Review of Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan

This was a good read. There have been so many YA LGBTQ+ books coming out this year that have looked so good. This book was immediately on my radar since I have wanted to read Dugan for a while –her book Hot Dog Girl looks adorable-. I was really happy to get approved for an ARC and glad to say that I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

While I like my YA to be cute and sweet at times, I also like some teenage angst and lots of feels involved. I was happy to say that this book had a good mix of all of it. There were some tougher subjects like homophobia and some abuse, but there were a lot of sweet moments that balanced everything out. If anything, I would have liked to have had to reach for some tissues but the most that happened is that I got a little misty-eyed. Because of the mix I think this will appeal to most YA fans. It doesn’t have too many emotional moments for fans that like sweeter stories, yet it has enough for people like me that like some feels.

I was a big fan of the main character Ruby and her growth throughout the book. Morgan was a tad harder to like. While her life was much better, I think she had more growing up to do. Together as a couple, they were completely cute. I thought the romance really worked and I believed in them as a couple. Morgan was driving me little nuts at times –in the romance- but it was nice to see some growth in her too. While the characters were only 18, I could actually believe that they had the potential for a real long HEA which I don’t always see in YA books.

While there was a lot I enjoyed, I thought the book felt too short. Dugan could have added another 2-3 chapters easily. And because the story was on the shorter side, there were smaller storylines left hanging. I really could not tell if Dugan just forgot about them or they were edited out. One big thing was the three main secondary characters. Ruby’s sort of ex and Morgan’s track friends. Morgan kept picking away at her friends and you kept waiting for their story to have a finish. Not to mention Ruby’s ex-guy pal, who was intertwined too, we don’t know what happened to him. I’m trying to be vague here and not give any spoilers but it was weird that they had no little wrap-up at all. I also thought it was odd that we never really got the story of Morgan’s ex. Because of Morgan’s issues with Ruby, had we known more of Morgan’s past –beyond extremely vague references to an ex- I might have understood Morgan’s actions and feelings a bit more so I think it was a lost opportunity.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. I liked the feel of this and found Dugan’s writing style very easy to read. If anything, I think I’m looking forward to reading Hot Dog Girl even more now. While this was a coming-out story –in a way- I liked that Dugan talked about how it’s harder for jock kids, who play team sports, to come out. It’s something that is not mentioned too often in stories and I like that this was one of the storylines for this book. While this was not a perfect 5 star read for me, there was definitely a lot of good here and a story that I liked. 3.75 stars

An ARC was given to me for a review.