Wow... it has been a while since reading this genre so I was pleasantly surprised at how freely the characters defined their gender identities and how openly they were represented and allowed to find themselves. It is about time for more diversity. Love it. Heartfelt, witty, and honest.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Ophelia After All https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56978109-ophelia-after-all

As a thank you to Netgalley and the publisher (Recorded Books), I write this review of Racquel Marie’s debut Ophelia After All. As a member of the book community for some time, I have followed Raquel (Rocky)’s momentum and have found her debut delightful. The novel follows a teenage girl named Ophelia Rojas and like any young girl her age has many interests including boys, Cuban food and rose-gardening .She is known as the romantic among her close friends who crushes on as many boys that she becomes acquainted with. However these interests are known is she able to step outside herself and In this space does she find classmate Talia Sanchez, a girl outside her circle of friends who enhances her journey to self-discovery. The audiobook was narrated by Maria Liatis, who lent their voice to become Ophelia, and express their words in full. Their narration was inviting and added to the emotional depth that this novel carried. I enjoyed this novel immensely and give it a strong five out of five stars on goodreads. Please check out the audiobook for it is a solid companion to the novel.

The fact that I came so close to DNF’ing this book makes me angry with myself. The first 5 percent is kind of slow going, because there are so many characters the author needs to introduce with so much history that it can make your head spin, especially if you’re listening instead of reading. However, it’s totally worth it. Because I swear, the author could tell this story a million different times with a million different characters POV, and it would be brand new every single time. Every character felt three dimensional and real. A problem I have with a lot of YA is that the authors can’t create realistic teenagers, but Marie hits the nail on the head. Really excited to see what this author does in the future.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the audiobook.

Ophelia After All is a YA contemporary novel that follows Ophelia as she starts questioning her sexuality during her last year of high school leading up to prom. Her friends and family have always teased her about how “boy-crazy” she was with her endless amount of crushes.
Ophelia starts questioning her sexuality when she develops feelings for Talia Sanchez. Her feelings for Talia confuse her even more when she has always had a vision of a prefect prom with her ex-boyfriend, but instead she finds herself thinking more about Talia. All of Ophelia secrets that she has kept inside start to unravel and she struggles figuring out what they all mean for her and her future.
I loved every second of this book, the characters and all their different backgrounds were so unique. I especially loved the friend group, and the love triangle between Wesley, Sammie, and Lindsay. Wesley especially is one of my favorite characters. I loved how Racquel Marie demonstrated the rep with all of the different characters back grounds and sexuality’s.

A sweet high school love story. I enjoyed the different character dynamics but some of the drama between friends and love triangles were a little unnecessary to me.

This was absolutely stunning! Racquel Marie did such a swell job on bringing these characters to life.

At 25 years of age, and (maybe) not having had the "traditional" high school experience, it's sometimes hard for me to relate to teenagers in YA books, but for some reason this really resonated with me. Mainly because these characters are so well-written. The characters are unique, but relatable and fully fleshed out. The writing in this book is accessible yet doesn't dumb things down. It's YA perfection.

I love this book's representation and themes, and the author perfectly crafted (the beginning of) a journey that I think many queer kinds can relate to.

Finding yourself is a process, you're always changing, always developing. Your sexuality is a part of you, but doesn't define you. Labels don't define you. It's okay you don't know yet what label you'd put on your own sexuality, it's okay to never "pick" one. Your sexuality is defined by your attraction, not your dating history.

Each and every one of these things are messages that will help a lot of teens on their way to figuring who they are.

P.s. I'd like to adopt Wes now please

This deserves more than 5 stars.. its such an impressive, informative, moving, emotional, realist, authentic and honest depiction regarding a subject that so many people are going through, have been through and that others don't understand or choose not to understand.

Everyone needs to read this.. it should be used in schools to educate our young about sexuality in a fun and beautiful way, encouraging them not to be scared of who they, see that everyone is going through the same sort of things and that we can all be a support network for who ever they are or want to be... no one should be hiding or scared to admit who they are.

Firstly ophelia a young botanist enthusiast.. described by her mother as "boy mad" because she's a normal teenage girl who's had a few crushs on a couple of boys.. but now she's battling with other new feelings regarding girls. She's confused!!! And I loved her!!!

This book is set just before graduation with prom just around the corner following a really lovely group of friends
Each character was well thought out and compliments each other. They all have a great story to tell of their very own And i just love how they all intermingle into one tale. And I have so many favourites..
Talia, wes, Sammy, Agatha, ophelias parents (especially mum) to be honest.. all of them are great.

