Tricky Girls: A Sapphic Why-Choose Romance (Girls of Hazelhurst)

Soo good. The kind of why choose dark romance we’ve needed more of for a while now.

I’m usually not one to leave reviews, but I felt my time with this book was good enough that saying *something* was warranted. Specifically I wanted to compliment Ms. Thorne on writing characters that genuinely felt queer. Having read my fair share of sapphic romance novels, I find that more often then not, they’re romance novels first and queer novels second. But way the characters talk in this book, from their interactions with others and their own internal narrations feel far more realistic to my experience with queer women. Elly admitting to Tilda that she’s probably non binary and has considered top surgery, Haz revealing that she packs, Tilda hanging onto that label of straight like her life depends on it. I’ve known actual people who’ve done each of those things. And it feels so great to see that reflected in this book. So many other Sapphic romances fail at this. Queerness doesn’t really exist in those books. Queer culture doesn’t really exist. In so many of those books, the main couple don’t feel like they love each other the way two women do in the real world. So finding a book that talks about fear of labels, that references the relationship between gender and lesbianism, that explores the complicated and confusing line between friendship and attractions, all in ways that feel real? This book was well worth my time.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters, their interactions, the story and the spice were all great. My only problems were that I forgot this was a first book, I was hoping for a complete resolution. My other problem was I was hoping for more of the kinky spice scenes that a few characters were infamous for. I cannot wait for a sequel and hope it is as good as the first.