Review // Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

❓ Coming-of-age Story, Romance, Black Lit, LGBTQ+ Lit

💗 Character-Driven, Emotional, Lyrical, #ownvoices

📖 Careful, cautious and tightly-wound Grace Porter just got married. In Vegas. To a total stranger. As she deals with the fallout from her out-of-character adventure, she also has to figure out who she is and what she wants to do with her life. Needless to say, things are complicated... and totally unexpected.

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

"What happened in Vegas is tucked away in her suitcase. It is under her shirt in the shape of a key. It is hidden in her hair with the last little bits of dried petals. It hides in the gold ring wrapped around her finger like a brand."

Things to Know:
✨ I loved this book! From the universal themes to the poetic and truly beautiful writing, it was one of the best debuts I've read in a long time.

✨ Honey Girl is a story of identity. Grace is a Ph.D. candidate in astronomy, and the book dives deep into what it's like to be a Black, Queer woman in both STEM and higher education - the unfair roadblocks, the fight for equality, and the scrutiny from both faculty and family. If you're a woman in a field that's highly dominated by men, this one's for you.

✨ Honey Girl is also a love story. Rogers very much focused on Queer joy - Grace being gay was just a fact; it wasn't a point of contention in her life. She was loved and supported for who she was, and found solace in her new, unexpected relationship. The romance made me SWOON.

✨ I absolutely loved the focus on strong female friendships, found family, and the normalizing of mental health.

✨ Grace did read very young at times, and I had to remind myself that she wasn't a teenager but a married PhD candidate. The book teeters between YA and adult contemporary.

✨ Don't even get me started on the Hedwig and the Angry Inch references! 😍

"If you're out there, Honey Girl, I am singing you a song. It's a good song; it won't lure you to the depth of the ocean. It's a song that leads you just to me, I think, if you're listening."

Read If You Like:
📚 Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
🎶 Married in Vegas by The Vamps
📺 Jane the Virgin

Title: Honey Girl
Author: Morgan Rogers
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Pages: 241
Publication Date: 2/23/2021

Grace Porter goes to Las Vegas to celebrate her graduation with a PhD in astronomy. While she is there, she gets drunk and marries a woman whose name she does not know. Grace Porter does not do spontaneous things – she lives her life according to a plan. Marrying someone she didn’t know is a pretty big departure from her norm. Her new wife is gone when she wakes up the next morning. The novel focuses on how Grace sorts out her next steps in her career considering this very spontaneous event. Grace slowly gets to know this mysterious woman, Yuki. In this review, I am going to talk about the three main reasons why I loved this book.

First, while you may not be able to relate to getting a PhD in astronomy, many of us can relate to the idea that we have a “master plan.” I have never seen a book tackle this topic with so much authenticity. I felt like I was reading about my own struggles of my late 20’s and 30’s. What does happiness look like – especially when you have been so focused on a singular goal like advanced education? What happens when happiness is not what you or your parents or society had planned for you? How do you reconcile those feelings?

Second, this book tackles mental health in such a real, meaningful fashion. It shows Grace learning how to be vulnerable and show her weaknesses- and why those are critical to her happiness and emotional well-being. I also thought showing the therapist selection process was illuminating as it shows the work it takes to find a good fit with what you need. What I liked was the focus on healing and learning from the diagnoses instead of focusing on the disease itself.

Third, the author does an excellent job showing the community that surrounds Grace. The queer community often talks about the concept of found family and the author just nailed it. The menagerie of roommates, friends, coworkers, bosses, parents just brought this world to life and are shown with such depth and substance. I also loved how the author showed the flaws and shortcomings of the parents in a subtle way. In many books, we see extremes in parents – either the fantastic or terrible abusive parents and not much focus on the middle ground. Both Grace’s mother and father have deep flaws in this book but are doing what they believe is best for Grace. We see their growth as well.

