Title: Honey Girl
Author: Morgan Rogers
Genres: Romance, contemporary
Series: Standalone
Pages: 304
ISBN: 978-0778311027
Links: Indiebound, Goodreads, StoryGraph, Amazon
Content Warnings: Self-harm, depression/anxiety, panic attacks, discussion of suicide, anti-Black racism, homophobia
Other Books by this Author: Honey Girl is this author’s debut novel. You can follow the author’s Goodreads page here.
Blurb
With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She’s a straight A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that.
This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her parent’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows.
In New York, she’s able to ignore all the constant questions about her future plans and falls hard for her creative and beautiful wife, Yuki Yamamoto. But when reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.
Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
When I first picked up Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers I expected a lesbian romance about two women who got married in Vegas. I did not expect a story about a young woman struggling with depression and anxiety that perfectly encapsulated my experience after graduating high school and starting college. Don’t get me wrong, this is a romance novel; but it’s so much more than that.
This is a story for anyone who has spent their life chasing after a dream that seems impossible. It’s a story for anyone who feels they have given up everything, only to look up a realize there’s still more to give. Honey Girl has such an honest portrayal of how hard it can be to chase a dream, especially in a world that was built to keep you down. Although reading Honey Girl often felt like looking into a mirror, it also provided insight on the unique struggles of a black woman working against racism in academia. It was heartbreaking to see how Grace’s work was constantly questioned, and how that increased the pressure she put on herself.
It’s hard to explain that you are tired, bone-deep, rib-deep, belly-deep tired. It’s hard to explain that someone held their hand to the stars and said all of these can be yours, and you believed it. You believed the climb and the barriers and the gate would not break you. You spent eleven years ignoring that your mind and body said, stop, breath, be kind to yourself, and you punished yourself for even thinking it.
Morgan Rogers, Honey Girl
One of my favorite parts of this book was how it portrayed Grace’s relationship with her parents. Most books I’ve read portray parental relationships as very black and white: parents are either perfect or they’re abusive monsters. I loved that Grace’s parents weren’t perfect, but there was no doubt that they were doing their best. Even loving parents make mistakes. I loved getting to see Grace acknowledge that her parents weren’t perfect and work through the effect their mistakes had on her life.
It feels wrong that I’ve spent most of this review not talking about the romance in a romance novel, but there was just so much I loved about this book. This wasn’t your typical Swept You Off Your Feet Romance, but it was just as good (if not better). I loved that each of the characters had their own separate and complex lives. They both felt like whole people. I especially loved getting to see the characters not only fall in love but actively choose to be together. I felt their giddiness mingled with uncertainty. There was something distinctly real about how the characters fell for each other.
I’m so glad I read this book at this point in my life. I will definitely be rereading soon, and can’t recommend it enough.
Peyton
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Peyton
I really loved this book too! Great review
Thank you!