Netgally Review:

I enjoyed this book immensely! It was a perfect YA novel and I could relate to a lot of those "first relationship feelings". I also liked that I was never really sure how it was all going to pan out. A special acknowledgment for the ending, which I think had a realistic and healthy outcome (relatively) for a relationship at age 17.

I want to thank Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book
The author did such an amazing job making me fall in love with these characters.
The plot was riveting I literally had to know what was going to happen next!
I loved our main character and felt like I was on such an emotional rollercoaster with them.
5 fully deserved stars.

<i>Being gay, or any part of the queer community, you have to come out to every person in your life who you want in your life. I wish I could just send a memo out to the world that I am gay so I can stop coming out, but, unfortunately life doesn’t work like that.</i>

I thought this was such a cute book and discussed so many important things! Such as the importance of coming out being on that persons terms not people who think they should come out. How being gay shouldn’t change who you are to your friends and to your family but unfortunately, sometimes it does.

I really liked our main characters! Quinn was a really good protagonist, I generally liked the story being in her POV. Although, I did have an issue with the way she dropped Riley to go pick up Liam and then ignore her and didn’t try and make things better with her for a while afterwards! But overall, she was a character that I felt an emotional connection to and I was fully routing for her when it came to swimming and to Kennedy. But again, at parts it really felt like she was trying to force Kennedy out and that didn’t sit well with me either.

Kennedy again was a character that I really loved. I know firsthand how hard it is keeping the secret of being gay is. Knowing that everyone is going to start treating you differently just because you are going against the social “norm” but I thought that the way she let herself deal with it after being with Quinn was healthy and good representation of what that is like. I did have big issues with how she just didn’t do anything when her friends were so horrific to Quinn, yes, it’s so scary standing up against your friends and knowing it can cause you to go to the bottom of the social period - not that I know about that I had as much popularity and friends as a piece of dirt when I was in high school but it just doesn’t sit well with me in books when people can’t stand up for their friends/girlfriends etc just because they’re scared of their popularity.

I really hated Riley for most of the book honestly but grew to like her by the end. In fact, I liked a lot of the side characters especially Gabe what a soft, sweet boy he was!

My main issue with the book is that there wasn’t a lot of plot. It was like Quinn and Kennedy hate each other, now they’re smiling at each other and now they’re together and now they’re hiding it and now they’re arguing and now they’re okay again and it was like okay is anything else going to happen at all? No? Okay. I did like the relationship between them, don’t get me wrong when they were together they were sweet and it was obvious that they cared about each other! And, as a lesbian, it sucks that there isn’t a lot of lesbian rep out there and I’m so glad I found this!!

Overall, I enjoyed this book and will definitely be interested in the authors future works!

<i>Arc was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own. </i>

3.5 Stars. I thought this was a pretty good YA read. I also think this may be Miller’s first book so I thought it was well written for a debut. I didn’t love all of Miller’s story choices but overall it was a decent read.

I have been reading quite a few YA lesfic books lately. Not sure what’s going on but there seems to be more books coming out than usual. I always mention that I am not the biggest YA fan, but I’m starting to wonder if that is true. I have been enjoying these YA books more than I expected so I think I might have to start changing my tune.

One thing I look forward to in good YA books are ones that make you feel. Books that can make you cry one minute and fill you with good feels the next. That is what I wanted and I was glad to say this book delivered on that. I was really engrossed in this story and the first person POV of Quinn. I felt like I really understood her feelings and she was easy to connect with.

While this is a romance it is an angsty romance. Quinn is out and bullied for it by the popular crowd. Her potential love interest is happy being popular but struggles with the fact she may be bisexual and what would happen to her popular standing. This is a YA romance, but the intimate scenes are a little on the explicit side. Not over the top but the characters are seniors in high school so it is pretty realistic.

I think my biggest issue with this book and where it lost a bit in my rating was the end. I just wasn’t crazy about it. It’s not a bad ending but it left me feeling a bit unfinished. I was hoping the book would skip forward so we could experience more of Quinn’s Olympic dreams. The swimming aspects of this book were interesting and made this stand out from a regular high school YA so I really wanted more. There is also another big storyline that is left unfinished but I don’t want to spoiler anything by mentioning it. Again while it was realistic, it was disappointing. If I knew for sure Miller had planes to write a sequel, that Quinn’s story was not over, I would feel a million times better about the ending.

