A YA romance where I actually believed in their love! What is this sorcery?

We have a dual POV: Danni, a new scholarship student, and Rose, the crown princess of Henland, a European monarchy that obviously doesn't exist in real life. Rose is a surprisingly complex character with a fulfilling arc of acknowledging grief, repairing relationships, and self-acceptance/responsibility. Danni is also very likable (her arc also has to do with self-acceptance and gaining confidence), but Rose is the standout character to me. I didn't think I'd like a member of royalty so much! The side characters themselves have surprising depth, even the more villainous ones.

I was expecting a silly royal/commoner YA sapphic romcom. This ended up being a lot more serious than that and not very comedic at all. There are some heavy topics: grief from the overdose death of a friend, forced outing, social media bullying, betrayal, social inequality. The forced outing in particular was very painful to me as a reader. I will say... Would the press really care about a high school girl being bi, even if she is a friend of the princess? Henland is very England-coded to me, minus the Catholicism, so them being so homophobic felt strange.

The moral of this story is COMMUNICATION! I loved how all conflicts were resolved with clear, honest conversations. More of that in fiction and reality!

This was a highly enjoyable read. I got through it in one day and had a great time!

The writing was pretty good and the characters had distinct POV voices which is important to me in first person present tense writing. I also just really liked the characters and their development, especially Rose's. I love a snobby lesbian princess, sue me.
I thought for a romance book, the exploration of grief and mental health was quite good. Again, Rose's development was great. I also thought the mending of friendships and relationships was realistic, but also heartwarming.
The plot was fun, though it felt a little rushed at times... but maybe that was just me and my love for slow burn. I did feel like Molly and Danni's friendship could have used more development. I thought they had a great friendship (I need a Molly in my life), but I wish I had more scenes of their early friendship because this was as much a book about friendship as romance (in my opinion).

This book is getting four stars for being a fun, well-thought out read, but not knocking my socks off. I'm picky with my five stars, okay?
I would totally recommend if you're considering getting it.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

I read this so fast and I enjoyed it, I think this is the first YA romance that's not a fantasy that I've read in a while. I requested this arc because I love the cover and I think the plot is just as cute. Both of the fmcs here attend the same school though one of them is a princess and the other is a scholarship student. The princess fmc is kind of a rebel that has to rehabilitate her image while the other is a pianist and immigrant from the US.

There was a lot of tension in this book not only with the romance element but also with the royal image and one of the fmc having not come out yet and the other having come out to a select group of people. I thought the romance was cute and realistic, especially for teenagers, and felt bad for one of the characters, especially with the back story and being misunderstood. Overall this was a good read with well-developed characters and plot. Thanks to Wednesday Books for the arc.

Thank you Sophie Gonzales for allowing me to be part of your street team! Thanks Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the eARC, these opinions are my own. I am so happy to add to my Sophie Gonzales collection, I swear every book is gold! Danni just moved to Henland after her mom got married. She’s in a new country but it does give her a chance to attend the prestigious Bramppath College, known for producing musical prodigies. It also means attending school with Princess Rosemary, though Danni can’t imagine they’ll interact. Rose had spent the last few months trying to repair her image from that night in Amsterdam. The pressure of being a Princess is rough, especially being a lesbian princess. Not that anyone knows she’s a lesbian aside from her parents and some staff. Rose knows she’ll have to keep that part of her life private for the rest of her life but that’s just the way it is right? Rose and Danni first cross paths at a friend, Molly’s pre-school party. Though Rose and Molly seem to have a lot of tension in their relationship and Rose can’t figure out why. Danni met Molly on her school tour. There’s an instant connection when Rose and Danni meet though neither can figure it out. It only grows as they spend more time together. Dani’s bi but she has only told a friend back home. As their connection grows they’ll have to keep their relationship secret. But as the news and anonymous social media posts start to zero in on their relationship things will become difficult. Can their relationship last? Will they be able to keep the secrets of their sexuality? Will Rose be able to fix her relationship with Molly? And what exactly happened in Amsterdam and why does no one talk about it? A heartfelt story of love and friendship that will have you in all the feels! A definite page turner! A sapphic rom com with a touch of mystery, secrets, betrayal, and grief and finding one’s inner strength! The characters are deep and relatable and if you’re like me you’ll just want to hug them all! I can already tell this is going to be a top read for 2025!

Such a cute and clever book with a unique premise. I really loved the contemporart royal romance and was drawn into Danni and Rose's journey, especially since their chemistry seemed to ecplode off the page. I love that about Sophie Gonzales' books!

Everybody say thank you Sophie Gonzales for delivering the sapphic YA royal romance of our dreams! NOBODY IN PARTICULAR is such a stunning coming-of-age story about love, hope, hurt, and yearning (seriously: so! much! yearning!!). It is totally obsess-worthy, and I can’t wait for everyone to feel that!!

royalty belongs to the gays 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️ exactlyyyyyyy

In this book we’re following Rose (the princess of a small country) and Danni (an immigrant who got accepted into the prestigious boarding school Rose attends). There, Rose and Danni strike a friendship and (shocker) fall for each other.



