eeeep the author of a favorite book of mine where all kinds of representation is done superbly is writing another book!!

this was so much fuuuun and so goooood pls read it now.Thank you to Swoonreads & Edelweiss for this review copy!

This is the definition of a summery romcom, and it was lovely to read! I love when books make you smile, but also weave in complex relationships + some harder topics to mull over. I just loved Winnie SO HARD in this book. Her voice, her personality, the way she so fiercely and loyally takes care of her loved ones. Like 🥺💛I need a Winnie in my life, she is the loveliest. The book is full of queer joy, deep relationship dynamics, unconditional love, and Winnie telling it like it is for life as a B...

I’m not feeling this book at the moment. I may try it again another time.

DNF at 20%I'm so sad that this wasn't holding my attention that much. I was struuuuuuggling to get through the chapters and by the time I put this down I didn't feel much towards Winnie or her family at all.This is another It's Not You It's Me book.This starts in the middle of a kitchen fire started by Winnie's cousin Sam, and immediately character after character is introduced, along with backstory and relationships that felt weirdly underdeveloped/bland when they shouldn't have? At 20% in ther...

Trigger warnings: fatphobia, fat shaming, medical emergency. I am so bummed I didn't love this. Let's Talk About Love is one of my favourite contemporary stories, so when I first read about this one, I was SUPER excited about it. And then I promptly put off reading it for a year. And now I've read it and I'm just...sad. My biggest problem with this was that there was just Too. Much. Going. On. There were about four different plots happening here and the whole thing just felt frantic and jumbled

3.5 stars rounded upAnother book I have mixed feelings on. I love that this book is tackling anti-fat bias, fatphobia, polyamory, and queer platonic partnerships. I don't think I've ever seen a QPP in a YA book before and clearly that is confusing the hell out of some reviewers. I like the project of this, centering Winnie, a queer, fat Black girl coming of age and balancing her "ungirlfriend" with a crush on a boy and lots of family drama. This book isn't afraid to get into the messiness of hum...

I'll be honest, I was a little bored. If you asked me what this book is about, I wouldn't be able to tell you (and yes, I did read it). The book starts off as being about our main character being crowned Summer Queen against her will, but that plot quickly gets discarded. We didn't really see anything about that summer festival, except for a few very short scenes here and there. Instead, we mostly follow Winnie as she is going about her summer. But don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it.I grew a...

I was super psyched about this book because I absolutely LOVED Let's Talk About Love. I was super psyched over the cover which is all kinds of #BlackGirlMagic feels!!! A fat Black girl with a huge smile, braids and a look that has zero fucks to give in regards to how other people want to define her? Honey, I'm here for it!To be honest, this book felt disjointed to me. Winnie, the heroine, was all over the place. Despite the title, it seemed that she spent a great deal of the book making other pe...

Update 12/5/19: I’ve learned a lot more about what queerplatonic means, so I feel like a lot of what I said here was messy and problematic and want to rectify that. HOWEVER I still feel Kara was controlling and that was irritating and upsetting. UGH. I made it about halfway through this one. And I was really liking parts of it and couldn't deal with others. Like, I really love the main character, Winnie. I see so much of myself in her attitude and love of her family and struggling with dealing w...

'If It Makes You Happy', made Me happy. I loved this book. I loved the relationships with her family, friends, un-girlfriend. I loved how they were messy, and complicated, and didn't always do the right thing. The plot was a little messy though. This review is going to be so long, and I genuinely don't know how, but watch this review get way too long for human eyes. ➽Working At Goldeen's - Winnie, and her brother + cousin work at Goldeen's over the summer. It's a family run restaurant and it was...

I don't feel like writing a review but I do want to give my thoughts on this book, so I will be writing a list:-I can relate to Winnie hating running SO. MUCH. I kinda started a running program a few days ago (um I haven't actually done it since) and I was in PAIN.-I cannot believe this book has a queerplatonic relationship. This is the first book with one of these that I've read and I'm just so excited.-There were times that I could relate to Kara so much, in some things that she said. She was

Claire Kann’s second novel was relatable to me in many ways. I appreciated Winnie’s struggle for acceptance from her family and people around her. To be a Black, queer fat woman is to be subjected to endless microagressions and silencing tactics all the time. Especially within Black families, when elders think they’re right because they’re older. The strife between Winnie and her Granny resonated so hard, as I had a similar relationship with my grandparents growing up. I also enjoyed reading abo...

Actual rating: 2.5I feel pretty conflicted about this book, and I'm so sad about that. I loved Let's Talk About Love, as it was one of the first books where I saw asexuality represented, so I had really high hopes for this one. And I really loved the first part of the book, which was very promising, but then it all sort of went downhill for me.The good:- The main character, Winnie. She's truly amazing: a well-rounded, flawed and very interesting character. I really loved the rep, especially beca...

A rom-com with a fat queer black girl as the MC, GET IN MY HANDS N O W PLEASE

5 stars!I LOVED THIS. I wish this had existed when I was in high school. The girl I was could have used this happy, hopeful book. Main character: ★★★★★Humor: ★★★★★Romance: ★★★★★The ending: maybe controversial, but I LOVED the ending in particularWinnie is ready for another summer spent in her grandma's small-town diner, waiting on tables and hanging out with her ungirlfriend. She's comfortable in her space, in her life, and she's just waiting of for the summer's good times to come before she goe...

Buzzword A ThonThank you Swoon Reads & Claire Kann for sending me this ARC!This book just wasn't for me, which is a shame because I was super excited to read this. From pretty much the first chapter I wasn't feeling it. I didn't like Winnie the main character, she's just insufferable and I couldn't wait to be out of her life. Kara her "ungirlfriend" which WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT! was awful. I didn't understand what Winnie & Kara's relationship was suppose to be, they seemed like best friends but a...

ARC kindly provided by Pan Macmillan Australia in exchange for an honest review. y'all this is the first physical arc i've ever been sent ahhhhhhh let's go

Tender and relatable on so many levels. I love the subtleties of this book. Just ace peeps being ace and living their lives without turning this book into an educational primer on the ace spectrum. I appreciated the storyline with the grandmother. Family dynamics are hard, and it's so important to learn to draw your boundaries and be your own person, and that's okay. I'm so glad teens get an opportunity to see that with this book.

Open, honest conversations about feelings, cutting out people who are bad for you, and a queerplatonic relationship?! Thank you.