Title: Keeping Her Secret
Author: Sarah Nicolas
Pages: 164
Genre: YA Contemporary
Release Date: 22 August 2016
Author: Sarah Nicolas
Pages: 164
Genre: YA Contemporary
Release Date: 22 August 2016
From Goodreads: "Two girls. One Kiss. The last person Riya Johnson expected to run into at her new summer camp is Courtney Chastain—her childhood best friend and the girl who broke her heart after a secret, mind-blowing, life-altering kiss. She definitely didn’t expect to be sharing a bunk bed with her for four long weeks. Courtney has what every girl wants—she’s beautiful, rich, and the object of every boy’s desire at Camp Pine Ridge. Too bad none of them make her feel an iota of what Riya’s kiss did all those years ago. But Courtney needs to uphold appearances at all costs—even if it means instigating an all-out prank war with Riya as her main target. Neither girl can stop thinking about the other…but that doesn’t mean they can give up past hurts and take a chance on a future together. Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains drinking, sexual situations, and a fairy-tale romance sure to make your heart melt."
Thank you to Entangled Teen for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for review!
Keeping Her Secret follows Riya and Courtney- two former best friends who shared a secret kiss when they were younger. When they both arrive at the same summer camp, neither one expects to see the other. But when they finally meet up again, sparks fly. Of course, Courtney could never admit that she has feelings for Riya, she has to keep up appearances no matter what. When a prank war ensues, feelings between Riya and Courtney begin to show through, and their summer gets more complicated than they could have imagined.
This was such a cute book! I found myself smiling throughout the whole thing, start to finish. I like to think that I am a fairly broad genre reader and was very glad to see an LGBT novel that I could pick up. This makes the second LGBT novel that I've read and reviewed on my blog and I really hope to be able to add many more to that list, not only because I enjoy having diverse content on my blog, but also because I haven't been let down by a book that includes LGBT content! I am so glad that I was able to read this because it was a great end-of-summer story that helped me end my summer smiling.
Out of both of the main characters, I'd have to say that Riya was my favorite/preferred. She was very honest and outspoken, and I liked that she didn't hold back how she was feeling towards Courtney. On the other hand, Courtney was very closed off with her feelings and refused to accept that she did have feelings for Riya. She went so far as to ignore Riya at times when she probably needed her support and that really made me sad for Riya. I've heard the saying opposites attract many times and I believe that to be very true in the case of Courtney and Riya. However, the ending of the book really changed my mind in regards to Courtney, and really made me so happy for how things wrapped up!
Something that really made me laugh was when Riya was explaining what bisexual was. Courtney was calling out Riya because she believed that she was leading on Trey, because Courtney believed that Riya was a lesbian. At first, she thought that being bisexual meant that you had multiple partners, and really seemed to snub her nose up at the idea. Riya had to explain that being bi did not mean that you had relationships with multiple people, and I believe that Sarah Nicolas did a great job at explaining the difference and making it seem like an informative discussion for the readers.
Throughout the book, the readers are able to get a glimpse into the minds of both Riya and Courtney. The perspective changed at various moments and the reader was able to get an idea of what both characters were thinking when they were experiencing the same thing at any given moment. Normally, I am not a fan of split point of view in writing, but I feel in this case that it helped rather than hurt the story. It was good to see that, for example, when Riya was doing something and thought that Courtney wasn't paying any attention to her, that she in fact was watching everything Riya was doing. It added a really cute element to the story and I appreciated that the author went that direction with the points of view.
If you're looking for a cute contemporary to end out your Summer and also broaden your reading genre with a wonderful LGBT romance, then be sure to pick up Keeping Her Secret by Sarah Nicolas!
Keeping Her Secret follows Riya and Courtney- two former best friends who shared a secret kiss when they were younger. When they both arrive at the same summer camp, neither one expects to see the other. But when they finally meet up again, sparks fly. Of course, Courtney could never admit that she has feelings for Riya, she has to keep up appearances no matter what. When a prank war ensues, feelings between Riya and Courtney begin to show through, and their summer gets more complicated than they could have imagined.
This was such a cute book! I found myself smiling throughout the whole thing, start to finish. I like to think that I am a fairly broad genre reader and was very glad to see an LGBT novel that I could pick up. This makes the second LGBT novel that I've read and reviewed on my blog and I really hope to be able to add many more to that list, not only because I enjoy having diverse content on my blog, but also because I haven't been let down by a book that includes LGBT content! I am so glad that I was able to read this because it was a great end-of-summer story that helped me end my summer smiling.
Out of both of the main characters, I'd have to say that Riya was my favorite/preferred. She was very honest and outspoken, and I liked that she didn't hold back how she was feeling towards Courtney. On the other hand, Courtney was very closed off with her feelings and refused to accept that she did have feelings for Riya. She went so far as to ignore Riya at times when she probably needed her support and that really made me sad for Riya. I've heard the saying opposites attract many times and I believe that to be very true in the case of Courtney and Riya. However, the ending of the book really changed my mind in regards to Courtney, and really made me so happy for how things wrapped up!
Something that really made me laugh was when Riya was explaining what bisexual was. Courtney was calling out Riya because she believed that she was leading on Trey, because Courtney believed that Riya was a lesbian. At first, she thought that being bisexual meant that you had multiple partners, and really seemed to snub her nose up at the idea. Riya had to explain that being bi did not mean that you had relationships with multiple people, and I believe that Sarah Nicolas did a great job at explaining the difference and making it seem like an informative discussion for the readers.
Throughout the book, the readers are able to get a glimpse into the minds of both Riya and Courtney. The perspective changed at various moments and the reader was able to get an idea of what both characters were thinking when they were experiencing the same thing at any given moment. Normally, I am not a fan of split point of view in writing, but I feel in this case that it helped rather than hurt the story. It was good to see that, for example, when Riya was doing something and thought that Courtney wasn't paying any attention to her, that she in fact was watching everything Riya was doing. It added a really cute element to the story and I appreciated that the author went that direction with the points of view.
If you're looking for a cute contemporary to end out your Summer and also broaden your reading genre with a wonderful LGBT romance, then be sure to pick up Keeping Her Secret by Sarah Nicolas!