I’ll start by saying I really enjoyed the characters! Sophie Gonzales is great at creating characters, so I’m not surprised I really enjoyed both MCs’ POVs.

Danni was a fish out of water, being in a new country, a new school, and a completely different type of environment (she’d never attended a boarding school + being surrounded by millionaire VIPs is a lot lol). She accommodated pretty quickly, though. Additionally, Danni was also dealing with her stage fright, and, later in the story she falls back on the whole ~people are mocking and being fake-nice to me~ mentality, since she’d been bullied at her previous school. Through it all, Danni managed to be pretty mature for her age, which I enjoyed.

Rose is very self-assured, witty and sarcastic, and I really liked following her. She’s still dealing with some pretty heavy stuff, though, particularly the fact that she’s expected to stay in the closet forever, marry a man and birth children, which she (a lesbian) obviously doesn’t want. However, the most compelling conflict in Rose’s life, in my opinion, has to do with her relationship with her ex-friend Molly. We can see early on that Rose is very clearly suppressing her feelings so she doesn’t have to deal with the grief and trauma she went through, which dampens her friendship with Molly.

I reeeeally liked slowly uncovering what went on between them that made Molly start disliking Rose, and I thought the whole thing was SO WELL DONE!!! 👏🏻 And I really liked that they talked through everything that happened and explained their feelings. I just really liked this conflict and its resolution. Probably my favourite aspect of this whole book!

And I overall REALLY liked Molly! She was so interesting and mature, and I absolutely LOVE that she was an integral part of the story, and was important for both Danni and Rose. One of the best uses of side characters I’ve seen! I enjoyed the other SCs as well! Eleanor was a nice supporting character, and I appreciate that she was friends with both MCs; Alfie was also an interesting character, and I liked that he had thought-out justifications for his actions (even if they were flawed). I do wish we’d seen more of Danni’s mum and her bestie from her country, though.

Overall, the characters were really well-written. They were well-rounded and three-dimensional, and I liked their inter- and intra-personal arcs.



Now for the ✨ romance ✨. Rose is a very sarcastic character and she starts lowkey messing with Danni from the get go. I was afraid this would feel very one-sided, but, fortunately, Danni is also quite witty, and teases Rose right back. I’m really glad they were on the same level when it came to this type of banter! It made them feel very much like equals, which is exactly what I want when we have sarcastic characters like Rose. When I started reeeeally liking their back-and-forths was when they became friends, though! Their text messages were so fun!! Loved their banter! 🤭🤭🤭

I will say that I wish their romance had been a bit more of a slow-burn, though. I just didn’t fully *feel* their romance, tbh. I still liked them, but I wanted to LOVE them, and I didn’t. ☹️☹️☹️ I really liked the crush confession, but I didn’t care about their 1st kiss. I enjoyed their moments together, but I thought their “I love you”s came too soon. The realest moment of the book for me was when Molly said “Your life is bigger than Danni, and hers is bigger than you.”, because, YEAH, it just kinda felt like they were all in for each other (they literally thought about how they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together lol), but since *I* didn’t feel it, it just felt a bit to sudden (even though months had passed). Idk. I just felt a little detached from their romance, for some reason. 😞

I am glad, though, that Danni and Rose actually communicated with each other! I’m sick and tired of miscommunication that gets dragged out just for the sake of conflict, and this book didn’t have that!



Regarding the writing: it flowed well and was easy to read. There were some instances of telling instead of showing, but, overall, I thought the book was good, in terms of writing. There were a couple of typos and a continuity mistake (Danni’s bff goes from Hayley to Rachel lol), but I’m sure those will be corrected in the final version. Also, I think it’d be better if the epilogue was “X years later” instead of “2026”, because this reeeally dates the book.



Overall, this was a really enjoyable book! Sophie Gonzales is incapable of writing a bad book, methinks. 🙂‍↕️ Also, THANK YOU for that mention of Zach from “If This Gets Out”. 🤭

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!

there was so much entertaining drama that made this book more enjoyable than other romance books i’ve read! i also appreciated how much depth these characters had. the exploration of grief was done beautifully.

4.5|| This was such a good book! I loved the story and characters so much!! I was really into the whole friendship dynamic and how they dealt with their problemsThis was such a fun book to start the year with!! I am so happy I was able to get an early read of this great book so thank you NetGalley!!

