So much of this book was spot on. Keah knows how to write settings. I felt like I was inside this summer: the ice cream, the trips, the sleepovers; I was there. This made the book a fast, enjoyable read. I was happy to escape into this book where nothing catastrophic happened to the marginalized characters.

The language of the characters lost me at times. It felt like they were not acting or speaking their age. The writing felt forced as if no one working on this book has spoken to anyone in this age group lately.

I was happy to review this book as an ARC from Netgalley.

Beautiful, heartfelt, and meaningful. My students will love The Secret Summer Promise. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and will be looking for more by Keah Brown.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This was cute and a quick read, but unfortunately just not for me. I didn't particularly like either the storytelling or the writing. However, it's great to see queer, disabled, people of color in books. More of that please!

Fantastic sapphic book! Definitely for a young adult to middle school audience but wonderful non the less. This is a great book for a young audience because of the representations! It is rare to see queer-disabled characters. This is definitely a young adult teen book despite the critiques from people. I could see my younger self loving such a lovely story and wish this had come out when I was in high school. The characters seem young, but it didn't feel that childish. This is wonderful for a lighthearted romance and coming of age. We definitely need more sweet queer stories.
I can see young sapphic loving this story, and I hope it reaches the audience who will love it!

This was such a cute, feel-good, coming of age story. Although I feel like I’m personally a little to old to be the intended audience of this book, high school me, with my unrequited gay crush on my best friend, would’ve absolutely adored and cried over this book. It’s so incredibly 17 year old closeted queer girl, sometimes a little too much for my taste, with the descriptions of her friends’ day-to-day outfits, but, I as I said, I am 22 and a little too old to fully relate. I love the queer, disabled, black girl joy. I love her disabled friend group and her supportive able-bodied girlies. We need more books with happy endings for queer people, for disabled people, for black people. We need more lighthearted and impactful stories like these being told!

Thank you to NetGalley, Keah Brown, and Levine Querido for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Andrea is the best. She is independent, loyal, passionate, and fun. I loved her development on understanding who her friends and family are, and reconciling old hurts. I think healing friendships is so hopeful and requires work and understanding.

As a disabled Black queer woman Andrea is upheld by a network of amazing friends and family, who are there to support her both physically and emotionally. I loved the family and friends in this book. As a person with a chronic illness, reading all the little ways her friends supported her and accommodated her needs was so refreshing. It wasn’t even a main plot point but it felt appropriately like it was a constant part of her life.

This book is super cute and relatable. Andrea is bi and fell in love with her best friend who she has to fall out of love with to save her friendship. But with miscommunication and a lot of hurt they may ruin their friendship anyways.

Honestly my main issue with this book is just that I hate miscommunication as a plot device. It was done here a lot better than in most books I’ve read, but that trope is so frustrating!

Parent’s guide:
Sex & Nudity: mild
Violence & Gore: mild
Profanity: mild
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: mild
Frightening & Intense Scenes: mild

It's a fun, light read. The characters are adorable, the story remains light and easy. It's really a easy page-turner kind of read. I did really enjoy it.

this book was not for me. the synopsis really drew me into it because it had a bunch of tropes i liked and was going to touch on issues that i have personally dealt with, but i really felt it missed the mark.

the redeeming factor of this book was that the structure was good. the plot was solid and the idea of where the story would go flowed nicely, and occasionally the characters made decisions that i felt were really realistic. however, my main gripe with this book was how it was written. it felt so juvenile, written in the <i>and then i did this, and then i did that</i> sort of style. the characters felt like they were 13-14 instead of the almost adults that they were, but in saying that they were seriously lacking in some of the immaturity that you come to expect reading books about people that age. the only people that made minorly immature decisions was the main love triangle. i would have expected that the friend group would have fought, or had a deeper exploration of the varying degrees of closeness amongst them, but i felt that that was only lightly touched on and for not so good of a reason.

all of the side cast felt like extreme caricatures - the parents especially. it was never really touched on how famous the mother really was or how that affected our mc's life overall. they were only there to provide exactly the right life advice in the most soothing of manners at exactly the right time, and anything that made them feel like they had a bit of a personality was glossed over in favour of the mc using that for herself. the problem with the side cast feeling like caricatures is that the deep inclusion of diversity there at times felt forced. every side character that we met got a full introduction, everything from race to sexuality included, even if they were only on that page and never mentioned again. it just didn't feel genuine or realistic, and a little bit like they were all there for brownie points to tick a box. i should mention here i am disabled (autistic + autoimmune) and queer, in case anyone reading this thinks im saying this because im a conservative or whatever.

finally, the main conflict was solved way too quickly after all this miscommunication buildup. i think it would have been nicer to stretch that conclusion out a little, and deal with the repercussions of that miscommunication in a more elongated way, instead of just whoop we resolved it now everything will go back to the way it was + a little extra.

i do think that this book is for someone out there, and i don't discourage anyone from picking it up. it just wasn't for me.

First, thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC!!

This book is about a 17-year old girl and her group of friends spending their summer doing fun activities. I loved how diverse it was, not just the main characters but also for the side characters. It definitely was a cute summer read and now I can't wait for it to be summer again!

Having said that, I do feel like it was a bit childish at some points. Not just for the characters who are supposed to be 17, almost 18 years, but also the writing. I think it maybe would fit better if this book was marketed for middle graders instead of YA, because it is still a fun book and has great diversity.