I absolutely loved this book. I cannot praise this book enough. It is in the top five books I’ve read of all time. If you are someone who has ever struggled with not “living” up to your “perceived potential,” or the “plan” that you set for yourself, you will see yourself in this book. Please go and read this book.

#HoneyGirl #NetGalley

First let me say that I chose to read this book knowing it was way out of my comfort zone. I wanted to get a feel for a different style of book. Next, I will admit it was not my favorite, but not for the reasons one might assume.

I liked this book; it was not my favorite, but it was also not the worst. I liked many of the characters, and the situation of "Now what do I do?" that Grace Porter faces feels very real and relatable to me. (Who among us hasn't prepared for something for a very long time, only to get a "no" or closed door for their troubles? Exactly my point.)

The relationships among the characters are complex. Grace has strained relationships with both of her parents, and they seem real. The working-through of those feelings was well done. That being said, the romance between Grace and Yuki does not feel real to me. It feels almost forced at times. I am not sure why, but that is my impression.

The last thing I'll say is that this book took me a very long time to get through. It was not enough to hold my sustained attention, and I attribute that to the pacing and long segments of conversation that happen in the book.

Overall, recommended for those readers who like long, intense, emotional relationship books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row Books for a review copy.

My Favorite Quote: “You deserve better than some place that doesn’t’want you in all your glory.”

Honey Girl kicks off with a romantic story about Grave Porter – millennial, Black woman, astronomy PhD – who wakes up after a wild night in Vegas married to a woman she does not know.

Rogers has written a great story with heart, humor and honesty tackling an issue many millennials deal with life after college and for many – lacking job prospects for a black, lesbian astronomer. Dr. Grace Porter has devoted over 10 years of her life earning her PhD in astronomy. And she cannot find a job!!!! She is feeling lost and displaced in her own life. She decides to take off to New York City to meet the woman she married and hopefully find purpose.

Honey Girl is filled with great characters of friendships and support. Grace’s friends Ximena, Agnes, and Raj seem like my close friends. Each of them wants Grace to conquer the world and her field. For Grace, she is learning to stop trying to live up to her father’s ridiculous standards.

Honey Girl demonstrates a story of compassion and insight. It tells the story of a young black woman who learns to embrace herself just the way she is. It celebrates her challenges seeking the perfect job and the triumphs of finding love and acceptance.

Rogers’ debut novel surprises you with great dialogue and she tackles complicated issues with warmth, humor, and truth. It is a celebration of women. I am sure many readers will find it as important, enlightening, and entertaining.

I tried. I really did. Over halfway through the book and I was BORED. The narrator rambles on and it was so boring. There was a hook in the very beginning and then was wasted. I felt like this needed more editing. DNF

Honey Girl was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021. Knowing that Grace Porter is in her late 20s and struggling with her place and path in life was something that called to the shadowy parts I like to keep hidden in me, especially as I approach my late twenties myself. I was further drawn in by the promise of sapphic love between two women of color, which is something I crave more representation of. Morgan Rogers' debut novel surpassed my expectations, far and beyond the furthest reaches of the galaxy. It was almost bittersweet having to keep turning the pages and eventually come to the end of this book.

While Honey Girl had less of a focus on the romance than I anticipated, the love depicted through friendships/found family in the story is absolutely radiant. Multiple times while reading, I found myself in or near tears simply because of how magnificent and tender yet fierce the love between Grace and her friends is. Not only is it a book beyond my dreams, but it is one overflowing with messages that I did not know I desperately needed to hear. Words that believe will cling to my bones, lift me, haunt me, and continue to sing in my heart for a long time to come. Thank you to Park Row and Netgalley for granting me this ARC.

I read this book over a few days and enjoyed. Since there are no half stars I gave it a 3 because it's not a 4 star book. Grace Porter is a recent graduate from University, she's just completed her degree in Astronomy and is ready to start her career. Except for one thing... her trip to Las Vegas. On her trip to Las Vegas she gets drunk and get married to someone who she doesn't know. She doesn't even know her name.. except for a few details for a note left behind...

