4 Stars!

Synopsis: Coley is all alone and stuck in the middle of nowhere. But then she meets Sonya, and everything changes.

CW/TW: Mental Health – Depression / Suicide/ Homophobia/Lesbophobia/Drugs use/Drug Dealing/Toxic relationship/Violence/Mention of abortion/others may be present.

Rep: Lesbian Rep | Sapphic Rep | Queer side characters

Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko is a sweet but emotional read. Following the story of the song and music video, this book tells a messy and chaotic story of first love, first queer love, and personal trauma.

The book is simple, a straight-forward cliché queer love story – and I loved it because I was deprived of these stories before now and I will read as many of them as I possibly can. This reminded me a little of The Falling in Love Montage, our characters are dealing with personal and emotional traumas on top of this first summer love.

I liked the queer love storyline and all of it’s messiness. It was difficult at times, with the tensions of homophobia in a small town and difficulties of teenage life. Mix in a toxic masculine Trenton and a messy friend group and you have the perfect recipe for drama.

While I loved the queerness of this book, I also loved Coley’s personal story of loss, loneliness and new life. It was difficult and emotional but it added depth and realism to the story and characters.

Overall, this was a sweet, emotional, and messy story that was fun and easy to read

*I received an eARC from Netgalley and Penguin in exchange for an honest review – thank you!*

Even though this is a romance, it is so much more than that. I would describe it as a quick read that includes heavy moments and it develops on the music video.

Okay first of all - Yes, I adore Hayley Kiyoko and Girls Like Girls is one of my all-time queer anthems. So I was very excited to read this and see if our girl could write a book as well as she writes songs; and it was pretty damn good.

Girls Like Girls is a heartfelt, tender story about love — not just romance, but finding love and acceptance in yourself too. It’s a coming-of-age and coming out story all wrapped up with a vivid summer dreamscape and plenty of angsty teen confusion. At times it felt like the script to an arthouse indie film but the style kind of worked.

Our characters were absolutely beautiful — they’re in no way perfect, and at times feel pulled from a sitcom high school but need I remind you these are teenagers. Teenagers are dramatic and intense and angry, remember what you were like? I found them so endearing and familiar, finding connection and understanding with them and the struggles about the many parts of their identity they’re trying to navigate. I loved the narration, it felt like a conversation with plenty of side bars whispered to the reader and tangents alongside media inserts like blogs that drew me in to the characters so easily.

There’s some difficult moments to read, but they’re handled so authentically with grace and talk about things that need to be talked about like the increase of suicide in LGBTQ+ youths.

Girls Like Girls … and this book. We like this too.

Girls like Girls ist ein sehr lebensnaher Sapphic Liebesroman, der uns mitnimmt in die 0er Jahre. Es ist der Debütroman der Sängerin Hayley Kiyoko, teilweise einfach gestrickt, aber sehr eindringlich und vor allem für Millenials eine Reise zurück zu vergessen geglaubten Gefühlen.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC.

Girls Like Girls is singer/actor Hayley Kiyoko’s debut novel, based on the music video for her viral song of the same name. The novel explores Coley, coming to terms with her mother’s death, and the upheaval of her life to Oregon to live with her dad, who she barely knows. There, Coley meets Sonya and her friends, and so starts the beginning of Coley’s feelings, as she comes to terms with her sexuality and learns that she is worthy of love. The novel explores themes of grief, coming of age, parent-child relationships, and burgeoning sexuality.

Being set in 2006, Kiyoko does a great job of portraying life in small-town America at the time in the novel, and it works great with the plot, as the two characters battle homophobia and internalised homophobia to realise that being true to yourself is the best course of action. I was absolutely absorbed by this novel, it was easy to read, and I really enjoyed Kiyoko’s writing style. Her characters felt three-dimensional and real – they are all imperfect and flawed; hurt themselves and others, but what teenager doesn’t? Especially in 2006, living in small town hypocrisy and trying to fit in to the social hierarchy. At times, however, Sonya felt almost too mean; she was consistently belittlingly and putting Coley down, even when they were getting to know each other as friends. I wish she could have been a little nicer, or at least been more redeemed by the end of the novel. She puts Coley through so much, and then the happy ending just brushes over all of that.

I loved the use of Sonya’s LiveJournal entries to show us more of her perspective, and insight into her thoughts. I thought it was a clever device that broke up Coley’s narrative, and rooted us firmly in 2006. The parent-child plotline, with Coley and her dad getting to know each other, ran nicely alongside the romance, and added to Coley as a character and her outlook on life.

Fans of other YA and LGBTQ+ fiction will find themselves at home here in this novel. Kiyoko gives us really beautiful lesbian representation – something that is always needed in a genre saturated with male romance. It’s always good to see more lesbian and wlw representation. I’ll be recommending this to all of my queer friends.

I keep turning to these romance books for loveliness and just end up spending the entire book sobbing - thanks!

But seriously, damn this was emotional. All of Coley’s feelings and doubts and the sadness of her past absolutely broke me!

