Was this book perfect? No. Was it overdramatic and a little unrealistic? Of course it was. But did I love every minute of it? Absolutely.

I think that this is a great, feel-good book. It lacked some depth and realism for me, but that doesn't count against it at all. I'm not a huge fan of contemporaries, but I adored this.

There was a lot I liked about this book, but it never jumped into true love for me. I really really like the premise of this book- the diversity rep is fantastic!- but I never quite connected with the characters as much as I wanted to. Still, this was a worthwhile read, and I would enthusiastically recommend it to any reader who likes contemporary romance, LGBTQ rep, cultural diversity, and soul-searching girls just trying to figure out what they want in the world. Good stuff. The LA setting was nicely depicted.

Someone really needs to option this book and turn it into a film.

Doesn’t this sound like the perfect setup for a movie? Sana and Rachel are both finishing their senior year in high school. Sana is a pretty, popular, perfect cheerleader, and Rachel is a poor scholarship student who only got into their prestigious school because of her talent for filmmaking. Rachel has hated Sana ever since Sana asked her out as a joke when they were freshmen. But really, the joke is on Rachel, because Sana was serious, and she has been crushing on Rachel for years. When the two of them are forced to collaborate on Rachel’s final film project, Rachel discovers that Sana isn’t who she thought she was. Let the romancing commence!

Both Sana and Rachel are already out to their friends and families, so rather than telling a coming out story, the author is free to focus on their growing feelings for each other. Once they start to connect, Sana and Rachel are very cute together. They have plenty of swoony moments, too, including a movie-worthy scene where Sana serenades Rachel in a karaoke bar.

The book isn’t only a romance, though; it’s also an exploration of who Rachel and Sana want to become as they leave their high school years behind. Rachel has to complete her movie to ensure her scholarship to attend NYU’s film school in the fall, but it takes Sana’s influence to make her see that her approach to filmmaking might need changing, particularly when it comes to how she views and interacts with other people. Meanwhile, after years of maintaining a veneer of perfection, Sana is wondering who she really is when she isn’t trying to please her family. Does she even want the future laid out for her of going to Princeton and becoming a doctor? And if she doesn’t, what does she want?

So, there’s some important growing up stuff happening in this book, along with a fun romance. I thoroughly enjoyed Sana and Rachel’s story, and I’d recommend it to readers who like YA contemporaries with a rom-com feel.

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.

First—this cover is groundbreaking. Having two women—women of color—in a loving pose on the cover of a YA novel. Its beautiful.

Now for the actual book: this had so much potential! A hate-to-love f/f romance, taking place in Los Angeles? Sounds perfect! And while I did think these were some fascinating characters that had the groundwork to be really compelling, there was a lot that didn’t work for me. The writing at times was very clunky and often extremely repetitive.

This was dual perspective following both Sana and Rachel, which would have been great if the characters got equal representation. I felt like I learned so much about Sana—about her family, her feelings, her relationships—but barely anything about Rachel. Even during the “Rachel” sections, perspective would slip to Sana. They had such great chemistry as they worked through this kind of one sided hate-to-love journey, but I wish there was more focus on Rachel to balance the tons of exposition that was on Sana. And when it did focus on Rachel, she was a very angry girl. This could have been really fun to explore, but all we got was very surface level. The set up to their relationship is based on a simple misunderstanding that Rachel has fully blown out of proportion. She seemed to be overreacting and quite childish.

Probably too much exposition, to be honest. There were a few instances that seemed like the reader was coming in at the end of a scene, when the two characters are talking about what just happened. I would much rather had seen what happened then to hear the characters talk about it. I felt like this happened a lot with the filming of Rachel’s project. Speaking of Rachel’s project, I still can’t tell you what exactly her movie is supposed to be about other than a modernized version of The Odyssey?

There seem to be plot lines that got dropped as the story went on. At the beginning, Rachel set up a deal with Sana that she had to watch movies of Rachel’s choosing, and they would watch them together. I thought this would be such a great opportunity to see the growth in their relationship as the story progressed. It was done maybe twice and then they were kind of just dropped from the storyline. The two girls really didn’t seem to spend a lot of time together on the page. Then you have the character of Diesel—who I thought was going to have a much larger role in the story. He kind of got dropped almost instantly, only to pop up again for a second 2/3rds of the way through the book.