Honey Girl was not quite what I was expecting. This is not a light read, though it is charming and sweet. And Vegas marriage is quite the trope! But in reality, this is a book about figuring out who you are, maybe at the same time as admitting who you are not, and how the expectations of others aren't enough to live on. I'm not sure this was a book for me, but I do think it was beautifully written, and it does a wonderful job of depicting real challenges in a loving and accepting way. Bonus points for a great depiction of many characters with mental health issues on top of (despite?) their other idiosyncrasies. Four stars for me, but I can see how this might be just the right fit for many other readers.

I know this book has been getting rave reviews all over. But I ended up DNFing it at about 20%. I couldn't get behind the main character. Just in the small part that read, she made so many ridiculous life choices. I just had no desire to read any more about it..

I can not even begin to explain how much I loved this book. I felt like it really spoke to my soul. The writing was incredible, the relationships were amazing. The main characters, the side characters, everyone was incredibly rich and there was so much depth to them. I also absolutely fell in love with the writing.

The only thing I disliked about this book was that it didn't seem the author had a good understanding of PhD programs in general. The advisor/mentee relationship was unbelievable in its formality, and the fact that the MC seemed to approach an industry job as the highlight of obtaining a PhD was also... not how it works.

However, everything else about the book was so incredible that I wouldn't even knock any stars off for that. Maybe like .1 star or something. Still a 5 star book for me!

A beautiful love story, but also a thoughtful book that asks deep questions about life purpose, internal and external expectations, and institutional racism. An excellent read!

First, I picked this up thinking it was a romance, and it is not. Yes, there is a romance and it is important, but I didn't find it to the be the "central" part of the story. Rather, this is a lovely and sometimes hard-to-read story of a young woman struggling with imposter syndrome, self-harm, unstable relationships with her parents, and general uncertainty about her life and its trajectory. (That makes the book sound dark, but it is not! Just realistic.) My favorite part of this story was Grace's group of friends, who were absolutely delightful though not without their own flaws and struggles. Recommend, especially for other young women going through transitory periods in their lives.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free advance copy.

A dreamy book that’s half love story and half Bildungsroman about a Black lesbian astronomer. I went into this book expecting it to be a romcom, which it empathetically is not. Instead, it’s an intensely emotional book about a woman who elopes in Las Vegas right as her grand plan for her life begins to fall apart. With a wife who’s a mystery, a PhD, and no job in sight, Grace begins the long journey of finding out who she truly is.

However, for all that it’s not a romcom, this book is still brimming with love. Grace and her friends share the deep love of queer found family. Grace has a lot of love for her biological family, even when she’s unsure if they love her back and it all feels fraught. And, of course, there’s the blossoming love between Grace and her wife that she barely knows.

It’s a book about love in all of its forms, not just romantic love. It’s sweet and emotional and intense and a bit fanciful at times. The prose dances and twirls through metaphors about sirens and stars. All in all, this is a strong debut from an author with a distinctive voice and style. 4 stars instead of five for some plot holes that kept distracting me (what does Grace do doing the day in New York?!), but it’s still a strong book. Looking forward to more by this author!!

𝙃𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙡 by Morgan Rogers grants readers a fun, but serious look into the life of what it means to be a black, educated, and lonely woman uncertain of who and what she need to be. Rogers creates a narrative that puts her main character Grace in an unexpected situation where she drunkenly marries a woman in Vegas. From the novel, we are privy to a real, deep look into the life of an over-achieving perfectionist that begins to fall in love with her new wife Yuki, but she fails to fall in love with the most important person in the universe: HERSELF. This novel, then, showcases the chain-reaction of events that occurs when Grace neglects to put herself first because she continues prioritizing the expectations of her parents, the pressures of her academic endeavors, and the constant burden of perfection.

What Rogers does well here is free Grace from the weight of expectations that force us to be perfect humans. The novel reminds us, “You believed the climb and the barrier and the gate would not break you. You spent 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 ignoring that your mind and body said 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦, 𝘣𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧, and you punished yourself for even thinking it.” It is no doubt that this constant grind holds back even the strongest individuals from living a happy and fulfilling life. Humans have the right to be vulnerable and weak.

