it took me a while to relieve finish this book, because some of the scenes are quite scattered, or just juxtaposition of scenes. I know this book was based on the author’s music video so maybe she is trying to do that kind of cut scene type.
I dislike many characters… ugh! I know they are teens and fictional but they just get on my nerves. Gosh! I guess I am that adult who hate teens now.
All in all, not bad for H. Kiyoko for writing a novel. This is her debut novel maybe her next one might be better.
SPECIAL SHOUT OUT! The winner for me here is Coley’s dad.

It's 2006 and Coley has just lost her mom to suicide. She's sent to live with her dad, who she hasn't seen or heard from since she was three. In an effort to make friends, she meets Sonya, and she swears they have a connection that's different... if she could just get Sonya to admit it out loud.

This story is very much a "coming into your own" tale, and I respect that. I requested this book because of the author, and though I enjoyed the core of what the story was, I felt like it could have been written a bit better. However, I will say that the topic of suicide was handled delicately and in a way that was realistic without being gruesome, and I really appreciated that.

CW: suicide, grief, mental illness, homophobia, violence

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books & Netgalley for allowing me to read this book

I received an ARC and I’m leaving an honest review.

Girls Like Girls isn't a perfect book. It's a little cliche and the writing style is very simple, but I still loved it.
The song and its music video were part of my queer awakening when I was 14, and this book is definitely something I wish I also had back then.

I actually thought it was going to have a lot more romance, but I'm really glad we got to also see Coley building a relationship with her father, and making a life for herself.

I honestly wasn’t expecting Sonya to be this toxic, which threw me off in the beginning because she reminded a lot of... someone from my past (bad parental relationships, internalized homophobia, manipulative behaviors...). That comparison was not fun for me...

Coley's daddy issues and their arguments made me cry my eyes out, but I wish we also knew more about the mother, about her struggles and how they ended up in that situation to begin with. It felt like her death was underdeveloped and just glossed over, even though Coley clearly still suffers from it all.

To sum it up, I think the story had a lot of potential and could have been developed a little more (same for the characters), but it was still entertaining, and my younger self is so happy I got to read it.

this book is so nearly perfect!! i really enjoyed the dialogue and writing. it wasn’t too formal, wasn’t too colloquial, just enough to have you invested and coming back for more. while the plot isn’t revolutionary by any means or grande, it is intimate and relatable and real. this book played out like a movie in my head, so vivid and tangible. the characters were annoying sometimes but that’s what made them so real. the discussion of topics in this book can be really hard but i think the way it was handled was really great. i loved Coley’s growth, i was brought to tears several times by her strength. only thing i would change is the ending, i wanted a bit more, maybe to see what happens with Sonya and her family. i understand a bit why it wasn’t included, but i think it would’ve been nice. i’m glad trenton got his comeuppance, that turd 🙄 i definitely recommended if you’re looking for a sapphic romance!

Girls like girls is a small-town sapphic coming of age story between characters Sonya and Coley.

As a companion to the music video we get a more in depth view of everything that went on between Sonya and Coley before the infamous fight scene with Trenton. I loved how realistic both Sonya and Cooley felt as teenagers trying to navigate life with complex feelings.

The book felt very insta-lovey which isn’t my favourite as well as in the end we didn’t really get to see their relationship truly blossom. I would’ve loved to have the book be a few more chapters or have an epilogue where we really get to see Sonya and Coley loving themselves and accepting their identities.

Overall I think this is a quick read and will be a big hit with a lot of people.

TW’s for parental death, suicide, homophobia, underage drinking and drug use

Final Rating: 3.75/5⭐️

DNF @ 30%

I am so sad I did not enjoy this book, as I am a big fan of Hayley Kiyoko's music, but I just don't think I am the target audience for this book. I adored the writing, however, so if you like romance novels I think you'd probably enjoy this, but I had a hard time with the plot and general cliches of the romance genre.

I absolutely adored this book! Girls Like Girls is about Coley. A girl who is forced to move in with her dad in a new town after a loss. Then she meets Sonya and Coley must figure out if friendship and love is worth putting her heart on the line. Based on the song with the same name, Hayley Kiyoko really expands on the music video. This booklet nostalgic, set in the early 2000's with a playlist to match, you were transported into a world that vibrant. full of dancing, kissing on train tracks, and riding bikes down quiet suburban streets. This was also a coming of age, of exploring sexuality and finding out the kind of person you want to be. Coley goes through a lot and i loved seeing her process her emotions and watching her be a teenager. I also really appreciate the relationship with her dad and how it felt so true to age. In my opinion there's nothing better than a book about messy teenage queers living their lives authentically and i thinkHayley Kiyoko did an amazing job of showcasing that. And i also may have cried a few tears for my younger self getting lost in Coley and Sonya's story.