We see how friendship groups combine through dating and growth and how some struggle with this. It's enlightening on the pressures of what the thought of prom can bring.. needing a date, prom king and queen statuses and yes of course the pressures on loosing ones virginity..

This book is diverse and full of truth.

This was such a fun book. A contemporary story written by a fresh voice. I can see Racquel Marie's work and dedication to her debut novel throughout the whole novel.
In terms of writing, it is a debut novel and it target audience tends to be younger, the language used is correct, clear and comprehensive for the audience, it might lean to basics a little for adult audiences, but nothing that steals your attention from the main story the author is trying to get across. However, it is noticeable, mostly attributed to the debut of it all, and that the author might not have her narrative voice defined yet, her style tends to reflect that of her contemporaries, lots of YA influences, but she is in her way to better defined her own voice, and I can't wait to keep reading her works in the future.
The narrator was very good, lively, at times dynamic. Personally, i found her a slightly monotone at times, and i understand audiobook narrator are not voice actors, but I'd love to see a little more range in her performance.
Overall, a great experience, very proud to see this young author establish her name with such a solid debut, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

After "The Song of Achilles", and "The House in the Cerulean Sea", this is now my 3rd favourite LGBTQIA-themed book! If you’re looking for a coming-of-age book which is easy to read and visualise, this is the one!

Ophelia’s character was just what I was expecting her to be when I read the excerpt! She’s fun, lively, has a great personality, and doesn’t shy away from getting to know herself better and those around here. There were moments (chapters 13, 15, 16) when I just wanted to dive into the pages to follow Ophelia’s story closer and moment when she could have used an extra hug (chapters 17, 22).

The writing style also goes hand-in-hand with the story, there aren’t any dead moments or lingering too much on one sequence, it’s just perfect!

Special thanks to NetGalley, RB Media and the author for giving me the opportunity to review the ARC in audiobook format and to you, my reader, for taking the time to read this honest personal book review.

If you are interested in other of my book reviews, make sure to follow me on GoodReads!

#LifeLongLearning #OpheliaAfterAll #NetGalley

"Ophelia After All" is a story of love, heartbreak, family and friendship. It is about the struggles we all face but still tend to overlook. A story of self discovery that I found spectacular and unparalleled. It would be a delightful and pleasant read for every YA reader out there.

In this admirable coming of age YA contemporary, we follow a 17 years old Cuban-Irish teen named Ophelia throughout her journey of self discovery. Ophelia is used to get crushes on every cute boy she comes across to. This happens so frequently that everyone calls her "boy crazy Ophelia". Ophelia has her senior year and senior prom planned since forever. But her plan starts crumbling down when she finds herself falling for a girl named Talia. She surprising discovers that she- "the boy crazy Ophelia"- has a crush on a girl. Add to that the problems in her once solid friend groups are spiraling a little out of control. High School life is full of drama. But what happens when the drama becomes too much to bear. Before Ophelia can even register what's happening, her entire life starts changing before her eyes....

The writing is really good. The prose is tender and accessible. I listened to the audiobook which is absolutely mind blowing. The narrator does an amazing job of bringing lives into the characters. I would highly recommend both the book and the audiobook versions.

"Ophelia After All" is a stunningly gorgeous book about discovering who you are, finding your support systems, and learning to be okay with where you are on your own journey. Ophelia's struggle with finding her identity and coming in terms with her newly discovered sexual felt very genuine. All her life, Ophelia has always ‘fallen in love just a little bit every day with someone new’. To all her family and friends, Ophelia has always been ‘boy crazy Ophelia’, but when Ophelia realises that she has a crush on one of the girls at school, this calls everything she knows about herself into question. Anybody would get frustrated in such situations. So, Ophelia's tanctams and burst offs were understandable.

All the details and inner monologues were very much real and easily relatable. I personally didn't face such troubles with my sexuality. But still I could understand where Olphia was coming from.

The novel is rich in secondary characters, all of whom learn and struggle together in a messy web of teenage friendships. Racquel Marrie tells the story with such love and sympathy that the characters become real. I could actually sense them by my side. It was very very easy to sympathise with them and love them.

Change is inevitable in life. You can't stay the same throughout your whole life. But we have to admit that changes are scary. We all, at some points of our lives, wonder if our loved ones would accept our changes, whether they would love the "new us" all the same. Ophelia After All says with so much gentleness and love - it’s okay to change, it’s okay to be unsure about who you are. The poeple who truly love you will always stay by your side, no matter what.

Other than narrating Ophelia's journey of self discovery, this book explores a lot of different themes of teenage life.The story also focuses on various problematic issues that prevails in our society. The novel offers a heartfelt tale about family, friendship and high school drama.