Grace’s life as an academic is a strenuous field for black women so the need to be “twice as good” is a constant fight, but not one worth sacrificing her mental health. So when Rogers imparts a section here on mental health and self-care for not only Grace, but the other characters it was pure gold. The therapist explains, “It takes so much courage to be open with people and let them help when you need it. It takes strength to tell someone you’re scared, you’re terrified. That you’re not perfect.” Black women must be vulnerable to their pain in order to reach internal peace. 𝙃𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙡 ultimately shows black women how to break down the sludge of expectations that hold them hostage.

𝙃𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙡 is definitely a treat worth sticking to your hands and digesting in one sitting.

4.5⭐
This contemporary was so close to perfect and I completely regret not reading it sooner.

This follows a woman named Grace who just completed her PhD and finds herself married to a woman she doesn't know after a celebratory night in Vegas.

While this premise sounds like this novel will lean romance heavy, it actually much more focused on the main characters personal journey. It's really about her learning to accept herself and face her mental health issues head on.

But my absolute favorite thing about this was Morgan Rogers' writing. Just wow. There were so many passages throughout this that hit me right the gut. I had to pause, rewind, and highlight many pages while reading. This book felt so raw and personal and you could feel how much the author poured into this book.

I absolutely cannot wait too check out with Morgan Roger's writes next.

Content warnings for depression, anxiety, self harm, microaggressions and racism

My review is live on Goodreads and will be posted to my blog on 3/22 at 9am

Brilliant book and really speaks to anyone who feels lost even as they are doing what they are told they should. I enjoyed the poetic language even though I can understand why that wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. My one issue, this was supposed to be a romance but that certainly was not the focus and it read more like women's fiction. That is fine of course but I don't understand why the romantic angle was presented as something that would be at the forefront when it definitely was not.

I received an e-arc of this from the publisher through NetGalley.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Honey Girl is a debut novel with a beautiful black girl with hair the color of honey, a LGBTQ, millennial couple, a drunken Vegas wedding. This is a beautiful love story about two people with an instant, intense connection. Morgan Roger’s poetic descriptions of her characters’ deep romantic feelings swept me off my feet. Her writing style and her use of unique forms of endearment bring you all the feels.

But this is not just a romance novel. It’s a coming of age story about so many important things such as dealing with family pressure, career fulfillment, racism, loneliness, perseverance, found families, and marriage.

The best part is that the characters break all stereotypes. I was enchanted by the way they didn’t hesitate to pursue happiness. They took chances that left me wide-eyed with the magic of it all. I had almost nothing in common with them, but still I felt so connected, in a raw, human, emotional level.

I recommend this book to anyone that believes in love at first sight.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc. All opinions are my own.

With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She’s a straight-A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that.

I related so much to Grace Porter trying to find her next step after getting her PhD since I have similar feelings and job rejections right now after getting my master's. Other than that her life is pretty different from mine (Porter being queer and Black, me being straight and a white European).

I enjoyed reading about Porter finding her way and redefining perfection. I believe that I read Honey Girl at the perfect time to have a sweet love story with some small monster stories by Yuki (which I loved, both Yuki and her stories). I highly recommend you pick this book up.

