Honey is a Y2K nostalgia overload.

For all of us who grew up with Britney, Christina, BSB & N*Sync - this is a great ride.

We follow Amber Young and her rise to stardom from star search to worldwide tours. Isabel Banta shows us the underbelly of the industry with all the PR moves, public image issues and the treatment of women in the entertainment industry. This is definitely in the vein of Taylor Jenkins Reid, or Dawnie Walton - a fictional celebrity story that leans into the history and feel of a place in time.

I thought this was SUCH an easily consumable book, the prose was compelling and the mixed media played into that late 1990s's/early 2000's vibe. I could easily visualize the setting and characters. The only thing stopping this from being a 5 star was that there were a lot of issues brought up that were glossed over. Amber went through so much and I just wanted to get our hooks into the meat of the story a little more; dig a little deeper.

All in all, a highly enjoyable read. The perfect book to read by the pool this summer.

Honey by Isabel Banta
Genre: fiction (probably historical fiction but that feels weird calling something that genre when it took place in the early 2000s 😳😭)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Format: physical

Read this if you like…
💿 early 2000s nostalgia
💿 a peek behind the scenes
💿 multimodal story telling (lyrics, articles, and tabloids are interspersed throughout)
💿 1st person POV
💿 pop stars

This book follows Amber Young, a singer rising to fame during the late 90s and early 2000s. It has all the toxicity of the time - diet culture, objectifying women, not seeing celebrities as real people, tabloids, etc. but we get to experience it through the eyes of a young pop star. You’re going to love and hate some of these characters. I ate this up!

At first, I had to get used to the writing style and was unsure if I was going to be into this. However, I ended up loving the style of storytelling and didn’t want to put this down!

One thing I wish we got more of was Axel and Amber. I’m so happy that they ended up together, however. I feel like he’s the only love interest that saw her for who she truly is.

I also loved Gwen and Amber’s friendship. I’m glad they had each other to lean on. The queer rep and Gwen and Tammy’s relationship felt very accurate for the time as well.

Some moments felt a little choppy and I wanted a little more, but overall I enjoyed this. I think it’s a great debut and I can’t wait to see what this author writes next!

"we are all still-adjusting worlds -- tectonic plates shaking in place, sometimes submerging, pushing up, up, up, only to crumble on the surface."

"it is human nature to fall deeply when there is a wide distance to overcome."

"it is the whispery part of a sleepover, when eyelids are heavy but we battle to hold them up, because this is when intimacy is really braided between girls"

a very fun read if you grew up obsessed with 90s/early 2000s pop princesses. the story was reminiscent of the life of young britney spears and challenges the sexism and odd obsession with young girl's and their sexuality within the music industry and hollywood.

the rise to fame, friendships, and romance were super entertaining but i think the heavy focus on sex overshadowed a lot of potential character/interpersonal development. the story started off really strong and revealed some heavier themes of addiction, ed, etc, but then eventually fell flat or remained unaddressed.

the added interviews, press releases, wiki pages, emails, song lyrics, and magazine quizzes were super cute and i loved the overall nostalgic quality of the story. honestly banta's voice was also really moving and surprisingly beautiful at times, and i found myself underlining and highlighting a ton of sentences simply because they were pretty.

thank you to celadon books, netgalley, and isabel banta for providing me with a digital advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions!

Amber has just received the life changing news that she is going to be joining Cloud9, and move to LA. Not only is she excited for the band, but the opportunity to be among other stars.

It isn’t long before she realized that she is surrounded by people who claim to love her, but wish to exploit her for one reason or another and she must learn that sometimes, one mistake can shatter a career.


I feel like overall, this book tried to do too much. The author took a ton of high-profile issues that have plagued the entertainment industry and just said lets write a book about them all. Because of this, she didn’t really focus on anything at all, and to me it felt disjointed and surface deep. Despite the entire book being dedicated to Amber and her journey, I never got the sense that I truly knew her. I never connected with her in any way at all. It was just oh okay, what horrible thing is going to happen to her next. I was detached and distant, and for me as a reader I want to connect to something. I did enjoy how the mixed media was done throughout the book, that aspect was a lot of fun. And I truly think that this could have been a really great book if it were more focused and succinct.

