Tag Archives: sapphic

Review: Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,
Lady's Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Lady’s Knight
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Storytide
Published June 3, 2025

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About Lady’s Knight

An undeniably fierce, unforgettably funny, unapologetically queer feminist romp through the England of medieval legend. Bestselling and acclaimed authors Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner bring readers along on an epic quest for valor, freedom, and, above all, love. A Knight’s Tale meets the Lady Jane series, with a dash of The Great!

Gwen is sick of hiding—hiding the fact that she’s taken over her father’s blacksmithing duties, hiding her attraction to girls, hiding her yearning for glory as a knight.

Meanwhile, Lady Isobelle of Avington, queen bee of the castle, has never once considered hiding who she is—until now. She’s been chosen as the grand prize in the Tournament of Dragonslayers, to be given to whichever knight can claim her hand. And for the first time in her life, she can’t talk her way out of trouble.

When Isobelle discovers Gwen’s knightly ambitions, they hatch a scheme together—Gwen will joust in the tournament, disguised as Sir Gawain. Winning means freedom for Isobelle, and glory for Gwen. Losing means… well, let’s not go there.

One thing’s for sure: falling in love was never the plan.

But the best laid plans…are often trampled all over by dragons.

My Review

It’s been a minute since I’ve read anything by this duo, but I remember that I enjoyed the last book by Kaufman and Spooner that I read. This novel is a lot of fun, as one familiar with the authors would expect. The characters have serious moments, but they’re often punctuated by asides that highlight the irony of a situation or point out a paradox in the culture of the time.

The characters speak to one another in fairly modern language, which might be challenging for die-hard historical fiction fans, but will make the story more accessible for readers who generally read contemporary fiction.

The romance between Gwen and Isobelle is so sweet. They have very different personalities, and that made watching them fall in love such a joy. Isobelle is the kind of character that might be easy to write off as too silly or shallow at first, but as you get to know her, you see how she uses humor or frivolity to mask her true self. It’s not safe for her to be any other way.

The pragmatic and serious Gwen challenges Isobelle to speak up more, and in return, Isobelle challenges Gwen to believe in herself and take risks. They make a fabulous couple. I loved some of the side characters, especially Olivia, Isobelle’s maid (with a much more exciting history) and Madame DuPont, the swordswoman who helps Gwen prepare for the tournament.

The author acknowledgements say this is the first book in a series, and I say, bring it! I’m absolutely here for more adventures in this story world.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters are hedge witches, who use healing herbs to help sick or wounded people and uplift women and marginalized people.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some scenes show knights competing at jousting, which can be deadly. Some participants injure their opponents.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol and play a drinking game (a medieval version of Never Have I Ever).

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Time After Time by Mikki Daughtry

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Historical, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

Time After Time
Mikki Daughtry
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published May 27, 2025

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About Time After Time

From the screenwriter and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel and film Five Feet Apart comes an epic YA sapphic romance, unfolding over two sets of lives, one hundred years apart.

Nineteen-year-old Libby has always been inexplicably drawn to the old Victorian house on Mulberry Lane. So much so that when she sees a For Sale sign go up in the front yard, Libby uses all the money her grandmother left her to pay for college to buy the house instead, determined to fix it up herself—even though she knows her parents will be furious. Soon after moving in, she discovers a journal written by a young woman, Elizabeth Post, who lived in the house nearly a century earlier. It doesn’t take long for the journal to reveal that Elizabeth was madly in love with her personal maid, Patricia. A love that was forbidden and dangerous, especially at that time.

Enter Tish, a brash, broke fellow college student, who passes by the house one day and is mysteriously compelled to knock on the door. Soon Libby offers Tish a room in exchange for her help in fixing up the old house, and the two young women quickly find themselves falling for each other. But as Elizabeth’s journal entries delve deeper into her secret love affair with Patricia, uncanny similarities between that young couple and Libby and Tish are revealed, and it becomes clear that this may not be their first time in this house, or in this love. Is this their chance to get it right?

My Review

Sometimes when I read a book, the premise strikes me as something so clever or unusual that I wonder if that’s what brought the book to publication. This is one of those books.

The narrative has a lot of moving parts. We have chapters set in 1925, from the perspective of a young woman whose family lived in the Victorian house. We also follow two points of view from the present day. First, there’s Libby, a girl who just bought the house. And there’s Tish, a girl she meets in her college classes and who offers to help her fix up the house.

As we get to know each narrator, we notice some striking similarities between Elizabeth from 1925 and Libby from 2025. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that those similarities are more than simple coincidences.

One of the story’s strengths is in its minor characters. I enjoyed the banter between Tish and Joe, the junkyard owner who helps her fix up her scooter. Tish and her best friend Bari have great banter, too. Libby’s relationship with her mom was also fascinating.

I think readers interested in LGBTQIA+ stories in a historical setting will like getting to see the 1925 timeline in this novel. If your taste for romance leans more in the Hallmark movie vein, I can see this being a great pick. It feels like a book to curl up with under a warm blanket, perfect for a stormy summer afternoon.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Two characters wake up in bed together.

