A review by ashley_mrose530
Meeting Millie by Clare Ashton

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I want to start off on the good things here. I loved the characters and their relationship together. I loved their friendship development and god knows I love the gay girl falling for her "straight" best friend troupe. It's literally a sapphic cannon event and I would love to see more stories embrace it and give it a happy ending for once despite what tends to happen in real life.
Unfortunately, this author made one key choice that absolutely ruined this book for me and almost made me DNF it 70% of the way through. She fell into the false idea that

queer women are only queer because something bad happened to them in the past and changed them, in this case it was Millie having an accidental pregnancy and then a subsequent miscarriage.

I don't know if this was necessarily the author's intention but it is how things came across and I'm so disappointed. Not only is this completely inaccurate but it's also harmful and homophobic.

I think if the author had made it obvious that Millie was queer or at least in love with Charlotte before the miscarriage happened, it wouldn't have felt like this, but as the book currently is, it feels homophobic. Or even if the character herself had realized that she was in love with Charlotte the whole time it would have made me feel better, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

It's really sad because I would have given this book a much higher rating if only this one key point had been changed even slightly.