books4em's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

So glad I read this! The positive queer rep in this is beautiful and so refreshing to see. There are hard emotional parts and mentions of homophobia, but everyone in here is proud to be queer. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a romcom though, there’s definitely a strong romance plot line but so much of it surrounds other story lines. But that being said, I loved our protagonist and the discussions on gender presentation and the frustrating feelings of presenting in between stereotypical gender aesthetics and gloating back and forth. Great read. 

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biblio_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Probably the best lesbian/sapphic romcom I've read to date. Kellogg's novel has thought-provoking conversations about lesbian gender/sexuality/presentation that simply aren't seen in other romcoms. I'm probably going to be mulling over this book for a few days so I'll likely come back and write a better review then. For now, however, just know that this is a must-read for any lesbian or sapphic woman/ identifying person. I adored it to pieces and I wish there were more works like this.

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attolis's review against another edition

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4.0


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linnea1801's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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the_lesbrarian's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Just as You Are is a Pride and Prejudice-inspired romance about a late 20s fluff-piece writer 
working at a failing queer magazine as she finds herself falling for the rich, cold woman who is helping keep the magazine alive. 
The novel delves lightly into gender expression and butch identity and is one of few lesbian romcoms where both leads are somewhere on the masc-identifying spectrum. An old-fashioned feel-good, comforting love story. 

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hailstorm3812's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm am so dumb. I just liked the cover and the fact that I saw (it's more complicated than that in the narrative but I'm judging books by covers here) a romance with butches. It took my 50 pages to put together the Pride and Prejudice references, but once I got that I was in. It's fun, it's stupid, it's heartfelt, and has a fun layer of meta in both the journey of the character and the references. I had a really great time.

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bookbuyingwithkatie's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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vtleon715's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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frantically's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

A good retelling a good story does not make.

Can you believe sapphic representation has gone so far lately?? We're getting our own toxic relationship stories 🥲

Okay, first the positives: I loved how unapologetically queer everything was — we stick together and that was shown here beautifully. There's also good starting thoughts about lesbian/sapphic gender expression and how sometimes we put ourselves back into heteronormative relationship norms by being obsessive about whether someone's a butch or a femme.

I really struggled with this, I'm sad to say. Liz wasn't developed enough at all as a main character and while Daria was developed, it wasn't in a positive sense. There's so much telling and not showing especially when it comes to their relationship. Suddenly they're confessing feelings for each other and there was just no build up to it. Daria gets her little redemption arc but she just seems to be two completely different people from the start of the book to the end.

The drama annoyed me a lot too — there's consequences for a mistake that Liz made but it's not even her fault! Suddenly she's out here apologizing to everyone for being a terrible friend but she's not even the one who made a mistake in the first place, it infuriated me so much.

So — nice butch representation, love myself a queer found family but the plot just wasn't it.

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rickireadss's review against another edition

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2.0

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for sending me an earc!!

wow, where do i even begin? since this is an ARC, i am gonna try (key word is try) and be short and sweet and not do a long af review. but this is a VERY negative review. proceed with caution. cw listed at the end!

first, i couldn't stand either mc. being in liz's head the entire book was unbearable, but i also don't think i would have liked to be in dalia's head either. liz's inner monologue was just not my favorite. she made quite a few mistakes in this book - which like i get it, she's human and "relatable" but sometimes i just wanted to shake her.

second, wtf was the reason for weston to even be in this????? I COULD NOT STAND HER AT ALL and she was in the book for waaaaaaay too damn long.

third and in that same respect, lydia belongs to the long list of characters i hate. they were a trash human being, did things with out any give-a-shit for those around them, and treated katie like absolute shit. like literally the only characters i genuinely liked were katie and jane, although jane did some stuff in the end that i didn't agree with but whatever.

fourth, the plot was boring af. i kept reading just to see if it got better and NOPE it did not.

all-in-all, i hated reading this. i was VERY excited because i love queer romances, especially ff romances and it was workplace romance?!?! but this did not deliver, and i do not recommend.

⚠️: homophobia, infidelity, toxic relationship, toxic friendship, drug use, emotional abuse

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