Spiritual Content
Some references to reincarnation.

Violent Content
Brief prejudiced statements against an Irish woman. A man becomes violent in a confrontation. Someone sustains injuries in an accident.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking wine together.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

Summer Girls
Jennifer Dugan
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published May 27, 2025

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About Summer Girls

From the author of Some Girls Do comes a YA sapphic romance about two girls from different sides of the tracks.

Cass has a rule about dating summer girls—just say no. Every year the idyllic beach town Cass’s working-class family calls home is flooded with summer girls, the obnoxious daughters of the rich, who stay in their families’ summer homes, sail their yachts, and generally make things unbearable for townies like Cass.

Birdie is the ultimate summer girl. She’s the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer dad and a social media influencer mom, and this summer Birdie happens to be in big trouble for accidentally crashing her boyfriend’s very expensive car.

As punishment, Birdie must spend the summer with her father at the beach—but it won’t be a vacation. He’s enlisted the help of Cass, whose dad works for him, to keep Birdie on the straight and narrow, including getting her a job as a beach parking lot attendant.

As the summer heats up, Cass realizes some rules are made to be broken, and Birdie just might be different from other summer girls. Soon they can’t help falling for one another . . . But will the love the two girls have discovered be strong enough to overcome their differences?

My Review

Summer Girls is the first book by Jennifer Dugan that I’ve read. I’d heard great things about her other books, especially Hot Dog Girl or Melt with You. So, she’s been on my list of authors to check out for a while. Now that I’ve read one of her books, I only want to read more.

I’ve read more than one book lately that shines light on the harmful effects of gentrification on neighborhoods and communities. Summer Girls shows the classism at the root and offers a version of a “Prince and Pauper” kind of romance.

I like that in Dugan’s world, people are more than one thing. The characters continually wrestle with the moral weight of their choices, and struggle to evaluate the decisions others make on a moral scale. For example, Birdie’s dad makes a lot of money buying up foreclosure properties and flipping them as vacation rentals, something which exacerbates the housing crisis for local residents. Yet, he appears to be a big supporter of Cass’s dad’s community organization which helps homeowners retain their property. So, is he a good guy or bad guy? Is he taking advantage of a system and pretending friendship with Cass’s dad to keep his enemies close, or is his support genuine? I liked that the story explored this question.

The romance between Cass and Birdie is also very sweet. It’s got an estranged friends to lovers vibe that was a lot of fun. Birdie is also bisexual and wrestles with some biphobia. I like that Dugan brought this to the page, too.

All in all, I think this is a lovely summer romance, especially perfect for a beach or vacation read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Someone posts a photo of a boy cheating on his girlfriend with another girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One scene includes a car accident with minor injuries.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me
Mariko Tamaki
Illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
First Second
Published May 7, 2019

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About Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me

Author Mariko Tamaki and illustrator Rosemary Valero-O’Connell bring to life a sweet and spirited tale of young love in Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, a graphic novel that asks us to consider what happens when we ditch the toxic relationships we crave to embrace the healthy ones we need.

Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley’s dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There’s just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend.

Reeling from her latest break up, Freddy’s best friend, Doodle, introduces her to the Seek-Her, a mysterious medium, who leaves Freddy some cryptic parting words: break up with her. But Laura Dean keeps coming back, and as their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it’s really Laura Dean that’s the problem. Maybe it’s Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever.

Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnists like Anna Vice to help her through being a teenager in love.

My Review

I think I first heard about this book on the 100 Best YA Books of all Time list by Time Magazine. I’ve currently only read 49 out of the 100 books, but I’m trying to add a few to my reading list each year.

I liked a lot of things about this book. For one thing, each character had a well-defined emotional feel to them. It’s definitely one of those graphic novels in which the sum is greater than its parts, because there is something about the combination of spare text and the characters’ expressions or position within the panels that makes each one feel like a real person. Laura Dean? Yeah, I know some people who act like her. I feel like I’d recognize her on the street. And Freddy? I wanted to hug her. Doodle, too. I loved how much of the story happened in the expressions on the characters’ faces, too. I felt like whole conversations happened just in Doodle’s expressions in particular.

The story takes us on a roller coaster ride through Freddy and Laura’s relationship. At one point, Doodle takes Freddy to see a psychic, and I love how the woman sums up the problem in their relationship, comparing it to being caught in the middle of a square dance step (the two met while square dancing at school). Having been caught in a toxic relationship before, I thought that was a powerful metaphor for the way that it feels. The lack of closure and how you can’t get your feet under you because you got dropped mid-step. That made perfect sense to me. It also signaled to Freddy that she needed to take ownership of her feelings and the relationship narrative rather than feeling one step behind, following Laura’s lead.

