Love and Other Disasters

I loved this love story! I am so happy to be finding more queer and trans representation in romance novels, and I love that this own voices novel made it all come to life for me. The writing was such that I could clearly picture our two main characters- Dahlia and London- from the beginning, but also I had such a great running image of most of the novel. Honestly, I feel like I watched this book just as much as I feel like I read it! What makes that particularly remarkable is that the book actually centered around a television show, so feeling like I “watched” the novel made that aspect come to life as well. 

I have (mostly) only good things to say about this book. I felt like so many aspects of owning your identity and coming out to your family were addressed. The only thing I will say is that it felt like everything was smooth sailing in terms of coming out for one of the characters in the book. The character certainly had other struggles, and the addition of that particular struggle honestly may have been too much. It just felt too easy on me as the reader as written. 

My favorite part of the book was how full circle things came in the end. Throughout the novel, there is mention of family members, but I honestly wasn’t expecting much of that story line. However, the ending wove siblings and parents and understanding and a future together in a way I did not imagine. It wasn’t the thing that “made” the story, but I also feel like it’s so rare I had to give it some appreciation. 

Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC of this novel! Publication date is January 18, 2022!