A review by m_riaelle
Never Been Kissed by Timothy Janovsky

2.75

Got an eArc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Of course, I have to read this because people said it has an ace rep. I was happy when another book is soon to be published has an ace rep, and the demisexual representation is done right.

"What if the world were a place where being queer didn't necessitate a crisis of conscience, as he put it, but rather was just accepted as part of the norm?"

I badly wanted to like this book. I do. I liked Avery after finding out she's trying to flirt with Stacia in the first chapter, and it was cute. But, in the next chapters, I cringed at how she uses acronyms (not the btw, smh, fyi, etc.) on almost everything in a conversation. And then, in almost the middle chapters, Mateo was excessively annoying because of how he made trouble for people around him. At first, I was understanding him because he was new on the job and then realized it was because he wasn't listening to Wren at all irritated me. When it happened again, I didn't like him anymore. And, of course, our main character's, Wren, point of view isn't consistent; it tends to be flat. AND THEN, our love interest was cringy, which made our main character cringy. Oh, I also don't like how Avery and Mateo dismiss and mock Wren for wanting his first kiss to be special in the first chapters.

Alice isn't the main character, but how I wish to have read a book about her and Tammy. I cried because of Tammy, she was loved by Alice, and the letters were added to my pain.

Alice's letter to Tammy, which she crossed but can still be read:

I loved you from the day I met you. I only wish you were here to see this.

To the side, she added:

Glad you weren't here to witness that after all.