In all, I think the initial story and these characters had the potential to be a really compelling story, but it was just not executed well. I have Aminah Mae Safi’s debut sitting unread on my shelf, and now I’m doubting whether to read it or not.

I was sent an e-arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Who doesn't love an enemies to lovers plot? It is certainly one of my favorite tropes to dive into and Safi most certainly did it justice here. In a time where diverse stories are finally getting to be told, this is an excellent example and is unapologetic about what it is in the most beautiful way. And the Paris/Rory Gilmore Girls inspiration is something we all deserved, and I for one am so thankful to Safi for bringing this story to life. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.

3.5 stars

Sana Khan is your perfect, put-together cheerleader and overachiever, who wants to be a surgeon and just got accepted into Princeton. But Sana isn't sure she's sold on being a surgeon just yet—she wants to know she can hack it. So she applies to a medical fellowship in India. She's got a month before she has to submit her deposit to Princeton.

Rachel Recht is the brilliant film director at the elite Roycer Academy—but has a chip on her shoulder as a scholarship student, someone who has to battle for the right to attend a fancy school. And she hates Sana Khan, ever since Sana jokingly asked her out in freshman year. But Rachel's senior film is due, and her film teacher has decided Sana is going to be in the film—as the lead—or Rachel's future attendance in NYU is in danger.

Can these two work together?
~
I'm honestly torn in how to rate this. At times, I absolutely loved it. Yet it took me what felt like an eternity to get through and seemed to just drag on and on and on with no resolution, leaving me increasing frustrated and constantly checking the time-estimate on my kindle and looking for excuses not to read.

I didn't particularly care for Rachel, although I definitely understood where she was coming from, as a person ashamed of being poor, of having a mother who left and a father who crawled out of a bottle, of feeling insignificant and out of place in the Mexican Jewish community she grew up in. And as someone who hates pretty girls, partly because of her belief that Sana jokingly asked her out, and partly because of the easy road she feels that pretty girls have because of their looks. And as an aspiring director who was a perfectionist and hadn't learned how to motivate or delegate (because what was the point?) I did like that she changed over time, but felt that the impetus was too sudden and her change in temperament, particularly as a director, was too drastic and happened over the course of literally one day.

I did like Sana, but honestly I liked her as juggling her perfect life as cheerleader, overachiever, a person who loved to fly in the air and the strength of her body. I understood her meltdown (good gravy, she had a lot on her shoulders with that family), but again, it felt too sudden and like her family did too little to help. And the parts with her dad felt very uneven and lopsided.

The secondary characters were all fairly one-dimensional (occasionally two), mostly existing to further the two leads' arcs and development. Aside from Sana's mom, they never really seemed to have their own agency. And this was was big cast too, with lots of people on both Rachel's and Sana's sides. It was a lot to juggle and as a result much of the characterization was weak and one-sided. Diesel was basically the hot guy who somehow befriended both girls and talked through each of their feelings and problems but his motivations for doing so were...weird? I dunno.

The other thing that I didn't like was Sana and Rachel's relationship. While I'm generally on board with all things sapphic, I'm also a little leery with the trope of It's Not Gay Without Sex To Prove It™️. Look friends, lesbian sex (and sex in general) happens, it happens in YA, and I'm cool with it (so long as it's not objectifying). What I grow tired of is (and big spoiler here): (view spoiler)

But honestly, I was weary of the book before that moment, and I don't know why other than I just didn't care about the characters. I didn't really care if they stayed together, if Sana got the fellowship, if Rachel didn't finish her big film project. There was something missing to pull me into the story, leaving me to finish it out of a sense of obligation (because ARC—although that doesn't necessarily mean anything) instead of anticipation and fear of what was going to happen next. Maybe it was because I felt that the stakes weren't necessarily high enough, or that 95% of the issues could have been resolved with a little communication (view spoiler) between basically everyone in the story.

I appreciate the book for what it did—fantastic representation, a good depiction of LA (lots of traffic, an interesting look at the film industry), a nice breakdown of being both a cheerleader and the mechanics of filmmaking, some really witty chapter titles, and a nice critique on the double standards placed on women by society at large (juxtaposed with Helen of Troy getting de-objectified).

