Amazing, fantastic, emotional, nostalgic, relatable. This book is everything I wish I had growing up as a teen baby gay, but I’m happy to have read it at 30 as a reflection of healing my inner child. It’s a beautiful YA romance with a lot of coming of age emotion.

This book was fine, but felt unfinished. Coley's awkwardness as the new girl in town was palpable. I'd be interested to read more from Kioyoko.

I want to thank the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a digital copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I originally had received a message from the publisher prior to this book's release asking if I would be willing to read and review this book. I'll be honest, I didn't know much about Hayley or the song it was based off of. But 2023-2024 was a year of new authors so I agreed to read and review.

Sadly, this did not make my 2023 reads. But I made it a priority to read during 2024. Before I dive into this review, I am going to try to be as impartial and honest about the story as I can. I say that because I realized that I am not the intended audience for this novel.

The reason I say that is because this book was very much geared towards a younger clientele. The amount of teen angst grated on my nerves. It almost caused me to DNF the book a few times. Coley's whiny personality as well as the insta-love was almost too much for me. I feel like younger readers, teen readers would be able to relate to Coley's thought process more than I was. It was too teen-y for me. I wanted to scream at Coley and some of the other characters for how stupid and immature they were. That's when I realized that I am not the intended audience for this novel.

What I will say is that this book is great about learning to accept yourself. Learning to forgive and to grow. Coley's relationship with her dad, Curtis, was an amazing growth and a great example. We all make mistakes. We are sometimes products of our own doing. But Coley and Curtis's relationship showed that you can be a phoenix from the ashes and find your family. Same with coming out as well. Coley thought that she wouldn't be accepted because of who she loved and how she felt. She hid who she was for a long time. Same with Sonya; Sonya fought hard to stay in the box the world wanted to put her in. The book showed great growth on learning to be who you are on the inside, to love who makes you happy.

A lot of the reason for the low rating is because I am not the intended audience for this novel. It really grated on my nerves at times. The other reason was the writing itself. It was very much on par with a debut author. But I think it also plays into the whole teen angst thing as well as me and not being the intended audience for the novel. There could be someone out there that would really relate to this book and I really hope they find the courage to be true to themselves just like Coley and Sonya did.

hot people love hot people and this book its everything I needed. and more because it was writing by Hayley like this women was just perfect wiring. this book

I thought this was cute for a debut book by artist Hayley Kiyoko who I really love. I think this one was cute and I love me a good sapphic book.

I choose to dnf this book because I didn't like the writing and I was not enjoying it. The dialogue was a little bit cringe too. Thank you.

I really wanted to like this! I love Kiyoko’s music so much, and she clearly knows how to tell a story if you’ve watched her music videos. However, this just isn’t there - dialogue is clunky, plot is predictable, pacing is weird. I can’t wait for Kiyoko’s third book, when I think a lot of the technical critiques will be addressed!

dnf. i didn't get far enough into it to feel as though my feedback would be fair, but i also was not enjoying it enough to continue.

DNF @ 30%

I received this book from NetGalley as an eARC in exchange for a review.

Girls Like Girls follows Coley, a teenager dealing with the loss of her mother as she moves to a new town to live with her estranged father. She befriends Sonya, a popular girl who seems to have it all. As their friendship grows, Coley realizes her feelings for Sonya go beyond friendship.

I rarely dnf books but I could tell this wasn’t going to be something I vibed with. It was just SO cringe and felt so forced for nostalgia. Maybe 2010 me would’ve liked it but 2024 me didn’t.

When I heard this was going to be a book I screamed. My love for Hayley Kiyoko is endless and I've been obsessed since the GLG music video for more content like this. What a fun debut this was!

Thank you to St. Martins Press and Net Galley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I first heard Hayley Kiyoko was writing a book, I was immediately intrigued. Even more so when I heard it was based on her popular song Girls Like Girls.

The music video tells the story of a young girl named Coley who falls in love with her best friend Sonya who she seemingly has been in love with for a while. This book acts as an extended edit of the music video, showing glimpses into Coley's history, when she first met Sonya and how she felt about her and more about Trenton, Sonya's ex.

I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the book more than I thought I would. I enjoyed Hayley's writing style and the characterisation of both Sonya and Coley. I think the setting being the early 2000's really helped with the story and was a nice touch I didn't expect until I started the book.