Conclusion

All in all, I think Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me is really well done. Freddy’s emails to the advice columnist frame things nicely and show her grappling with questions for which she doesn’t have answers. I think anyone who’s survived a toxic relationship will find some things that resonate with them in this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs and other swearing used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. References to sex. One character has an abortion. (Off-scene.)

Spiritual Content
Freddy and a friend go to see a psychic who gives Freddy advice on how to stop feeling miserable.

Violent Content
Freddy kisses someone without consent after seeing Laura with someone else.

Drug Content
Freddy gets drunk at a dance after spotting Laura making out with someone else. She throws up on the counter at a bakery and feels super embarrassed about it afterward.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: Pride or Die by CL Montblanc

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Pride or Die
CL Montblanc
Wednesday Books
Published April 15, 2025

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About Pride or Die

In this delightful dark comedy debut, when the members of an LGBTQ+ club find themselves accidentally framed for attempted murder, it’s up to them to clear their names before it’s too late.

It’s kind of hard to graduate high school when you’re the prime suspect in an attempted murder.

Seventeen-year-old Eleanora Finkel just wants to finish her senior year and get the hell out of Texas. But when her club meeting inconveniently coincides with an attack on the school’s head cheerleader, she and her friends find themselves in the hot seat.

In order to clear their names and ensure the survival of their club for future queer teens, they’ll have to track down the real culprit themselves. But Eleanora is far from a professional detective; she’s riddled with anxiety, annoyingly attracted to the case’s cute victim, and her trusty crochet hook feels insufficient for fighting off a murderer. Can this ragtag group of unlikely sleuths find their way out of an entire freaking murder mystery before one of them is next?

My Review

The energy in this novel is absolutely fabulous. Eleanor and her upbeat crew chase down leads with breaks for brainstorming sessions and pancakes at a local diner, determined to discover who hurt Kenley before they have a chance to strike again. The banter is nonstop, and the tentative connection between Kenley and Eleanora is super sweet.

The principal’s character might be a little flat, as he mainly exists to remind Eleanora and her friends what’s at stake if they fail to identify the real culprit before the end of the homecoming dance. There are a few moments when we see things about him that humanize him a little bit. They show there’s more to him than his commitment to shut down the LGBT Club, which he continually refers to as the BLT club.

Reading this one was a lot of fun. If you like upbeat mysteries with a lot of goofy banter, you’ll want to put this one at the top of your reading list.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Eleanora walks in on a couple engaged in romantic contact. (The text implies they’re having sex, but doesn’t specifically say so.)

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Eleanora discovers a girl who has collapsed on the floor with a head wound. Threatening messages indicate violence planned against others. Instances of homophobic slurs and bullying.

Drug Content
Characters attend a party where teens drink alcohol. Eleanora does not drink any.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love by Jessica Lewis

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love
Jessica Lewis
HarperCollins
Published April 29, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love

Giving the new girl lessons in romance so she can woo your best friend couldn’t possibly go wrong…right? Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Casey McQuiston, this romantic comedy from Jessica Lewis is packed with heart.

Nav knows how to flirt, but she also knows love is a messy, losing proposition. She doesn’t need her best friend, Hallie, the serial monogamist, to demonstrate it to her over and over. So when shy new girl Gia asks Nav for help getting Hallie’s attention, Nav makes sure she seems genuine—she doesn’t want to add another heartbreak to Hallie’s never-ending list. They strike a bargain, and Nav agrees to give Gia lessons in romance. If it works, maybe Hallie can date someone decent for a change.

Except…Gia’s not just bad at flirting, she’s terrible. She’s too anxious to even speak to Hallie, never mind date her. But somehow, every awkward joke and catastrophic practice date makes Nav like Gia a little bit more. And not in a friend way. As the three girls’ feelings get spun around, Nav will have to question if she’s as much of an expert as she thought…or if love might be worth every bit of trouble after all.

My Review

It took me a little while to get into Nav’s character. At first, she seemed pushy and negative. As I got to know her, though, I started to see past her quicksilver moods and high defenses. The story mainly explores her relationships with her best friend, Hallie, and her new friend, Gia.

Both relationships have lots of layers. Hallie and Nav have been best friends since they were babies, and that means they know each other well. But, it also means sometimes they get stuck in patterns that aren’t good for either of them. By contrast, Nav’s friendship with Gia is a new relationship and has all the fresh feelings of discovery and newness. And while it starts out as an endeavor meant to set Gia up with Hallie, it isn’t long before Nav starts having more-than-friend feelings for this nerdy, anxious girl.

I enjoyed the sweet scenes between Nav and Gia. Nav carries some unresolved feelings about her mom’s abandonment, and that comes into play at different points in the story, too.

All in all, this will make a great summer romance to read by the pool or sitting next to a sunny window. Becky Albertalli fans will definitely want to check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used here and there.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. References to hooking up. Two people spend the night together (sleeping).

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One character experiences panic attacks due to an anxiety disorder.

Drug Content
References to using marijuana and drinking alcohol. (Not shown on scene.)

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.