This was a cute book, but honestly it felt more like it was more for middle grade readers than young adults.

I did like how the main character dealt with a chronic illness, not a lot of authors will do that unless it’s a “you will learn a lesson from this” type of book.

Honestly I just don’t think I’m the audience for this book. The writing is coming off as very childish and I’m having a hard time getting into the story. Characters are just dumped in with little to no explanation of who they are or how they fit in and it’s very confusing.

I ended up deciding not to continue reading at 15%

Fantastic book!!!
This YA novel centers around Andrea. A 17 year old with Cerebral Palsy, who is determined to have the best summer ever after recovering from a painful surgery.. With the help of her best friend Hallie, they both compile a list of activities to make the summer rock. However, Andrea has ONE big mission this summer , to get over her feelings for Hallie. However, that proves to be no easy task.

As a women with cerebral palsy just like Andrea, it felt great to be able to identify with her physical struggles. All characters in this story were great. It was an easy read and I.highly recommend it to teenagers with any type of disability. A feel good story about courage, family , friendship and embracing your true, authentic , self.

What a lovely summer lgbt romance! I would have loved to read this in high school but I still enjoyed it even at the age of 20! If you like the bucket list trope, a summer setting and some cheesy fun this is definitely the book for you! I also really appreciated the disability rep in this book as the main character has cerebral palsy! I don’t see that often in books and it’s so important to see more of!
Overall what a cute and fun read!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book – it will be released on June 6, 2023. I loved this YA rom-com / coming-of-age story with a disabled and queer protagonist! Andrea and her best friend Hailee come up with a summer to do list – ways to have the best summer ever. Except Hailee doesn’t know that Andrea adds one more secret item to the list – to fall out of love with Hailee. Andrea is sure that she’ll ruin her friendship with Hailee if she confesses her crush, and she’s too afraid to risk it. So when a guy she knows from school asks her out, she figures going out with him will help her fall out of love with her best friend. Of course, this doesn’t go exactly as she plans. I loved that Andrea’s cerebral palsy is part of the story, but in a very real, authentic way – not just as a plot point to check off. Since Keah is disabled herself, this doesn’t surprise me, but I just really appreciated how well done it was!

2.5 stars rounded up.

This book would have worked well as a middle grades book with only a few tweaks. The writing and characterization felt more in line with one--the dialogue needed some edits because i didn't feel like the characters really had their own voices, but overall if i had gone in with a MG mindset i think i would have liked it more. I want youth to have books about queer Black disabled teens, but the execution didn't quite work for me. That said, i would like it in school libraries in case this is the book that someone really connects with.

CW: cerebral palsy, ableism, death of a parent (recounted), child neglect, death of a grandparent (mentioned)

I would like to thank NetGalley and Levine Querido for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Andrea Williams is determined to have the best summer ever. Only thing she needs to worry about is how to get over her long-time crush on her best friend Hailee. Though, after getting the attention of star athlete George, Hailee immediately disapproves and Andrea has to decide on whether to go for what she really wants.

I liked The Secret Summer Promise, but I don’t know if this was the book for me. Specifically, I feel like this might be on the younger side of YA for several reasons. For example, the writing style sounds a lot like a teenager wrote it. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing and it does provide authenticity to Andrea’s story, but I felt like the way some of the dialogue was worded as well as how conflicts resolved in the book were never really addressed shows some of the immaturity one can find in teenagers nowadays. You also get some filler parts that don’t necessarily need to be there, which I wasn’t a fan of. Plus, all the “needing to post every five minutes” trope got old fast.

Brown’s The Secret Summer Promise has great messaging about being disabled and living confidently as yourself. As an #ActuallyAutistic book reviewer, I’m all for more books featuring disabled leads from disabled authors. Though, at times I felt like you only get the superficial aspects about Andrea’s life and I wished that Brown could maybe expand upon the lead’s identity as a disabled person in future books.

Overall, I think this is a good debut from Brown, but I don’t think I’m in the age demographics she’s trying to aim towards. Though, younger YA readers might get more out of it than I did.

I liked this one. I liked the representation of an MC with a disability. I liked the friendships throughout this book. They felt very real and I think teens will be able to relate. Drea's family with super famous parents was kind of just thrown in there, but I did feel that they still made time for her in their lives.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

This book was so hard to rate because although I liked the premise and the story, the characters very much came across as younger than 17. Normally that would bother me but it’s uncommon to have an MC that is diverse and disabled. It’s important to encourage books with unique characters and unique voices. I think this book should include MG as its audience but still could be read by YA fans. I was stuck between 3.5 and 4 because the story was cute but the ending felt a little too rushed and ended a little too neatly. I would still recommend others check it out if you want a cute read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

This is a really sweet YA contemporary romance/coming of age novel, and while I can see where other reviewers are coming from in saying that the main character (and her friends) read younger than 17, I think that there are just some teens in the world who ARE a bit younger-seeming, and that's ok. (And perhaps it's useful to have representation of that?)

This was such a sweet YA story about love, family, disabled life, queer life, art, friendship, trials, and figuring out who you are. I enjoyed it and all the romcom references included throughout, which did not surprise me since I know Keah loves many of the same love stories I do.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

4 stars, review is saved on IG in story highlight ARCReviews @chronically_KD