dnf @ 15%

DNF this book is really really sad for me, because despite not previously had a good experience with the author, I'm a woman who has PCOS and I was very interested in reading a book with this theme, unfortunately Crystal's writing did not It managed to hook me into the book again and I wasn't really liking the protagonist, which is a shame, because I really wanted to like this book.

The Fall of Whit Rivera 5/5⭐️

(Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book!)

I have so much to say. This book is the PERFECT fall read! It’s so cute, cozy, and heartwarming. I just wanted to snuggle up in my blankets and read it in one sitting.

I related a lot to Whit Rivera. She is a perfectionist, she’s passionate, and she loves all the stereotypical things associated with fall! 🎃 Zay, on the other hand, is a laid-back, skater boy. I could not get enough of them! They were hilarious and adorable.

This book also brilliantly incorporates real-world issues into the story in a way that feels genuine and compassionate. Conversations about PCOS, chronic illness, sexuality, fatphobia, identity, and social class are so important for all audiences, especially young adults!

This book is phenomenal! I recommend it if you’re looking for a sweet romance book or some cozy fall vibes. 🤍🍂

BOOK: THE FALL OF WHIT RIVERA
AUTHOR: CRYSTAL MALDONADO
PUB DATE: 10 OCTOBER 2023
REVIEW
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
🍂🍂
THINGS I LIKED
1. The Fall Fest
2. The Author's beautiful writings and descriptions
3. Awareness of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
4. Whit's beautiful lists
5. Whit's wonderful friends and family
6. Isaiah's family
7. Whit's homecoming proposal
🍂🍂
THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE
1. Whit's mentality that everyone is against her because of her body shape and disease condition. Are people really that bad?
2. Hatred of Isaiah that started since middle school, get over it, Whit!
3. The Spanish words that were not translated
🍂
The book was okay for me, but I enjoyed some parts more than others. I think a teenager might like it better than I do

TW: chronic illness, fat phobia, disability awareness, and social class issues.

Whit Rivera is a teenager who is over the top, organized, and a bit of a control freak. She is determined to make her school’s Fall Fest a success! She is super excited for it until she sees her ex-turned-nemesis will be helping her plan it all. You see her work her way through her Senior year of high school and dealing with real life issues such as dealing with a chronic illness, body image issues, sexuality, her Latine identity, her sister’s disability, parent abandonment, and helping her Abuela through some tough times.

I was so excited for the chance to read this! I absolutely adore Crystal Maldonado and her work. Reading Whit Rivera gave me such a heartwarming feeling throughout the entire book (and not just because I love fall). Even through some of the heartbreaking parts, I felt I related so much to Whit and reading this truly felt like you were drinking a PSL on a chilly fall day. I loved it, I loved it so much. If you loved Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, you will DEFINITELY love The Fall of Whit Rivera.

#curlyybookworm #thefallofwhitrivera #arc #netgalley

This young adult book is the perfect Fall read! Our main character recently got diagnosed with PCOS the summer before her senior year, and she's trying to navigate all these changes with her body along with trying to enjoy her last year of high school. Crystal Maldonado did such an amazing job with adding PCOS into a young adult book. I thought it was amazing to see, and handled in such a delicate way, as well as being able to explain this condition throughout the storyline. This book will make you want to visit a pumpkin patch while sipping on a pumpkin spiced latte. I thought it was so fun to see the dedication our main character had to the Fall Fest event for her school. This helped add so much Fall ambiance to the book. I also really enjoyed the family and friendship dynamics that Whitney had in this story. The love story between Whitney and our Male Main Character, Isaiah was so wholesome and sweet! I highly recommend this book for the season! You won't regret it!

This book felt like curling up in a warm blanket with your favorite fall beverage. As a lover of fall, I enjoyed the adorable obsession that Whit has with the season. This book takes place in the fall of Whitney's senior year as she comes off a summer having been diagnosed with PCOS and struggling to feel good in her body living with this chronic illness. I wish I had that kind of representation of chronic illness as a teen. This felt like the part of the book that was so real to me, even as an adult with chronic illness.

The book follows some classic romance and YA structures: new school year, last year of high school and the pressure to enjoy it before graduation and friendships diverge into separate lives, etc, but I think that these structures worked well to set up what is a much more complex story. Whitney is struggling to be honest about her health with her friends, wants to create a perfect Fall Fest for herself and the rest of the school and is dealing with being thrown back into contact with her middle school ex, Isaiah, who she is clearly still attracted to. She is also navigating being a big sister to her neurodivergent little sister Lily who is starting high school while also trying to let her be independent.

