I loved this books....it had everything from strong characters to a strong story with enough twists and drama to keep it interesting... I also really liked that it was not clear from the beginning with who Ingrid is going to end up and fall in love with... It is a fun, and in some parts sad, coming out YA novel. The reason why I gave it 4 stars and not 5 is that the whole drinking part was annoying to me... I just don’t like it when characters seem to be that depended on alcohol and those are teenagers... and then the whole bully thing but that was instrumental for the story.

Ingrid is an artist with a hectic life. Her best friend just got some life-changing news, she is applying for a really important scholarship, and she has all these weird feelings that she doesn't know how to deal with. She makes a new friend who shows her how fun life can really be. 
I expected an average book about finding yourself, and the author just really blew me away. I fell in love with the characters, and I really felt the emotions they were feeling throughout the story. I am so glad I picked this book up, because I was really impressed with the story, and with the author's impressive ability to make this so much better than your average, run-of-the-mill "finding yourself" mush.

<i>”Summer, this isn’t a joke!” I snap, although I am pleased that she’s giggling next to me. “She wasn’t wearing any pants!”</i>

It was the beautiful cover that immediately drew me to this book, and then I read the synopsis. An artist teenage girl dying her hair pink and coming to terms with being a lesbian? Sign me up!

I wanted to like this book so much, and there were definitely some parts when I did, but ultimately we just weren’t right for each other. At least 60% of this book is underage kids drinking or hooking up, which was never really my scene as a teen, and it’s kind of uncomfortable to read about as an adult. There were also some plotlines and reactions that just didn’t sit well with me, like the protagonist bullying a girl for years because she secretly liked her.

I did like the ending, where - without much spoilers - the main character and her two friends end up mutually supporting each other and working together. This wasn’t a bad book, but in the end it was just nothing special for me.

content warning: teen pregnancy, underage drinking, a car crash towards the end

From the first few pages of this book I knew it was my kind of read what I mean is that I enjoyed getting to know each or every character in this book. The friendships and relationship are the main focus of this story which surprises me because it has deeper thoughts than what you first think, it touches subjects such as teen pregnancy, alcoholism, sexuality, and self-discovery. To be honest I wish there was a bit of background on each character. Something that I loved is how diverse each character is in its own person. I gave this novel a 4 out of 5 stars.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

It is always very pleasant to read a female-female relationship since I mostly read male-male. 
This story is very fun to read but nothing too captivating. It touches on bullying, alcoholism but honestly I couldnt really FEEL any connection to it. I really wanted to love this but the characters were just fun, nothing more to that, they lacked personality. The writing wasnt my favorite too, it felt like we were going nowhere. I guess the 3 stars are due to the f-f representation.

I haven’t read too many LGBT+ books in my life but I can genuinely say that this book was fantastic! I loved how I could see Ingrid change as a person and find her true identity, especially as she also dealt with her friends pregancy. Personally the story felt so real to me and it was perfect to read

A great YA contemporary looking at lesbianism and what it means to be a teen in Australia. I loved reading a lesbian fiction as they are harder to find than male gay fiction. I liked how well rounded the characters were and by the end of the novel, i really missed reading about Ingrid, baby Adelaide and the hi-jinks and drama that Ingrid's band of friends get into.

I received an e-ARC of Sweethearts by Gemma Gilmore from NetGalley in return for review consideration. Sweethearts is a YA novel set in Australia, and is due to be published by NineStar Press in the UK on 29th January 2018.

Below is the Goodreads synopsis of the book:

When seventeen-year-old Ingrid Harper realizes she may not have the talent to pursue a scholarship for the most prestigious art school in Australia, she turns to pink hair dye as a distraction.

Her new hair captures the attention of a fellow art student, Kat, who introduces Ingrid to the LGBT clubbing scene, and although Ingrid enjoys partying with her new friend, she becomes caught up in confusion about her sexuality. Her fear is overwhelming—she can’t think about anything else.

Until her best friend, Summer, reveals that she is pregnant.

As her best friend faces the realities of being pregnant at seventeen, Ingrid is shown the true definition of courage. It motivates her to come out about her sexuality—she likes girls. Only girls. Now she just has to work out what that means for the other areas of her life.

Starting with the positives, I enjoyed the storyline involving Summer, who discovers early on in the book that she’s pregnant, and her boyfriend Jackson. Contrary to many portrayals of teen pregnancy, Summer shows herself from relatively early on to be very engaged in her approaching motherhood, making positive changes to her life. I also liked that Ingrid, the main character, was, independently of Summer, friends with Jackson – having largely positive portrayals of friends who are of different genders is, in my opinion, always a good thing.

I also think Gilmore took a bold approach to her exploration of alcohol use by young adults. The picture she paints is quite strongly negative, and she shows the impact alcohol can have on the lives of young adults, and how quickly it can turn out of hand.

