This book was a slow burn character study of Grace Porter. She is questioning her life, purpose, and where she fits in. Thankfully a drunken night in Vegas that results in a marriage to Yuki gives her the courage to explore. What we get to see is Grace navigate the uncertainty with her friends and her new wive's friends.

CW: racism, sexism, parental pressure

You hear stories of people getting drunkenly married in Vegas, but not always what happens after. When Grace Porter goes to Vegas with her friends after completing her PHD, she doesn't expect to wake up married to someone she never met. They go back to their homes across the country, but continue to text and then when Grace needs to run away she heads to the home of the wife she barely knows.

What follows is an examination of life, love, friendships, career goals, and everything else.

This book is a wonderful examination of new adulthood, lonely people finding lonely people, running away from your problems, and figuring out what to do with you life and I really enjoyed it.

Loved this book! Such a great story with such heart and emotion. A wonderful story for anyone who feels a little lost.

Not going to Lie....I thought this was going to just be a fun romance novel, and in some ways it was but it was also SOOO much more. Grace has spent her life striving for perfection and putting a massive amount of pressure on herself. When she reaches her ultimate goal she was a crisis of it is what she really wants. On a drunken night in Vegas she married a girl she really wants but who definitely does not fit “The Plan”. As Grace tries to find a ends reality she delves into understanding her loneliness, depression, the societal pressure put on black women and how to find your own way. This book brought me to tears numerous times with its raw look at how lonely life can be even when you are surrounded with love. A great book!

This book blew me away. It’s a raw, emotional coming-of-age story that features an honest look at the pressures we put on people to stay on the path that was set for them, even when that path is no longer what they want. In Honey Girl, Grace Porter is a driven, focused, Type A scientist who is finished her doctorate and is awaiting to start her dream job. But before she goes back to the real world, she and her two best friends take a quick trip to Las Vegas for some fun and relaxation. Except Grace, known to everyone as Porter, wakes up on her last morning in Vegas hungover and married. Married to a beautiful woman named Yuki with rosebud cheeks who lives across the country and hosts a late night radio show about the supernatural. For someone as straight-laced and focused as Porter is, this is wildly out of character but deep down, she desperately wants to learn more about her new wife and wants to take a chance on love. But Porter has to deal with her overbearing father, known to all as the Colonel, and his constant pressure to begin her new career. Porter is burnt out and doesn’t know how to deal with all the changes in her life and this struggle will lead her across the country to discover if she can make a relationship work with a woman she knew for less than a day, and if she can overcome her own hang-ups about the life she set out to have, but no longer is convinced for her.

Honey Girl is a gorgeous story of family, the power of friendship, and the fear of risking everything for love. I fell in love with Grace and Yuki’s story and the wonderfully eclectic, tight-knit group of friends that were vital to each of them.
Thank you to Park Row and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲? 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀?⁣
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Let me just tell y’all this left me emotionally unstable for days and this is the first time I’ve let my brain think about it. Not becuase it was extremely sad but becuause I related to Grace on a deep deep level 🥴.⁣
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𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴:⁣
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• Grace is me. I am Grace.⁣
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• LGBTQ rep was *Chefs Kiss* ⁣
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• Xi and Agnes made me want to love on my girls a little harder. Such a sweet friendship they all shared 💞.⁣
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• Yuki is one of the best characters I’ve ever read about and she’s deep af.⁣
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• I cried when Grace talked about having an existential crisis on her place in the world bc if I’m being honest y’all I have no freaking idea what I’m doing with my life and where I truly belong. It’s overwhelming not having it all together. I’m a quarter on a century and I have no idea what the hell is going on 🥴⁣
[“𝘐’𝘮 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵,” 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘣𝘴. “𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐’𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘵.” 𝘐𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘳. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘯𝘰𝘸. “𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵.” 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. “𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺.”] <- had me looking like this 😭⁣
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• The way the author handled the characters grief, self harm, mental illnesses was amazing. It felt so real. Almost to real.⁣
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• I loved that this wasn’t the typical romance yet it was the perfect romance.⁣
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• I want to also note that from this day forward I will be buying anything Morgan puts out.⁣
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That’s all y’all, Idk what else to say. READ THIS NOW! ⁣

At the beginning of this book I was so annoyed with all the sugary poetic sweetness of the budding romance. That changed. There was still quite a bit of lyrical romance here and there but at the heart of the story is Grace Porter trying to solve an existential crisis. She spent 11 years working hard in academia and thought after getting her doctorate a job would come easy and life would bend at her will. She has to come to terms with finding her own best self like allowing herself to be vulnerable and not use other people’s expectations guide her life plans. Though I can’t begin to fathom the difficulties of being black and queer in her circumstance I know exactly how the depression and anxiety feel. Grace Porter’s Eat, Pray, Love summer gives me hope in the “learning how to breathe and live for myself” department. The friendships and romance, atmosphere and personalities in Honey Girl balanced perfectly in this “new adult” gem.