This book has so many layers of representation, but they all felt very seamless and part of Whitney's identity as a queer, chronically ill, fat Puerto Rican teen. There were a few times where the dialogue between Whit and her friends didn't feel the most natural and diverged into pretty complex political speak (I work with teens and know how articulate and complex they can be, but even then it felt a little shoehorned). The romance was incredibly sweet and so healthy and I loved that for this character. I also loved the silly, nuanced portrayals of Whitney's relationship with her friends, Sophie and Marisol, and her Abuela and sister Lily, where love and complicated feelings abound.

This is a read that will fly by but that you will want to savor!

The cover of this book is every fall lover's dream. I had high hopes when I started this that it would be one of my fave reads of the year. The writing is superb and very teen. The PCOS rep is something I don't think I've seen in any book before, and I was excited to see something new and different. I love the cultural diversity rep in this as well, and the familial relationships were so heartwarming. It seemed this book was checking all the boxes for me...except one very important box that it didn't check at all. The story was unfortunately boring. I was able to put this down and feel no urgency to pick it back up. And when I did pick it back up, I did not finish the book. I pushed myself farther into this book than I normally would with a book that bored me, hoping that it got better, more exciting, more...something. For me, it just didn't. I can see someone else totally loving it, though. If you like a leisurely-paced love story with all those things I mentioned above, this is the perfect book for you.

I thought the PCOS rep in this was good, and I liked the familial relationships. I did think that the friendships and relationships could have been better developed though. Also, while Whit did make a lot of realizations about not infantilizing Lily, having the special homecoming court positions just for kids in the special education program at the end did still feel kind of infantilizing?

For me, this was very much an instance of the right book at the right time. I needed a book that felt like a warm hug with cosy autumn vibes for an anxiety day spent under my weighted blanket, and this was exactly what I needed. I already want to reread this every autumn, it was just perfect to me. All of the characters are so extremely loveable, and I'd have a hard time picking a favourite. But I adored Whitney, the main character, so much especially. She's so easy to love and empathize with, and I want only the best things for her.

Specific things I loved include, but aren't limited to:
☆ Whitney being allowed to be super girlie in a way people deem "basic" and often look down on, which includes: PSLs, Gilmore Girls, makeup, and so much more.
☆ The way Lily's (Whitney's sister's) autism being introduced in a list of all of her amazing qualities, which was so loving and made my heart swell as an autistic person.
☆ So many queer and BIPOC characters, all represented in such a casual way.
☆ The PCOS rep and seeing Whitney struggling with it but eventually learning to open up to people about it and letting them take care of her.
☆ Whitney's loving family unit of her, her abuela, and her little sister, which filled me with so much warmth.

I could honestly go on, but all I can do is urge you to put this book on your autumn TBRs and find out more for yourself.

This book is the number one book I WISH I had when I was a teenager. Growing up fat as a teenager also going through a PCOS diagnosis, I had no one to turn to. Seeing how Whit deals with this while learning to 0pen up to the people who love her is a story I needed to read. I identify with Whit on so many levels and seeing her get her happily ever after was truly fantastic. I don't really go for young adult romances at this point in my life, but this one made me forget it was even young adult. Sure they're in high school, but there are so many complex issues that the author tackles, it definitely reads as more mature. Not only is this book a great example of fat activism, it also addresses the challenges latinx people face due to institutional racism. This book is definitely geared towards the latinx community, but seriously everyone should read it. I am always trying to widen my understanding of communities of people who don't look like me. Being a well rounded reader only helps in the fight against racism. On a fluffier note, I have never been so jealous reading about an event than I was reading about the homecoming Whit put together. Damn it just sounded magical and put my school gym with crepe streamers homecoming to shame! Overall, this was a great cozy read coming out at the perfect time for anyone who loves fall as much as Whit Rivera does!

The Fall of Whit River is another fun and swoony YA romance and coming of age story from Crystal Maldonado! Ever since I read Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, I knew that Maldonado's stories with have a profound impact on me. For some reason, her words seam to heal so much of my childhood trauma, and I'm forever grateful to her for writing stories about fat brown girls being deserving of love. I related so much to Whit, especially as someone with PCOS. So many of her struggles with this new diagnosis and the way it impacted her life as a teenager reminded me of my own experience. I definitely could have used a book like this when I was a teen. The romance was also sooo cute and I loved watching Zay and Whit slowly reconcile after their "breakup" in middle school. I definitely recommend this book for fans of Crystal Maldonado and YA romances! I'd rate this book 4.5 stars rounded up.

