A review by takingoverthesun
Don't Let It Break Your Heart by Maggie Horne

4.5

Tell me why I liked this book so much? I picked it up because I liked the cover, obvi, but then I also liked the premise- “She just met her dream girl. So did her boyfriend.” I liked the platonic love relationship Alana was able to maintain with her ex-boyfriend, because yeah, they’ve been best friends since they were born so that shouldn’t change after Alana comes out. The characters are raw and messy, but that’s what makes them endearing and relatable. I like this book’s portrayal of being gay in a small town and feeling like you’re alone, but then realizing you’re not alone and that there’s community, you just have to join it, if that makes sense. I like how Tal stood up to the homophobia at homecoming while others let it slide. This book never spelled it out (“oh what I’m experiencing is internalized homophobia”) but it did show Alana’s internalized homophobia because she didn’t want to be perceived as gay and she had to overcome that.

She has an emotional jealousy moment where she is jealous of  another wlw couple because she simply can’t fathom that for herself to be out and proud, to the point where it makes her go cry in the bathroom, and I think that’s really powerful that she recognizes that this is something she has to overcome and find that self acceptance and love for herself and to not care what others think

I think Alana definitely grew as a character and I’m glad she learns to be more independent at the end even though it ended abruptly! I wish there could’ve been at least 15 more pages so the ending didn’t feel as rushed. Overall I thoroughly  enjoyed this book and look forward to what else the author writes!