4.5 ⭐
one thing about me is that i’ll always love a royal romance
rest assured, this book was no exception. it was an incredibly charming coming-of-age love story that made my heart absolutely swell. the main characters were complex and realistic (despite one of them being a literal princess) and i found myself relating to both of them on more than one occasion. this book would have been a 5 star if there had been more of a slow burn, but they were together in some way for the majority of the book. i would’ve loved to see more of their not-so-subtle flirting and yearning, but aside from that i found this book incredibly heartwarming.
thank you to netgalley, st. martin’s press, and sophie gonzales for providing me the arc in exchange for my honest review!

For all my girls who have been begging for a return of yearning - may I present to you this SENSATIONAL book!! This was my first time reading a sapphic romance novel, and the bar has been set HIGH.

Nobody in Particular is a YA romance that follows Danni, a musically-talented American student new to the high society of Henland's Bramppath College, and Rose, the crown princess who is grappling with the consequences of a recent transgression. Both have always kept their sexualities a secret, fearing they wouldn't be accepted by their friends, family, or country. But once they meet, they find themselves almost immediately drawn to each other - one of them just has to take a leap of faith.

What comes next is a heartfelt and hilarious coming-of-age story about the courage it takes to be known and loved.

I deeply appreciate and applaud Sophie Gonzales on writing characters and experiences that felt true to their age - at times, there were sentiments so specific to the teenage experience that they brought back near-forgotten yet intense emotions from my own 17-year-old existence. Every character had depth to them, and the story touched upon each person's growth and development in a way that felt true to life. (Like these are my friends!!! What do you mean they aren't actually real??)

I can't wait for everyone to fall in love with this story the way that I have!! In the author's note, Sophie Gonzales revealed that this book was over a decade in the making - it's clear that the time invested in this story was well-spent, and I hope that future readers shower it with the praise that it deserves.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for providing this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sophie Gonzalez does it again with her sapphic romances! She’s a phenomenal writer, and I felt very lucky to get an arc from Netgalley.

Sapphic romance set at boarding school was all I need to know when I wanted to read it. But Rose and Danni were EVERYTHING.

This is a story that tackles grief, homophobia, and societal pressure. As someone who is sapphic, I related to this characters in how they felt. Danni and Rose made me feel seen, and I always feel grateful to have that connection to media from authors.

Danni and Rose’s dynamic was phenomenal to see, and I loved watching it grow and change. Their banter was top tier, and the angst between them hurt me too.

But not just the relationship, the friendships had an impact on me too. Molly and Eleanor are friends who aren’t static characters, and also get the chance to grow along the way.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a sapphic romance, and thank you once again to Netgalley for the ARC!

This is the CUTEST royal x commoner book. I love a good boarding school setting and Sophie Gonzales delivered. set in the modern times, Crown princess Rosemary has been having trouble with her public image recently. her best friend is pulling away from her, and her parents and people are less trusting of her ability to rule. Danni, a 16-year-old pianist from Colorado, moves to Rose’s country when her mother gets remarried. When Danni meets Rose’s best friend, she’s pulled into Rose’s circle. While Rose antagonizes Danni at their first meetings, they soon grow closer, closer than a princess can get with a girl in a majorly Catholic country.
The character development is insane. This book deals a lot with grief and responsibility. As the crown princess, Rose is taught to stay strong and not show her emotions outwardly. She’s also not allowed to date/marry a woman. There’s a lot of trials and obstacles in friendships and romantic relationships for Rose and Danni both and they grew so much over the course of this book. It’s so sweet and the epilogue gives me so much hope.

This book was adorable, satisfying, and well paced. I was very excited to read it, and it exceeded expectations. Not only was the romance interesting, but the friendships and character developments were amazing. From someone who never reads romance, I cannot praise this book enough.

This was a very cute read, it does start off on the slower side so you definitely need to push through it but it is well worth it. Gonzales wrote a super sweet love story. It is a good YA romance.

Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales is a heartfelt and engaging novel that explores themes of self-discovery, identity, and the complexities of relationships. The story follows the protagonist as they navigate a journey of personal growth, dealing with the pressures of societal expectations and the struggle to define who they truly are. Gonzales' writing is relatable and emotionally resonant, capturing the internal struggles of her characters with nuance and empathy. With its authentic portrayal of personal challenges and connections, Nobody in Particular will appeal to readers who enjoy character-driven stories about finding one’s place in the world.

I really enjoy all of Sophie Gonzales’s books and this was no exception to that. The start was a bit slow, but once it got going it was hard to put down.

This was a cute book that helped get me out of my slump. I really liked the premise, it was very Red White and Royal Blue-coded, but lesbian. I also enjoyed that it is a made up place nested into the real world, because the book feels like half escapism. The characters had pretty good development throughout the story, and I was rooting for the main group of characters. Overall a great read!

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for the digital advanced copy!

This started off slow for me, and then before I knew it I had reached the end. Those two really grew on me, especially how they stuck together despite what the world threw at them. There was an interesting build up to the twist of who was causing all those problems for them. I also love Danni's mom, side character Molly, and that this was a dual POV story!