I heard a lot of rave reviews for Honey Girl before it was released, unfortunately I think this was a case of a book being overhyped for me. I so badly wanted to love this one! I’m planning on trying it again later but for now it’s a DNF

This book was a beautiful examination of burnout, finding yourself and learning to love who you are. Definitely not the romance I expected but I really loved the story and character journey. A truly lovely sapphic romance that is a must read for romance readers and anyone looking for a novel set between YA and adult.

Honey Girl felt like a YA .. the main character was in her late 20s so that was annoying. It felt all over the place and I don't think the relationships made sense.

I ended up giving up ok this book. I think I will come back to it again when I’m in a better mood for it.
I just couldn’t get into it and don’t want to force it.

This book was unlike anything I've ever read, and while there were parts that were refreshing and fun, it wasn't quite the perfect story for me. I really liked both of the main characters and I appreciated that this book had a lot more depth to it than I was anticipating, but something about the maudlin tone of the story as a whole just didn't really click well with me, unfortunately. This wasn't bad but it just didn't really work for me the way I was hoping it would.

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Morgan Rogers, Netgalley, and Park Row Books for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

I’m so glad that I finally got to listen to this novel. I do think I’ll need to reread it more closely because I feel like I may have missed a few things, but I still have a good opinion on what I do remember.

I understand where our main character Grace is coming from. I get wanting to do something as a big F YOU to the people that just seem to want to see you fail. I get wanting to just forget everything and have some fun for once. So I get that. I get how Grace was able to get super drunk and not realize that she got married to a complete stranger. I haven’t gotten that wasted but I mean, who knows what I would have done if I was THAT wasted.

After all of that, I still feel really bad for Grace. I felt bad for her because of her strained relationship with both of her parents, and the obstacles she’s finding herself trying to get through in her own industry. I wanted her to take some sort of break, but I also agree with one of the other character’s point to her that everyone else is also dealing with their stuff and didn’t just ditch out on their friends. People have to process in their own way, and while I understand having that feeling about Grace, what would have been the best way for her to process and take a breather?

Someone in their review mentioned how the relationship between Grace and Yuki was extremely toxic. I feel like this was in part to how they immediately started as a married couple without the whole process of actually getting to know one another and learning how to communicate with one another. It almost reminded me of an arranged marriage or something where the main time the couple would get to know one another was after they were already married. Their interactions were definitely not perfect, and there were some times where I didn’t understand certain actions or reactions throughout the novel. I pushed myself through them though hoping that maybe that would be addressed and worked on. Again, I’ll probably have to reread this one and possibly annotate it a bit.

It was a very interesting story, and I felt like everything just felt so real to me. From Grace having to deal with systemic racism in trying to find a position in her field, even though her mentor and professor basically groomed her for it; to Grace wanting to please her father so much and not putting her emotion in to anything she says to him. At least not all the time. Colonel telling Grace not to let anyone see her cry because it shows weakness. My dad told me the same thing, and he was also in the military. I immediately felt like I was reading about what kind of relationship I could have had if I was still communicated with my father, and I don’t know if I would be okay with it.

I can’t wait to read more books from Morgan Rogers, and I believe that this debut was a great one.

such an important book. that's really everything that sums up my thoughts about it. plus it was comedic when it needed to be and i really appreciate that

I’m so excited with all the new sapphic romances we have coming out! Honey girl was as good as everyone was saying it is! Man oh man did this book have me tearing up and instantly running to the bookstore to buy myself a copy!

I am definitely seeing a trend and it is a most welcome one. The books I've been reading lately are much more diverse and while I would have liked to have seen this transition sooner, it is better late than never. I was immediately attracted to the language that was used in Honey Girl. It was almost as if I was spending time with a close friend. Whenever I feel like that, I know that the book is a winner. It was so relatable and fresh. I'll definitely be recommending Honey Girl!

There are so many things that I loved, but also a lot that annoyed me about this book. Ultimately, I thought it was pretty good and lovely and cute so I rated it 4 stars, but there is still a lot that annoyed me!

This book is about a 28-year old astronomer who graduated with a PhD named Grace Porter, who feels like she has spent the last 11 years overworking herself and still feeling unsatisfied with her degree. At the same time, Grace has drunkenly married a random, unknown girl at a night in Vegas, and starts to form a relationship with her.

