I loved Bethany Rutter's YA debut last year so I was incredibly excited for her second but overall I was slightly disappointed. Whilst I think this book had great potential, it attempted to deal with too many important topics in such a short story, such as sexuality, body postivity, hate crimes, family drama, racism, moving to university etc. This meant that none of these issues were fully explored properly so it just didn't have the impact that I wanted it to have. I wish it had either been longer, or dealt with less topics because it just all felt a bit too much. I still enjoyed reading it as I found the main character to be really interesting and I loved the seaside setting, but overall I was hoping for more.

Melt My Heart is full of heart and oozes positivity. It tackles lots of issues that many young people struggle with and is extremely topical and relevant.

Melt My Heart is an absolute delight. Lily is spending her last summer at home before going to university- where she’ll be away from her twin sister Daisy for the first time in her life. Bethany Rutter perfectly captures the essence of being a teenage girl, dealing with body issues, summer love and figuring out what she wants out of life. All the characters in the book are fully realised and you really root for all of them which is impressive in a short novel. I know the teenagers in my book group will love this and I can’t wait til it’s published so we can read it together.

(Thanks for the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)

A really lovely summer read that cleverly deals with contemporary issues in an honest and hopeful way. Thoroughly enjoyable

Lily is spending her last summer before university very busy, between hanging out with best friend Cassie and working at the ice cream stand together, she falls for Cal, who just happens to be her twin sister Daisys crush.

However when she starts to get feelings like not wanting to go to university and crushing on her friend, things get complicated can she solve all her summer dilemmas?

Bethany always writes great body positive fiction and this one was as usual fabulous again. Lily faces a lot and the relationship with her boyfriend shows how a lot of girls can feel about why a boy likes them despite their looks as we see her compare herself to her twin a lot throughout the book. The sisters relationship was very realistic as they face years apart at uni separately and struggle to adapt to the thought. Overall it was a serious but still fab positive read!

Many thanks to publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Brilliant YA novel. I loved the main character. I loved her interactions with her friends and family. I loved what the book had to say about a variety of issues that came up in the book. Utter delight to read.