I think despite not necessarily liking this book, this was good for being a debut.

I was so excited to be a part of Celadon’s Read Together Initiative, which gives readers the opportunity to read the advanced copy and talk about it with other book influencers, *and* get invited to a special virtual book discussion with the author in June!

If you ran home every day after fifth grade to watch TRL, had pop star posters from J14 all over your walls, and you can still taste that vanilla cake batter smackers lipgloss that had a chokehold over all of us, this book may just be for you. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite for me.

Honey had all the ingredients for something I would love (I’m forever stuck in the 90s and I love the nostalgia) but it just fell flat for me. It felt like every topic, every character and every event was touched upon briefly, and before I knew it, the author was moving on to the next thing. As a result, I couldn’t really connect with any of the characters and I was left wanting more.

I think Amber, Savannah, and Gwen were obviously meant to parallel the three big 90s pop stars, Christina, Jessica, and Britney (in that order, I think..), which was kind of fun.. but I had a lot more fun learning about the real journeys in Jessica’s Open Book and Britney’s The Woman in Me than I did with Amber’s fictional story. I didn’t think Amber was particularly likable at all.

I did enjoy the inclusion of interviews, magazine clippings, Wikipedia style blurbs and various other forms of media sprinkled throughout the book… but the lyrics didn’t do anything for me.

This book sounded like it would be right in my wheelhouse as I love the pop music of the late 90s/early 2000s but this book was disappointing. It centers around Amber Young and her journey to fame, but it's unclear what the author is really trying to say. There are obvious parallels with Amber, Savannah, and Gwen to the three big female stars of Christina, Jessica, and Britney, and Banta explores how each one is defined by their individual sexuality. Young never really seems to mind this though, or push back against it. She is a character who doesn't display much agency and it's more like "Yeah, I've had sex. I can be the sexy one." All of the relationships feel forced. I didn't care what happened to anyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for the ARC of Honey by Isabel Banta. Honey is a stunning debut – I absolutely loved it. It's a coming-of-age novel focused on the 90s teen popdom we loved so much. There was so much nostalgia for me wrapped up in this book, paired with a raw exploration of a broad range of topics, including the objectification and unfair portrayal of women and girls in the media, society trying to pit women against each other, double standards for both genders, misogyny, power dynamics, and so much more. The story was interspersed with song lyrics, magazine articles, emails, and the book equivalent to Wikipedia articles (along with Genius annotations) – this added a great dimension to the storytelling, and I loved them! More than anything, I loved Banta's character exploration and development and the journey we went along with Amber (I was rooting for her through it all). The character studies were the best part of the novel, in my opinion, and I absolutely loved how it all came together in the end. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time and highly recommend it. It publishes on June 25 so pre-order and add to your summer reading list now!

This book was ensorcelling. I joined the Celadon buddy read and meant to read a part a week but I literally couldn't stop myself from finishing it right away. This book was profoundly sad- the entire tone, listening to Amber's tone as she details her life and the things she went through in her rise to stardom was bleak at times. I started to look forward to any interactions she had with Gwen, because at least she had someone who was going through life similarly to her. The book felt very Taylor Jenkins Reid coded in the best way possible. It gave me the same feelings I had when I was reading Daisy Jones. As I read through the story I could see just the experience of being a woman overall in the early 2000s and not just necessarily being famous. Banta managed to capture a lot of the preconceived notions of womanhood a lot of us saw in our childhood. By the end I was content with the ending but reading it was really a ride, it definitely felt like a tell-all of the dark sides of the industry.

Honey may just be the best debut I have ever read. This follows a young pop star, Amber Young, on her rise to fame in the early 2000s. I love a good book about a celebrity/celebrities and this delivered. It was very Daisy Jones/Taylor Jenkins Reid-esque in the absolute best way possible. This story thoroughly entertained me and brought me so much joy to read. It low-key reminded me how much fun reading can be. On the same note though this book is written so incredibly and was full of shockingly good prose I did not expect from a debut novel. Like some of these quotes I could get tattooed on my body. All in all, this book was so colorful and fun, but had all the emotions to make it so much more than that. Perfect five stars in my book.