The early noughties dynamics were something else. As someone who was a little kid when this book is set, these characters were the exact type of cool older kids I wanted to be. The toxic relationships and friendships, truly horrible to read now but damn was this well written.

Now Sonya was a tricky character, it’s so hard to like at her times with how she treats Coley, but she’s clearly struggling in her own way and while 20 years is not that long ago, a shit load has changed in the past two decades which makes Sonya’s situation then, probably not that uncommon (though I’m hoping less coming now). I think hers is a completely separate untold story that I’d need to read to understand her fully.

I’m kind of in awe that this has been written by someone who’s in the songwriting world, but it makes sense that those skills are transferable- beautiful songs make heart wrenching reads? I’d love to see more from Hayley in the future, and would be happy with a sequel for this too!

This isn’t just a romance, it’s about acceptance and love yourself and being fearless. It’s beautiful and will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for the ARC!

When I saw Hayley Kiyoko was writing a book based off her ICONIC Girls Like Girls music video, I knew I had to get my grubby little gay hands on it asap. I loved the music video when it came out and regularly cried while watching it because it was so good and therapeutic. I could write an essay on why it's such a banger, but that's not really what this is for.

Because I was already (intimately) familiar with the music video, a lot of the book's plot didn't surprise me. Obviously, right? That being said, there were definitely some things that I didn't expect, though some of that could be due to the narrative I had in my own mind for the music video. Even if you haven't watched the video, it's pretty easy to tell what's going to happen next, but I think that's just because it's that kind of YA book. That doesn't mean it's bad — it actually means that the book fits really well into it's genre.

There was a larger supporting cast of characters than I expected, done up with various degrees of dimensions, but still offering a useful contrast to the main characters.

Although a lot of the plot and character development was predictable, it was still believable. Which is maybe why it's predictable? That might be a discussion for another time. The reactions of side characters as they had various interactions with Coley (the main character) developed their relationships in a realistic way. Coley herself is not always likeable and, though she has a lot of attributes crammed into her, I can still believe that this is how a girl in these situations would react.

Sonya is a little different. She's the manicpixiedreamgirl of the story and is accordingly annoying, but if I'm totally honest, haven't we all fancied or fancied ourselves a manicpixiedreamgirl at some point? So it does also make sense that Coley would be so into her (even though I kind of think Sonya is toxic, but maybe she has room to grow).

Regardless, for a YA book, it hits the nail on the head. It does err on the side of the younger teen audience, so I think this will be a little less enjoyable to the 17+ range. However, if you've been a fan of Hayley Kiyoko since the beginning, you'll be older than 17 and there's still potential to enjoy it with that sort of nostalgia. It is a teen book written by a millennial and it shows, so I suppose there is merit for multiple audiences.

I am a huge Kiyoko fan and I loved ‘Girls Like Girls’ when it first came out so I knew I needed to give this a go… It was so bloody CUTE and everything I was expecting and more! For Kiyoko’s first novel I am impressed… what can’t they do?!?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🚲🚬🥃💃👩🏽‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏽

"Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new."

I just have to say, do not read this book when you are struggling. You WILL cry, and not be able to stop reading. (So don't start reading just before bedtime, or you will be tired the next day)

This book has heavy issues, including parental loss, suicide, drugs, underage drinking, homophobic slurs, betrayal and so on, but it also is about healing, growth, falling in love, and sticking up for yourself.

As everyone knows, Girls Like Girls is based on Hayley Kiyoko's 2015 music video of the same name, and I can tell you, you'll feel the same way you did when you watched that video the first time, by reading this book; validated.

I liked how it was written from Coley's point of view, but we got Sonya's POV occasionally through her live journal entries. It was a good way to see what she was thinking and why she does some things she does.

The queer representation was beautiful, and it warmed my heart to read about the struggles of falling in love with a girl for the first time. The characters were great, though of course we all hate Trenton, and you'll probably dislike Brooke a little bit, but there is always one person in the group that doesn't like new people and come across standoffish. I enjoyed the learning and growing of the relationship between Coley and her father Curtis, who up until she was 17 was absent from her life.

This was a good debut by Haley Kiyoko, and I can't wait to see if she does more.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House Children's UK for a copy of the ebook. I leave this review voluntarily.

I really enjoyed this, and thought that the story was well thought through and emotional, but was also fairly undeveloped character and plot wise, due to the short length of the book, a lot of parts felt rushed and forgotten. There were a lot of characters in the book that didn't feel introduced or described thoroughly enough for them to be memorable, but the characters that were very pronounced were promising, I just would have liked to see that reflected for everyone. There was a great balance between themes in this book, it didn't lean too heavily into romance or grief, but worked both cohesively. I hope Hayley is planning to write more ya books, as I really think they would be important and comforting for a lot of people.

This debut, angsty, YA novel is based on the music video of Kiyoko's song, Girls Like Girls.

It's summertime and 17 year old Coley is new in town, having just lost her mother. She's dealing with reconnecting with her father who she hasn't seen in 14 years.

When she meets Sonya, it's instant attraction, but is Sonya ready to admit her feelings?

This book deals with several hard hitting topic. Coley and her father's blossoming relationship was heartwarming.

