Perfect for fans of:
- One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
- Narratives all about self-love and self-acceptance
- Found family tropes
This book was somewhat of a wildcard for me. I couldn’t tell for most of the story how I was going to feel about it. The premise of the story is deceptively rom-com-y. Grace Porter goes to Vegas to celebrate her completed PhD in astronomy and ends up getting married to a stranger, a woman who leaves a calling card and calls her ‘honey girl’. It’s the perfect beat for a rom-com, yet the book itself is much darker. I hesitate to call this a romance at all because the focus of this story is almost entirely on Grace Porter and her being burned out after a decade of studying and yet not reaping any rewards for it because of her skin colour and her belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. And while most people may shy away from picking up this book because of this, I actually think it’s the strongest selling point of Honey Girl because, in its essence, this is a love story – a story about learning to love yourself.
But let’s just jump into the romance first before getting to the good stuff. First of all, hats off to Grace and Yuki because they take it pretty well that they married a stranger in Vegas. If I had done that, you better believe I would have repressed that memory until I was on my deathbed. Instead of immediately trying to annul or frantically searching for each other, Yuki and Grace’s story develops slowly and it reads almost like an orchestrated dance routine – one step forward, one step back. I really enjoyed the beats of their romance being intertwined with their separate personal lives and struggles and raising the stakes until they finally meet (again). A highlight that I’m sure everyone will adore are Yuki’s radio shows she does late at night that have such poignant themes and topics that they draw you in from the get-go. You can imagine Yuki speaking into the void, hoping that someone who needs to hear the message is listening: you are not alone. We are all lost sometimes. But it’s okay.
The friend dynamics within this story were also absolutely impeccable. Grace’s friends all have their own lives and deal with mental health issues but just like Grace, they would drop everything for each other if one of them needed someone. I loved how they were portrayed like a sort of coven of wicked women who take no bullshit and will go after what they want, no excuses. This juxtaposed with Yuki’s roommates and best friends, three guys who deserve their world, was just so much fun to experience. Grace takes a while to warm up to them and I loved how everyone banded together for a road trip.
The thing I loved most about this book was the depiction of academic success not always translating in the economy as you expect it to. Obviously, I’m not in the same position as Grace because I’m a white woman but I really appreciated how Rogers unraveled Grace’s career. It was so relatable to see Grace dedicate her entire life to astronomy and becoming the best she can be in her field only to realise after completing her studies that, to thrive in the world, you have to have all these extra qualities that no one ever really tells you about. Add to that the overt racism Grace experiences as well as microaggressions because of her skin colour and her being part of the LGBTQ+ community and what you get is a tense tale about a woman who just wants to do what she has worked so hard for. For me, that was the biggest selling point of the book because I only ever read stories about characters that either have an academic degree or where it’s just haphazardly thrown into the story instead of actually expanded on what fears and insecurities one is plagued with when going for academic “gold,” if you will. It was refreshing as it was enlightening and I think a lot of students (and of course everyone else who has ever felt the pressure to succeed) will be able to relate to. Grace also deals with a dysfunctional family dynamic where she often feels she disappoints her father, the Colonel, because he always had the highest of expectations for her becoming a doctor, which she never wanted to be. I think a lot of readers will relate to this discrepancy between what your parents think is best and what you want to actually spend your life doing.
Triggered by her father’s disappointment and her burnout, Grace goes on a journey of self-acceptance and self-love and though moments like her stay with Yuki or at her mother’s place are bittersweet, they’re also life-affirming and go to show that anyone who is under pressure should also remind themselves to take care of their mind and body. Grace’s sessions with her therapist and the steps she takes to save her relationship with her father were so intriguing that I couldn’t put the book down. When it all came together in the end, I felt like I’d gained a friend in Grace and that alone was just a really nice gift.
Whether you’re looking for an unexpected f/f romance, a read about an ambitious yet struggling woman who needs time and space to grow into her full potential, or desire the comfort of the found family trope, Morgan Rogers’ debut novel Honey Girl is sure to stay with you way after you’ve closed the book.
Honey Girl is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of February 23rd 2021.
Will you be picking up Honey Girl? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
A refreshingly timely and relatable debut novel about a young woman whose life plans fall apart when she meets her wife.
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 father’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 annoying 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.