I also appreciate that this a good look at what it's like being a teen in today's world (well, if you attend a prestigious academy and have lots of opportunities). There's school and sports and activities and college-courses and everything else just to get ahead and get into the dream college. Although apparently if you're Rachel Recht you have a Time-Turner and can do school and direct a film and spend eternity editing and also have a part time diner job all while spending three hours a day commuting to school because this is LA and traffic is a bitch.

Finally, I appreciate the hell out of that cover, because it's about damn time queer girls see themselves represented in sexy poses on a YA cover.

In the end, however, this fell flat to me.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't oh wow oh wow oh wow I want to stay in this world forever. It was just okay.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

I was hooked from the very beginning! This love-to-hate had me rooting for the couple the whole way through. It's refreshing to find joyful LGBTQ YA novels like this.

Siiiiigh. I wanted SO BADLY to love this. There aren't nearly enough books in the world about queer girls of color falling in love, and I thought the premise sounded so cute, that I assumed there was no way I'd dislike it, but these characters are painfully unlikable.

This.Book.Is.So.Good. 4.5 Stars
Tell Me How You Really Feel is a classic romantic story, set in today's world. I love Sana and Rachel both for different reasons. Sana who is Muslim, half-Persian, half-Bengali, straight-A student, cheerleader, and an overachiever. While Rachel is a Mexican, Jewish, and a wannabe director who's working on a film project. They have a push-pull relationship that I like because it wasn't over the top, too overdone. We start out getting to know these characters, why they don't get along, what their family lives are like; their family lives are quite different. I like that these families were also a huge part of this book and not because how these girls identify themselves as but because of things like school and what they want to do with their lives.

Not only is the book a female/female relationship but it covers topics like feminism, strong female characters, family problems, life choices, growing up and more.

Aminah Mae Safi 's writing has become one of my favorites and I've only read two books by her. Her writing cleave, playful but full of meaning too. This book was also much funnier then what I thought it was going to be. However, the only problem I had with this story was that I felt that the ending was rushed.

So, this is said to be inspired from Gilmore Girls as a what if Rory and Paris ended up together story. I'm a huge Gilmore Girls fan, grew up wanting this show, crazy about Rory & Paris. So, I was down for this idea.

Tell Me How You Really Feel is thee perfect summer read, drama, feminism, & romance what more could you want in the story grabbing of flawed characters!

This is a good choice for film lovers, or fanfiction readers (especially if their answer to the question "Who should Rory Gilmore end up with?" is "Paris Gellar"). I did find Rachel to be almost repellently abrasive, and neither insight into her difficult familial situation nor her softening and increased empathy based on her relationship with Sana made me forget how incredibly off-putting she was in the opening chapters - especially her behavior toward her cast and crew. I also felt that the two perspectives were somewhat imbalanced, with Sana's family and world lushly illustrated, a realistic range of emotions and both flaws and endearing qualities displayed, while Rachel's plotlines were sparser, less intricate, and less easy to root for. (Diesel did brighten up both POVs, though!)

Enemies to lovers is a fun trope if that's what you're looking for, and the book does a good job with it.

I think it’s hreat that there is a romantic comedyesque YA book about two girls falling for each other in high school. Sans is a cheerleader, and an overachiever. Rachel is a scholarship student at an e pensive private school, who doesn’t feel great about being a scholarship student. She needs to Finnish her senior film project or her advisor is threatening to send a letter to NYU letting them know Rachel is a slacker.

I u understand that the whole premise was set up so that Sana and Rachel would be forced to work together, but it was just that, forced. None of it felt organic. Although it all made sense in a slapdash romantic comedy way I guess. Also was not a fan of Rachel at all. I was like, just get over yourself already.

I'll break down my rating because there are STRONG things and less strong things, but overall, HALLELUJAH FOR A F/F ROMANTIC COVER and an engaging story.

Cover: ALL THE STARS. Honestly, I want every bookstore and library on earth to put this on prominent display. If everyone just bought it simply to display, I'd be happy. We need this book cover on posters - like movie posters. Everywhere. Two teen girls, obviously in romantic love. One of them obviously a woman of color. YES.