The friendships and family dynamics portrayed here are wonderful to say the least. The author brilliantly explores the ins and outs of different kinds of relationships. From Ophelia's relation with her parents to her friendship with each of her friends - everything is well done. The way she navigates her friendship troubles is incredibly well written. Disagreements and conflicts are a huge part of these relationships. Racquel bravely portrays them all without any filter. Both the dialogues and inner monologues are so raw and unfiltered that one have to marvel at their originality.

On thing I definitely have to say. This book is surprisingly honest to the high school experience. These days, it pretty hard to find books which present the reality of high school. Reading a realistic high school story once seemed like a dream. Racquel Marie has made our dream comes true. Ophelia After All offers a very genuine approach to the raw, messy and complicated high school life. There are unnecessary quarrels, dreamy crushes, hilarious pranks, cheesy acts, complex love triangles, romance, heartbreaks and many more....

The ending is a bit underwhelming. I don't know what I was expecting but the story just feels unfinished. The ending is a little rushed and sudden. This probably is my only complain about the book. But still it isn't bad. The whole book is way too good to be truth. So, it didn't mind even though the ending wasn't my favourite.

This book made me laugh out loud. This book made me cry. It had me on my toes. It broke me apart then gradually sewed up the broken pieces together again. In a word, reading this book, was an amazing experience.

This book is so important for young queer kids questioning their sexualities at a time with violent homophobia and internalized homophobia. truly loving and accepting yourself is not easy and this book does an excellent job of exploring that.. it tells the story of friendship, first love, first loss and hope. excellent

Ophelia After All is a wonderful YA contemporary coming of age story. The story follows Ophelia, a Cuban-Irish seventeen year old senior in high school. Ophelia and her friend group are still trying to figure out who they are. Ophelia has always been thought of by her group of friends as “boy crazy.” Then, suddenly after making a new girl friend, Ophelia begins experiencing feelings for the girl. Ophelia isn’t sure what to do. Will her friends still like her if she tells them that she may not only like boys? What about her parents? Raquel Marie does an excellent job of portraying Ophelia’s thoughts and feelings as she begins questioning her sexuality. Ophelia’s character is very well developed. She is easily likeable and relatable. I also really enjoyed the bits of Cuban culture sprinkled in throughout the story. Ophelia’s story really resonates with me. I definitely felt very similar to her when I began to realize that I liked girls.

Ophelia’s friends really make this book even more amazing. I wish I had the group of friends she did when I was questioning my own sexuality. Raquel Marie again does not disappoint with her thorough character development. She makes you feel as if Ophelia’s friends are your friends. One friend in particular helps her walk through the questioning faze, providing her with unconditional support. Ophelia explores a plethora of queer labels and thinks about how each might relate to her. However, in the end her friends show her that labels are not important; they still love her no matter what label she decides to choose for herself.

If you are queer or questioning, this book is everything! I think others will also find it informative, especially to help understand what a questioning friend might be going through. I can’t wait to read the next book Raquel Marie comes out with!

✧･ﾟ: * → 𝟱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘀

𝘖𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘢 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘭𝘭 is wonderfully queer coming of age novel with a latina protagonist so I assumed I would like it off the bat. Despite that, this beautifully crafted story exceeded my expectations. I requested the audio ARC on Netgalley due to it's gorgeous cover and interesting premise and got it accepted a while back. I realized that it was coming out soon so I finally got to reading it and I'm so glad I did.

This story follows Ophelia, a questioning Cuban-Irish girl, during her last few months of senior year. We see her struggle with her sexuality after only being seen as "boy crazy." She tries desperately to keep that one faucet of herself the same as the rest of her life changes. This is all a product of her crush on a girl which she didn't know what to do with.

Despite the focus on her and her sexuality, we see a lot more play into her story. We get the merging of two friend groups and the drama that unfolds. I absolutely adore well done friend groups and this was definitely one of those.. The side characters were fun and engaging. We got to see all their different relationships come into play as well. These rationships were very well done, whether they were romantic, platonic, or familial.

Realistic high school stories are hard to find, many stories like these usually just include a bunch of outdated pop culture references. I was pleasantly surprised by how truthful this book was to the high school experience. Ophelia's experience is messy and just so raw.

Overall, my praise doesn't do enough justice to how much I adore this book. Definitely go check out this book if you want a messy coming of age with a plethora of queer characters.

𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣 𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙞𝙣 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read such a wonderful gem of a book. I am at a lost for words. This is the Ya Contemporary that I can see myself reading forever and ever. I am estatoc to add this to my library as well as recommend to others.

This book was refreshing to read. It is also a very needed book.

TLDR: Get this book!