As most people said, this book was marketed as a romance novel, and it was probably 10% romance and 90% Grace dealing with identity and mental health issues. I'm not necessarily complaining, but I think for a plot as great as "two girls get drunkenly married in Vegas and have to find each other again" should have been reserved for a romance novel.

I could relate a lot to Grace, but there were also times when she was really unlikeable. As someone who is applying to grad school soon, and overworks myself constantly, my biggest fear is that all the time and money and passion that I put into a degree will leave me either jobless or unsatisfied. I completely understood Grace's pain the frustration with literally having everything needed to succeed, but feeling like you aren't.

However, there are times when she really annoyed me. For one, there is a scene with her love interest, Yuki, where Grace is offered a job and she debates about not taking it because it requires her "taking the easy option" or just taking whatever option is handed to her instead of a higher position that she really deserves. On one hand it's like, I understand striving for the best position and understanding your worth, but also in academia, sometimes you have to pick the job offer that isn't the "highest" position to get your foot in the door and actually get your job started.

The writing was also really repetitive at times, with long paragraphs of Grace reflecting on how unsatisfied she is with life. The character's dialogues were sort of cheesy and unrealistic at times, as sometimes characters had long spiels of magical and poetic advice that no one would ever say. Plus the weird way that everyone in Grace's life, even her parents call her Grace Porter!?

I really enjoyed the rest of the characters and all the cool queer friends that Grace has, so I really loved how they all supported her! I really loved Grace's relationship with her mom and step-father, and also how Grace learns to take a step back from her work and reevaluate what she wants in life. I really needed this at this point in time and it was really helpful!

However, the romance part sort of fell flat for me (even though there was like a REALLY steamy and great sex scene), but I really loved Grace learning to find herself during her mid-to-late twenties crisis and seeking help.

Honey Girl is the tender, heartfelt, lovely, and messy sapphic romance of my dreams!

Morgan Rogers’ debut is a story about family (the one you’re born with, and the one you choose); It’s a book about control, and what it means to let go of it; It’s a story about loneliness, and finding your place in the cosmos; it’s a story about drunkenly getting married to your one night stand in Las Vegas, and what happens after you wake up the next day. It’s a queer love story that gives you butterflies – so full of heart and vulnerability.

I adored the way Rogers shows us the magic of crushes, the yearning of love, and the tenderness and strength we can find in community and friendship.

I’m in love with Rogers’ writing style. I don’t know how to explain it but this book is DELICIOUS. Morgan Rogers’ writing is sweet and succulent, like juicy ripe fruit. I keep finding myself saying what I’m reading out loud just to feel the words in my mouth. You will fall in love with this book the way I did!

(From: https://www.shedoesthecity.com/books-about-queer-joy-love-and-community-to-celebrate-pride/.)

**Thank you to NetGalley, author Morgan Rogers, and HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada): Park Row for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.**

Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, and Racism
Minor: Self-harm

Honey Girl started out as a hesitant read for me, but it quickly turned out to be a beautiful story about love, determination, family struggles, and self-discovery.

I will say that I struggled to get into this story. It took me about three times of rereading the first couple of chapters to really get into the story. I cannot fully pinpoint what it was that was tripping me up, but I think it had something to do with that explanation of the Vegas plot in the first couple of chapters and then connecting the main plotline of the story. I felt like I was missing something.

With that aside, however, I ended up finding this story to be heart-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time. Grace, the main character, is extremely complex and dynamic. Her story and plot lines are engaging and made me want to see what she would decide next on her life's journey. There are a few times that I wanted to roll my eyes with the decisions she made, but thinking about the real world and even how I would have handled said situations, it is not hard to see why she makes those choices.

I also really adore the relationships between Grace and Ximena and Agnes and Grace and Yuki. The relationships between all of these characters are complex and messy, making them feel like real-life connections. No path was perfectly paved and they each work hard at something to make their lives fulfilled. Rogers did a nice job developing and connecting all of the characters within her story.

Overall, this book didn't blow me away, but I am glad I gave it a chance.

