‘Sweet Girls & Bluebirds’ was a very sweet novella and one I definitely overall enjoyed my experience of reading. We desperately need more silly queer joy stories and ones with a trans woman mc even more so. Loved all the gender discussions SO MUCH.

But, to say it is faultless would be a lie. This story felt like a first draft and really could use further editing. There were grammar and punctuation errors and the usage of emojis in the text itself that really took me away from the story. It felt more like the MC was texting the book to us rather than it being an actual book. There was no issue with the writing itself, the story was simple, the characters were simple and that’s okay!

I know it’s harder with indie books which is why this title deserves so much grace. I’m excited to see more of what this author has to offer - because what was found here glittered and i’m excited for it to shine.

I'd like to thank Netgalley & Caroline Sophia Hamel with all my heart for providing me with an E-Arc of this book.

3 / 5 Stars

I don’t think I can put into words how sad I am that I can’t bring myself to rate this book any higher.

From the moment it was announced, this book had my full attention. Every little detail the author shared only made me more excited, and I was convinced this was going to be something special. It was clear that this story meant the world to her, and knowing that made me want to love it just as much.

But now that I’ve finished it, I feel almost guilty for not sharing that same love.

That said, I don’t hate this book. If I did, my rating would be much lower. People who follow my reviews know I don’t hold back when I need to rant, and this isn’t one of those cases. There’s a lot of heart in this story, and so much potential that could have made it the book I was picturing every time the author spoke about it—probably with sparkles in her eyes. But unfortunately, I don’t think that potential was fully realized.

Let’s start with some smaller issues:

This one is probably just a “me” thing, but I need to bring it up anyway: Have you ever read 'Down Among the Sticks and Bones' by Seanan McGuire? She does this thing where she breaks the flow of the narration with fourth-wall-breaking asides, often in brackets, inserting the author’s own opinion where its not needed. Sweet Girls & Bluebirds does something similar, except it stays in character.

On paper, that’s not a bad thing. It could have been a great way to give us deeper insight into Sophia Hestia Taylor’s personality. But if that was the goal, I don’t think it quite succeeded. Bracket-Sophia is sassy. Like that one time where someone used a slur and then she's like "In case it wasn't clear, that just now was a slur by the way :)" This wasn't a quote, but it's not too far of either. The closest we get to Bracket-Sophia outside her own head is when she interacts with her sister. But also, not really.

The Sophia we see when she talks to her friends, to Cat Boy, to Isa: Those all feel like different Sophias that share only one common thing: She's a sweet girl. Which makes those bracket comments feel even more out of place.

Which brings me to my biggest struggle with this book:

Who is Sophia? And who are her friends?

I wish I had a clear answer. We spend the entire book with them, and yet, I don’t feel like I really know them.

Except Audrey. Audrey is fantastic. I love her. She deserves all the hugs.

For the rest, though, the only thing I can confidently say about most of them is that they’re queer. And that’s great! It’s a book about trans joy and friendship, after all. But at times, it felt like being queer was their entire personality. I know the author is capable of crafting deep, complex characters ('The Essence of Longing' proves that), so I was surprised by how flat most of them felt here.

Which leads me to the romance & The Love Triangle

I knew it was coming. I was prepared for it. The existence of the love triangle isn’t the problem—it’s the execution.

First, let’s talk about Cat Boy. I don’t have an issue with him as a character (as a person, however, there’s one weird thing I won’t spoil). But I just don’t feel any chemistry between him and Sophia. Their relationship feels shallow. They both love animals, which is cute, but if I love my partner’s pets more than my partner… that’s probably not a great sign. We'll see how I feel about this ship by the end of 2, but so far it's very 'Happy youre happy Sophia, but you can do better' coded.

Then there’s Isa, who we’re told is Sophia’s best friend. But.... are they, though??? She calls him that multiple times, but they don’t talk or act like they’ve known each other for years. The fact that Isa isn’t even part of Sophia’s main friend group makes it even more confusing. It’s not like they were at different schools before, and it’s not like her friends dislike him either. They’re just… not there. Which means we barely get any meaningful time with him, making it hard to understand why Sophia feels so strongly about them. Which results in their relationship suffering from one big problem: The book tells us how much Isa means to her, but it never shows us, which makes it feel like their big confessions at the end weren't earned at all.

(Meanwhile, Audrey is right there, being the best, but I’ll hold back from bringing her up again. …Okay, just one more time: If we’re talking chemistry, get in line, Isa.)

Final Thoughts

This book says a lot of pretty words and has a lot of good ideas, but those things don’t exist in a vacuum. A stunning quote at the end or a powerful theme isn’t enough if the story itself doesn’t fully support it.

That said, I will definitely read book two! This review doesn’t change how I feel about the author’s talent—she’s a great writer, and I still adore her work. Unfortunately, Sweet Girls & Bluebirds just didn’t turn out the way I had hoped.

Sweet Girls and Bluebirds was a short and sweet, trans positive novella. The MC, Sophia, is a young, confident, trans woman who has a typical high school life of wanting to fit in but also be herself. I love the positive family and friends. I love the sweet boy and his cats that she gets a crush on.
While the story is sweet, I struggled staying invested. It felt a bit like reading a teenagers journal that’s also part of an information pamphlet. I appreciate the information being given as a lot of it I didn’t o ow, but the way it was presented felt out of place. I don’t know if maybe a foreword at the beginning would have been better?
It was a sweet read with a good insight into transgender culture. Perfect if you are looking for a quick read!

I was not emotionally prepared for this story. By page two I was in tears.

