The Love Song of Ivy K. Harlowe was a wonderful "new adult" read from a talented author. I appreciate a book where people and relationships are messy and complicated because that reflect real life, the world, etc. It's also so relatable to experience unrequited love that makes us act in incredibly weird, messy, and strange ways. Andie has big 'heart eyes' for her best friend Ivy, and lives with the idea that they will eventually be together in her mind. An unfortunate home fire puts Ivy and Andie in close quarters, but it doesn't end up working the way Andie hopes. As her imagine future also goes up in flames, Andie has to deal with the big emotions watching Ivy's lovelife unfurl right next to her.

One of the author's greatest talents (through her body of work) is the ability to write engaging dialogue and conversations between characters. All too often, authors will filter dialogue so that it fits into what feels "writerly" instead of real. In TLSOIKH, the dialogue is fresh and feels like real conversations between real friends.

Altogether, this is one of those books that I wish had been around when I was younger and in the throes of unrequited love. There is no neat little bow or a cute package, just reality and raw human emotion.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

A charming coming of age story I fell in love with both of the main characters immediately. A beautiful young adult love story I would definitely recommend this to any teenager looking for a beautiful queer love story,

This story did not go the way I expected it to, but it would have been boringly predictable if it had. Andie, Ivy and Dot are such interesting characters, their dynamics change throughout the book as they experience various trials and tribulations. The character development is brilliant, I didn't like Dot to begin with, but she grew on me. Andie is our main character, and we quickly learn that she's hopelessly in love with her best friend, which is a big part of the storyline. Without giving away spoilers, an important character becomes disabled during the events of the book, and there's a character who has Bipolar. I can't speak for the Bipolar rep, but I thought the other disability rep was pretty good. The main friendship group is very queer and includes a polyamorous couple. At times, I felt like not much was happening - especially at the start - but it picked up and I enjoyed the story (even the sad parts, as hard as they were to read).

The story of Ivy, pay very close attention to the title my friends because this is a different kind of love story. Our narrator has a crush on Ivy has every since they became friends when they were younger. But spoiler alert if you think this is the kind of book where the girl gets the girl after professing her love (after a lot of liquid encouragement) you would be sadly mistake like I am. Our narrator details the love story of Ivy from an outsiders looking in kinda prospective. While I was reading this book that made me a little bit furious, but now that I’m on the other side looking at the reading experience as a whole I gotta say that is was actually kinda magical and heartbreaking and touched my soul. And the best part is the narrator didn’t even see someone else was pining after her. I feel like I want another book about her love song now. Overall this was an amazing read and such a beautiful reading experience. If you’re looking for a different kind of sapphic read give this one a try!

This book is not what I thought it was going to be. I don’t want to read about a love story from the perspective of the the jealous unrequited best friend. I’m just not enjoying this perspective at all so I’m DNFing. It was an interesting choice but not for me.

The Love Song of Ivy K. Harlowe, is a gut-wrenching novel. That I myself put down a couple of times of how close it hit to home. The book is about finding your own path and how to live with all the mess that is life.

The cover and title definitely had me curious and I enjoyed some aspects of the story. The relationship between Ivy and Andie was just a bit much and I wish the main character would’ve realized sooner that she deserves so much more.

This book took me entirely by surprise. I was a bit wary going into this, because I was worried that jealousy would take over too much of the book, and at first, that's where it seemed like the book was going. Andie was focused entirely on Ivy, her best friend, and was constantly jealous (and sometimes quite petty) to the people Ivy slept with. But slowly, it became clear that the narrative wasn't going to be about Andie winning Ivy necessarily, but about Andie starting to live for herself, and move on.

As soon as I started seeing these threads of the story come through, the book became more bearable, and I find myself getting more and more tangled up in the web of relationships and friendships Andie's found herself in. I was invested in seeing where Ivy and Dot's relationship would go, despite the sometimes negative lens we see the relationship through. I was even invested in Andie's relationship with Elizabeth, even though it was clear that it wasn't always a two-sided relationship. This book was overall full of drama, but in a good and realistic way, that aligned with the main character being in a relationship while also being unable to get over her best friend.

