer; does not shy away when she reveals she's a trans woman; and openly loves those he surrounds himself with. However, he's hiding a dark secret that could drastically alter his relationship with Max. When this information comes to light while on a semi-romantic trip, Max second-guesses everything. Is Vincent as wonderful as he seems? Can she be with someone who has been hiding this secret? Not to mention, this comes amid a medical crisis. With everything taking such a quick turn, Max isn't so sure her thirties are going to be her best years yet.

I loved Bellies, so I was extra excited to have received this one. However, it didn't quite have the same impact as her debut novel. I was a little annoyed by Max, which was a bad foot to start off on. The writing is absolutely beautiful, however. Nicola Dinan truly has a gift, and I will continue to read anything she publishes. The story was absolutely heartbreaking, and I just wish I connected with the characters a bit more. This would be a fantastic novel for anyone who is still chasing the high of A Little Life! It may fill the void a little bit - lol. Overall, I would have no problem recommending this book to anyone looking for a queer book full of angst, heartbreak, and soul searching.

This was really good and feeds my mood for these types of books. Give me all of these books!! I love the cover and then the story just kept me intrigued the entire time.