lisacanteven's reviews
526 reviews

I really wanted to love this, but in the end it just didn't work for me. I don't care for short, almost choppy writing where the paragraphs are only 2-3 lines long. This is similar writing to Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé's writing. It works for some people, and I wish it worked for me because it makes the story fly. However, I just can't get into the book this way. 

I also don't like enemies to lovers a lot and this was enemies to lovers to the extreme. It reminded me of Zodiac Academy in the way that it felt like a bully romance. I will say that the writing in this book is leagues better than ZA. If you want vibes from ZA but better development and writing, this is a good book for you. 

I cried my eyes out. We should pass this book around so everyone gets a chance to read the words from these children in Gaza.

I’m sure this is a great book, but the fact that it is college students coming back to their hometown for thanksgiving- I just can’t do that. 

Really informative for a beginner activist. Makes a great tool in the tool box. There was one part where it started to get a little preachy about eating well and exercise?? Felt a little ableism come in from the privilege.

I am so grateful for this record of Miss Major's life. She is an amazing woman and has lived the fullest life. This book and Miss Major's activism are gloriously intersectional. It's such an important read if you need a look into the experiences of a Black trans woman. 

In the book, Miss Major is talking about Trans Day of Visibility and she says, "It's our allies who need to be more visible. You can't miss us." Asa partner of a trans person I agree that cisgender allies need to be more visible with their unwavering support of trans people everywhere. 

The audiobook made this experience so much better. I still enjoyed the book, but the audio did make me enjoy it more. The narrator is so good and a new favorite for me. 

At times this felt very surface level. As a fat woman, I have felt all these things. But I never felt that “aha, this is something I feel but never thought about before” moment. 

There were also times where I really felt like it was written more from a midsize pov. There are a lot of things large fat people feel and experience that midsize people are too privileged to experience. I just never felt like, “yes, a truly fat person wrote this.”

Also all these terrible poems about how men have treated her and not more than a single poem about how she was treated by another woman, romantically. I wish there had been more of an insight into how different being with a woman is from being with a fatphobic man. 

I don’t rate erotica novellas. This one was short and sweet, but the writing really wasn’t doing it for me.

Top romance of 2024!

I love this book so much. To preface my review: I am married to a trans person who has transitioned in the past 4 years, but we've been together for 17 years. I feel like this means that I am one step below a trans person for being able to relate to this book. Thank goddess that this book did it right. The trans rep was beautiful. This book was mostly trans joy, and we need more trans people in romance that are experiencing pure trans joy. Mira got to exist as a woman falling in love who, oh yeah, happened to be trans. It was mentioned, but there was zero conflict around that fact. Refreshing! 

Grief is so hard to write about, and as someone who is currently experiencing grief I so appreciate how the topic was written about in this book. Characters experiencing grief, but still being held accountable and holding themselves accountable is a giant green flag! This is a healthy book, and I really believed that this couple would make it past the two epilogues. I don't like an epilogue so I only read the one, and I thought it ended perfectly there. 

It helped that Mira reminds me strongly of my own wife. I think this was the first time that I really fell in love with a character. I read a lot of romance, but I don't usually love one person. Usually I just ship the characters or not. This time I fell in love with one character, and I feel so happy she ended up happy. 

Also, having a character so easily explore their sexuality was also refreshing. Sometimes it really is that fluid.