I don’t particularly love YA but wanted to read this one as it came so highly recommended (and was a part of Target’s book club). I also liked that it was a queer love story between two young Black women; a perspective that is very different from my own. Overall, I really enjoyed this — besides the love story there is also a wonderfully heartwarming family story. Parts felt very young but that’s when you kick yourself a little and say “duh, that is what you get when you are reading YA!” So, it feeling young isn’t a valid criticism, and if I had a teenage girl in my life I would give her this book. (So if YOU have a teenager in your life, get her this book!) Avery Anderson is seventeen years old when her life is uprooted: her mother moves their family back to her hometown of Bardell, Georia to care for Avery’s terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. Mama Letty is hostile and doesn’t want them there. As Avery struggles to get to know her grandmother (and unravel some family secrets), she befriends her next door neighbor Simone and Simone’s best friend Jade. The girls become extremely close, fast… and Jade and Simone’s friendship blossoms into romance. The book is heartwarming at times and rife with drama (family secrets, homophobia, racism) at others.
Author: Jas Hammonds