Ophelia after all
By Racquel Marie

Saying this is a Lgbqt+ book is minimalizing the story. A book that shows not only acceptance, and understanding but how hard it is to see yourself change from what is your family and friends expectations. It shows that we are not stagnate but always changing. "Lord know what we are but not what we will be." Hamlet.
It's a great eye opening book of learning who you are, and being honest. Look over personal judgment and accept we are learning.

While Ophelia After All wasn’t quite the cute & wholesome read I wanted it to be it still made for a better than okay read. The in-group drama, avoidable miscommunication, and one too many love triangles detracted from an otherwise compelling coming-of-age. If you are reading this expecting it to be a HEA romance, I recommend you adjust your expectations as Ophelia After All was more focused on Ophelia’s character arc and her coming to terms with her sexuality.
Ophelia Rojas is a Cuban-American teen who is known as the girl with the green thumb and a propensity for crushing on cute boys. The novel follows her during her last year of high school as she has to reckon with ongoing and new drama changing the dynamics of her friendship group and the possibility that she is not solely attracted to cute boys. Cute and shy Talia, the best friend of one of her friends, has caught her eye. Ophelia tries to fight her feelings, fearing the ‘ramifications’ of what this means. How will her friends and parents react if she ceases to be the ‘boy crazy’ girl they know and love? Initially, this line of thinking seems a bit questionable but as the story progresses her anxiety becomes better articulated. People have an idea of who she is, and Ophelia fears the possibility of not being the person they think she is. It was a bit odd that she would truly believe that her friends and parents (whom she is very close to) would see her just in terms of her crushes on guys but I could relate to her apprehension about ‘coming out’ and how that would lead her to make certain assumptions about the people around her.
There are a few ‘key’ events that change the dynamics between the characters. Ophelia and her mother are for a long part of the book at odds with each other after the former does something very uncharacteristic and refuses to tell her mother why (but tells her dad). The guy who causes this was a throwaway one-dimensional bigot who…I mean, he was a bit on the nose (not that people like that do not exist but that he was in a very short scene and managed to tick all of these unsavoury boxes…given that he was a college student it seemed weird that he would be so public about his trash opinions especially since he surrounded by faculty and adults). Ophelia was 100% valid in what she did (the whole being ‘the bigger person’ is overrated if you ask me) but I found her treatment of her mother frustrating. Ragazza mia, just talk to your mum!
In addition to the story’s focus on Ophelia struggling to reconcile herself with her attraction and feelings for Talia the story is also sadly very much about the drama going on in her friendship group. Her neighbour and best friend are in love with another friend. Talia’s best friend, who also happens to be a friend of Ophelia, is in love with that same girl. That girl is portrayed as kind of a bitch but she happens to have a best friend who isn’t (i can’t remember her name but if you’ve read this you know, she’s the most sensible and decent character in this whole book…i wish that she’d been given more page time). Anyhow, things are obviously awkward and tense. I found the miscommunication within their group stupid and not always believable. It also annoyed me that Ophelia called her bf and that girl he is in love with ‘promiscuous’ and implied that this made them less nice than that other guy who is also in love with her.
Still, I loved that we get so many lgbtq+ characters, even if the ‘reveals’ at the end were cheesy (but i am all for it at the same time so there ya go). Some of the discussions around being queer and or part of the lgbtq+ community did feel a bit…patronising? They were vaguely… at one point I felt like I was watching an instructional 101 lgbtq+ video. There was this scene with Ophelia asking this other character why people used ‘queer’ when she heard it was a controversial term and something about it felt very studied. At one point a character starts rattling off different labels and identities and I felt that I was scrolling on the lgbtq+ wiki. The narrative in these sections seemed more intent on being informative and unproblematic than ‘real’.
Some of the characters struck me as one-dimensional, especially the ‘unlikeable’ ones such as Talia’s relatives, Ophelia’s ex and her mother’s dick of a student. I did not find the love polygon interesting and in fact, it was tiring, especially since much of it hinged on a character that is for most of the narrative portrayed as having exclusively bad traits.
Still, I liked that the author didn’t make Ophelia immediately accept her queerness and that her self-denial leads her to make quite a few bad choices. Her treatment of Talia was kind of horrible if you think about it but she owns up to it (which doesn’t cancel out what she did but it results in some solid character growth on her part). I also liked that her mother isn’t depicted as being horrible, which I feared she would be for a good portion of the book. Her talk with Ophelia towards the end was very touching.
I just wish the story had focused less on the drama and fights between Ophelia’s ‘friends’. Her best friend in particular is done a bit of a disservice as his character seems reduced to him taunting his love rival. But I did appreciate how inclusive this group was. I would have liked for them to have more distinctive personalities (rather than a few chosen traits) but it isn’t that kind of novel so it worked all the same.
There were some compelling discussions on Ophelia’s dual heritage and her struggle for self-knowledge in a society that is very either/or in its view of identity and sexuality. I also appreciated that Ophelia dismisses the idea of a monolithic Latin American culture, however, later mentions of her heritage do at times risk doing exactly that.
While some of the discussions did feel a tad too American for my liking in that they simplified certain issues (i can’t explain but if you know you know), I did enjoy Ophelia reflections of Lacan and the nature of desire.
Anyway, although I didn’t quite love Ophelia as a character and I didn't particularly care for her in-group melodrama, Ophelia After All makes for a refreshing YA in that it prioritizes Ophelia’s coming of age over any potential romance she may or may not have along the way (more of this please and less of the ‘i met my OTL in high school’). This story managed to subvert romance conventions which were unexpected in the best way possible. Still, other aspects were more predictable. Similarly to other contemporary YA novels Ophelia After All tries to be more self-aware of the cliches of the ‘teen coming of age’ genre but then they end up incorporating those tropes anyways.