The Fall of Whit Rivera was a cozy romance with a huge helping of pumpkin spice latte. Whit Rivera loves fall and is super hyped for her senior year planning the annual Fall Fest. She wants this to be the best fall fest ever, but over the summer Whit was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome - a syndrome with little research that causes a smattering of side effects due to increased male hormones - from cysts on the ovaries to male pattern hair growth.

When Whit's sort-of ex, Isaiah, becomes her co-pilot as leader of the Fall Fest planning old memories of being ghosted by him in middle school pop up. As they work together each learns that maybe they had the wrong idea of each other and their shared past.

Whit is trying to manage everything. As a planner who values fairness and perfection, Whit may need to start releasing control and learn to adapt to changing circumstances.

The Fall of Whit Rivera by Crystal Maldonado was a perfect book to read at the start of fall season. Whit is an awesome character to empathize with throughout the entire story. She is suffering with a chronic illness and is scared to share even with her best friends in shame of judgement of what they will think or say. Whit throws herself into planning and prepping for the Fall Fest at the High School in which she winds up co-running with her middle school boyfriend, Zay. At first, she is really not thrilled with this development but as time progresses it turns out to be a good thing. This is a must read, the book has love and laughs.

Sobre não saber estar procurando por algo... até encontrá-lo!

Ao menos, essa situação define bem o que foi esse meu primeiro contato com Crystal Maldonado. Conheço o anterior dela por alto, mas esse lançamento me chamou a atenção em especial pelas abordagens de doenças autoimunes, no caso, a síndrome do ovário policístico, com que a protagonista se descobre e precisa aprender a lidar em pleno último ano do ensino médio. Descrita como a mocinha que costuma ter tudo sob controle e anotado em mil planners (amante de papelaria, tudo bom?), Whitney Rivera vai viver um início de ano letivo diferente do habitual e, entre altos e baixos, vai perceber que enfrentar certas batalhas fica mais suportável e leve quando se tem boas companhias ao seu lado e que é preciso abrir mão do controle extremo se quisermos aproveitar de fato alguns momentos.

Já de início, mesmo que não fluindo 100%, me vi querendo abraçar a Whit e colocá-la num potinho. Eu já conhecia sobre PCOS antes, e lido com uma doença autoimune também, então logo reconheci alguns desafios, questionamentos e sentimentos vividos pela personagem tanto ao apenas descrever uma ou outra consulta, como ao descobrir/lidar com um sintoma e todo o estresse em torno disso. Foram cenas descritas e desenvolvidas com tamanha sensibilidade e realidade, principalmente pelo ponto de vista de uma adolescente, e mesmo eu já estando longe dessa faixa etária, consegui me identificar ou, quando não, simplesmente compreender a garota e desejar que coisas assim não existissem.

Em contrapartida, se eu fui de cara na leitura por esse tema de saúde em torno da protagonista, não pense que a história se resume à isso porque tá bem longe! Na verdade, foi uma grata surpresa ver que a autora soube dosar tudo que queria abordar na trama, fosse de temas, fosse de personagens, e outro ponto que me pegou muito positivamente inclusive foram as relações familiares e de amizade da Whit. A dinâmica familiar dela com a avó e a irmã caçula, que é autista, bem como em um ou outro momento com as tias e as menções ao já falecido avô, tudo envolto num grande clima de família latina, de comidas à palavras aqui e ali em espanhol e afins, contribuiu para uma atmosfera aconchegante e acolhedora. E isso só aumentou com os acréscimos das amigas da Whit, Sophie e Marisol, que não foram só amigas no rótulo mas verdadeiras irmãs entre si mesmo, de tão leais, e, claro, com a presença ilustre do nosso mocinho Isaiah que, olha, se tivesse lido esse livro na minha fase mais "leitora cheia de crushes literários", ele ganharia fácil um lugar de destaque na listinha.

Isso nos leva, aliás, a outro ponto que a leitura se mostrou positiva quando a autora, ao lidar com toda a questão da separação antiga da Whit e do Isaiah alguns anos atrás, não usou disso como desculpa para climões pesados ou embaraçosos de forma gratuita ou aleatória. A tensão entre eles ao ter que trabalharem juntos é palpável à princípio, mas é natural a forma como esse gelo todo logo vai derretendo e dando lugar novamente à amizade que eles tinham no passado, levando-nos a acompanhar o nascer gradual e tranquilo de um casal que, antes de sê-lo, porém, soube ser também melhor amigo um do outro e o quão bom essa dinâmica é afinal! É uma graça de acompanhar as interações deles ao longo do livro, mais ainda quando a família dele, então porto-riquenha e também com referências latinas, entra em cena e também me deixou apegada e sorrindo com os diálogos e relações entre pais, filhos e irmãos.

