Meg and Linus both were fantastic characters! I adored them both. I laughed out loud at some of the pop culture references. I fun, light read I would recommend to fans of Rainbow Rowell. 4/5 stars

Had the makings of a great book but it just didn't come together.

"Meg & Linus" is a beautiful story about first love and finding yourself. 5/5 stars.

A wonderful wonderful book with beautiful LGBTQ representation. I'm recommending this to all of my kids who are looking for more representation in their fiction and stories they can see themselves and their struggles reflected in.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was great in ways and kinda terrible in others. I love that it has diverse characters, that there are really wonderful parents in it, and it was a nice, sweet book overall. The writing had issues, though, as it just felt over-written or something. The author was way too wordy, it felt like. It was like we were in the character's heads and getting every single thought they had, and they both overthink everything WAY too much. Also, I found Linus to be way too whiny and lacking in any self-confidence to the point of being very irritated with him. The dialogue didn't feel very authentic either. Hopefully, some edits were done between the ARC and the finished book to help with all of this. If half-stars were possible, I would have gone with 2.5 stars on this one.

Meg and Linus are best friends who initially bonded over their mutual appreciation of Star Trek. They both also happen to be gay. Meg starts her senior year of high school just as her girlfriend Sophia breaks up with her and leaves for college. Meanwhile, Linus fancies Danny, the cute barista at his favorite coffee shop, who later shows up in his history class on the first day of school. When Meg realizes that Linus has a crush on Danny, she decides to set them up. Tutoring and joining the drama club are just part of her plan. Meanwhile, Sophia starts messaging Linus, and he doesn't tell Meg. As the secrets and lies between them mount, so does the tension. As one relationship ends, another is beginning, and these two friends need to learn to cope with the changes it will bring to their friendship.

Alternating chapters tell the story from the points of view of Meg and Linus. The chapters are really short and the constant change in viewpoint is disorienting. Both characters have the same voice, and I often found myself forgetting whose story I was reading. The narration is awkward and repetitive, with too much introspection and self-doubt, and full of unnecessary comments - almost as if they are telling us everything as, and when, it comes into their heads. It's phrased like they are speaking directly to us, which feels a bit odd, especially in the present tense. Both the narration and the dialogue are lacking in contractions, making the writing stilted and unnatural. The author should try reading her work aloud to hear how it sounds. The dialogue also suffers from an extreme overuse of exclamation marks! Nevertheless, there is some really insightful writing throughout, as you can see from the "Some of My Favorite Lines" section in my blog post.

It's nice to see a bit of ethnic diversity among the characters (Danny is Indian and Sophia is African American), and the gay best friends angle is a nice touch. However, Meg herself is too unlikable for a protagonist. She's extremely naive, talking first about her prospective marriage to Sophia, and then about Linus's marriage to Danny - when they haven't really met and we don't even know if Danny is gay! Meg's behavior and treatment of Linus doesn't correspond to that of a best friend. I found her very annoying and was amused when Meg herself later said, "I’m seriously starting to annoy even myself." She's also always feeling sorry for herself; even she admits it: "And now I’m feeling sorry for myself again." The constant shoulder bumping between all characters also gets a bit tiresome.

What I did love was Meg's relationship with her mother. I also enjoyed the interactions between Linus and Danny. Their first conversation is adorably awkward. And the reactions of Linus's parents are priceless. Meg and Linus learn to take risks and try new things as a prelude to their life after school, and it's nice to see them grow throughout the course of the book. I just wish these so-called best friends would learn to talk to each other a bit more.

A light and fun, if slightly disappointing, read.

Review originally posted on The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange :)

I received this copy from Xpresso Book Tours through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Let's go :D

*~.Book Analysis.~*
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader :)

This book was really cute and a refresh in YA in terms of thematics. Meg & Linus are two sides of the same coin, with a unique perspective on how not to treat your friends after a break up. It was so nice to read a book focused on friendship rather than romance for a change! Nowinski did a wonderful job with characters construction and plot developing. This book only didn’t make it to the big five stars to me because of two reasons: a) I wasn’t as invested in the narrative as I thought I’d be, but I guess that’s because; b) Meg & Linus is my 15th first person narrated book in less than a month. I really am not a fan of this narrative style and I’m really saturated of it at the moment, regardless of the quality of the books. I think it’s a classic ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ situation, oops! >.<

The narrative style is first person with alternating points of view between Meg and Linus. While they didn’t crawl under my skin and made me want to slap them (effects of usual first person narratives on me), I also missed being out of their thoughts and seeing the story in a more broad perspective. Does this make sense? Probably not, haha! Nowinski’s writing style was refreshing, with awesome humor catches, nerdy references and relating situations.

I didn’t quite know what to expect from the plot of Meg & Linus, but it had quite a few twists and I had fun following these two around. Of course, there are no over complicated points or a mystery to be solved, but life itself is already a handful, especially for teenagers. Things get wild real quick, haha!

Meg and Linus, as characters, were great – each in their own way. Again, the problem was me. I couldn’t connect with them or relate to half of the story. And this sucks hard for me because I love gay romances and Linus was living a real cute one. I need therapy.

BUT I DID SAVE A DIALOGUE FOR YOU, GUYS. Because it was so cute aaaand BECAUSE NOTHING SELLS THE BOOK BETTER THAN QUOTES =D


Linus: Can I tell you something really sappy, and will you promise not to laught at me if I do?
Meg: No. I’m absolutely going to laugh at you. But you can still tell me.
Linus: I really missed you, Meg. Although right now, I’m desperately trying to remember why.
Meg: Aw. You’re right. That was incredibly sappy!


*~.Cover Analysis.~*

This cover. I feel in love as soon as I saw it. I’m such a hard goner for black with metallic colors, you guys have no idea. This panda was a crow in its past life FOR SURE. The inversion with the pink and blue on the names, the simple illustrations along the way, the handwritten type font of the title… I CAN’T STOP FANGIRLING ABOUT THIS COVER.

~*~

Overall, if you like your drama spiced with humor, nerd and pop culture, YA and LGBT reads, you totally should pick up Meg & Linus!

Thank you so much for reading this review! Also, thanks so much to Xpresso Book Tours and NetGalley for my review copy =D

I always love a YA book with good, queer characters! Despite having their annoying moments, I LOVED the nerdiness. This was a fun book, and the ending was super sweet. I really enjoyed it!

A sweet novel about best friendship and navigating romance during the last year of high school. Meg and Linus are fully developed and believable characters who genuinely care about each other's happiness. Fun to read and poignant. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed parts of this book. I equally didn't enjoy parts of this book.

On the positive column, the characters were exceedingly cute. Linus befriends the new kid at school, Danny, who is--if possible--just as clueless as him. Although the reader is quite aware that Danny is gay and into Linus, it takes until all the way till the end of the book for the two of them to talk about it.

Similarly, Meg is grieving for the relationship she had end at the very beginning of the book, but it's not until the end of the book that she actually lets go of controlling everything around her enough to appreciate that grieving is going to take a bit of time, and then she's going to be okay.

Let's talk a bit about the characterisation of the two named characters: My biggest problem was that, although this book split perspective between the two of them, the two character voices weren't different enough from each other to avoid confusion. Many times I had to look at the start of the chapter to remind myself which character's perspective I was in. Thankfully, the chapters were all very short.

Special mention goes to Alyssa. I absolutely loved her character. Although she was just a bit part, I absolutely thought she was fantastic, a good influence on Meg and generally wonderful. I spent the whole book wanting more of her.