NOTE : writing this review was a STRUGGLE, I blame that on the new mom brain ok 😂

I thought this would be a cute, binge worthy romance and I'm actually kinda glad it wasn't ONLY that. So of course, there is a TON of queerness in this book, mixed in with society's expectations of millennials, as well as mental health (and not just of one character, but quite a few of them!)

The main character has just finished her PhD in astronomy (btw, how cool and unique is THAT career path?) However, being a queer black woman, she has difficulties finding a job even if she is extremely well qualified. She struggles with her father and society's expectations of what comes next after finishing her education (SUCH a relatable feeling). Turns out she needed to take a step back and focus on herself and the things that truly matter. Like, love. There is so much love in this book, it's TANGIBLE. On a romantic level for sure, but also with family and close friends.

I think I like the idea of this book more than the book itself. A black PhD trying to find her place in the world and that accidentally marries another girl in Las Vegas? Sounds like a pretty interesting story. But I tried really hard and I couldn't relate with the actual story. Maybe I didn't like how whiny the main characters were. Maybe I'm "too old" (like 5 years older than the character in the book) to relate. It's not a bad book, I managed to finish it, and this says more than enough about it. But I just wish it had a little bit less complaints and a little bit more action. You almost want to scream to Grace/Porter - wake up!

Instagram review:

What is a hyped book that lived up to your expectations?

I received an ARC of Honey Girl (out February 23rd) last month after hearing some rave reviews.

If you know anything about me, I am very suspicious of well received books because I often get my expectations up really high, but Honey Girl is a genre I don't read a lot of (Contemporary/Romance) and I think that really worked in its advantage because I loved it.

Honey Girl is not just a romance, though a sapphic romance is a key component of the plot, but a book about coming to terms with yourself as you are, coming to terms with broken plans, and learning to accept, but not necessarily go along with, others' expectations.

Grace Porter is a newly graduated PhD whose carefully planned existence goes off track as she gets drunkenly married in Vegas to a stranger in a ceremony that she barely remembers. She has lost momentum, and faced with continued racism and homophobia in job interviews after graduation she just needs a plan.

I really enjoyed the variety of relationships in the book (if you love found families, this is 1000% the book for you). I like that we got to see development throughout all of her relationships, not just her romantic one. There is codependency, there is anger, and there is frustration. But, there is also love in many forms. Grace doesn’t just figure herself out because she falls in love. She figures herself out because of the influence of her friends and family.

This was a book that hit close to home even with some outlandish (and fun) romance tropes.

A full-length review is up on my blog!
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Blog review:

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers is the sapphic romance novel for all anxious mid to late-twenties millennials out there. I don't make the rules. Thank you to Netgalley and Park Row Books for the opportunity to read Honey Girl ahead of its release on February 23rd! I had a great time.

Honey Girl follows Grace Porter, PhD, who wakes up after drunken revelry in Las Vegas to find out she's gotten married to a mystery woman she can hardly remember. But Grace has a plan. And getting drunkenly married in Vegas is not part of that plan. So she compartmentalizes (she's great at that) and heads back to Portland with her friends to pursue the plan she has made for herself.

As many us know, the transition from graduation to employment isn't always smooth. Grace has pushed herself hard and suffered under the burden of other's expectations. Not to mention the institutional prejudices she comes up against as a Black lesbian. She is burning out. So she runs. Away from her plans, away from her friends and family. Grace runs to New York City to spend the summer with the wife she doesn't know.

I loved this book a lot. Grace is anxious, depressed, self-harming, and doesn't know how to ask for help. She doesn't know if the life she planned for herself is the one she actually wants. She has a strong support network with friends that are more like family, but sometimes that isn't enough. I've gone through enough existential crises (even as someone who landed a great job a month out from graduation) that I really related with Grace and her struggles.

If you are someone who loves found family in book, look no further. Honey Girl brings it hard.
I like that we got to see development throughout all of her relationships, not just her romantic one. There is codependency, there is anger, and there is frustration. But, there is also love in many forms. Grace doesn't just figure herself out because she falls in love. She figures herself out because of the influence of her friends and family.