For such a short story this was a powerful introduction to a conversation that is becoming more and more relivent in our fight to have. Highlighting the complexity of gender dynamics within ourselves and our early relationships is not new, but is important nonetheless.

Beginning the narrative in the context of what it means to live in a world where 'I like the visual of me' is a powerful statement. Particularly, when set alongside our current reality, where often we are given the expectation that we should like who we are, and that person that we are is a stranger to us.

Its personal, its reflective, its a glimpse into what is an extremely personal journey. Clearly written, there is an introspective educational value to what I can only imagine to be a road map to understanding oneself in a world that is not always working toward intentional understanding.

When your existance is still in debate, every moment is resistance and we cannot forget this when consuming media such as this. While at times light, I had a feeling of impending doom through this whole read.

Perhaps it wasn't the most complex story arc, but I might argue that when you're taking on such intrinsic inward complexity, it becomes unnecessary to be burdened by additional narratives. Caroline has been intentional in her delivery here and that is a triumph all on its own.

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

The book cover is very cute but unfortunately I couldn't vibe with the writing. It needed more work and emotion especially based on what the book is about. It's just a lot of telling and not invoking or showing. It read extremely young, like younger than their age group minus the occasional slur here and there. I was expecting much more but the characters fell flat to me. They didn't have personality, they were just mostly defined by their sexual identity and interests.

I personally think this book has potential, but it felt more like a first draft than a finished work. My biggest criticism is the characters. The author mentioned in the author's note that she loves the characters dearly and I believe she has a bigger vision of who these characters are, but it did not come across on the page. The characters fell flat — they are mostly just defined by their gender, sexuality and whichever queer media they like. I can see myself falling in love with these characters if they were more fleshed out.

Other than that, I think the writing needs way more editing. The conversations were stiff and on more than one occasion a character just dropped some information out of nowhere, just because they needed to say it for plot reasons. There were also too many unnecessary decisions, especially about outfits.

And lastly, call me a hater, but please for the love of whoever you worship, don't add emojis in the narration. I mean it. Reader, be warned as the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ has been used four times.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me access to an e-arc for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This book drew me in with its adorable cover and amazing synopsis. Despite that, I found it a bit of a frustrating read. This was a cute story talking about trans expierences and general queer identity. I thought the shortness and writing is what took me out most of all. The random emojis and slurs honestly took me aback.

Beautiful! This book was beautiful written and I loved following these characters it was a true joy to read itn

DNF 12%

I was immediately drawn to the pretty, soft cover and the synopsis made me think this was a book I absolutely needed to have in my life between transfem MC written by transfem author and nonbinary love interest. Unfortunately, as others have noted, this reads extremely young, which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing and even can be enjoyable, but that combined with all the exposition and explanations and the shrug emoji makes me feel like I’m the wrong audience. I don’t enjoy having everything explained in a book (probably a by-product of growing up on fantasy) and I felt like it interrupted the flow of the story. I was hoping this would be something cute and sweet and quick to start my day, but unfortunately this just did not work for me.

I’m a bit sad because I really wanted to love this book. I fell in love with the cover when I first saw it and the description sounded like something I would like.

The book started with trigger warnings and spoiler warnings which is always good to have, especially when it comes to sensitive topics like the book deals with.

The story felt really fast paced and a lot of things happened in a very short time period and the story had a lot of side characters which I sometimes got mixed up. It was just a lot of people for such a short book. Some characters felt like there a single one but were two completely different characters with the same character traits. It also felt in a lot of moments that something is missing and that the story was rushed.

Sadly I also didn’t really like the writing. The story was really descriptive and it felt like half of the book was just the characters talking with each other and really long descriptions of random outfits or interests. The book also had random smileys through the story which took me out of the reading flow.

I don’t have any experience on being trans and can’t comment on if the representation is good or not. It felt realistic to me. On some aspects felt the story too forced. Sophia had to mention every other time she was talking about her friends that x is a “lesbian but is acting straight” and that y is “straight but acts lesbian” or in general that someone is straight or lesbian etc while it was already mentioned ten pages before.

I understand why the book ended the way it ended but it was also a bit annoying. I still want to read the next book in the series and see where the story is going. I would have loved to enjoy the story more than I did.

I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it has since come out. It's a good start to a series of novellas that seem to focus on comphet for trans girls. It was mostly well written but a bit too descriptive which I hope will be polished out in the rest of the books (a lot of person - action - emotion-ly). I hated the ending but for what it is trying to do for later books I understand what the author is trying to do here. Definitely more for younger teenagers but much needed.

I was immediately drawn in by that beautiful cover. The soft colors, the visibly nonbinary character, the cat?? It's beautiful, and the title itself is very soft too. This is overall a feel-good queer romantic story with an (almost) entirely queer cast, so I think that cover suits it very much.

You might find the book a bit frustrating to read if you're older than 16, though. Sophia is SUCH a teenager, sometimes in an awkward way. Most of her personality is being trans and being a girl, which happens when you've just recently come out and still figuring out your identity. She says dumb things, she curses for no reason, she thinks sexist gender roles are okay as long as she's the girl in the equation, etc.

Moreover, the random emojis in the text and the little explanations about slurs and pronouns quite literally brought me out of the story. A lot of this book makes more sense if you're reading it as a journal Sophia is writing, but that doesn't quite fit either, because the present-time narration of daily events doesn't match the journal style. So, it's definitely unconventional.

The half dozen author notes at both the beginning and the end felt a bit excessive, too. Overall, this felt as much like an education booklet/Trans 101 than a romantic story.