Despite my mixed feelings, I liked Ophelia After All more than not. It has its flaws sure and the tone was a bit juvenile and moralistic at times but I could tell that the author had good intentions and the story she tells does have heart.
I would definitely recommend this to younger audiences and or YA devotees.

"How do you say what you can't explain?...Things may be changing, but this change feels like too much. What happens when you tell the girls who trust and love you that you realized that you sometimes looked at them the way they expect boys do?"-Ophelia After All

Ophelia After All is a beautiful story about a girl who is finding herself in the midst of her senior year of high school. It takes place in the final months of high school, when colleges have been chosen and The Prom is on everyone's minds. Who will be going with who? Ophelia especially wants answers to this question.

Everyone in her life know her for two things, her penchant for gardening and being "boy crazy". But as Ophelia navigates through the last months of her senior year, she has to figure out who she really is, especially as new relationships and friendships bloom like the roses she is so fond of tending to.

The writing in this story really captivated me as we really got a glimpse into Ophelia's brain as she went through the turmoil and struggle of figuring our her identity and desires, her denial, confusion, and fear of rejection, and overall coming to terms with who she is as a person.

Thank you to @netgalley for the Audio ARC of this magical book.

Ophelia Rojas is a senior in high school who has a green thumb with Roses and is known for always having a crush on a boy. Until Ophelia notices Talia, a girl she barely knows in class, in a way she didn't expect. Her feelings make her question what she knows about herself and worry she is no longer the Ophelia her friends and family love.

I was drawn into the story right away by Ophelia's circle of friends. The friend dynamics are well developed in a way that makes it feel like this isn't the first time I met these characters. The narrator of the book really helps to bring the story alive by giving each character distinct voices. Wesley starts as a peripheral character but eventually becomes a character I want to protect at all costs and want more of. Everyone needs a Wesley.

The Journey of Ophelia coming into her sexuality was organic and masterfully handled by the author. It was a beautiful progression that I know will make many LGBTQIA readers feel seen. Ophelia bloomed like her Roses, with love and care. By the end of the book I was crying and dying for more of Ophelia's story. Not to mention wanting to re-read Hamlet. This is a clear five star read because it is a book that I will feel the impact of for a long time and would recommend to everyone.
#opheliaafterall #lgbtqia #fivestarreads
#yabooks #bookstagram #februaryreads #arcs

I think this is a case of a book simply not being for me, which is totally fine. It wasn't badly written by any means and the characters weren't unlikable, but it just didn't speak to me or particularly pull me in. That being said, I *do* think this will speak to kids in high school who are questioning their identity and older people who have already gone through this questioning may see themselves in here.

It's not bad, but I didn't feel strongly about it either way which is why it's a middle of the road book for me.

Ok folks. I loved it. It was SO GOOD. The narrator was great, first off. The story was amazing, second off! It was coming-of-age, it was exploring sexuality (or lack thereof depending on the character), it was exploring friendships, it was Cuban-Irish-American, it was amazing. I loved Ophelia so much. Racquel Marie captured being a teenager so well. Most of the characters were so far from my race, ethnicity, and sexuality but so easily relatable because being a teen is being a teen, no matter what you are. And the friend group, oh my I loved them. Agatha and Lindsay and Sammy and Wes and Zack and Talia!! So diverse, so compassionate, so understanding, even amid jealousies, these friendships were so sweet and believable and genuine. And Ophelia's multi-cultural parents 5 stars to them too. This is a must-read of 2022 and what a debut!!