I also appreciated that we got to see how other people are harmed by Grace's actions, even in small ways, without vilifying her or mental illness. Or how we got to see how people trying to do the right thing negatively affected Grace. It is important to be selfish, but that doesn't mean that people can't feel hurt by your actions. What we think is the best for someone, what we think is helping someone, can be harmful.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I enjoyed the complexity of the characters and their relationships. They felt developed and realistic. Did I cry? A couple times. Some stuff just hit really close to home.

My only real criticism, beside a couple of personal things (I'm just not big on touchy feely friendships and sometimes it throws me off in books, but that really is just a me issue), is that I wish there was a little more content at the end. It was a great close to the story, but I would have liked to see just a little bit more. To have had a little bit longer after the resolution of the romantic arc. It felt a little abrupt to me.

I would highly recommend giving Honey Girl a read. It's a great queer millennial romance that deals with mental health in a positive light despite Grace's difficulties.

My favorite books are good first books. Like this one!

I love the real, complicated, maddening (on occasion) characters who seeped in to stay. And the writing.

Thanks to the glorious folks at NetGalley for an advanced copy to read.

I'll read whatever Morgan Rogers writes next.

Grace Porter has spent her life trying to live up to others' expectations. One drunken night in Las Vegas is going to change everything. I really loved the depth of this book, acknowledging the stress we put on ourselves and being able to accept help when needed.

This book has my entire heart. It is so full of love and characters that love each other that I didn't want to put it down even when it was over. Most of my favorite books are my favorites because the friends and family within the pages are so in love with each other that they're like little pieces of each other. This book is no different and it's definitely a new favorite since it is full to bursting with a diverse cast of gorgeous monsters.

Even though Grace Porter is 28 with a PHD in the pages of Honey Girl, I would still call this a coming-of-age tale. Grace spends the book growing up, gaining agency, and learning who she is, what she wants, and what she ultimately needs to be happy. She deals with the anxieties of finding herself in a career that is only made even worse while trying to find that as a young Black woman in the science field. She believes she needs to be "the best" and anything less would be a failure for her and for her reserved military father.

The book is beautiful but it has a lot of trauma depicted within its pages. I would give TWs for self-harm and mental health issues.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC!

This book is for every twenty-something who feels lost in a sea of expectation, for every person dealing with the existential dread that comes with the end of formal education and the start of your life in the real world. This book is for every lonely creature shouting into the dark and hoping that someone is listening.

This book is brillant in so many ways but to step away from the overdramatic poetics let me tell you what this story is about. In Honey Girl we follow Grace Porter, a 28 year old astronomer who has just finished her doctorate and who is struggling to find a job due to a number of systemic barriers in place as her womanhood, her balckness, and her queerness alienate her from her peers in the field. On a trip to Las Vegas, Grace wakes up hungover, with a ring on her finger and champagne soaked memories of a girl that smelled of flowers and sea salt. From here we follow Grace on her delayed odysessy of self discovery as she attempts to naviagate her intense burnout and existential angst.

Grace was so relatable to me and I adored her in all her complexities. This book is full to the brim with love and tenderness, not just romantic love but familial and platonic love so profound that I wanted to cry literally on every page. Grace's found family, her new wife, her new friends and the love they shared together made me so overwhelmed with emotion and any lover of the found family trope will enjoy this immensely. My favorite aspect of this is the fact that Grace has so many people who love her and care about her but this can't prevent her from feeling her lonely, burnout, overwhelmed feelings. Loneliness is a feeling, not a state of being. That felt so real to me and I just loved being a witness Grace's internal battles, I loved seeing Grace be loved and loving her friends so much it hurt. I just...I'm truly undone by this book, I'm tearing up just typing this shitty little review. Please read this stunning debut. It made me swoon, it made me cry, the writing is so stunningly beautiful and I've absolutely found my new favorite book. Please read it. Just Read It.

Though I was hoping for more romance vibes, this book was fantastic. A belated coming-of-age sort of tale that takes you from a Vegas wedding to monster hunting in New York to getting lost in Floridian orange groves. And did I mention it’s sapphic? I’m a sucker for anything gay, but don’t go into this thinking its focus is on the romantic element of the storyline; it’s much more focused on the personal growth and journey of self discovery by main character Grace Porter. Couldn’t be happier to have been granted a galley of this novel by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I had such a good time reading Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers! It's a slow-paced, slow-burn romance novel centering on a f/f romance. Morgan Rogers has a beautiful writing style and I LOVED the sections where Yuki and Grace share their passions and interests with one another. This was so wholesome and lovely!

I think, in total, Honey Girl really captures the feelings of disorientation, confusion, mixed emotions etc that come along with trying to find your own place in the world following formal education. I personally related hard to a lot of that, as someone at a similar age to the protagonist who graduated 3 years ago.