This book takes a turn for heartbreak somewhere at the end, with all these plot points seeming to come to a peak at the same time. There's suddenly so much going on with everyone, but I thought it was overall really well done, with no particular story taking over. This is where the title of the book really starts to make sense, and I like how the book chooses to close Ivy's love story while keeping Andie's door open for the future. Some of these final chapters were absolutely heart-wrenching, and it's hard to go into details without spoiling, but it's both really hard to read at points while still being beautiful in it depiction of certain events.

The characters in this book are all a bit of a mess in their own ways, but I loved that we got to see the full spectrum of queer emotion in this book, from joy to pain to heartbreak. There's such a diversity in the depictions of love and sex and romance in this book, and it was honestly great to see. There is also a lot of drinking and partying, with some drugs here and there, but the book isn't blind to it nor does it reward this risk-taking, without labelling the entire partying scene as 'bad'. It creates a clear divide between dancing and enjoyment when hanging out with friends and riskier activities that often come along with it, and even after bad things happen, there is still joy to be found in the music and dancing with each other. I also really like how all the characters seemed to grow as the story went on, learning to live with their own choices and the consequences of them as well as just the growth that happens when you're young (since everyone was around 17-21).

Overall, I ended up really enjoying this book (if enjoyment is even the right word... this book broke my heart), and I think it's great to see more books about all-queer casts where not everyone has to be perfect and wonderful. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for other books by this author!

I might be biased because I adore Hannah Moskowitz' other books but I thought this was a beautiful and delicately written story perfect for older teens.

I didn't care for this title. It just didn't capture my interest or drag me into it's world. I was just bored at times and I didn't fall in love with the characters. It just ended up being a really tough read.

One of the few NA books about lesbians. Loved to death the disability rep. Moskowitz is still an amazing author.

I really loved this book. It is the first “new adult” sapphic book I’ve been able to find! The Dot situation was weird but it was interesting.

As an English teacher, I enjoy finding an LGBTQIA+ story geared towards middle and high school students as there is still a big gap in the literature focused on minority groups available at many schools. Additionally, this story tackles disability and chronic illness, so reading this from a dis/lit perspective and analyzing our overtly ableist society was an interesting lens!

This was a unique story. I haven't read a ton of LGBTQ books and I wanted to read a little more so I requested to read this book. Andie has been crushing on Ivy. Ivy is a beautiful mess and also Andie Best friend. It a story of love and coming of age. It definitely has a bunch of adult topics so definitely check those out prior to reading but overall it was a good read and I enjoyed it.

So often, people fall for someone and expect it to work out. What if it doesn't? What if you've never even said anything? What do you do when the person you love, loves someone else?

I really, really loved this. It had my favourite brand of queer characters who are equal parts messy and unsure yet so very relatable, and Moskowitz’s prose was compulsively readable!

There are so many parts of this story that hit close to home, so many quotes where I read them and paused because….damn, I am in this picture and I’m not sure I like it because I felt incredibly seen.

Also, the way the narrative was framed? With the protagonist functioning essentially as a secondary character? THAT WAS SO EFFECTIVE. I LOVED IT. And you know I will always, always be a fan of stories featuring chronic illness/condition rep, written by chronically ill authors. I really appreciated the nuance this perspective is able to bring when exploring characters who become disabled during the story (ie. starting out able-bodied), and the conversations they have—both internally with themselves and externally with their friends and loved ones.

Warning: this review will be kind of spoiler-heavy.

This book was unexpectedly amazing. I mean, it's Hannah Moskowitz so I knew it was going to be good (I've vibed really well with her books in the past) but I didn't quite expect it to be this book. Based on the blurb I thought this book was going to be your typical romance; however, I realized after around 60% of the book that that definitely wasn't going to be the case. I think that's actually the reason why I ended up loving this book so much, like it took something nearly overused and did something unique to it? Anyways, before my ramblings get too long, let's get into the plot of this book.

