I feel like I say this all the time but this is the type of book I needed growing up. This was so beautiful & I loved reading about Daya’s journey. The author did an amazing job of making Daya’s life feel real. I truly felt like I knew her, knew her friends (I loved Stella and B'Rad!!!) & I certainly knew her mother.

I want to give a warning however that this book does not have the type of happy ending that you might be expecting. I might not even call it a “happy ending” but rather a “hopeful ending.”

This is not the coming of age story I was expecting. The writing was good and I liked the characters. I wanted to love the story more than I did, but I have to respect the realism the author went for. But when I read a queer story I want the happy ending since I see enough unhappy endings in the real world. Daya knows who she is, but she knows her mother and small town don’t accept that she likes girls. Daya wants to be true to herself, but she is worried about the reactions of people around her. She bumps into a girl at a party and neither of them really belong there. Beckett belongs to the church world and took a purity pact and has a boyfriend. Things with her mother are tense when she tells Daya she is attending church with her, but she sees Beckett and can’t help but want. This was a good book and quick read. I definitely felt for Daya and I was interested in her story. Overall I gave this one 3.5 stars which I rounded up to 4 stars for being a unique story.

I have mixed feelings about "The Redemption of Daya Keane." I think that the writing style just wasn't for me, same with most of the characters. Daya had her good and bad moments, but she just didn't register to me. To me, it felt like she was overly worried about the wrong things, such as how pretty and perfect her crush is, even though we have no context for her perfectness. I also found character descriptions quite lacking, as I can only really recall how Beckett is described, but no one else. I had some issues with the friendship between Daya and Stella. They felt very superficial until the very end. I did really love B'Rad, though. I thought he was a really interesting character and I liked his friendship with Daya and eventually Stella too.

The last thing Daya expected for anyone to ever talk to her at a party is her ultimate crush and church poster girl, Beckett. Not only does Beckett talk to her at a party, but also talking to her more at school. But the church who seems so loving and forgiving, doesn't seem to include people like her.

This was a ride! Daya trying to navigate her life with her mom, her friends, her crush, and her town was definitely something. I love that she got a mix of the best people in her corner, and everyone else that seems against her.

The emotions you feel while reading was truly what makes this book really good. Story-wise, though good. was not something that's new. The cherry on top of this book was B' Rad. I loved his character and even though he's not the main character, he was truly shining.

The book was good, and I love how Daya finds what she was truly hoping for.

Daya knows who she is—and she knows that her small Arizona town will never be fully on board. This is not a town where queer kids thrive; it's a town where conservative Bible culture is thriving and the safest thing to do is keep your head down and submit. To *not* be a girl crushing on other girls—and in particular, to *not* be a girl crushing on the girl who is the poster child for the local megachurch.

I'm drawn to stories of queerness and also stories of religion, and I like intersections in my reading—and, better, I like it when it's not all fire and brimstone, and even the...let's call them 'less sympathetic'...characters are allowed some complexity. Here, although Beckett's parents stay pretty one-note, Daya's mother is interesting—she reminds me a bit of Aunt Ruth in "The Miseducation of Cameron Post": *trying* to do the right thing, but not always able to see that not everybody falls under the same 'right thing'. Or maybe Jeanette Winterson's mother in "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" (who asked the titular question, which...tells you something about her, no?)...in any case, she's trying, but not in a way that is helpful to Daya.

The thing that interests me most about the book is the end, and...well, to avoid spoilers I can't say too much about it. But I'm always glad when a book takes the expected ending and turns it on its head. (This is even more true for YA books, which—partly because of the common emphasis on romance—can start to feel predictable.) "The Redemption of Daya Keane" did not go where I was expecting it to, and although I wouldn't mind a clearer tying up of certain threads (let's call this 3.5 stars), a bit more mess and a bit less predictability than usual makes me a happy reader.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

fantastic story and I loved daya's journey and arc throughout! I did not love the arc of Beckett and its ending but yeah thanks so much for the ARC