I really wanted to like this book. The synopsis held so much promise, but the book failed to deliver as much as I hoped for from it. I enjoyed it well enough, but with a few tweaks it could have been an even more enjoyable read.

This review is probably going to contain some spoilers, but I’m not sure how to write it otherwise. I’m going to be completely honest and say that I almost stopped reading this book and marked it as “did not finish,” but I don’t like to do that with reviews, so I pushed through. And I’m glad I did, because, while I didn’t like the beginning, the book did get better.

So why did I not like the beginning? The characters were unlikeable, even Lemon, and the motivations and behaviors just did not make sense.

I like complicated and flawed characters, but everyone in this book (with the exception of Aunt Vee) was terrible at one point or another. Thankfully most of the characters improved, recognized their horribleness, or their motivations finally started making sense. But what kind of school knows about extreme cyber-bullying going on but claims they can do nothing about it and ultimately blames the victim? And don’t get me started on Lemon’s parents and how completely bizarre their behavior is.

Ok, because I’m all about characters, let’s take a look at the main people. I’m only going to talk about the 3 people I liked (aside from Aunt Vee) and who ultimately redeem themselves. The bullies don’t deserve a place in my review.

Lemon Lavender- essentially wants to be invisible because she feels like she’s not good enough to live up to her older sister’s perfect reputation and she hates her name and has been teased about it all her life. Wants to hide her developing relationship with Graham from the masses because she doesn’t want attention. When admitting to the relationship could easily put a stop to horrible rumors that start circulating about her, she instead is awful to Graham and refuses to have anything to do with him. Eventually, after things get really, really bad, Lemon starts to stand up for herself, realizes the bullies are unhappy jerks, and repairs the relationships she broke. She also stands up to her parents about their part in everything as well.

Graham- new kid in school, doesn’t understand how evil the bullies are, really cares about Lemon, tries to do the right thing, gets angry when Lemon shuts him out. But, instead of setting the record straight with the gossips, which again would have stopped things from escalating, he does nothing and unintentionally reinforces the rumors. Graham does eventually step up for Lemon, and he is the one who comes to her in the end to fix their relationship.

Izabel- Lemon’s BFF who starts off super supportive, then starts hanging out with some new friends in the middle of when things are the toughest for Lemon and takes their side over Lemon’s. Luckily, she’s only a jerk for a short time and gets her act together pretty quickly.

This book mad me angry at times, but ultimately did make me really feel for Lemon and how isolated she became. While her initial motivations didn’t make sense to me, I did understand the motivations behind her later actions.

I would have rated the beginning of the book around a 2, but the ending was more of a 4, so I split the difference and gave this one 3 stars.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book through Net Galley on behalf of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was so good and made me sad. Lemon is being thrust into the position of an adult while her mom is in a full depression and her dad has just checked out emotionally. Her older sister left college and is now who knows where. To make things worse she has found herself on the bad side of the main mean girl. So on top of her family drama she is being bullied at school and online. Her support system in shambles. What can she do??

I love the character of Lemon is so well written. I would love a book from the sisters pov!!

I had a hard time getting through this book, and I’ll be honest I DNF. I couldn’t connect with the writing style or the characters. I think a younger reader would have better success.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Lemon Lavender is struggling at home and at school and she is struggling to deal with it all. Great read for teens, a struggle for an adult.

Sometimes you pick up a random Netgalley ARC and you realize you found a gem. ♡♡♡

I read this book at the start of the month for #buzzwordathon and I'm so happy I did. From something random, I met a character, Lemon Lavender who spoke to me and resonated with me. 😌

Lemon Lavender, aside from her unique name, lives a fairly normal life. She deals with struggles that teenagers usually go through - and then some. When her 'perfect' sister dropped out of college and disappeared, her mom 'stopped' living, her dad became stricter, and she holds a larger responsibility -- forced to become an adult.

At school, she deals with unnecessary bullying. So, it comes as a surprise for her when a new guy seems to take an interest. For someone who does not feel fine most of the time, how does she convince herself that she deserves to be happy, too?

Elle Pallmore's writing style is so easy to read and it made me keep on flipping the pages until the end of it. I felt a strong connection with Lemon, and though I don't agree with some of the decisions she made, I enjoyed reading about a realistic, flawed character who is on the verge of discovering herself.

This book showed me that sometimes, the book that has been sitting on your shelves for so long can be the one to bring you a message you'll carry for a long time.

I was so surprised when I looked at reviews for this book and saw that more people didn't absolutely love it. I am undoubtedly outside the age range the book was originally intended for as an almost 40 year old woman, but this took me back to high school. Lemon Lavender of the unfortunate name is dealing with chaos at home and too much put on her shoulders while keeping secrets she thinks are protecting her family, while dealing with changing friendships, a boy who likes her, and the girls jealous of that. Being unknown in high school is an art and I could totally relate to thinking that it is better to blend in then to be singled out and ridiculed. Lemon also has to deal with viral videos used to bully her, and as an adult it is a good reminder of how students these days can't escape their tormentors just by leaving the school building these days.

But the part that really struck me was how Lemon came to realize that she didn't know who she was. So many of us can likely relate to being the smart one, the funny one, the artsy one, the jock, etc. but are those things we decided to be or that others decided for us? And what happens when you have to figure our your own voice? Those lessons are what is at the heart of this book and what I thought made it a 5 star read. Not every book has to be written in a highbrow way or be so complex in character after character and their development. This was a study of one girl and her growth as she figures out who she might want to be, with some love and drama on the side. I think that it is worth giving a read.