Representation: Amazing. Rachel is Mexican-Jewish and Sana is Muslim (Bengali/Persion on her mom's side) and their race, religion and sexuality are never questioned or challenged. This isn't a coming out story or at all about their sexuality. That's a done deal. Just like it is in almost every single m/f love story. Maybe it could be a bigger deal, though?? I'm not sure on that.

Setting: So, so LA. Not the generic LA we read about in so many books but very atmospheric and natural.

Story: Okay, so this is where I get a little picky. I honestly just straight up don't love books about movies and film-making, and there seems to be a trend in YA where all these teens are super into the film world. That's totally cool, and since I'm not a teen and I'm not into that, I can just say that I went along with it for the sake of the REST of the book (relationships, etc). However, even with me not overall liking that theme, I think that this huge focus on The Odyssey was overdone, and confusing and made the book longer and more cumbersome than it needed to be. It's like the author dug herself into this plotline hole and didn't know how to get out of it. In addition, the ending was rushed and there was some romantic drama that was completely unnecessary.

BUT, guess what! I have the right to rate a book however I want, and for this one, the cover and representation and my ability to read it in one sitting bump it up to 4 stars despite my meh feelings about some of the story. Maybe soon we'll have so many cute sapphic covers and stories in the YA market that we won't even be mentioning covers and much-needed representation in reviews.........but we're not there yet. So for now, buy it and display it please. Read it too and think about whether it's the best f/f YA romantic comedy featuring a character of color by an female author of color from a major publisher that you've read. And then realize that you haven't been able to read that many because there just aren't that many out there. And then sigh. And applaud Safi and the publisher for bringing us this one.

Like I read somewhere, barely-remembered paraphrased words originally said by someone important/famous:

We need enough books with [insert marginalized population] characters that there are allowed to be good [marginalized population] books, bad [marginalized population] books and horrible [marginalized population] books as well as those ones that are truly amazing. And we'll be able to rate them strictly on the writing and story. Until then, the representation inevitably factors into our reviews and we hang all of our hopes on that ONE book.

This is a me-not-you sort of DNF; I should just know by now that I don't like enemies to lovers romances.

Thank you for the opportunity to review Tell Me How You Really Feel (TMHYRF) by Aminah Mae Safi. This is outside of my typical genre selections, and I was interested to see how it would land for me. I'm no stranger to YA- some of my favorites summer reads are YA dystopian, and I defy anyone to tell me I'm too old to enjoy them! But romance is a whole 'nother ball of wax. I'm disinclined toward adult romance, so I'm not sure why I thought I'd enjoy the YA version. Oh wait... it's because of the LGBT main characters :-) As a member of the community, I am so incredibly excited to see representation growing across various media. This is what I wish was available when I was actually YA myself. In any case- that's why I requested to review TMHYRF. I do appreciate it for what it is. TMHYRF doesn't try to be anything but what it is, and what it is is a kind and gentle representation that doesn't exploit. I'm grateful and happy about that. It's not the book for me, but I'm guessing it's the book for lots of folks who are younger and who enjoy the genre. Three stars for what I can see is a good work, but one that just didn't land for this non-member of the intended audience.

What. A. Cute. Story.

Rachel thinks Sana is annoyingly perfect. Sana thinks Rachel is super cute and also kind of stuck up. When ~circumstances~ force them to work together on a film project, they each discover that the other has layers that were previously unseen.

So it's not really enemies-to-lovers, but maybe like? Hate or strong dislike to love? Which is fun, except Rachel's reasoning for why she "hated" Sana was so out there. (view spoiler)

The writing is fine, but nothing too crazy wonderful. It gets the job done, you know?

I loved the diversity in this book. Rachel is Mexican and Jewish, which is not a combination often seen, though of course they exist. Sana is Indian and the granddaughter of successful immigrants. Sana's family gave me STRONG Gilmore Girls vibes. There is absolutely no way that they were not inspired by the Gilmore clan. I'm not mad at it. I love Gilmore Girls :)

I love seeing diverse lesbians loving other diverse lesbians. I would definitely recommend this to someone looking for a pretty light contemporary.

I LOVED this book. It is the Rory/Paris fan-fic of my dreams, but so much more. Two driven, ambitious girls, nuanced and complex and completely different from one another. Wonderful banter, romance, family dynamics, rich cultural depictions - it's one of my favorite contemporary reads of recent years.