On the whole though, I found Sweethearts quite a difficult book to read – it was quite inconsistent and often difficult to follow. Ingrid is fairly unlikeable for large portions of the book, and often makes decisions which seem contrary to previous decisions or things she’s said, without any acknowledgement of this. Though Ingrid spends a fair amount of time thinking things over, there was little emotional depth to these sections and for me, they fell quite flat. Many of the secondary characters are also quite one dimensional, so often, they felt to me like they were plot devices, there to enable Ingrid to discover something about herself or have a new experience.

Ingrid herself is struggling with two major questions in her life – her sexuality, and what she’s going to do with her life. I did like that she wasn’t purely focused on her sexuality, but at the same time, it felt like neither got quite enough time or exploration. Again, there were issues around inconsistency and abrupt, drastic decision-making that wasn’t supported by the rest of the story.

There are also some potentially problematic sections around Ingrid working out how to define herself. Although she is involved with both men and women over the course of the book, at no point does she ever consider defining herself as bisexual. Obviously, people can define themselves however they want, and people may identify with different terms over the course of their lives. However, as labels seemed to be important to Ingrid, I feel like the book would have been served well by an exploration of why Ingrid chose the label she chose.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I hoped I might. I feel like the idea of the story is strong, and there’s possibility within the book for a really good story, but it’s not quite there yet. However, I would definitely be interested to read future books by Gemma Gilmore and see where she goes with her writing.

Sweethearts by Gemma Gilmore was a sweet coming of age story about a girl and her friends. Ingrid is struggling with her sexuality and her best friend is pregnant at 17. Sweethearts was heartwarming and fun. I loved how natural and real Ingrids struggle was. Her friendships with Summer and Jackson were a joy to experience. They had a unique situation but they made the best of it and supported each other. This book surprised me in the best way possible. I loved it.

i didnt finish this book and stopped reading it at 50% mark. i wish so bad i liked this book, but it was so annoying for me?
main character is a bully, who bullied the girl she liked for years because she was conflicted about her sexuality. this kind of made me feel icky as hell because even with a redemption arc, i started to have pretty low tolerance for bully/bullied romance. the worst thing for me is that the character acknowledged that she bullied the girl intentionally and eh eh eh eh ehhhhhh. ALSO! she was bitching so much about her pregnant friend, like i have at least four notes which say "can u pls stop talking shit about your best friend". then another girl said something bitchy about this friend too and she just SNAPPED and bitched this girl out for bitching about her friend. wow hypocrisy much.
also did you know that dying your hair pink = you are a lesbian?
honestly, it was so ridiculous. nobody cared about the main character, then she dyed her hair pink and the next day:
- boys "appraise her with raised eyebrows and slight arousal in their features" what
- her crush runs to her all of sudden and starts touching her hair (????) what
- she suddenly gets invited to a "lesbian club" because ....she dyed her hair pink :-) what

also the writing was kind of mmmmmeeeh? im not even talking about the your and you're fiasco ( like, i understand it's an arc and it's probably not a final version of the book, but this mistake always makes me furious). in the first 50% i've read, main character's outfits were described like 384938598395896 times. kind of reminds me of old fanfiction which was "you were dressed in this! this! and this! *photo*". it was so hard to read with my eyes rolled.

basically, i only liked the portrayal of teen pregnancy, because it talked about serious topics which teens will go through, but at the same time showed that it's not the end of the world and didn't judge the girl for getting pregnant.

anyway, since i've read 50%, i'm giving it 2 stars. it had a potential, but didn't live up to it.

Ingrid has been struggling with her sexual orientation and before befriending Kat and discovering the LGBT nightlife scene in her city, she was reluctant to come out even to herself, let alone anybody else despite her closest friends having already guessed a long time ago. This novel shows us Ingrid’s journey as she comes out to her friends and family and the emotional struggles she now faces when it comes to romantic relationships.

This story is so fun! It’s cute, funny, easy to read and passionate. I loved the emphasis the author had on someone coming out and being your ‘authentic self’ for you rather than anybody else. Despite Ingrid’s friends constantly asking her if she was a lesbian, she chose to do it when the time was right for her. Throughout the novel, Ingrid uses her passion for art to shy away from people and express herself whenever she is feeling low or something has happened to hurt her emotionally and it’s nice to see that that passion pays off very well for her in the end.

The friendships in this story are so strong, real and lovely – the connection between Ingrid, Summer and Jackson is one of the things I liked about this so much. Some of the events and dialogue had me giggling all the way through. The character development throughout is stunning; how each character matures by the end due to all their new responsibilities is perfect.
One gripe I had with this story is Ingrid’s continuous use of excessive alcohol in order to make her feelings for anyone come to light, even when she had been out for some time. But, at least in the end she acknowledged that it did more harm than good.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes YA, (LGBT) romance or is looking for a quick and enjoyable read. I will be looking for the authors’ future work!

