This isn't a coming out story, but it's also not *not* one.

Alana came out as lesbian before senior year, breaking up with her boyfriend Gray who was also her best friend. Nothing changed but also everything changed. Then Alana and Gray meet Tal. Alana experiences her first real Sapphic crush, but her best friend is determined to make Tal his new girlfriend. Don't worry, he has a plan.

This is a very slow book. The last 100 pages are really good, but it takes a while to get there. This is very much about a girl trying to reconcile her new identity with the life she's always known. She's a little codependent but finds her way. It's a solid addition to a queer YA collection.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

I love a good sapphic romance story. This one stands true to that statement. I cried, laughed, giggled, and felt all the emotions. I really did love this book because I related to Alana so much as a young queer girl who really didn’t know who to be queer. I think this book is great for people who are learning to accept themselves and to be able to come out. I really hope all the young girls who read this feel comfortable and accepted even more to come out now.

this was genuinely a heartwarming tale of friendship, love, and queerness. it’s teenagers being teenagers, trying to figure their lives out, a dash of misunderstanding, and the teenage angst shtick. overall, a good read with realistic character development.

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an arc of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

the half of it is one of my favorite movies of all time so you know i was having the time of my life reading this book!! friendship and love was such an important part of this book as well as learning to be your own person and put yourself first when it matters. do yourself a favor a pick this up when it comes out

This was a cute YA queer romance set in high school. I related to a lot of it but got really hung up on Alana calling Gray baby throughout the whole book. I just really hate that as a pet name or anything, it felt uncomfortable and weird because they aren't dating anymore and that is how it was used. However I did like where she stands with Gray at the end, and also her new relationship with Talia.

Don't Let It Break Your Heart by Maggie Horne. Alana had her entire life figured out. Gray was her best friend and boyfriend. They had a semi-decent friend group. They were even going to go to the same college. But then, the summer before their senior year, Alana came out as a lesbian. Fortunately, her life stayed sort of the same. Gray was still her best friend which was what mattered the most, only now their friend group is kinda weird about it. Only now Alana's female friends don't really like being alone with her. Only now Alana is Gray's wingman. But when a cool new girl, Tal, walks into their life, it's not just Gray that meets his dream girl; Alana does, too, and now she has to decide if she'll help Gray win Tal over or if she'll finally let herself step into her queerness and get the girl.
I had a lot of feelings about this book. To be honest with you I hated Alana's friend group, they sucked. Gray, however, was an amazing character. He and Alana were trying so hard to keep everything the same, to keep their friendship intact to the point where they were almost codependent and watching him eventually learn to grow with each other while allowing themselves to find who they are when they aren't "Gray and his girl, Alana," was so bittersweet.
Alana really took a lot out of me. I almost hated her at first but its because she was dealing with the exact thing a lot of queer kids who come out in highschool deal with; the terrifying idea of embracing queerness and the community as a whole. Alana struggled a lot to accept what being queer really meant, whether it was her blatantly ignoring and making excuses for her "friends" homophobic behavior or feeling that gnawing, terrifying abyss in her gut at the first real exposure to the queer community and honestly it was such a real experience that I found myself reading the book more for Alana's growth than anything else. I loved Tal. Tal was amazing and was absolutely what Alana needed to push her into it but the realness of realizing that being queer can feel so alienating that we ourselves try to distance ourselves from it was so raw, even for a coming of age YA story. I ended up liking this book a lot more than I planned to. It made up for exposing me to Alana's horrible friends and I'm glad she got new ones in the end. Definitely a great read, I'm so happy I got this.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

This is a story of self-discovery and learning to blaze your own path in life. Sapphic and just chef's kiss.

This was a great look at friendships and how they can change, and I really enjoyed it! It was diverse and fun, but it also dealt with certain topics in a very nuanced way. I will definitely add this to my recommendation list and reader’s advisory ideas.

I think that I liked the overall plot of this book, especailly the character development, which was very much needed by the main cast (especially Alana, I would have probably actively disliked her if I was in high school with her as a queer person), but I think that some of the more specific details of the book could have been done better. I am not a big fan of when contemporary novels take place in a specific year, as opposed to a more general "present", and I think that I tried to get into that mindset, and then the occasional comment would snap me out of it

i loved this book and i really related to alana's feelings through out the book. i only wish i'd read it when i was younger because it would've helped me more.

thank you netgalley for the e-arc!

