i hate lying as a trope. and this was so much lying it was revolting.

Definitely a new favorite of mine -- and a journey on learning how to exist, to take up space. Nala's path shows us that we can still acknowledge where we need to grow while we celebrate other parts of ourselves.

I received an eARC courtesy of Bloomsbury via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A plus-size protagonist?! Yes please! Overall, I loved the storyline and the overall theme of learning to love yourself. While I did not care for the overly pushy activist portrayals, there was very little in this book that I didn't enjoy. I can't wait to get this into the hands of teens.

For Libraries: If you have fans Watson's other books, this is a must-have. And if you don't? You might just want to buy it anyway-it's quite good.

The biggest issue was our main lead. Yes, she is young and young people make mistakes. And still, it didn't feel right. The author failed to convey what she was aiming at. It wasn't uplifting or empowering or any of those things. Our main character has issues with people caring about the world. She feels it is a personal attack on her lack of interest in what happens to the planet we live on. She thinks young activists don't know anything. She thinks just because young people are passionate, they lack the maturity to see the full picture. She lies and then gets angry because "nobody loves the real her". Honestly, it was messy. But maybe that's my fault. Cause when the synopsis says "In Love Is a Revolution, plus size girls are beautiful and get the attention of the hot guys", what more can we expect from it?

I know we all want love, sometimes we are more into the idea of love, hand-holding, someone to call to than actually loving someone. And when we are young it's easy to confuse love with hallmark movies and Instagram shots. I know as young people, society puts a lot of pressure on us to fit into a box. They want skinny girls with big boobs. They want our waist to be small and our breasts to be perky. They want a white girl who is spray-tanned but not a person of color. I know this exists. But when an author makes a statement like *in this book plus size girls are beautiful and they get hot guys attention" it's just wrong. Cause even with the bullshit standard, people of all sizes and colors get love and attention. It's not something she invents in this book which by the way implies hot guys don't love plus-size girls normally(or maybe I am just too offended).

I honestly get it that a teenager has issues. I get it where she comes from. I love that she puts her family over everything else. But what I don't get is the lack of understanding in her parts that it isn't one thing or the other even at the end.

I hate that the male lead was one-dimensional and there was only a singular lens we were watching the story from. Maybe that made the story more not for me.

We picked this book as part of the valentines+black history month read for our book club. And honestly, I am a little disappointed.

Renee Watson writes such relatable characters. I loved the intimacy of Nala’s family and friends. Her journey toward knowing and loving herself enough to enter into a healthy relationship with someone else was refreshing and genuine.

Thank you, Bloomsbury and NetGalley, for the electronic ARC.

Loved this book sm it was such a sweet story about self acceptance, redemption, and forgiveness. First book in a while where I didn’t feel the romance completely derailed the main character’s personal development. Some parts like the whole drama between Nala and her cousin and just Nala’s initial interactions with everyone were a bit weird and crazy but I guess accurate for a bunch of teenagers. Overall I thought it was really sweet and engaging.