DNF @ 50%

Unfortunately, this was another case of “excellent premise, poor execution.”

I adore Hayley Kiyoko, and when I read the premise for this book, I knew I wanted to read it; I was thrilled to receive an ARC on Netgalley. But almost immediately, I knew this book wasn’t going to be what I hoped.

There were a lot of flaws in the writing that began immediately and never improved, unfortunately. First of all, the main character, Coley, breaks the fourth wall immediately and talks directly to the reader, which is a big pet peeve of mine. In addition, the descriptions were full of showing instead of telling; I couldn’t tell you for certain what these characters look like, what their surroundings are like, or even much of their emotions aside from what we were bluntly told. And the dialogue was really cringey as well; even though these characters are teenagers, the way they spoke to each other just wasn’t realistic.

The characters themselves were pretty one-dimensional as well; they all seemed to be human embodiments of different stereotypes instead of full-fledged, developed human beings.

As for the plot, I was disappointed that there wasn’t much of one. Aside from struggling with her feelings Sonya, there isn’t much else going on beside a bunch of teenagers enjoying their summer. I wanted more from it; I really wanted to feel Coley dealing with the loss of her mom and the complicated emotions that come from that, but that was missing.

I’m disappointed that I didn’t end up enjoying this book, but ultimately, I couldn’t bring myself to finish it when I have a TBR pile full of books I would rather be reading.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Girls Like Girls was a wonderful story of what it's like to be a queer girl growing up in a conservative town. I related so much to Coley and think Kiyoko did a great job portraying the confusion and excitement that comes with your first queer crush. This book creates a space for any reader to feel safe to explore new feelings or to reflect on their own sexuality or coming out journey. I was hooked from the very beginning and only wanted the best for the characters.

I was really excited for this book, but it fell a bit flat for me. Coley knew who she was and what she wanted (kind of) which couldn't be said for the other characters. I liked that this was set in early 2000s kind of time and the nostalgia felt nice. I also liked the interspersed IM posts and I could really feel all the angst. In terms of characters is where I got lost. It felt like no one was fully developed. They also felt one-note and a little too angsty and juvenile for my liking. No one could actually talk about how they were feeling and everyone ended conversations by walking away without actually resolving anything. I also felt like the side characters were annoying. I didn't feel like anyone had any growth really, except Coley and Curtis. Overall, so many things felt rushed and unfinished and I couldn't really tell if it was meant to be a love story or something more contemporary, but to be honest it didn't really feel like either. Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing me with an e-ARC to read and review!

Rainy days are for puppy snuggles and reading under a fuzzy blanket.

Thank you so much to @netgalley for this e-ARC of Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko.

What I loved:

💟 Kiyoko's writing is simply gorgeous. The flow of prose and emotional rawness to her style truly added to the experience of the reader.
💟 Coley is a really well-developed character. I could not help but root for her from the very beginning of this story.
💟 Coley's absentee and now custodial father could have been such a stereotype, and instead serves as a rock and form of support for Coley constantly throughout this story.
💟 Kiyoko does a pretty good job of demonstrating the destructive cycle victims of trauma can fall into when making relationship choices.

What I did not love (spoilers ahead):

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😢 I wanted way more of Faith and less of the secondary "almost" love interest. I think that story thread between Faith and Sonya deserved more time on the page.
😢 75% of this book (literally) is Coley having her heart ripped to pieces over and over again by Sonya and her POS friends. I was happy when the shift went to Coley working on herself. She gained healthy friendships at a job she loved, and started bonding with her dad. I felt like all of Coley's hard work was utterly wasted when she and Sonya got together at the end of this book.
😢 Listen, I will not even begin to understand what it is to live with internalized homophobia, especially as a young teen. I appreciate Kiyoko giving Sonya the space to be messy and figure her life out in her own time. However, I do not believe that having Coley go back to such a toxic relationship at the end of this book sends the desired message to young queer youth. These two girls only get together through an act of complete violence, and I still don't feel Sonya has proven to have grown at all. I worry about what would happen between them in an epilogue to this story.

