3.5*s

What I liked: This is a cute, sweet romance with a lot of heart. Protagonist Andrea has a pretty established sense of self and self-worth, although she's maybe not particularly emotionally mature. Her growth and her relationship with Hailee are definitely the highlight of the book.

What I didn't love: ultimately, I didn't care a lot about the conflict that occurred, and tbh I was kind of excited to tag along for the Best Summer Ever list, but it was very much in the background.

Audiobook specific: Tamika Katon-Donegal did an excellent job reading this book. The characters all had unique voices. Listening to the audiobook added a lot to my experience with this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded books for letting me review this book.

Unfortunately, I have to start with that I did not enjoy this book.

I did not like the characters one bit, they felt very juvenile to me (I often read YA and this has rarely been an issue).

Andrea and Hailee had such awful communication skills, it was often difficult for me to continue. I kept on reading because I was hoping that the communication issues would stop.
I felt that the plot was all over the place and the ending was not satisfying at all.

The narrator did a good job with the female voices, but the male voices could've been better as I often could not hear a difference between them.

Andrea and her best friend Hailee have a list with things to do this summer. There's just one item on it Hailee doesn't know: Andrea desperately wants to fall out with her because crushing on your straight best friend is an absolute pain. Annoyingly enough, a bunch of things interfere with their seemingly so perfect summer plans ...
I am a bit on the fence about this one. I definitely enjoyed the plot and I really liked the characters, but I found it a bit annoying that every time one of them appears, which happens a lot, their outfit and hairstyles had to be described. I liked that the narrator did so many different voices for the characters, but I found the one for Hailee really unpleasant to listen to. Nonetheless, it was a cute story and I'm all here for queer romance and main characters with disabilities!

This was a sweet and heartfelt, if not particularly captivating book. As a whole, I think it could have worked a lot better as a middle grade story, from the general actions of the characters and some of the plot in general. Or, at the very least, marketed as younger YA instead of 17-and-18 year olds. The audiobook was pretty enjoyable, although a few of the character voices (though decently distinct) took me out of the story (the LI for example, usually sounded like she was about to cry to me). I appreciated the variety of characters that we saw throughout, and to see a main character not wholly focused on relationships but also her own hobbies and pursuits. Overall, I wish I’d had different expectations going into reading, but I appreciated the audiobook as something to listen to on a long car ride. If you’re looking for something younger with an interesting main character, disabled and queer rep, or some friends-to-lovers trope goodness, this might be a good book to check out!

“The Secret Summer Promise” started off so strong for me, I really loved Drea as the main character and loved her dynamic with Hailee. It story did feel a little juvenile to me, reading more as a 14-15 year old romance than the intended 17 year old. I honestly really loved the dynamic between the two leads, it came very natural as two best friends who are secretly in love with each other.

This story is rich with representation, containing not only diverse side characters, but the main character being a queer, disabled, black woman. Drea’s cerebral palsy was written so well in the way she comes to terms with her disability and allows it to empower her rather than overcome her. I really loved the way the queerness was written, not as if it was something to be ashamed about, but as normal as being straight.

I loved the concept of the ’summer list,’ but wasn’t crazy about the way it was executed. There was hardly any focus on the list and so much more about petty teenage drama that I didn’t really care for. I thought George was an interesting addition, but didn’t like how much focus was placed on him. I would have much preferred Drea and Hailee checking off more of the list together as friends rather than the miscommunication and breaking friendship.

I did really enjoy this book and it’s characters. I’ve been searching for a book that the romance didn’t feel forced with characters you can actually root for and this is definitely one of them! There are definitely changes I would have made, but I overall really liked this one. Thank you so much to NetGalley and RB Media for proving an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 Stars rounded up.

This was such a good book to listen to! The main characters were really good. I absolutely love the narration on this book! Will totally be recommending it to friends that read, thanks to NetGalley and publishing for allowing me to listen and review this book.

This was a really sweet and short summer read!

The Secret Summer Promise by Keah Brown follows our main character Andrea Williams and her group of friends on a mission to have ‘The Best Summer Ever’. After creating the BSE list, Andrea adds a secret 9th task - fall out of love with her best friend Hayley in order to protect their friendship.

