lgbtqai teen love story (trans boy meets girl grieving sudden loss of sister in small town NC)
sweet, heartfelt story about two strangers meeting at the right time; also deals with assault trauma (author is not trans but part of lgbtq community and an advocate for better awareness of gender-based (rape and anti-gay) attacks.
Parental notes: contains underage drinking (mostly leading to unpleasant/embarrassing situations) and love scenes that are not explicit--but pretty steamy ;) and some swearing. ( )

It's hard for me to articulate but a lot of things about this one really rubbed me the wrong way. The writing was good, and at first I liked these two characters and their interest in each other, but there was an increasing amount of stuff that seemed to edge toward fetishization. I don't mind a certain amount of mess in my fictional relationships—there's a lot of mess in real life—but this seemed like it could have gone through some more sensitivity reads. ( )

This reminds me of one of my favorite books, Brian Katcher's Almost Perfect. It has the same flavor, but more accurately reflects the gender differences and the progress we've made (in some parts of the world, at least). Both Chris and Maia are under the power of what's already happened in traumatic ways when they meet and those traumas continue to control them until the pain, coupled with their very strong feelings for each other, start to shatter that control. Not everything ends the way readers and the main characters would want, but there are hints of promise among the bittersweet. A great book! ( )

There were things I liked about this book and things I did not, but I laregly default to trans readers who have pointed out significant problems with the tran representation deployed in this book.

Complicated story about first love while having lots of baggage. ( )