The only issue that I had was with the almost insta-lovey connection between Sonya and Coley. It felt like the "I saw her and my jaw dropped" sort of thing and I thought to myself that this attraction between them was growing rather quickly.

That being said, even though the attraction between them was immediate, there was a slow burn growing between them and I enjoyed the execution of it. I loved the focus on running away and towards love and who you truly are. I thought that was done really well and I liked the portrayal of self-discovery showcased here. All in all, I enjoyed this book and I'll be excited to see more books from this author.

Love Hayley Kiyoko and love this book! Great story and kept me up all night reading i didn’t want to put it down!

In this emotionally charged Young Adult novel inspired by author Hayley Kiyoko's popular song and music video of the same title, two young women navigate the complexities of love and loss. Seventeen-year-old Coley, grappling with the aftermath of her mother's suicide, collides with fierce Sonya, a wealthy dancer trapped by her own facade of perfection. Despite their undeniable attraction, both girls are haunted by past traumas, wearing masks to shield themselves from pain. Set in the summer of 2006, the story unfolds through Sonya's public and private LiveJournal posts and Coley's introspective first-person narrative, weaving a poignant tale of self-discovery and burgeoning romance. With sharp, poetic prose and nostalgic references to early 2000s music, the novel captures the raw intensity of teenage emotions and the transformative power of love.

I unfortunately did not finish this one - I could not get into it at all and overall was not enjoying at all. Rating 3 stars since I didn't finish, therefore no real critiques to standby.

While Girls Like Girls has the potential to be an engaging sapphic story based off Hayley Kiyoko's iconic music video, it ultimately fell short. I found the plot to be quite basic, but much more importantly, so was the writing. I understand it is the author's debut, but the writing was at best unoriginal, and at worst cringey. The author's sense of humour came through in the writing, and while it felt a bit dated and lacklustre for me, I'm sure it will align with someone.

I Couldn’t get through this because I felt the writing wasn’t that good. I wish there was a more adult version as well. But it is really cool to see the story of the iconic music video written out.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was really hoping that this would be a new favorite. While I did enjoy a lot of it, it sadly didn't live up to those expectations for me. Coley moves in with her father after her mom dies and has to adjust to living without her mother and in a new city. That's when she meets Sonya. The two quickly grow closer together to the point where they start to have romantic feelings.

The story is set in a small town in 2006, which you could definitely tell! There were not a lot of visible queer people, which made it hard for some characters to come to terms with their sexuality. The main character, Coley, seems to be comfortable with her sexuality and the love interest not at all. This is something that still happens. There are people who have fallen in love, but are struggling to come out of the closet. Kiyoko showed those inner struggles and internalized homophobia really well in the pages that were focused more on Sonya.

In the end, I found myself not really rooting for the love interest. I think that they both had a lot of stuff to work through first, before . Even though them not ending up together wouldn't have "fit" in the romance formula, I do think that would have worked better for Coley's growth arc. Now, the ending felt a little rushed, which is unfortunate.

Even though it was a very rocky relationship throughout the book, I did like the parts with Coley and her father. You could really see it develop slowly. I personally think that it was done very realistically, as Coley was grieving and hurting from her loss.

I do hope that Kiyoko continues to write. Even though songwriting and novel writing are two very different things, she has proved to be good at both!

Girls Like Girls was a bit of a letdown, as it was a highly anticipated read of mine. The writing wasn’t bad, which is probably why I kept reading. I just wish some of the things brought up were fleshed out more.

The characters weren’t great. It felt like there was no depth to them. However, I will say that the representation within this book is handled well. There were discussions of mental illness and struggling with sexuality and identity.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this. It felt repetitive and I didn’t like how it ended so abruptly. Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

Girls like Girls follows Coley and partially Sonya (through her live journal posts lmao throwback) as they navigate a summer romance.

Honestly this book did not feel like it was fully ready to be published. It read a bit like the first time you try to write something when you’re in high school Creative Writing class. There were some good parts and lines especially towards the end as Coley finds herself, but for the most part I was skimming HARD.

I didn’t really like any of the characters in this story and the plotline of Coley and Sonya getting back together AFTER MULTIPLE BETRAYALS felt really cheap. Coley deserves waaaaay better than Sonya and I get that Sonya was afraid to admit she liked girls but the way she treated Coley was honestly really cruel.

Overall not worth the time or read mainly because I was angry at the characters majority of the time.

I’ve loved hayley kiyoko for so long so I was very excited I was approved for the arc! Its a cute story and nicely done.