Though it started out a little slow plot-wise, ended up really liking the main character’s development and all of the 90s/early 2000s nostalgia I felt throughout this book.

In the late 90s, Amber Young discovers that pop stardom comes with a hefty cost. It didn't go as deep into certain topics as I would have liked, some weird phrasing (what is a "crystalline bodyguard"?), and I hate the cover (it makes this book look like humor or really salacious), but it's a quick and enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for the ARC! The book will be released on June 25th.

3.5 rounded up

This was a fun read! I enjoyed the inclusion of song lyrics, interviews, and various other forms of media sprinkled throughout the book. I especially enjoyed the “wikepedia” style biography at the end of the book. It summed everything up well.

The story did feel a little disjointed at times. I felt like parts of the timeline could have been better developed, but overall a well thought out and developed story.

I really felt for Amber and her struggles. She had such little support at home to help keep her grounded. The victim of toxic media culture. Definitely an interesting look back at the 2000s pop princesses!

An absolutely mesmerizing, gorgeously written, heartbreakingly beautiful story set in the world of 90s-00s pop music and told through the eyes of pop star hopeful, Amber Young. From the discovery to the auditions, from the scandal to the triumph, the novel shows all sides of Amber's journey and is frank about the early and over-sexualization that these girls face. Everything they do is scrutinized, they're judged for their music, their clothes, their existence! Yet Amber can't imagine being anywhere else - singing is what she loves.

In a book where the Amber's hypersexuality is never far from her mind (or the reader's), the true female friendship made me want to cry. Gwen and Amber are there for one another, ready with encouragement, advice, and love, even in a world where they're in direct competition for survival. Having that support, surviving its tests, gave Amber the confidence to grow and progress from a - not necessarily naive, but definitely young - girl, to a more surefooted artist who knows what she wants from her music and has the determination to go after it.

I devoured this debut novel and truly cannot wait to see what Isabel Banta does next!

I feel a bit torn on a star rating for this novel-- it's probably somewhere between a 3 and 3.5 star read for me. On the one hand, the book is very compelling and readable; I read this in one sitting and I did enjoy it, But the novel was a bit over-written and underdeveloped, imho.

Where the book really succeeded was in making the time-period feel lived, in terms of the experience of being a young woman in the early 2000s. That was a cruel time for us, and, because of that, the novel left me feeling pretty bummed out. It really needed some of the promised 90s pop nostalgia to balance that out, but, unfortunately, the book did not deliver (for me) in that aspect. I also didn't really buy the celebrity aspect for that time-period. The paparazzo/invasions of privacy/bullying/general conversation about the FMC didn't seem relentless enough, especially given some of the circumstances.

Overall, this is a very promising debut. I definitely look forward to reading this author’s work as she continues to hone her writing.

alright, i devoured this nostalgic story of Amber, a rising pop star in the 90's/early 2000s much quicker than i honestly thought i would. it's super easy to eat this book up. as a 90s baby i felt like i was getting a glimpse into Britney Spears and NSYNC and all the other pop stars among them. its quick paced so its easy to read and before you know it, you're 100 pages in.

overall, it lacked a little bit of depth that i would have appreciated because i was already drawn into the storylines. it's like the opening was there, but before it went deeper the story moved to the next thing. but it was a very entertaining book and i'd definitely recommend it!

Celadon Books provided an early galley for review.

The cover and the description are what drew me to this coming of age story. I was not sure what to expect, but I was very curious.

Right away, Banta pulled me into this story. Her writing style has a good balance between the everyday and the poetic. She uses the latter in just the right measure, to add spice to the story when it is needed without overpowering things.

The voice of the main character Amber is therefore very clear, very raw and real. I got an instant sense of a young woman who was desperately seeking attention, acknowledgement, just more. On a level, I recognized this youthful yearning and need; it rung true.

