This was a pretty cute idea for a teen Black sapphic romance. The concept of a fake relationship being played for influencer brand deals isn't one I've seen before. I don't follow anyone under the age of 27 on TikTok, so I didn't know couples posts were a thing for the teen crowd. But, why not considering how many make up and fashion influencers are teenagers? I'm not sure Juniper's identity (if it was mentioned), but Lyric is a pansexual character.

To be honest, my favorite character in this book was Grammy Viv. She was a riot and so supportive! The entire arc of her being hopeful her daughter was going to return to their lives and that Lyric would be able to be more independent was quite moving. I think the story of how she and Lyric found their way back to each other was probably the strongest aspect of this book. Lyric's family obligations made her sympathetic character.

The decision to have Juniper's POV be in verse form was an interesting idea. It works well for Juniper's emotions when dealing with her parents. I didn't think it worked as well when Juniper was having conflict with Lyric because there was no way to convey her body language and expression when they were arguing.

I wanted more moments of Juniper and Lyric really getting to know each other. It seemed they were like 4/5 with interactions between them ending in arguments. It didn't make for the most romantic of YA romances I've read, but I think their dynamic was interesting. The part where they watch movies with Grammy Viv was the sweetest thing.

Regardless, I think this is a solid Black sapphic YA romance. Fake dating is a hard sell for a YA, in my opinion, so I was impressed by how Lockington employed it here. It was a believable reason, I enjoyed the family relationship between Lyric and her Grammy, and I liked seeing Juniper and Lyric's romance begin.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the eARC of I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.

Lyric is a high schooler and beauty influencer who has garnered enough attention in the content creator space to have acquired brand deals. One of these brand deals mixed with Lyric’s desire to make her on-again off-again boyfriend jealous, leads her to approach Juniper to help with one of her beauty photo shoots. Their picture goes viral and everyone assumes the two young women are dating. The ever savvy Lyric decides to see if Juniper will play along with this fake-dating scenario, and they’re off and running.

The concept of this book was interesting and compelling enough for me to want to read this book; however, the execution of the plotline and the use of prose and verse to tell the story didn’t quite work here. Let’s talk about the writing style first.

The prose sections are primarily used in the sections where Lyric is the narrator although there are also prose sections in Juniper’s verse sections, which are used to provide flashbacks for Juniper’s character. What I found difficult in the prose sections were the expansive paragraphs – they were long. Like really long and unruly at times. I lost interest when reading some of the longer paragraphs and would have liked to have seen them broken up a bit to make for an easier and more compelling reading experience.

I had forgotten that this novel was going to be told in prose and verse, so when I flipped to chapter two, I was confused at first. I thought something had gone wrong in the digital process – since I had an eARC of the book – and that the formatting had gotten jumbled up and lost in translation. I quickly realized that the formatting was exactly the way it was supposed to be though. It took me a bit to get into this use of verse in a novel.

While I did find Juniper’s verse sections interesting at times, especially since her voice seemed to get more to the point through the use of verse, I wasn’t convinced that this style worked overall. I was left wanting more information from Juniper, and I just wasn’t getting that the way this book was written.

First person narration is a difficult task for authors, and I felt as though Lockington truly had a handle on Juniper’s voice in a way that she did not while writing Lyric.

Both characters have things in their past they are not sharing with each other, and I would have liked them to open up more to each other throughout the chapters. The beauty content part of Lyric’s and Juniper’s fake-dating deal also seemed to fall to the wayside, and it would have made more sense to keep their storyline focused on that while showing them getting to know each other better.

The third act break-up was pretty standard with a big misunderstanding turning into unneeded drama. I’m not a fan of that at all, and I felt as though this section was off for the characterization that was presented up to that point. Juniper’s grand gesture was also problematic because of what she reveals. I was shaking my head at that one.

Overall, I thought the concept of this book could have worked really well, but in the end, I was disappointed in how the information was presented and how the MCs relationship develops.

I read this in one night because black wlw is always wanted, needed, and loved. This was so sweet and warm and felt like actual teenagers in love. I would give it ten stars if I could.

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. It was so cute and I love the cover!