Reviews

Forward March by Skye Quinlan

Only show reviews with written explanations

allisanto's review

5.0

oh my god it was so good. i read this in like 3 hours and didn’t put it down a single time. it made me wish i was in band even though i can’t play an instrument to save my life.

This book has Ace rep!!!! Yay! The plot is maybe a little messy and I wish there was more marching band. Also SO many characters are the absolute worst. This wasn’t love for me but it was a fun little read.

mel_muses's review

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4.5

When band nerd Harper learns about a gay dating profile made of her, she freaks out. Partly because her mom is the school dean, partly because she doesn't know her sexuality, partly because her parents are hardcore Republicans, and partly because her dad is running for the presidential election. It's really a huge mess.

And wow, did this book take turns I was not expecting!! I read it in the span of a few days, on audio (thank you, Jenn, for letting me use your library card LOL). It was addicting, and in such a good way. I loved the way the romance developed. It was so cute and while at times I wanted to scream at Harper, MARGOT FOR THE WIN! I also really loved the way Quinlan explored Harper's asexuality. It was beautifully done, and felt incredibly authentic. More aspec lesbians, PLEASE. My favorite part and characters of the book were actually people who were on page for like .5 seconds bUT I don't want to spoil who it was. SO: Skye Quinlan, please give me a whole spin-off of just THEM. My DMs are always open :)

Overall, a wild ride. A book that felt real and passionate, loving and authentic, scary and empowering. Also, please read my friend Jenn's review of this book. I encapsulated only a fraction of what they wrote about.

Content Warnings: anxiety, depression, homophobia, mentions of self harm, alcoholism, public outing

Content Warnings

sophierenee's review

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4.0

Such a fun but also frustrating book mainly the being outed part… love that the marching band is meshed in with the story! Ahhh

thindbooks's review

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4.0

*this arc was sent to me by the publisher to give an honest review in return*

This was a great read! This book is about Harper who is a band geek and someone makes a fake Tinder account of her which could ruin her life. The author has amazing writing in this book and she features an asexual main character which I don't think I have read before in a book other then the character being a side character. The plot was very well done with the perfect amounts of conflicts being thrown into the story as there the MC is dating in secret with there being political scandals and drama. I do have to say that the pacing was a little slow for my liking but the story was still great. Overall the storyline was amazingly love and I enjoyed all the representations in this book.

The main character is Harper and I enjoyed her character. I feel as though so many readers can relate to her in some way because I felt connected to her. I enjoyed her character development in the book and how the side character helped her improve it. Our main side character is Margot who is more out there in the world ready to have fun. There are many other side characters in the book and I enjoyed how there was a diversity and representation of characters involved though I loathed Harper's best friends. The romance trope in this book is fake dating which is one of my favorite tropes just because you can see the love development but in this read I kind of felt that the romance was forced a little. It was sweet but I couldn't feel the slow burn feel to it.

The ending was well done with a happily ever after. Even though this book mentioned politics, I enjoyed how it wasn't heavily in the book where it just took over. Usually I run away from it but it was great in this book. This book was very well done but there are some things that were iffy about it. I totally recommend reading this book if you are fans of Love & Other Disasters and Red, White and Royal Blue.

harper_tales's review

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

haileyannereads's review

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5.0

Content Warnings: homophobia, mentions of self-harm, bullying

ACE LESBIAN REP!!!!!!!!!

***Small disclaimer that because there are so few ace books currently, I am rating this 5 stars (couldn't decide between 4 or 5). That may change somewhere down the road when there are more options. But for now, this book is probably my favorite ace book so far.

I loved that we had a character discovering their queer identity as an ace lesbian. Asexuality is so under-represented in media and it's very misunderstood. This book shines a light on the spectrum of asexuality and that ace people can still have happy, healthy romantic relationships.

I also appreciated that the book was about more than Harper discovering her queer identity. Yes, it was an important part of the story, but there was so much more going on. This book is also about friendship, family, and finding what makes you happy.

Overall, I just really loved this book. On a personal level, I related to Harper so much. Being ace can be so confusing, especially because it is a spectrum and experiences can vary greatly. But I relate to Harper so closely and it was just so great to have that. This book will remain in my heart for a very long time.