I have really mixed feelings towards this novel. I felt the characters were a little young and immature for their age and the constant arguing and miscommunication throughout the book made it difficult to relate or empathise with the characters. However I found a lot of things I loved about the book including the incredible representation as well as the main character’s relationship with her parents. I also enjoyed the narration of the audiobook and felt the narrator did a great job of differentiating between characters.

Overall, I think this is a really important book for young queer people. I would have probably cried if you told younger me that I could read a novel with queer, gender diverse, BIPOC and multiple characters with disabilities all in one book. Although I do think it would be better suited to a younger teen/middle grade audience.

Andrea Williams is 17, has cerebral palsy, and realized she’s bisexual (and in love with her best friend Hailee) just in time for her last summer break of high school.

This book is a delight! I especially love Andrea’s family and community. I’m especially excited that the book allows Andrea to have both queer and disabled communities around her and that that community is made up of characters that feel fleshed out and lived in. This story and its telling feel geared towards young adults but without talking down to readers or trying to sound too “hip”. Even when the decisions the characters make are frustrating, they feel realistic and relatable, and the story balances romance and coming-of-age nicely.

I would recommend this book to diverse readers of young adult fiction.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me an eARC in return for an honest review!

The Secret Summer Promise is a young adult story about Andrea, a bi Black girl with cerebral palsy who has a crush on her best friend Hailee. The book starts out slow and races to a conclusion, but it is in the middle that it really shines. The pacing works there, as Andrea makes mistakes, lies, tells the truth, and works to reconcile with her friend group and continue growing into a person who will make her parents proud. I loved the messiness of the teenage decisions, including Andrea’s to secretly date George, the most popular boy in school. Her friends and family are there for her, challenging and supporting her.

I received an advance review copy of the audiobook from NetGalley.

This was a sweet, angsty friends to lovers sapphic summer romance novel. The big conflict didn't seem to be that deep but the overall plot was compelling enough. I loved the two main characters, especially seeing a disabled lead. I look forward to Brown's other works. The narration was pleasant as well.

This is YA sapphic romance book that will be a fun summer read. The writing style is light-hearted and easy to read, all the relationships in the book are wholesome, and the ending is fluffy and cute. There is a lot of diversity in the book as well, which I appreciate. Black, disabled main character with a Chinese love interest—and both are bisexual! I love it!

This would be a solid four star book if not for my dislike of the conflicts in the book. I've read and enjoyed books where the main character struggles with falling in love with their best friend, but this book doesn't really sell it for me too well. With the kind and supportive environment Drea is in (and the amount of hints Hailee is slapping her in the face with), it doesn't really make sense to me why Drea is so against falling in love with Hailee. I spent an entire half of the book being so, so angry at Drea. Drea's relationship with Olivia is super weird too. They are both so unnecessarily mean towards each other, but somehow they still choose to remain in the same friend circle. It's a little strange to me. George coming into the picture is an interesting conflict in my opinion, but I wish the author could lean a bit more into exploring and understanding Drea's potential internalized homophobia (not sure if that's the right term for it), particularly when Hailee accuses her about choosing George because he's a boy.

Overall, this book is so fun and light-hearted, and I would recommend this for anybody wanting to read a diverse sapphic book with characters you can get mad at.

Thank you Netgalley for the audio ARC of this book!

a lovable YA queer romance just in time for summer! we’re following andrea, who is determined to make this the best summer ever, after spending last summer in bed recovering from surgery. she has a list of things she wants to do to achieve that goal, in addition to one more that no one knows about, falling out of love with her best friend hailee.

i really enjoyed this book, it was pretty fast paced and i flew through it. we see a lot of great representation for disabled and lgbtq characters, we sorta got a little bit of everything and everyone in this book!

as someone with a disability, i loved andrea’s unwillingness to never backdown when someone had something negative to say about her, she really was able to stick up for herself and unapologetically at that!

i will say, at some points in the book, the friend group seemed a bit aged down, some of the tactics and things happening throughout the book did not give almost juniors in high school. on top of that, i wish we spent less time fighting and more time getting to view andrea and hailee’s relationship after getting together, their relationship were just so sweet and i wanted to see just a little more of that

i got to listen to the audiobook and had a great time with it! i especially loved the narrators voice when speaking as Hailee, definitely need to look into more books that they’ve narrated

thank you RB Media and Netgalley for the audio arc of this book!