Uuuughhh I hate being off of the hype train but this book didn't live up to the hype for me! I kept falling asleep while reading because I was so bored. I ended up calling it quits around the 20% mark. I understand why this is a lot of people's cup of tea but it wasn't for me and I'm so upset about that,

Grace Porter, upon finishing her PhD in Astronomy, finds herself at a crossroads as to what she wants the rest of her life to look like. Although the book is sold as a romance, and despite said romance being beautifully written, it's much more a book about what it means to come into one's own when you are weighed down by the expectations of everyone around you, including yourself.

Honey Girl is written in a light, almost fantastical style that swept me up, and made it feel like an easy read despite the tough subject matters that it dealt with. Despite having a relatively large cast of characters, including the wife, Yuki--who I loved and could have read an entire book about-- and her family and friends, the book remains firmly about Grace. We flit across everyone else's complications and struggles, to land on the main character herself. This was not an issue for me, though, as I loved and identified with parts of Grace.

Such a fantastic book - about the family we choose. This one is heartbreaking, beautiful and unforgettable!

I picked this book up thinking it was a straightforward romance novel, and it was definitely not that! It was a beautiful love story, but on top of that, it was about a woman trying to find her place in the world as her own person -- not as a daughter, or a student, or an employee, or a friend, but as herself. And the writing was absolutely beautiful. The one thing that held me back about this book was the pacing of the plot - I'm a quick reader, and it took me a while to get through this one, but all the more reason to savor it!

Honey Girl tells the story of Grace Porter, recent PhD graduate, as she tries to navigate the world post-college. A hard-working, type A personality, Grace has always done what’s needed to stick to her plan – the one her father came up with. But she deviates from it one night while in Vegas, when she gets drunkenly married to a girl Grace doesn’t even know the name of.

Returning back to her life in Portland, Grace is faced with the overwhelming uncertainty of being out of school with no clue, and no prospects, for where to go from there. Burnt out, and struggling to find her place, Grace reaches out to the girl she can barely remember, but who has already changed everything.

Honey Girl is one of the most relatable, lyrical, books I’ve ever read. This one really got under my skin, in the best way possible. While reading it I had these competing feelings of one, being unable to unglue my eyes from the page because I was so invested, and two, wanting to prolong the experience because I couldn’t bare to let it go. I actually wound up listening to the audiobook almost immediately after finishing it, because I just wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Grace, Yuki, and their story.

Grace’s story is less a romance in the traditional sense, and more a coming-of-age story about finding your place in the big, black universe. As someone who is currently in the process of finishing up her graduate degree, it was so, so easy to relate to Grace and her feelings of burn-out and uncertainty. Graduating and having to face what comes next is one of the most scary things about being a student, I think, and Rogers really captures that here.

However, unlike Grace, I don’t face the additional, systematic challenges of being a Black queer woman, and working in a male-dominated field. I can only imagine how many more barriers are added to Grace’s struggle, simply because of who she is. While I can’t speak to representation myself, Rogers’ depiction feels intrinsically raw, real, and made my heart ache.

A smaller part of the story is devoted to Grace and Yuki and their budding relationship. Also intersperses are a wide array of really lovely side characters who all felt unique, real, and couldn’t help putting a smile of my face. Yuki, especially, was absolutely wonderful. I just found her so interesting and endearing, and the perfect match for someone so stuck in her head like Grace.

Finally, I think what really tied this book all together for me and really cemented it as one of my favourites I’ll continue to return to again and again, was the writing style. Rogers’ prose is absolutely poetic, and makes it impossible for you to not be ensnared fully by the story as it unfolds. Everything is written so beautiful, and flows so lyrically, that it fully transports you to another place – to Portland and New York City, and into Grace’s mind, with all the anxieties and feelings that swirl around in there.

Honey Girl is a romantic read, even if the romance between the characters isn’t always the focal point. The writing itself is romantic, it finds the enchantment in everyday life and everyday interactions, in the universe and all its unknowables, and makes you believe in it to.

Thank you to the publisher, Park Row Books/Harllequin Trade and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. I regret that I was unable to provide a review due to a chronic neurological condition. However, I did participate in a virtual book tour and posted a book showcase on my blog: http://thebookdivasreads.com/2021/02/22/book-showcase-honey-girl-by-morgan-rogers/.

THIS BOOK OMG. I LOVED the found family in it! I just could not even take how much it blew me away with the mental health talk and how much they were there for each other. I loved how each MC had their own little families and how they came together separately and then combined them. I love this book and have recommended it 8 million times already. Phew!