This isn’t a typical romance novel so much as it is a coming-of-age story, a realization story, with a romance that occurs as an element of the protagonist’s journey. Grace Porter feels aimless and uncertain about what she wants the next step in her life to be; her military father’s expectations have always seemed unachievable and her nomadic mother has never been available to her. Of course she goes to Vegas and ends up marrying a woman she doesn’t even know! But what that one night sparks for her is a transformation that involves Grace learning to find herself first and then realizing she’s ready to fall for the person she married. A terrific debut that read more like stream of consciousness prose (even if sometimes it got a little repetitive with certain motifs), but overall lovely and engaging and emotionally satisfying.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Grace Porter has always had a plan: graduate with her PhD and get a good job. But on a trip to Vegas to celebrate her graduation, Grace does something that is definitely not in the plan: she drunkenly marries a woman she's just met. Grace's whole world is shaken up, and as she gravitates to her new wife, Yuki, she also finds herself questioning everything around her. ⁣As post-school life becomes more and more daunting, Grace decides to leave the West Coast and spend the summer with Yuki in New York. She finds solace in Yuki’s love but as the end of the summer looms closer, she’ll be forced to confront what’s next for her, and for them.
⁣
Honey Girl is a beautiful, tender love story meets coming-of-age. Grace is in her late 20s and after spending years in academia, she's feeling burnt out, disenchanted, and is struggling to know what she wants. She's an authentic character, and her feelings of being lost and unsure of her path will resonate with many readers. This novel also addresses the experiences of marginalized folks in academia. As a biracial Black lesbian, Grace has difficulty finding spaces where she feels safe and valued, and is often treated as being a problem-starter because of her identities. After years of school, she’s questioning whether there’s really a space for her in the world of astronomy. This is such a necessary and important conversation, and I loved seeing it incorporated into a new adult novel.

Honey Girl also explores themes of family. Grace has a strained, complex relationship with each of her parents: her mother is a free spirit who hasn’t always been there for her, while her father is a strict military dad who’s always pushed Grace to be perfect. Her father has pushed her to keep her head down, continue with school, be the best, and get the best job. The pressure is mounting, and Grace is struggling to breathe underneath it all. And more than that, she’s struggling to articulate how she feels and to ask for help. Honey Girl is very much about mental health and how expectations can feel suffocating.
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One of my favorite things about this novel is the deep, meaningful, and intimate friendships that Grace has! Her two roommates, Ximena and Agnes, are a huge part of Grace’s support system, and I love the intimate friendship the three of them have together. Ximena and Agnes are also queer, and I think the relationship between the three women really reflects how valuable found family can be within the queer community. Grace also shares a familial bond with her coworkers at a tea shop, Meera and Raj; I particularly loved the brother-sister relationship between her and Raj.

This is definitely a character-driven story, and it centers primarily around Grace and Yuki. Grace is an incredibly relatable character dealing with anxieties and fears. She’s not sure what’s next for her, and she’s afraid to find out--I think she’s a character that so many readers, especially millennials, will see themselves in. Meanwhile, Yuki is very different from Grace. She knows exactly who she is, and she’s not afraid to ask for what she wants. While Grace’s passion is in the stars, Yuki’s is in stories: she loves myths of creatures and the paranormal. There is a certain whimsy embedded in their characters, which I loved.

The relationship between Grace and Yuki has so much love and beauty written into it. They begin their marriage as near-strangers who have a chance encounter in Las Vegas. They both leave Vegas with each other burrowed into their hearts and minds, and neither is able to forget the other. Yuki gives Grace the space to figure things out, and their relationship blossoms naturally. It’s a marriage that starts out on a whim, but grows into a multi-layered love story.

Honey Girl has an intersectionally diverse cast: Grace is a biracial Black lesbian, her wife Yuki is queer & Japanese-American, and there are a number of supporting characters who are queer & trans, Black, Asian, Latinx, and Indigenous. ⁣Honey Girl also has some valuable mental health rep: Agnes struggles with her mental health and it’s openly discussed throughout the book, and Grace struggles with her own anxiety.

Honey Girl is a love story, but it is definitely not a rom-com. Morgan’s writing is soft, poetic, and lyrical. It’s the kind of writing that is subtle, and seems to sneak up on you and flood you with its beauty before you even realize it's happening. Honey Girl is a slower read that is character and relationship driven, so if you’re a reader who needs a fast-paced, plot-centric novel, this might not be the book for you. But if you love lyrical writing full of gorgeous imagery, and stories that delve deep into relationships and emotions, you’ll adore Honey Girl.