Unfortunatly, this was a big let down for me.
It didn't feel like the main characters and her friends were 17/18 years old but rather 13. There wasn't much character development or much intrigue. I cringed a lot at all the smiles and laughs described in each chapters.
Andrea suffered "main character" syndrome in my opinion. She has everyone love her, she finds her ex-best friend, finds love with her current best friend and of course wins the contest at the end.
This book lacked deepth for me. Nothing captured me, on the contrary, I felt annoyed at the lack of development in the story, there was so much to work with but despite it's diverse character and disability representation, this was a cliché of all sorts.

If i had read this through a physical copy or ebook, I would have given up quickly.

The narrator was nice to listen to, although there wasn't much distinction between the few males voices, it was clear and easy to understand, even at x3 rate.

I had really high hopes for this one as it sounded like such a fun summer read, however, I am not a fan of the miscommunication trope and miscommunication is essentially the entire plot of this book. There really wasn't a guiding storyline throughout the book, but rather the story moved forward by characters refusing to talk with one another to resolve minor conflicts that turned into much larger ones. This also made it difficult to actually like the characters in this book.

Andrea is the only character we get well-rounded development of while all of the other characters felt very one dimensional. However, Andrea frequently refuses to explain things in detail and have much-needed conversations so I often found her to be frustrating. I also didn't like either of the two people Andrea is involved in a love triangle with as both of them treated her poorly and one person in particular put all the blame on Andrea for something they instigated and then spread information about. In fact, the only characters I actually enjoyed were Andrea's parents as there was a really positive family dynamic represented throughout the book. We're told Andrea is super close with her friend group and then with another friend group introduced later, but the relationships felt very superficial. I actually wish the secondary friend group would have been introduced earlier because they felt more genuine than Andrea's original friend group. I think this book could have benefitted from more time and space dedicated to both character development and also development of relationships between characters.

Another issue I had with this novel is the writing; specifically, the characters were written in a way that felt more like middle grade than YA. I think this was compounded by the over-use of miscommunication and drama because it just made everyone feel even more immature. I frequently had to remind myself that these were supposed to be teenagers nearing the end of high school instead of in middle school. Also, the major conflicts resulting from various miscommunications throughout the novel were too easily wrapped up. This type of writing undercuts the tension and just makes things feel so low-stakes. Additionally, after using this same formula for every aspect of this story it just gets boring and the pointlessness of this circular narrative becomes glaringly obvious. Overall, this novel had a cute and interesting concept, but the execution wasn't good.

This romance book had me on the edge of my seat. I knew from the beginning that it was a romance, but (unfortunately for the mc) nothing was lining up. The ending was heartwarming and wholesome.

The characters did feel a little artificial at times, but it's so difficult to create real characters in works of fiction like this... You did an amazing job.

I think the plot and climax were both wonderful.

Thought the book itself was good but the narration just lacked,

Although the characters well well written i found there was a lack of development, and the first quarter of this book felt super repetitive.

But as far as queer YA books go this one is good,

I hate teenage love!

Now that I got that feeling out the way, I loved this book. Teenagers talk so much without actual talking. This book reminded me out my first so called love and how it can go so wrong.

What I really enjoyed about this book was the diversity amongst the characters. Not just black vs white diversity but socio economic status, physical ability, and sexual orientation. The author did a great job of incorporating all these characters in one without making it a gimmick.

I enjoyed the audiobook and narrator for this YA book. Overall, the narrator did a good job between the different voiceovers. It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't a poor execution either.

The content for the story was entertaining for a middle-grade audience in my opinion and I was invested in making sure the MC was represented and treated fairly. I adored the representation in this YA book. I hope more stories represent these types of characters.

I would have liked more character development.

I rate it 3.5 stars.

This is a coming of age story that has such a diverse cast of characters. The age of the characters are 17, but the verbage and how some of the characters behave make them seem much younger. I loved the storyline and the way you can see the development of the main character, but disliked the predictability of the story.

This YA debut from the creator of the hashtag #disabledandcute was a good ownvoices story about a bisexual teen girl with cerebral palsy who is determined to have a fun, adventurous summer after recovering from a surgery related to her CP.

While I liked the cast of diverse characters and thought the disability rep was great, I thought the friendship/romance relationships were a bit messy and I wasn't particularly rooting for any one couple. More a coming of age story than a romance for me but still good!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!