My main critique is that it was too short as I felt like some things could have been explored more.

All in all an excellent debut, looking forward to more of Kiyoko's work.

I really enjoyed reading this one.

It was a great story about finding yourself and learning to love yourself. It was full of heart and humour, pain and love. It was a pure nostalgia trip set in 2006, and the little callbacks dragged me right back to my years as a baby gay.

Thoroughly enjoyable, fun, and it handles difficult subjects quite well.

For the longest time, the Girls Like Girls music video was one of my favourites and it holds a lot of nostalgic value for me, so I was hoping this book would do the same. However, some aspects of this novel fell flat for me.

We follow Coley and Sonya as they experience new emotions in a confusing time, wading through feelings they don't know how to confront. The relationship wasn't what I was expecting and for the most part it just felt like Coley was getting messed around. I understand that coming out of the closet is hard, but that doesn't mean you get a free pass to treat people however you want to just so you don't have to face it. And seeing Sonya act this way throughout the book was frustrating and I couldn't fathom why anyone would want to keep spending time with her after that. I also felt that there was an insane amount of drugs and alcohol in this, as if there's nothing else that teenagers do. But I don't know - maybe I'm old! The use of AIM and Livejournal in this was very nostalgic though, haven't thought about them in years!

Despite the aspects I didn't enjoy, this book was full of a lot of heart and many positive messages about being who you are. The way it tackled coping with grief and feeling left behind by the loss of a loved one resonated with me and I feel like it's a good message for the young adults that might be reading this novel.

One of my favourite things about this book was the relationship between Coley and her father and how it develops - it was lovely to see and I was very fond of both of them by the end of it! I did enjoy reading this novel and if Hayley Kiyoko decides to be publishing any more in the future, I'll be sure to give them a try!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'Girls Like Girls' by Hayley Kiyoko.

Everyone and their mother has heard of Hayley Kiyoko and the renowned song 'Girls Like Girls' so when it was announced that the song would have a book, it was exciting. However, I didn't like the book as much as the song was a favourite. I think it may have worked better without the jarring social media formatting part. Or maybe as a poem? I don't know why but poetry or prose-y written would just work and make me feel more emotions. I still enjoyed it though!!

Thank you so much to Penguin Random House Children’s and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

The story follows Coley a girl grieving the loss of her mother, moving to Oregon and living with her father she’s not seen since she was 3. Then she starts to fall for Sonya a beautiful but complicated girl who’s not ready to admit her feelings for Coley.

Where do I start? I have so many feelings and thoughts on this book I’m not sure where to start if I’m honest, and I don’t think I can even fully express how much I loved and enjoyed reading this book, but I’m going to try.

This was incredible, beautiful, touching, heartbreaking, funny, raw and so so real. What an experience this book is and Hayley Kiyoko is such an incredible writer.

The story is so gripping, I was literally sucked into it from the instant I started reading, Coley made me laugh right away and I knew I was gonna love following her story. The story is so deep and sad in so many places with her coming to terms with all her grief, her struggles within herself, dealing with the changes, the anger inside of her. I honestly loved how she continued to progress, how she grew and how she dealt with it all honestly. She’d been through a lot in her life and it all built up inside her. She was such an amazing character to follow though.

The relationship between Sonya and Coley was hot and cold. I fell though, I fell so hard and couldn’t help but just want them to admit it, to rise up against everything and love each other. I really liked that we saw the additional parts of the relationship aka Sonya’s parts through AIM what a flash back, but also I loved how it just worked so perfectly. I can tell you now when you read this book which you must, you will get roped into these girls relationship instantly, you will feel all the feels with them and it will shatter you deeply.

There were some bad parts, well not in writing but we had one character Trenton that was such a complete asshole so abusive and manipulative and evil. You aren’t supposed to like him, but like I really didn’t like him at all from the first instant we meet him. He is a perfect representation though of a horrific male asshole that acts like he knows best and that he can control someone if he chooses too. My goodness did I hate him so much, he had my blood boiling. Also I was cheering Coley on so much later in the story.

This is the kind of book that I wish existed openly when I was a young adult/teen, a book that shows what it’s like to fall in love with a girl as a girl, that’s it perfectly fine, that it can be messy but also so beautiful. That being scared is fine but when you let yourself go it can be the most perfect and beautiful thing in the world. I’m so happy this book exist now and it’s beautiful and real.

I really loved this book and read it all in one sitting, I was so gripped and enthralled in the story, with the characters feeling like I was right there watching it all happen. (Well I was reading it all happen) I felt so many emotions and I swear they changed in each chapter, the writing is so perfectly done, the story told so deeply with so much heart to it.

I really recommend reading this book, especially if you connect to Coley and girls like girls. You will feel everything and get attached to the characters and fall into the romance, dive deep into the emotions, to the ups and downs, to the raw and realistically written lives of these characters. Its really worth your time I assure you.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

a different sort of book for me but i thoroughly enjoyed reading it

a thought provoking book about loss, grief and finding yourself but also the expectations of others and their influences on our lives

also went onto youtube to find the video and the song isnt bad either

an author to keep an eye out for