Grace Porter, with her new PhD in astronomy takes a much needed getaway girls trip to Las Vegas to celebrate. She’s a high-achiever, extremely organized and obsessed with doing everything just right. She’s definitely not the type of person to get extremely drunk and marry a girl whose name she doesn’t even know … but that is exactly what happens!
Obsessively concerned with living up to the Porter name, Grace does everything to cover up her mistakes. She’s crushed under the weight of her father’s strict expectations for the direction of her life. Additional pressure is added when Grace struggles to find direction after graduation. In need of an escape, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with a wife she hardly knows. There, she is able to ignore all the difficult questions and begin falling for her captivating wife Yuki Yamamoto. But of course, reality comes crashing down and Grace must face every difficult reality she has worked so hard to run away from.
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This book is so phenomenal; I anticipated a cute love story, perfect for February. I got that and so much more! Of course, it’s a beautiful story about a unique start to an adorable love story. But this book also focuses on the mental health journey Grace endures with her sudden thrust into the real world after a grueling journey earning her doctorate in astronomy. This is a darling LGBT love story for February, but really just a great book.
Grace and Yuki create a love-at-first-sight story that will capture you. From the start, you can just tell these two are meant to be together. Of course, like any relationship, reader’s will discover some misunderstandings, but these two really fill a gap for each other and understand each other so well. But this book dives so much deeper as we explore the realities of Grace and her dealings with mental health.
Following graduation, Grace gets job rejection after job rejection, despite being a top student. We discover her obsession with perfection is rooted in a lot of things, one of them being the realities of being black gay woman in white, male dominated careers. It’s incredibly painful to read about the micro-aggressions she endures despite being qualified for each position. In addition to Grace’s struggle, we are introduced to some beautiful side-characters who are on their own journey, and reader’s are able to connect with each one of them.
Grace has her true family and her self-made family. Both are full of depth and interesting to read about. There’s a beautiful collection of people who she shares a deep bond with and considers her to be family. As a reader, I loved hearing the stories of each of these characters, particularly the friendship with Xiemna and Agnes.
Honey Girl is a book for all of the people who feel lost and lonely; other people may look like they have all their shit together, but most of us are just as lost and confused. Overall, I adored this book. It was so well-written and I cannot wait to see what Morgan Rogers creates in the future. I highly recommend reading this book; you’ll adore it.
PUBLICATION DETAILS: Park Row Books; February 23rd, 2021; 9780778311027; Fiction/Romance