If you are a YA fan, chances are you might enjoy this. It didn’t completely work for me but it was a pretty good debut book. I’m keeping my fingers crossed we get a book 2.

'ARC provided by both NetGalley and The Publisher in exchange for an honest review'

**'Write the thing you as a writer has to write: the story you are on fire for, the one that might break your heart that only you can tell..The simpler you say or write it, the more eloquent it is...'

In 'ALL THE WORLDS BETWEEN US', Ms.M.L.Miller is able to move beyond the (granted,fascinating) swim practices that did occupy much of the storyline, instead focusing simultaneously on furthering the romance,teenage problems,growing up & disagreements and on providing more nuanced characterizations for both the primary and secondary characters. She even showed a remarkable ability to place the athletic experiences in the context of telling the story.
For Quinn trying to redo her past Olympic trials and making it's future swim team -- the success would only add to her college credentials even with some difficulty at times but eventually so satisfying. She's an unassuming out teenager who likes to stay invisible at school and tends only to be focus on her swimming. So having a steady girlfriend was simply not in her heart's desire -- enter Kennedy: beautiful and popular at school,only hang with the popular kids,a star soccer player and was unsure about her sexuality.
The author included additional insights into their own thoughts and growing attraction -- with Quinn finally opening up to Kennedy about her feelings, she found something that she never felt before with anyone else: someone who felt and thinks the same way as her. While Kennedy, having no qualms about returning her obvious affections but only behind closed doors. With this strong attraction that led her to do some heartfelt soul-searching -- comes a choice of admitting to their relationship in the open or hiding behind her snobbish friends. But for Quinn, after finding herself she did realize that even if her life might seem okay on the outside it will only get better having Kennedy in it.
The action was perfectly balanced with a softer more emotional side to the storytelling. Nothing happened too fast and the storyline never dragged on: it was also perfectly paced,readers will get a few happy moments,it's also not all sunshine & rainbows and the writing showed the realism of young love;- you cannot rely on anyone to help you become who you really are.
I really enjoyed and loved the story and I think we all have had our own teenage coming out moments in dealing with our own sexuality and the many questions. In at the end I still wanted more of this book.
A highly recommend YA story!

I wasn’t a huge fan of this book. As a book set during their high school years, a majority of it was focused on drama, drinking, and sex. The characters are slightly redeemable, but some of them I couldn’t stand. Quinn is a talented swimmer destined for the Olympics. Her love interest, Kennedy Reed is the girl who used to be her best friend. Those two were okay, and I think the author did a good job of developing Quinn’s character. However, Liam, Quinn’s twin, was a character I never really liked. I really hate it when I read about sibling relationships that aren’t supportive of each other.
In the end, the book had more drama than substance for me. It was more of a beach read than a book to take seriously.

5/5

Quinn Hughes is a swimmer in her senior year and her main focus is on making it to the olympics and win a medal. She has a strict schedule, diet and no time for relationships. When her childhood ex-best-friend, Kennedy, suddenly enters Quinn's life she finds herself choosing between love, drama and her future.

Let me start by saying this book surprised me. The summary did not make the book look as interesting as it really is. So, I was pleasantly surprise, so much that i finished it in a day (squeezing readings at work ).

I am a sucker for YA and this book was a rollercoaster of emotions. Sure, it was a bit juvenile but that is expected when you write about teenagers. I finished the book because I could not stop reading. I needed to find out what was next for Quinn and Kennedy. That being said, I would have loved and epilogue - or perhaps a second book????

In summary, great YA book. lots of drama, love, tension and confusion.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books through Netgalley for an honest review

This was fine in every sense of the world, but nothing extraordinary. The main character was likeable with an interesting hobby, but the book had next to nothing of a plot. It was a bit too high school drama, mean-girl and drama for the sake of adding drama for me. Don't get me wrong, I love me a good angst novel, but this wasn't my favourite of them.

An honest review thanks to NetGalley. This book was amazing, teenage angst just jumped off the page. I loved Quinn immediately and as I was taken on her journey I got more involved in her story and her feelings for Kennedy. I felt as if this was a realistic representation of high school first love and the tremendous up and downs that comes along with that. I laughed and cried as the book continued and still cant decide if I like the ending or not. Overall this is a fantastic read of first love and first heartbreak, and I will be definitely looking out for this author in the future.