While creating her fictional world of pop music for Amber, Cloud9 and ETA to exist, Banta is completely on point with the real world connections. Star Search, MTV's TRL and the Nickelodeon Teen Choice Awards are all slid into the narrative exactly where they would reside on the real-world timeline. Even the representation of a 2000 online chatroom is done spot-on. I like that kind of attention to detail.

Overall, this novel could appeal to young adult readers or, more likely, their parents who were coming of age in the late 90's and early 2000's where most of the book takes place. It hits a lot of that nostalgia.

Honey was such a lovely read. I so enjoyed the colorful writing which was surprisingly deep at times, and always just really, really pretty.
I relate to Amber so hard. I think every reader could probably categorize themself as an Amber, Gwen, or Savannah. Most of us have probably come across a Wes or two as well.
As someone who was a young girl throughout the bubblegum pop era, it’s always so interesting to me to get a glimpse into the lives of stars (obviously I devoured Cribs and other reality shows back in the day!), even if the glimpse is fiction. With the Y2K revival, I think this book is very timely and will interest Gen Z readers who love the era and millennials & Gen X who lived it.
Overall, the story remains fairly surface-level, detailing Amber’s life, friendships, romantic relationships, trials, and successes. I think it could have been a bit edgier and packed a harder punch if it dove deeper into any of the touchy subjects it glazes over: the patriarchal and predatory entertainment industry, abortion, homophobia, strained parental relationships, etc. Instead, it’s more like a memoir, which is absolutely fine.
Still, I cherished this read and would definitely recommend it to my circle. I’m really impressed that this is the author’s debut. The writing really was beautiful and I lapped up every bit of prose!

Honey is a mesmerizing and intimate re-imagining of the pop star/boy band craze of the early 90’s and 00’s. Told from the perspective of Amber, a Britney/Jessica/Christina-type hopeful thrust into the cut-throat world of pop music, it hits culture right before streaming and reality tv when fans couldn’t get enough of the real-life sagas of their favorite stars.

Banta’s writing here is deep and insightful offering us a window into the toxic and often over-sexualized world of recording companies, media frenzy and fan expectations. It’s clear that recent memoirs by famous stars of this period greatly influenced the storyline and I loved that I kept forgetting that this was fiction.

The evolution of Amber from young ingenue to seasoned professional was my favorite part of the story. There’s a hypersexuality to her that is both refreshing and off-putting at times, but integral to her character. In an industry that defined her worth by her sexual charisma (as a pre-teen!!) it didn’t feel strange that she thought about it so much.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and read it all in one sitting. I can’t believe this is a debut novel and look forward to seeing what Isabel Banta gives us next!

Thank you to Celadon Books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The story of Amber a young girl who dreams of being a singer. She’s always felt self conscious and like she doesn’t belong. Music is something that makes her feel like she belongs and that there’s beauty in the world. The story was wonderfully written. You get all that 90’s early 2000s pop nostalgia. Amber’s music career is a difficult one especially once she starts exploring her sexuality and becoming more comfortable in herself. There’s so much character growth on her part, and I’m so glad that she found her true self after so many trials. And that once she found confidence in herself she met the right person.
Her relationship with Wes was a complicated one and I felt like at the end he did not have much character growth. It seemed like he was stuck in the past. A really good story and I loved the friendship between Amber and Gwen. While there were many difficult moments their friendship grew stronger and they were always each other’s biggest supporters.

Fast paced and bingeable, I read this in an afternoon! This is the story of Amber Young who receives the rare opportunity to join a pop music girl group called Cloud9. Every young girl’s dream, right? Who didn’t sing along to their favorite band, in their bedroom, using a hairbrush for a microphone? In so many ways, this coming of age story was completely relatable. But it was also heartbreaking as we follow Amber while she navigates the jungle of rising fame. It’s not always glamorous for sure! This book contains many complex and disturbing themes surrounding females in the spotlight and notably young and determined future starlets. This will make a great beach read this summer! Thank you Netgalley, Celadon Books and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on June 25, 2024