Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Secret Summer Promise by Keah Brown is a debut queer YA summer romance. It deals with all the ups and downs of growing up, friendship, family and love. To have a book with such a diverse rep - especially when it comes to queerness + dissabilies - is truly something I would like to see more. Unfortunately the writing did not match the age of the characters as they were supposed to be 17 but read/acted like 14/15 which made it hard to get into the story and the characters and actually follow the story. It also did not help with the overall storyline - at some point it felt like various scenes got stitched together. So sadly it’s not for me but could very well be for someone who likes a queer summer read with a more middle grade writing style.
TW: ableism, child neglect

Thank you to Hear Our Voices tours and Levine Querido for an arc of this book!

When Andrea makes a Best Summer Ever (BSE) list with her best friend Hailee, she adds a secret item: fall out of love. But it's hard to stop loving someone when they are also your best friend.

This book is so cute! Best friends to lovers. So much friendship not just between the MC & LI but all her amazing friends. I loved that a focus of this book was Andrea's broken friendship with Olivia and how they handled still being in a friend group.

Andrea has such loving and supportive parents and I absolutely love to see it. This book is super light and fluffy and has such a happy ending. I couldn't help but smile through it!

There were a few parts that I thought could have been developed more and some of the writing style felt repetitive, but overall I really enjoyed this one!

CW: abandonment, ableism

I really tried to enjoy this book but I found the main character very immature, and it made it hard to read.

I did like the Black, Asian, queer and disabled rep though.

Thank you, NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

This is a book about a girl who wants to fall out of love with her best friend over the summer but goes about doing it the wrong way. She starts seeing somebody in hopes that it'll help her out, and it ends up causing a whole bunch of problems in her life.

I kept forgetting that these characters were supposed to be juniors and seniors and high school, and kept picturing them as middle schoolers, or early high school age. They tended to act and speak younger than I imagined that they would, including the adults in the book. I enjoyed the plot of the book, but the characters seemed like they were younger than they were, making it hard for me to get into the story.

I also don't enjoy pop culture being mentioned much in books when I read them, and this novel tended to have quite a bit of that. I think that people who like that kind of thing would really enjoy this book because they might see their favorite artists mentioned in it, and I think that they should give it a try.

I liked being able to read a book with the MC having cerebral palsy, but I wish that it had been mentioned a little more. It felt like it was only mentioned a few times throughout the story, and I feel like it would've been nice to be able to have some moments where Andrea struggled, or thrived, with her disability. I haven't read a novel where the MC had cerebral palsy before, and I kind of wish that a little more detail on the disability had been given so that I could have a grasp of what it was, and how it affected her everyday life.

Overall I give this book 3 out of 5 stars, because while I did enjoy it, I'm not sure if it's something that I'd reread in the future.

This is about a girl named Andrea and her list for the best summer ever. She was recovering from surgery for her cerebral palsy last summer so she wants to make the most of this one and she wants to get over her crush on her best friend, Hailee.

I love how supportive her family and friends are. The romance part of the story is cute. It feels like a few characters are just randomly thrown in but, other than that, the cast of characters is pretty good.

I was provided a free copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The perfect YA summer read.

That's the best way to describe this book. Is a really cliche but cute story about finding yourself and realise what being in love means.

The characters were likeable, fun and relatable for a lot of readers, going trough feelings a lot of us felt at some point in our life. The story itself was fun and cute and perfect if you are feeling down and need something that will cheer you up.

It's also a very important book because it allows young girl to see themselves reflected in a story.

A solid 4 starts

Rounded up to 3 stars because I can't help but be intrigued by a queer coming of age book. I did think this book was a little slow to start but I kept going because the description of the book sounded like everything I loved. I loved the disability representation. Once I finished reading I found out that Keah Brown also wrote in Disability Visibility which I loved so extra points there. My main complaint is that it felt like the writing was a little young for them being 17. I liked how close the friendship was to start but it didn't feel super romantic because the writing style being younger than the age bracket in my opinion. All in all was a summer YA read that I would recommend to my young queer girlies who are on their own journey to self acceptance.

Thanks Netgalley for providing a copy of the book in exchange for a review! 