I feel seen. Knowing who you are and being who you are, are entirely separated things for a reason. This book has messy drama and characters finding themselves in the best way possible. Gray and Alana’s relationship colliding with who Alana wanted to be with Tal was the realest. Thank you so much for this e-arc Maggie Horne!

Maggie Horne's Don't Let it Break Your Heart is a poignant look at the in-between spaces in queer lives including the mess of navigating closeted and semi-closeted life. Alana is gay, but still attached at the hip with her best friend and ex-boyfriend Ethan Gray, the town golden boy who has their whole life mapped out together including going off to college together after the end of high school. Things are pretty rosy in their close friendship, minus Alana's insecurities about high school social life as a lesbian and staying under the radar of queen bee Olivia, until new girl Tal shows up and Gray starts crushing hard. The problem is, so does Alana, and Gray expects her to be his wingman in his attempts to court her.

At first, I found Alana to be less sympathetic than the lead of Horne's middle grade book, Hazel Hill is Gonna Win this One (my favorite book of 2022) but a lot of that is due to her own internalized homophobia and need to fit in to the school's queen bee hierarchy to make it through–the trainwreck of her first love to Tal, while also hiding it from Gray, is compelling reading especially once the contrast between Alana's life and the lives of other queer teens is placed in stark relief. Alana avoids the queer community for the comforts of her relationship with Gray, but that's unsustainable once she falls for Tal, and especially once Tal begins to reciprocate her feelings. Tal's attempts to introduce Alana to community cause her anxiety as the contrast between the comfortable semi-closeted life she's living and the person is becomes more stark. Alana's choices are at times frustrating, but also completely believable, the more of circumstances are revealed.

Don't Let it Break Your Heart is a queer romance, yes, but even more than that it's a figure-out-who-you-really-are book. After it's revealed that Alana didn't come out, she was outed, a lot of the puzzle-pieces fall into place, including her internalized queerphobia and codependent relationship with Gray. Olivia's "court" with its hierarchies and whisper campaigns will be familiar to many, as will the nothing-to-do-in-this-town drinking parties that are a regular feature of teen social life in the book's small town environment. One of my favorite scenes subverts expectations; where the kind of teacher you expect to do the "giving important life changing advice" doesn't; in fact she tells Alana that teachers really don't care that much about teen social lives (OMG I laughed).

I really loved this book.

Opinions are my own and do not reflect my institution.

This book, my YA dream, is about a friendship that's the most important thing in the world, and a first romantic love that feels so powerful it might blow up that friendship. It's about what it means to be Small Town Queer and the leap between coming out and BEING out. Also, there are scones.

honestly this book had me because of the little gay meme cover, and then had me for the characters. its such a good concept that is some how done well *which is a little shocking to be honest!* but i am so thankful to have read this book, i wish i had the chance to read these types of books growing up as queer. 5/5 stars

I think that I liked the overall plot of this book, especially the character development, which was very much needed by the main cast (especially Alana, I would have probably actively disliked her if I was in high school with her as a queer person), but I think that some of the more specific details of the book could have been done better. I am not a big fan of when contemporary novels take place in a specific year, as opposed to a more general "present", and I think that I tried to get into that mindset, and then the occasional comment would snap me out of it. Other than that, I think that this was a fun read, especially for lesbians who are only friends with straight people. Fortunately for me, I cannot relate to that.

i don’t think i’ll ever recover from this! i think it was done so well, it’s a true masterpiece! i need everyone to read this when it hits the shelves!!

Thank you author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!!

First things first Granny Gray! I can’t stop thinking of her! This book got too relatable. Like when she said she was looking us girls kissing when she was 10…… I needed a minute after that lol. They talk about how they just get candy and hang out in the Walmart parking lot cause there’s nothing to do…. Lol. Separate subject, I hated Logan so much!

Horne does a really good job writing teenage characters that actually read like teenagers! I did not love the ending of this, but I liked it well enough to still really love this book and to recommend it!