I thought the mental illness and therapy representation was done so well! This was something that really impressed me and that I felt quite seen in, as well.

Saying that, there is much in this narrative that didn't speak to my own lived experiences, such as the racist and homophobic micro-agressions that Grace experiences while seeking employment in the field of astronomy.

I also found the relationship that Grace had with her parents was really interestingly captured, and those feelings of parental pressure were captured really well.

At the end of the book, I was left feeling that I would have loved to see more scenes from the friendships and so I was left hoping that this may be made into a series, or that the book may be build-out to a group of companion novels. Fingers crossed!

Overall, I really enjoyed this and would highly recommend it!

CWs: mental illness, self harm, racism, homophobia, sexual content, small reference to child abuse.

4.5 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Honey Girl was a hyped book for the first part of the year that I was really excited for, and while it wasn’t entirely what I anticipated, being more coming-of-age contemporary with a strong romantic arc than straight-up romance with the other elements on the side, I still enjoyed it.

Grace is a protagonist that really spoke to me as a person on some level, being very goal oriented and in the same time of life, although her father’s expectations are much more rigorous for her. I loved seeing her navigating the fallout from an impulsive choice she made…with a queer twist on a somewhat concept of “getting married in Vegas.”

Her relationship with her wife, Yuki, is delightful and sweet. While it’s not the main focus and I wanted more of it, I liked what we got. And I liked that there was a nice supporting cast, with a lovely queer found family, providing a fabulous support system for Grace as she comes into her own.

This is an utterly delightful first novel, and I can’t wait to see what Morgan Rogers does next. If you’re looking for something light and unapologetically queer, I would enthusiastically recommend picking this up.

As a coming-of-age story, Honey Girl really fills an often overlooked gap - the people in their late twenties that still don't have things figured out. It was refreshing to read, since I was someone who took a while to "get her life together."

I also really loved the diversity of the characters in this book. Grace, the main character, is both Black and LGBTQ+, so reading about her struggles in the workforce was eye-opening for someone with more privilege like myself. I also loved the added stories from Japanese culture sprinkled in throughout the book, reflecting the character Yumi's upbringing.

The part of this book that was lacking for me was the romance. The first scene is the morning after a drunk Vegas wedding, so I was under the impression romance was going to be the biggest part of the plot, but it fell a little flat for me. The characters were lovable, I just didn't think there was enough build up in the early stages of them knowing each other. I personally rather would have seen some of the side characters given more of a story, and had less of the romance element.

honestly, i think i hyped this book up to much in my head. don't get me wrong, but it was a good book, and i can see why people might have loved this book, but it just wasn't for me. i found the characters to have zero personality besides their job, and everything else just fell to the side and wasn't good. like none of the characters had any personality besides what they want to do, or what they went to school for an currently do. and it got to be pretty annoying, not gonna lie. but, i also just feel disconnected from this story and all the characters. an there was barely any romance, which kind of sucked and i feel like they fought a a lot which was just a pain in the ass. but, i feel like this book had the whole debut syndrome, so hopefully if Rogers writes more books in the future, it will be way better.

During Black History month, it can be pretty common for readers to reach out to a glowing biography or turn to books highlighting the intergenerational trauma of the Black Community. These are valid. What's also valid is reading a novel that is fun, smart, and explores the life of a Black Queer person.  

Grace Porter has been working hard her entire life. With a Colonel for a father, she's known mostly to her family as Porter. She has sacrificed, fought, and done everything she can to be a high achiever. It has been exhausting, but responsibility has been one of her major defining features for decades. That's what makes it all the more surprising when she has too much to drink in Las Vegas and marries a woman she's just met. With only a business card and a wedding chapel photo to guide her, Porter initially keeps her head down and struggles to find a job with her PHD in astronomy, partially to please her demanding father.  After struggling under the weight of expectations for her life, Grace goes to New York to get to know the woman she accidentally married, and find out who Grace really is when not bowing to societal pressure.

I absolutely loved this book. The author, Morgan Rogers, is a Queer Black Millennial. She writes boldly, and intelligently, with sentences that often flow like poetry. It is extremely easy to picture every character in this book, and you can tell Rogers has lovingly explored all of them.  The book celebrates diversity, without being preachy or forcing it, as only a Queer Black Millennial can.  The book does not shy away from racism, mental health issues, or difficult conversations about overwhelming expectations. It is so easy to fall headlong into the story and stay there until the very last page. 

Honey Girl is available February 23, 2021.