Lesbian YA Book Review of ‘The Women of Dauphine’ by Deb Jannerson

3.50 Stars. This is a lesbian YA book that was well written but hard to read. Trigger warnings include violence, abuse, sexual assault, suicide, and the one that really bothered me, conversion therapy. Actually, had I realized this book included children in conversion therapy I would have passed on it. I do want to make clear though this is not NineStar Press’ fault or the author’s but mine for not reading the whole book blurb.

I find book blubs to often contain spoilers, so I tend to skim or ignore them altogether. I read the first paragraph, saw that this was a lesfic YA-paranormal-romance, and immediately grabbed this book. I just ignored the conversion therapy part that is clearly sitting right there in paragraph two of the blurb.

I’m even having a little trouble rating this as it was well done for a hard read. I guess it really is 4 stars for being well written but 3 for my personal enjoyment, so I’m rounding it out to 3.5. I don’t want to scare people away because the author is talented and I felt good about the book’s ending, but I do have to warn that this is a tough read.

The main character Cassie is quite likable but you spend a large part of the book just feeling bad for her. Her awful parents, crappy school situation, then the f#cked-up conversion therapy. However, Cassie is resilient and while I can’t imagine how much real therapy she is going to need for everything she’s been through, she has incredible strength and it gives you the reader some hope.

This book does include a sweet YA romance. I liked Jannerson’s whole ghost girlfriend approach and I thought it worked really well. The light romance was one of the sweet spots in a tough-to-read book.

If you think you can handle a book with such topics, this is worth the read. It was not really a book for my personal tastes, but it was well written and not a book I will soon forget. I do hope Jannerson will write something easier to read next as I would like to read her again.

An ARC was given to me for an honest review.