Andie is your typical 19-year-old, really. She lives on Rhode Island, having just graduated high school the previous spring. She seems to be quite satisfied with her life, but at the same time not really. She works at the front desk at her parents' ethical strip club, goes out to her town's gay club every weekend, is notorious for not pulling anyone ever and is heads-over-heels in live with her best friend, Ivy. Ivy is kind of the opposite, a new girl every night, a tornado of sorts, who somewhat always leaves Andie behind in her debris. Always the center of attention, always just out of reach for Andie. One day, Ivy does the one thing she never does: she falls in love...and not with Andie.

Like I already mentioned I think the reason why I enjoyed this book so massively is that it didn't go where I thought it would, I initially went into this thinking Andie and Ivy would end up together. Instead we got a bittersweet, in my opinion very realistic tale of love and how the people you love the most maybe aren't meant for you. The way this book slowly handled that topic was absolutely beautiful. This is a very interesting take because while this definitely is a love story, it just isn't one about Andie; rather it is told by Andie. I don't know, but I feel like that really resonated with me. How, sometimes, you're not a side-character in a story but rather, it's just not your story. You just happen to live really close to it, happen to experience it, without being part of it.

There was even a quote at the end of the book which pretty much sums up with the book really was about, in my opinion.

"My mom smiles at me. 'This is [Ivy's] story. This big, once-in-a-lifetime love, it's Ivy's story this time. You'll get your own.'
My own.
It's not that I'm the secondary character in my own story.
It's just that this one was never my own."

I definitely enjoyed this book for it's somewhat unique take, for it not turning into your typical love story. As always with this author, I definitely really like the writing. What I definitely haven't mentioned yet, that I too liked a lot, is the characters. In my opinion, they're all 'believable', and all the more major ones are flawed in different ways. For example, Ivy has her reasons but I definitely do not really care for her as a person. She grew on me at the end and she's definitely a much more complicated character than I initially thought. Andie seemed kind of like myself in many regards, which was interesting.

All in all, this book was super readable, with an interesting take on a commonly occuring kind of plot, that didn't go where one would expect it to go. I really liked the characters (A+ for an all-sapphic main cast!) and found the story highly enjoyable. In my opinon, this book is more of a new adult story as opposed to a young adult story, not that it bothered me in the slightest just though I would put it out there!

Honestly, I cannot recommend this book enough if this kind of story is what you're usually interested in.

I didn't love this book, though I didn't dislike it either. It wasn't really for me. Some of what I found confusing is mentioned in other reviews. The narrator is not the main character. Also, we should've know this from the title - Ivy is the main character.

I think ultimately, I didn't like this book because I didn't really like the characters. Or I didn't relate to them. This is a NA book and I am an old adult/parent. I had some issues with the drinking and drugs. (view spoiler) Also, as a monogamous demisexual person I had a hard time relating to the poly highly sexualized activity in the book. This made me judgmental about the characters. But honestly, I understand that is my own stuff and nothing about the book itself.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book. This book is one that I believe a lot of people are not going to be able to read this. The author has listed the content/trigger warnings in the beginning of the book but I will give you the highlights, there's a lot of unorthodox behavior with partying (in not the safe way) and toxic friendships.
There are a ton more intense scenes especially towards the end with panic attacks and post traumatic stress disorder symptoms so if that is something you are not comfortable reading please don't read this.Other than the items listed above, there is a lot of self-discovery when it comes to friendships and relationships with one person impacting someone's life not necessarily in the romantic sense. There's a variety of representation in sexuality and illness which was a pleasant surprise but there were some moments that I did not necessarily agree with but with the story plot the way it was, it definitely fit. Overall, this book is definitely going to stick with me although reading it itself can be a tough experience for emotions and for someone who has difficulty understanding love it can be especially tough. Because of these points, I have to give this book a 4 out of 5 stars