Girls Like Girls comes out 05/30/23!

I think that this book was just okay. This is Hayley Kiyoko's first book, and it is based on her amazing song and music video of the same name. I love the song and the music video for 'Girls Like Girls', and I was hoping that the book would expand on the beautiful story from the music video. Instead, the book felt both too long and too short at the same time.

I was bored by parts of it, and it felt like the story was really dragging. The ending felt very rushed and very incomplete. The book could benefit from a dual narrator told in third person. It's first person narrated by Coley, but there are chapters with Sonya's live journal entries, emails, and AIM conversations between the two characters. It takes place in 2006, and I enjoyed that aspect of the book.

There were too many side characters in the story. There was the friend group, Coley's dad, Curtis, Coley's coworkers at the restaurant, and others. I didn't feel connected to any of these characters, I wanted to care about them, but because there were so many of them, it was hard to find who to really root for or care about.

I know that the story isn't labeled as a romance, but I expected more of a romance, based on the music video's love story. I think that Coley and Sonya have a toxic friendship that could lead to a toxic relationship. I think that both of them need time to work on themselves before they can be committed to anyone else. Coley is still processing her mother's death, and Sonya is trying to figure out who she is. Sonya is struggling with her feelings for Coley.

The book dealt with a lot of heavy topics, and it could benefit from some lighthearted aspects or characters. The story deals with suicide (off page), abortion, homophobia, internalized homophobia, violence, abusive ex, toxic friendships, and gaslighting.

Overall, I felt like the story was incomplete, but it also dragged at points. I think it would be better if there weren't as many side characters. I would prefer more time spent on Coley's relationship with her father, Curtis. That would be more interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book.

Hayley Kiyoko—well-known singer, "Lemonade Mouth" actress, and “Lesbian Jesus,” as her fans call her—has written her first novel! The novel, "Girls Like Girls," is inspired by her 2015 song of the same name and the song’s music video. I rated it four stars out of five.

Kiyoko’s novel, which will be published May 30, 2023, is a young adult romance set in the early 2000s. In the wake of her mother’s suicide, Coley has just moved to rural Oregon to live with her previously absent father. Soon Coley meets a group of popular teens, including Sonya, who takes a liking to Coley. As the summer stretches on, Coley and Sonya grow close and soon fall for one another, but their burgeoning relationship is met with constant turmoil. Meanwhile, Coley struggles to grieve her mother and reconnect with her father, who she resents for not being there when she was growing up.

It’s always a little nerve wracking reading a book by a celebrity, as you never know what the quality will be. Writing a book is very different from writing a song, and I feared I’d be disappointed in Kiyoko’s debut. I’m very happy to say that Girls Like Girls did not disappoint! This was a great debut and shows that Kiyoko is a genuinely skilled writer who won’t need to rely on her celebrity status for her book to succeed.

While the whole book is well-crafted, I greatly appreciated when Kiyoko’s lyrical abilities shined through in the text. I have a number of quotes highlighted because of how beautiful and relatable they were, from both the romantic and the intensely sad parts of the book. Kiyoko knows how to make you feel!

One of the biggest strengths of "Girls Like Girls" is its pacing (the aspect that is often hardest for new novel writers to grasp, in my opinion). The novel takes place over the course of the summer, which I felt was both an appropriate amount of time to show a developing relationship and its struggles as well as the healing process after a tragedy. Coley’s bond with her father slowly strengthens, and her ability to cope with her mother’s death progresses at a believable pace. I also simply liked that those plotlines were of equal importance to the romantic plot. Within the romance, there was a realistic progression, obstacles that made sense for both the time period and for any relationship, and enough weight was given to the aftermath of the conflicts that arose. All this made for a really solid book!

My primary criticism is, unfortunately, the ending. Without spoiling anything, I think the book took a very conventional route, I just don’t think it actually made the most sense given the characters' emotional journeys. I’m sure many people will be satisfied by it, but it didn’t resonate as much for me as I think a different conclusion would have.

As the book was inspired by a music video, I’ll address the similarities and differences. First, the atmosphere and setting are very similar. The house, pool party, and bike scenes exist in both versions of the story. There are some specific details from the video that show up in the book, too, such as the main character’s choker. Both the music video and the book feature a more reserved main character and her outgoing, popular love interest, as well as an abrasive, pushy boy antagonist. The explosive conflict at the end of the music video happens in the book as well, about equally far into the plot, which is perhaps the one aspect I don’t think was given sufficient time and space to explore its consequences. That, in addition to the part of the ending I alluded to earlier, are the reasons I dropped the book from five stars to four.

