Review of Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

This book! Honey Girl was on my list for the most anticipated books of 2021. When I found out I was accepted for a review copy, I could not have been happier. I went into this book with a lot of high expectations and I’m happy to say that this book was excellent.

Grace is a hard worker and planner. She wants to be the best and needs to be the best, but everything starts to change after a drunken night in Vegas. A night that leaves her married to a woman she doesn’t even know and who lives on the opposite side of the country. Can Grace pick up the pieces to get right back on track, or will Grace realize there is more to life than just what she planned?

I want to first start off by mentioning that this book is really more contemporary fiction, and coming of age than it is a romance. It does have a romance, I just figured it would be more romance-focused than it actually was. I ended up still loving the book so it wasn’t an issue for me, but if you go into this expecting more of a heavy romance you might be disappointed.

My biggest recommendation would be to have a box of tissues next to you while reading this. This book made me a blubbering mess and I stopped counting after I went through twelve tissues. This is not a depressing book, but it is a very emotional book. It’s about being lonely even when people surround you; it’s about needing to be accomplished and to prove to others that you made it in your life, and finally it’s about dealing with sexism and systematic racism. While there were some things I could personally relate to, there was plenty that I could not. And in those cases, not relating didn’t matter one bit. It’s like I felt every emotional part deep down in my soul and the book just kept wrecking me. It’s such a testament to the fantastic writing that you feel so completely invested in the main character of Grace. Trust me and bring the tissues, you will need them.

While this book could be a little more cerebral at times, I still found it very easy to be just completely absorbed by it. I read this in one sitting and I could not put the book down until I was done. I only paused to get more tissues and that was it. I loved the mix of diverse characters and found all of the secondary characters to be almost as well written as Grace. I thought the book talked about mental health in an honest way and everything just seemed well done. Really, the only baby complaint is that I wished for a little bit more. I could have used a tad more time on the romance, say maybe another chapter. And I wished the ending was just a hair longer. Actually, what would have been perfect would have been an epilogue. I know this is not a story that needed to have everything tied up in a big fat bow, but I still wanted a little more. I wanted one peek at future Grace and I think an epilogue would have made this book just about perfect for me.

This is one of the best books I have read this year and I would easily recommend it. Just be aware, this book is a bit more on the cerebral contemporary fiction side than the romance side. It was wonderfully written and really got to me emotionally. Morgan Rogers is a name I won’t soon forget and I can’t wait to read more by her. 4.50 Stars.

An ARC was given to me for an honest review.