I had been dying to read this book for so long, and I was a bit disappointed that when I started it took me so long to finish it. I don't know why, but it was a very slow read, even though I was really into it.

First off, this cover is on fire, and we need more openly accepting diverse covers like this. As a high school educator, this is game changing for a lot of students. However, also as a high school educator, a lot of this book made me feel like "Well that doesn't sound realistic..." Also, working with high schoolers every day, I got extremely frustrated with the characters' behavior early on. Cranky, spoiled teens do not fly in my world.

This book has a lot of good points though. It's not overly sexualized. It's not 100% focused on coming-out, but rather, life as. There is a lot of diversity, both racial and sexual orientation. There was good banter and great chemistry between the MCs.

But still, for some reason, a really slow read.... something I can't name just wasn't clicking for me.

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

Tell Me How You Really Feel is a really smart romantic comedy featuring queer young women of color that undermines the assumptions often made about pretty, popular girls. Rachel Recht is Jewish and Middle-Eastern by way of Mexico, currently attending a prestigious private high school in Los Angeles. She has a prickly exterior (think Mr. Darcy) and she dreams of being a film director. Also she HATES Sana Khan.

Sana is Muslim, half-Persian, half-Bengali, and almost always perfect. She is a gorgeous cheerleader who has been accepted into Princeton with plans to become a surgeon, and she is out as a lesbian although people seem to conveniently forget that she likes girls. More specifically, she has had a long-time crush on Rachel. When the girls are forced to work together on a film project, everything changes.

This is a coming of age story about discovering who you are, falling in love, and figuring out what that means. Rachel and Sana both have immigrant families that add such rich texture to this story with the complications of their relationships to each other and the intersection of their culture and American culture. I thought this was really thoughtful and well-executed.

There is a strong sub-plot involving the depiction of Helen of Troy in Rachel's film as Sana pushes her to not write her off as a pretty, dumb woman rather than a flawed human character with something to say. This clearly parallels Rachel's slow realization that Sana is more that she assumed and I thought that was brilliantly done. The book does a great job undercutting cultural misconceptions of pretty girls and the ways that their agency is often removed.

The final third of the book sometimes felt a tad over-dramatic and I don't know that we needed quite so much of mishaps and miscommunication, but overall I thought this was a really impressive, important book that a lot of people are going to love and feel seen by. I received an advance review copy via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this book. It’s always great to have a f/f romance that’s NOT focused on coming out angst. The two leads came across as real, fully fleshed-out characters, and the love story was sweet. I was also pleased to see the Mexican-Jewish community represented, which is very rare in YA. And, as many other reviewers have noted, the cover is simply gorgeous. I do think the book could have used further editing and polishing, however. A lot of the dialogue came across as stilted (example: “And I let girls toss me into the air, flying high, but I’ve never actually gone anywhere.”), and there were some abrupt POV shifts. Most problematically, many of the situations/obstacles that were meant to move along the narrative seemed overly contrived. For instance, as an educator, I simply didn’t buy for a moment that a teacher would require an already over-extended senior with no acting experience or interest in film to devote a significant amount of her time to fixing another student’s film project. There’s also a pivotal conversation between a teenage girl and a cab driver that I found both totally implausible and downright cringeworthy. There were a number of moments like this that pulled me out of the story. I think many teens will enjoy this novel, but I’m a little disappointed that this book didn’t live up to its potential.

Thank you for the preview! I was so excited to pick up this book based on the cover alone; girls of color in love! Furthermore, the enemies to friends to lovers trope is alive and well.
I truly enjoyed how fleshed out the main characters were, they felt like girls I could have known when I was their age, and I hope that older teens who pick this up feel the same. The voices were distinct from each other, which can often be a challenge for YA novels with multiple points of view.
I also liked the multiple side characters and the dynamics they brought to the table. I especially loved the relationships Sana and Rachel had with their respective single parents.
However, I wasn’t a big fan of the pacing. It lost some of the momentum around the half-way mark, and it was a struggle for me to get past it. Some of the drama seemed too quickly resolved or like it went in circles.
Overall, while some elements were not for me, I know there are tons of readers who will love this book, and rightly so! It was romantic, sweet, and I totally rooted for Sana and Rachel the whole way through.