Cover to cover this is teenage angst and drama but completely immersive. So much so that the emotions spill over way after you’ve completed the book. And no, it doesn’t matter whether you are way past your teens – the emotions that the book evoke are valid across ages.

Quinn Hughes, a high school senior, is a swimmer. She missed qualifying for the Olympics by a hair’s breadth and is now determined to qualify for the next Olympics and earn a couple of World Championships too, and follows a punishing schedule to achieve that. She is also open and proud. Her friends in school comprise other out people and some of her swim team mates. The group is not very high on the popularity pole of the school. The popular group is made up of the girls’ soccer team and the boys’ football team, which includes Quinn’s brother, Liam and Kennedy Reed. Kennedy and Quinn were best friends from age seven to thirteen. At thirteen, Kennedy’s parents were moving. The two girls promised to keep in touch and while saying goodbye, Kennedy kissed Quinn for a grand total of three seconds. After that Kennedy disappeared on Quinn. When she returned in the sophomore year, she froze Quinn out and since then ignored her completely. Except that now, she seems to be reviving the friendship.

The book is written in first person from Quinn’s PoV so we know every thought and feeling that she has. But, honestly, we didn’t like Quinn. Especially her behaviour with Riley. Plus we found her supremely self-centred. Yes, she is seventeen, but there are other seventeen year olds in the book giving her advice to at least try to understand where another person is.

Kennedy Reed. We fell in love with this girl and she was really the reason we sacrificed our sleep to read this through the night. Searching, scared, strong…she is beautiful.

However, the end left us feeling rather low. Very low, in fact. We need an epilogue to know that Kennedy is happy.

On the whole, read this and be prepared for heartache at the end – which is beautiful, but still sad.

3.5/5

Basically, the story revolves around Quinn, a talented swimmer who is aiming for the Olympics, after failing to qualify for the London Olympics. On top of that, she is struggling come to terms with Kennedy Reed, her ex-best friend who practically cut ties with her a few years prior and is suddenly back into her life.

In all honesty, I thought this story was handled rather well. Quinn is a tough and determined girl, who seems to be around a few nasty people who make her life unnecessarily harder. For example, Liam, her twin brother. Never liked the kid. I'm not sure why but he annoyed me because his attitude was inconsistent. One moment he is all sweet to Quinn, the next he's being a complete jerk and making more of a mess in her life. Also, Cassandra, the classic Queen Bee, was mean to Quinn for no apparent reason and is always using the same mean line over and over again. An overall unnecessary character that soiled the story.

Despite a few bad eggs in the story, Quinn still manages to develop into a more mature character through the story's progression. I thought she handled her relationship with Kennedy really well, given the circumstances and her youthful mentality, since she is seventeen. Additionally, despite how accepting the people that surround Quinn of the LGBT community, it doesn't take away the fear that closeted individuals feel, which I thought was well written.

Overall, this was a nice quick read that carried enough drama to keep you interested but not too much that would drive you away. The ending was semi-conclusive/open-ended, but I'm not mad about it because it wasn't a cliffhanger. For the most part, emotions were given closure and that was good enough for me.

I think this is a debut novel for this author, and my favorite thing is when it's a good book! I love being exited about future books from a brand new author.

My hope and guess is that this book is the first in either a series, or there will at least be a sequel. I want to give the heads up to future readers that you're not going to get a complete resolution. It takes nothing away from the book, however. In fact, I actually think it added to the realism of high school loves and how complicated they can be.

That leads me to another great aspect of this book, which is that it actually felt and sounded like a teen drama. The MC's talked like teenagers and the way that the drama evolved was very much high schooler-ish (new word). It also brought me back to all the feels of a first love, including wanting to slap the two sometimes lol. They just need to grow up a bit, naturally.

I can't say many negative things about this book. It's pretty close to being rated a 5 star book, I'm just waiting for a bit more emotional depth that I'm sure will come down the line from these two.

All the Worlds Between Us is a fun story about Quinn, a girl who is working towards going to the world championships in swimming. She had previously missed out on the Olympics by a mere 3 seconds. Quinn is a lesbian and has been out for quite some time. This is a story about love and loss and so much more. I absolutely loved this story! Quinn was an incredibly likable character and the story was compelling. It was a light, fun read. If you like YA Contemporary you will enjoy this one!