Honestly, I downloaded this bc the title and the cover intrigued me however I tried to read this and it wasn't for me. The MC was a little too immature and while normally I can see past that considering this is about a kid but nope. I ended up DNFing around 20%.

Lemon Lavender struggles -on a daily basis- to get through the day. She goes from being nobody to being one of the most targeted people in school in a very short time and she doesn’t know how to deal with it. She’s losing friends, her sister is still missing and the boy she -all of a sudden- likes, well.. he’s ‘off limits’ for her.

In this book we learn how to deal with certain problems, as well as seeing what it does to someone else. Lemon grows into this whole new person and that’s really cool..

If the story revolved around family and friendship, it could have been a Middle Grade and that would have made more sense.

For an all-white YA contemporary romcom, this was pretty enjoyable—Lemon herself feels well fleshed out, and I think the audience will both sympathize and empathize with her plight.


Overall it was a good read and whilst it shows the impact cyber bullying has in the real world, I really do think it could have been handled differently

DNF’ing At 24% for right now. I may come back to this at a later date, but right now I’m finding the story very boring and I can’t convince myself to pick up the story

Edited to add reasons why I DNF’d

And honestly, this book was STRUGGLE to get through, and it’s not even that long of a book!

-really immature writing and also immature characters
-romance plot was bland, bland, bland
-the dad in this is straight up abusive and awful and terrible
-the mom clearly needs some professional mental help, more than what her teenaged daughter can give her
-I just cannot get over the name Lemon Lavender. I know it’s supposed to be quirky but the constant name jokes and everything was just way too much

i really appreciated the accuracy of the whole teenage drama. the heavier things like the family stuff combined with the lightness of first loves and all the feelings you get when you're at that age.

This was a YA coming of age novel that dealt with some heavier themes. It was an enjoyable and heartfelt look at lemons life and I think you’ll like it if you like YA that is a bit rougher around the edges.

Loved this. Lemon is a beautifully drawn character, and I really got wrapped up in her world. Such a nice read.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. A full review will be posted on Amazon and Goodreads

I feel for Lemon, I'd say at least 50% of this book is Lemon suffering in one way or another. And although it does feel like we are just watching horrific teenage torment, I think that is the point. To really drive home that we don't truly know what is happening to someone. We don't know what their home life is like or what they are dealing with. Then bullying on top of that, to the extent that Lavender experiences, it is easy to see how it could build to be too much.

Lemon Lavender Is Not Fine, is easy to read, and a true dip into what high school is like for people. The way that something small can escalate into full blown bullying in a heart beat. How teens don't have the ability to see long term, the effects of what they are doing not only to others, but also to themselves.

When Lemon met Graham, I so wanted that relationship for her. For her to have someone she could talk to and rely on to be there for her. But even though there were factors coming from jealous and mean girls, she let what others might think, influence her choice to be happy.

The honesty within this book is amazing. I don't want to be too spoilery, but it is so refreshing to see a family sit down and share their problems, not fight with one another. It is so healing and heartwarming.

Overall, this book is easy to read, filled with harsh truths and revelations that are so easy to relate to. Lemon is a character that we can all see a little of ourselves in, she is imperfect and stubborn and makes mistakes and that makes her likeable.

The ending is perfectly tied up, yes things may not be perfect for our characters, but you can feel that in time, they will be.

Thank you to NetGalley for the review copy. I really enjoyed this book!

Wasn't into this book much at all when i started, the imo abusive parents right off the bat plus other things were off putting, but i did really like Lemon so i wanted to finish and im glad i did. There were a lot of things i could relate to in this book especially the BS "zero tolerance" that somehow can tolerate blatant bullying but cant stand someone standing up to a bully 😒 This is a good middle grade, coming of age story and i enjoyed it alot.

But not for everyone theres swearing (mostly the f word lol) and as mentioned before the parents are poop. But imo would be great for teens.

I really felt a lot of empathy for Lemon Lavender. Her life is quickly falling apart. Her sister Meg has left college and has disappeared, abandoning her family. Her father expects for her to keep the house going while her mom sinks into depression and sleeps all the time. She is not allowed to talk about her sister, or tell anyone what is going on at home. When she meets Graham at school, she feels smitten for the first time, Unfortunately, she begins to be bullied and becomes the face of a social media nightmare. Through it all, she grows and is able to learn more about who she is and what she wants to be. I thought this was a great young adult novel and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the ARC, Net Galley.

Lemon Lavender struggles -on a daily basis- to get through the day. She goes from being nobody to being one of the most targeted people in school in a very short time and she doesn’t know how to deal with it. She’s losing friends, her sister is still missing and the boy she -all of a sudden- likes, well.. he’s ‘off limits’ for her.

In this book we learn how to deal with certain problems, as well as seeing what it does to someone else. Lemon grows into this whole new person and that’s really cool..

The story was okay, 80% of the book was really sad and that made me want to put it down a lot. But the ending made up for it. The characters.. besides Lemon and Graham, they weren’t a lot of descriptions for the others. Just enough for you to know the connection they have with Lemon. I usually like my characters a little bit more detailed.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this arc. I will be reviewing this book in the near future with an honest rating and review.

Characters 9
Atmosphere 10
Writing style 9
Plot 8
Intrigue 4
Logic 6
Enjoyment 7

I felt for Lemon. Every little thing that happened was like a knife to the heart. This book made me remember what was like to being bullied, how everything felt like the end of the world and important. But I don't enjoy remembering it. I don't like to feel and remember how it was and the frustration it gave me was endless.
I think I'm in the part of my life where I would have loved to see adults step in. I'm so done with "kids being kids" and all those empty words. I would love to see a story where adults really step in to save a kid who is suffering and not say they have to find their strength to survive.