Ingrid realizes she may not have what it takes to get into a prestigious art school in Australia so she dyes her hair pink. Her new hair color attracts Kat who introduces her to the LGBT clubbing scene. She enjoys partying but becomes confused about who she is and that scares her. Trying to figure things out is all she can think about until she finds out her best friend is pregnant.

As she helps her best friend she discovers who she is and decides to work it into her everyday life.

This book gets an A+ for being LGBT, I absolutely love that the stigma is being let go and many wonderful authors are showing their pride. As a member of the LGBTQ community I absolutely love getting hold of a book that isn't just the usual male-female relationship (although I love those too!).

It's a very fun, quick read and I highly suggested it to anyone that enjoys diversity in their reading.

It was an easy and enjoyable to read. You could feel for all the characters in the book and what they were going through as teenagers in there final year of high school.
There were some wonderful moment between that characters as you see the main character dealing with the fact that she might be gay. While pulling strength from her best friend who is dealing with her own life issues about becoming a single parent at 17. My only issue about the book is that the main character always needs to get drunk while dealing with her inner self. Her friends do call her up on it. But it just seemed to me that high dependency on alcohol wasn't really need for this story.  
I would recommend this book and will be looking out for more books written by Gemma Gilmore.

@Netgalley @ninestarpress

Sweethearts by Gemma Gilmore is an adorable novel that discusses some of the most important issues facing teens today. From bullying, to discovering one's sexuality, to teen pregnancy, to finishing high school, this novel doesn't shy away from the hard topics - in fact, it normalises these issues.

Sweethearts is one of the most realistic YA novels I've read in a long time. It features so many important issues and talks about them in a positive light. There's a lot of discussion - especially in Australia - about the importance of university and how your life is most likely over if you don't attend/don't know what you want to do with the rest of your life at the wise-old age of 18.

Gilmore talks about this a lot in the novel through the MC Ingrid. Ingrid is an artist and wants nothing more than to be accepted into RMIT's prestigious art program, and the anxiety and insecurity she feels about university is something all teens can relate to. 

Ingrid was a great protagonist. The entire novel is her journey of self-discovery, with snippets into the life of her best friend, Summer, who discovers she is pregnant in her final year of high school.

Ingrid starts the novel as a self-conscious girl, who bullies the girl she has a crush on. Then she dyes her hair, becomes friends with a girl from art class who takes her to a lesbian club, and Ingrid starts to acknowledge her sexuality, which she had kept smothered down for so long. While I didn't like her at the beginning of the novel - as she is a bully - I really began to empathise with her the more she became her authentic self.

I especially enjoyed reading about Ingrid's romantic relationships and the exploration of her sexuality: while she has a strong crush on a girl called Amber, she and her art class friend, Kat, become 'make-out' buddies (you know the word I mean to use here). I for one was shipping Ingrid with Kat, and didn't like Amber at all, but I really appreciated the way female sexuality was normalised, and, when it comes to queer female sexuality, not fetishised at all. 

I really appreciated the way teen pregnancy was cast in a positive manner - it's the first time I've read about pregnancy like this. While the novel doesn't shy away from acknowledging the difficulties that Summer and her boyfriend will go through, it also shows that their lives aren't over and they can still be happy, still attend uni, and live the lives of normal 18 year olds. She wasn't shunned; her decision to keep the baby was accepted. It's such a hopeful message. 

The writing was at times repetitive, but for the most part it flowed naturally. I link the repetitiveness to the fact that the writing is almost stream-of-conscious-like, from Ingrid's perspective. I was, however, confused by the ending of the novel. I just felt like it was unnecessary and didn't relate much to the story or plot. 

All in all, Sweethearts was a lovely, important debut novel from an Aussie author who has a long career ahead of her. I can't wait to read more from Gemma Gilmore. Definitely get your hands on a copy of this novel when it's published!

3.5 stars

4.5/5 stars.

Sweethearts is just absolutely wonderful. It has LGBT representation which I loved, featuring a lesbian main character which to be honest made it even better, as I feel I don't see much femalexfemale relationships within books. It was so adorably gay and refreshing to read.

I FLEW through this book, honestly, I didn't put it down once and read it in one sitting in around 90 minutes? It was so easy to read, I loved the characters and the relationships within this book. The characters were so realistic and made you fall in love with them instantly.

There was so many great moments in this book, funny quotes included which made me laugh out loud. I did cry a little tiny bit at some point throughout, not gonna say why but I will admit to the fact as I truly cared for the characters immensely. It did kind of remind me of Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda in ways throughout the book - which of course is a complement as I ADORED that book.