No fim, só não foi mesmo uma leitura cinco estrelas porque tiveram sim um ou outro momentos mais parados logo no início, e um ou outro detalhe particularmente desnecessário para mim aqui e ali, bem como pelo fato do livro não ter um grande enredo, mas, na verdade, isso também não é um ponto realmente negativo. Às vezes, só precisamos de uma leitura que saiba ser leve e cotidiana, com personagens enfrentando questões comuns e sem grandes dramas ou desentendimentos sem sentido - coisa que esse livro também não tem, diálogos aqui foram levados à sério, ainda bem! Se procura um YA leve, mas ainda com uma abordagem coerente e importante sobre síndrome do ovário policístico e um pouco sobre lidar com uma doença autoimune em plena adolescência, mas sem ser resumido à ela, fica a dica!

Whitney Rivera is a stubborn and a bit bossy type-A personality who needs to get everything right, while at first, it drove me a little nuts, you definitely fall in love with Whitney by the end of this book. 'The Fall of Whit Rivera' is a cute YA romance that is the perfect read I needed for this transition of fall we are going through right now. Also, I love the representation we see in this book, Maldonado has really outdone herself, Autism, Latine Culture, LGBTQ+. Plus Size and PCOS! I think remember ever reading a book where the MC has PCOS and has it represented so accurately.

Another thing I love about this book is that while the romance is a big part of it, Whitney has other relationships that stand out and we actually get to see. Maldonado always has a way of creating these relationships between her characters that just suck you in and make you get invested.

A Must have to any fall TBR

Thank you to NetGalley and Holiday House for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Fall of White Rivera was a cozy, fun, Young Adult romance that will make you laugh, giggle, and want a PSL in your hand, The school's annual Fall Fest has always been very important to Whitnety, and for her Senior year- she wants it to be perfect.

While being lighthearted and sweet, this book also covered heavier and more emotional topics throughout as our main character, Whit, struggled with PCOS. I thought the representation of this condition was very important, especially in a YA novel where girls could be experiencing the same thing Whit is and, much like Whit, not really have any answers for it.

I chose my three star rating though because as much as I appreciated the fall atmosphere, the rest of the book fell a little bit flat for me. I felt at times the story/characters lacked depth, and it read as more of a middle grade novel. That being said, I did enjoy the story overall and all of the Fall aspects.

If you're looking for Fall vibes and a good time, then this book is for you!

This book was AMAZING, definitely my favorite read of the month. There was great representation, character development, and gave all the right vibes. I will say that this book's description does not give it justice!! It is about so much more than romance, which I might go as far as saying is more of a subplot than a main focus.

Shortly before the story begins, Whit is diagnosed with PCOS. We get to see her exploring what her new diagnosis means for her and how to manage it. I'm not very familiar with PCOS, but I think the representation was very well done. My FAVORITE part is that her sister is autistic, and it is so well done. Her symptoms are described a little at the beginning, then it's only mentioned a handful of times. No harmful functioning labels are used, and it's such a great realistic representation of the circular spectrum of traits. I loved seeing the subtle ways her special interest was wrapped into the story.

This book has no unnecessary drama. I'm very glad it didn't have the miscommunication trope. It was like there was no backward movement, only subtle but steady character development. Whit even admits her flaws the beginning of the book, and she is such a different person at the end. Even the side characters, who are given great personality and backstory, show some development.

If you're looking for a cozy fall read that has great representation and realistic characters and relationships, this book is for you. I'd say anyone can enjoy it, even ones who don't gravitate toward contemporary, high school, or fluffy romance books.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This YA fall Rom-Com is so good and it is cute, full of cozy autumn vibes. This is the best book to curl up on the couch under your blanket and just read enjoy and get lost into. I loved this. I loved the self positivity that is in this book. 5 star read!!
I just reviewed The Fall of Whit Rivera by Crystal Maldonado. #TheFallofWhitRivera #NetGalley
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Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Crystal did an amazing job with Fat Chance, Charlie Vega and when I heard that she was coming out with a new book, I was jumping for joy! I love fat representation and I loveeeeee that both leads are people of color just like her last book. I love books with a great fall vibe as well so this was so great. Crystal has done it again!

This was a beautiful love letter to all things Fall and found family with excellent disability rep (PCOS) and a wonderful cast of queer positive and neurodiverse secondary characters! I've loved Crystal's other YA books but this is definitely my new fav.

Great on audio and perfect for fans of Talia Hibbert. Whit is a thoroughly relateable character that so many teens will be able to identity with and her ex-friends to lovers second chance romance is completely swoony!!

If you love PSLs, Gilmore Girls and everything Autumn, you do not want to miss this YA romance!! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!!