The primary difference is that the book fleshes the characters' worlds—both the literal world of their town and their inner world—out much more. It introduces new characters such as the love interest/Sonya’s other friends, the protagonist/Coley’s father, a handful of girls Sonya goes to dance camp with, and various people from around the town that Coley meets, including coworkers. Overall the book is populated with characters who feel real, and who could easily be main characters of their own stories. Another difference is that Coley is Asian while Sonya is white, which is inverted from their actresses in the music video. As Coley is the main character, this allowed Kiyoko to center and go more in depth on her and her protagonist’s identity.

I really enjoyed Kiyoko’s debut and I will absolutely read anything else she may write. Potential readers should be aware that homophobia plays a large part in the plot, which makes sense for the setting, but I understand not everyone wants to read about that. "Girls Like Girls" has other heavy topics as well, including but not limited to mental health and grief, which readers should be aware of before going into it. You do not need to be familiar with Kiyoko’s music to appreciate the book, though I must say I highly recommend her as an artist!

I’d recommend "Girls Like Girls" to anyone looking for a complex and bittersweet sapphic YA novel. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for sending me a free eARC in exchange for an honest review (and for sending it on Valentine’s Day, no less!).

Reviews Posted: April 28, 2023
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This book is what I would call hauntingly beautiful in so many unexpected ways. There were a lot of parts that just absolutely captivated me, like the growth of the main character and the discussions around mental health as a teen. But I do feel that the romance was more of a subplot than anything else.

Coley got on my nerves a little at first, and I think it is because she reminded me of myself when I was in high school. That it can feel like the walls are closing in, and talking about it to literally anyone seems impossible. I enjoyed seeing her grow throughout the book, and by the end, I was defiantly a fan of her. Dealing with mental health as a teen can feel impossible at times I think that was captured perfectly and that the road to getting better isn’t smooth or a straight line. Her interactions with her father throughout the book are what showed this very well.

While the side characters were mostly surface-level, they all did serve an important purpose for Coley’s story. My favorite part of the side characters is that there was a good mix of first impressions that were right and ones that were completely wrong. Because many of us often look back and think did we get one relationship completely right, only to be blindsided by another?

The romance was the weakest part of the story for me. This book was marketed to me as a romance, and I think that is why I was let down. While it is important to Coley’s overall journey, it felt lackluster, and I wasn’t really invested in it. And personally, I did not love how things played out with it.

I think this is a great coming-of-age story of being sure of yourself but also being unsure of yourself in regard to the rest of the world. The romance was bland and lacked chemistry and would have been better served as a side pot rather than trying to make it the main one.

first and foremost, this is a YA novel at heart. i tried to remember that as i read it, but there was so much 2006 cringe that it was hard to enjoy the story.

coley and her father, curtis, move to a small town after her mother died by suicide. after she almost gets hit by a car, a girl just like her comes running out after her. a romance begins.

there is a lot of unresolved grief and trauma in this novel as well as a lot of internalized homophobia. the novel begins with this “i’m not like other girls” monologue, which i hated. there are a lot of private posts and an unsent email of sonya’s that we see that don’t quite feel right with the first person narrative. sonya is just not likable. she’s annoying, she treats coley like shit, and she’s just not a good person. it was hard to root for this toxic relationship.

the one saving grace of this novel is curtis. he obviously loves his daughter and wants to help her in any way possible. he was the only character i actually cared for, and i felt he was always genuine. the other male characters of this novel blend together into one blob.

sj has no reason to be in the novel, and blake only exists to be a bad friend. there’s a very strange comment on abortion that feels out of place and antifeminist. we’re not supposed to like blake because she’s a bad influence. she smokes pot, pierces for cash, and had an abortion. she is painted in such an unbelievably negative light for seemingly no reason.

even though this is a YA novel, i expected a lot more form hayley kiyoko. her prose lacks her poetic and lyrical prowess.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I read this as an arc from Netgalley. THANKKK YOUUUU.
This is more of 4.25.
This book follows Coley moving to Oregon to stay with her dad. She meets Sonya and the story goes on there. I love Coley. My little sweetheart was going through so much in this book. She was dealing with her mother's death, staying with her dad, and experiencing love. I think this book did not really do anything new but nostalgia from the "Girls Like Girls" was WORKINGGGGGG. I would have loved this book when I was younger and I think a lot of teenagers would like this. I think it would make a good series though. Coley really developed through this book and I was cheering her on during this time. I like Sonya and I wish more was done with her. I think I just wanted more of her point of view. I kinda wanted more moments with Alex and Coley. In the little moments that they had, he was a friend that she could lean on. I like that the book was really empathizing with how you do not have to accept people's shitty behaviors.