I picked up this book because it struck me as a cute, quick, fun summer read and in some ways it did deliver on those expectations. I loved the friendship dynamic and the MCs loving relationship with her parents. But, the writing was unpolished and distracting in some places and the narration made the MC feel strangely young considering she is supposed to be in her late teens. Some of the descriptive langugage could have been chopped down for more brevity too. I caught myself frequently skimming the pages to get to the substance of the plot. I was close to DNFing, and took a bit longer to get through the story than my typical reading speed.

That said I did feel like the author did a good job at capturing the feeling of having an adolescent crush (and the cringe that is usually involved) and exploring how to navigate those feelings when they are for a close friend. I think the author touched on important topics with this story and brought in some good representation but ultimately the writing distracted me from fully enjoying and immersing myself in the story.

This one was fun and I loved the queer and disability rep so much, but I wish the characters would’ve been 15-ish because they read younger than they were. Still a good book, but one I wanted a deeper connection with in the end.

This was quite cute! What made this stand out was the diverse set of characters.
The story was enjoyable while reading but I didn’t find it particularly memorable.
That being said, I encourage others to try it out! There might be something that stands out to you.

Speaking as a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, its a rite of passage to be madly in love with your friend at some point. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but man oh man do the feels hit you hard. Consequently, this book will hit home for all the folks who can relate to being in love with their friend while amide an exploration of their identity. It was sweet, sad, and heartfelt. A delightful read, the only thing that could have made it better is if I was sitting on a beach while reading it.

This is a joyful, fun and quick read. I really like how diverse the book is; with a disabled bisexual black MC, Andrea, and a Chinese-American wlw love interest, as well as the casual representations of other side characters, some being disabled like Drea herself, and countless other minor characters that are POCs and/or queer just being there and living unapologetically and joyfully.

One thing that I don't really like about this book is the writing. I feel that it is at times too childish and a bit cheesy for a Young Adult book. It could've suited the Middle Grade genre better. Some of the dialogues were unnatural, and there were transitions between paragraphs that felt stilted or too abrupt.

Overall, this is still a nice book, and I hope there are more books with representations and joyous love story like this.

Really wanted to love this one. It sounded so cute and heartwarming. In a way it was, and it was an enjoyable read but I can’t get pass the way the main character sounded so childish for her age.
The whole plot is definitely some that will make you giggle and perhaps relate with but I don’t believe the main audience for this book is me. I recommend it for those who want a nice ya read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

Loved the disability representation! But the characters felt like they were written much younger than they actually were supposed to be for some reason. I kept forgetting that they were all supposed to be around 17 and not like 14...
Despite that the last 30 pages also felt a bit rushed and I would have loved some more cute moments between the new couple.
Still recommend it tho as a cute little summer book about young love with a disabled main character, written by a disabled author!

Cute story with a fun premise, I read it in one night!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

NetGalley. ARC Educator 550974


A wonderful telling of summer. It will have you immersed right along with the characters. The diversity of the characters and handling of disabilities makes this a great read for kids and adults alike. Some may feel it's too juvenile, however I did not.

this was the perfect summer read (although i read it in the spring time). it’s all about the main character making the most of her summer after spending the last one recovering from surgery. she is also coming to terms with her newly realized bisexuality and her crush on her best friend. i thought this story was very cute and perfect for the summertime.

DNF - this is written at a lower YA level than I typically read and I just couldn’t get into it or feel connected to the characters.

**I received a free copy of this eARC from Netgalley for an honest review**

I thought I'd really enjoy this book, because it has all the tropes I love to read about (and some things I experience in my daily life, so it's also relatable): bisexuality, LGBTQIA+ themes, disabilities, forbidden love, etc.

I was super excited to read this cute forbidden love story. However it just missed the mark for me. It was hard to get through, I didn't connect with any of the characters, and I felt myself lacking the sympathy for said characters. I really thought this was a cute idea for a story, but it just wasn't it for me.

A super cute queer YA with amazing queer, diverse and disability representation in its characters. Definitely a book I want to read again on lazy, warm summer days, just chilling somewhere in a park with this book as company. I really enjoyed this read. It's cute, funny, wholesome and being proud of who you are.