My only slight negative about this book - which is why it didn't make it to the 5 star - is I felt the ending was kind of rushed. I felt like Gemma could've added a few more pages on and end things a little better.

I truly recommend you pick this one up. I will definitely be looking out for more books by Gemma Gilmore.

"We question each other's reality; we make each other look into things just that little bit deeper." 

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This definitely did not go the way I expected it to, but I'm actually okay with it. Almost coming to terms with this.

Long story short, this book is about a girl named Ingrid, a high school senior who refuses to acknowledge that she may actually be a lesbian. It's something that's hard for anyone to admit, especially if they have always been hiding their true selves from the rest of the world, so I understand that. It's the way she lashes out that confused me though. The object of her obsession - yes, an actual obsession if we read it correctly - is a girl at her school named Amber, who just so happens to be a really amazing singer. It's at the point where Ingrid knows Amber's YouTube upload schedule and will be the first person to watch her video and leave a rude ass comment for Amber to see. That part didn't make sense to me, but Ingrid ends up explaining it later on. Why is she so rude to Amber when she can't get enough of her? Ingrid's two best friends, Summer and Jackson, even try to call her out on it, and try to get her to accept that she may very well be into girls.

But she constantly punishes herself for having such thoughts. She refuses to identify as a lesbian, even when she finds herself at a gay club full of beautiful women that she is so clearly attracted to. The thing that makes her finally admit it is seeing her best friend Summer be brave in finding out that she's pregnant, and her actions to make sure that she keeps her unborn baby healthy and safe. Seeing her friend show strength made her want to do the same, and Ingrid's life starts to change.

I think the main character flaw that Ingrid possessed was her using alcohol to deal with her problems. It was like she was an addict, and maybe she really was. Anytime that she would start to battle against herself, she would resort to getting wasted, going to Cloud Nine to drink her problems away and dance to lose herself in the music. The dancing I get. I sometimes do the same, but the constant drinking wasn't healthy, and her friends told her that as well.

"I feel like you're relying on the alcohol."

It wasn't good for her, and she needed to come up with some other method of dealing with her problems, her rejections, anything else that she ended up overthinking about that caused her to freak out.

There were also times where I would think that the book would have a happy ending or at least a happy outcome that everyone was waiting to hear about, and then it would be completely different. It was like life. Nothing ever went the way we think it will be, but we have to keep going.

This wasn't the typical book that I would read, but I appreciated it. I liked that the people in Ingrid's life didn't shun her for finally accepting her sexuality, or push her to make a decision when she was struggling with it. They were happy for her no matter what, and they just wanted her to be true to herself. It was good, it was the way I would expect anyone to be if they had a loved one struggling to come to terms with their sexuality. I appreciated it so much, that I feel like it influenced my rating to be what it is. I liked this book, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read it.

Sweethearts is adorably gay and wonderful! I enjoyed every page of it and (if I ever get the time) would love to read it again someday. Or rather, I would like to read more books by Gemma Gilmore! Her writing is incredibly fluid and her characters are realistic and relatable. I found this novel very original and I sense in it a YA hit. There is just so much love, so many delightful and insightful quotes, and great messages galore. I felt a deep connection to the themes of self-discovery and insecurity; though this is fiction, it is one of those stories that leaves me hopeful for a future. 

On top of all the profundity, Sweethearts is also FUNNY. I laughed out loud or read quotes to my mom or sister a couple of times. I really see success, not only for this book but for Gilmore as well. 

I did come across a few typos, words that needed to be added or taken out, but hopefully those get snatched up in a final edit.

I'll be honest, as I started reading this I was worried that it was going to another bs fxf story that felt really unrealistic. Since I've run into that a lot with fxf books that I've read in the last few years. This book showed how underage drinking (or any drinking really) can lead to some seriously toxic relationships and fast things can go from really good to really bad. I struggled through the first half of the book because that type of stuff just really doesn't click with me. And honestly, maybe because my personal experience with coming out was very easy and even though I had my ups and downs while trying to figure out who I was, I never got this extreme. But I'm really glad that I gave this book a chance and didn't put it down. Because by the end of it, I was really happy to see how the conflicts and all that toxicity was dealt with. And because of that, these characters and their stories felt very genuine.

Sweethearts is the first book I've read from this author and also my very first f/f read. I absolutely loved it! You have a group of high school teenagers who are learning to cope with and deal with life changing decisions. Those issues are what made these characters relatable and interesting. I enjoyed all of the characters; Ingrid, Summer, Jackson, Kat, Leon and Amber. I love that these characters made mistakes and had flaws but they did the best they could in the situations they were in. The ending was sweet and the story and friendships came full circle. I definitely look forward to reading more books from this author.