Such a good book! I really enjoyed it. I always love to a read a wlw book that doesn’t involve death or some other tragedy. Sometimes you just need a cliche romance book. Looooove!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book early!

Like many people, I was obsessed with the storyline in the original music video and how it perfectly depicted the longing queer women often feel. I wished it could have been extended in any way. Reader, our wishes have come true. Hayley Kiyoko perfectly encapsulates the same raw emotions we felt in that music video and the result is a poignant coming of age story that I wished I could have had when I was younger. While, at times, the story showed the strain of being converted into a novel format, overall, I was pleased by the result.

I’m so happy a new generation of queer teens will have access to this book.

I was stoked when I was approved to read this ARC. I’ve been a fan of Hayley Kiyoko’s since her Lemonade Mouth and Disney Channel days. I’m also all for artists expanding their interests and trying something new. But writing is a beast of a task and, unfortunately, one that Kiyoko needs more practice at. From start to finish, this book was rough for numerous reasons.

First, the writing style. It was...a bumpy ride, to say the least. I made numerous notes that the story was telling the reader what was happening, rather than showing it. Much of that was due to the first-person perspective. This story mode is limiting, for the reader only sees the narrator’s thoughts and voice. But it also takes significant crafting and confidence to cultivate the first-person perspective while grounding the reader with concrete details. And that’s what this story was missing: concrete details. While it was clear what Coley was thinking in each moment, there wasn’t much to ground the reader in the moment. Yes, there were light details to give us an idea of what the characters were wearing or what their setting was, but the details didn’t go a step farther to invite emotions and figurative language into the prose.

I can’t help but wonder how much better this novel could have been if it was written in third person and in dual perspective. Coley and Sonya were both clearly struggling to come to terms with their sexuality and attraction toward each other. It would have given Kiyoko the opportunity to foil and mirror the two girls against each other. And it could have opened the novel up to exploring two different routes of girl’s discovering their sexuality.

For a short novel, this has a rather large cast of characters. Which would normally be fine, but all the characters bled together after a while. They all behaved similarly (I.e., they were perpetuating toxic friendships and never expanded beyond their character archetype) and didn’t have differentiating voices (That was a result of the dialogue construction. For the most part, characters talked directly to each other instead of past one another, as normal people typically do.). By the 50% mark, I was desperate for any one of the characters to show a redeemable quality. It was exhausting to read Sonya calling Coley a “bitch” anytime Sonya didn’t like Coley’s reaction to something. Although Coley had a backbone and wasn’t afraid to call people out for their BS, she still had a negative outlook on her life, her experiences, and was, frankly, judgmental toward others. There was a lack of development and self-awareness in all the characters (apart from Curtis and SJ), which made it a rather passive story to read.

If there was one bright point to this novel, it was Curtis. (Honestly, the only character I was rooting for was Curtis and I wish he had received more page time throughout the story.) Kiyoko had great bonding moments and growth moments for Coley as she got to know her dad a little better. Curtis brought dynamics and sincerity to the novel, which was refreshing in the face of the toxic relationships perpetuated everywhere else.

While I did read this novel in less than two hours, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. There are many sensitive topics (see trigger warnings) in this book that are glossed over or used as plot devices to get characters moving through the plot. The writing style and character voices were juvenile, cliché, and perpetuating story archetypes. I was hoping for a groundbreaking novel from an own voices author and, instead, I walked away feeling disappointed.

TW: death of a parent (off page), suicide (off page), toxic friendships, toxic romantic relationship, homophobia, internalized homophobia

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I cannot begin to explain how weird it is to read a book that takes place when you were a teen that’s written now when you’re very much not a teen.

If you’ve seen the music video of the same name (which I have many, many times) this has the same plot: Coley likes Sonya but Sonya has a boyfriend. However the longer they stay together the more Sonya starts to feel the same way about Coley. This is not however a romance. It features romance yes but it has more to deal with Coley coming to terms with her mother’s death by suicide.

This is definitely a book I would recommend not just to queer teens but to anyone.