I didn’t realize I had so much YA on my ARC list. The next (and I think final, for now) story is another book by Sophie Gonzales, who has written many novels—and who I have found to both love and not love as much. The synopsis for Nobody In Particular gave me Red, White and Royal Blue vibes, with maybe a touch of The Princess Diaries, with the addition of boarding school. I love a good made-up European country, and I wanted to see what Henland would bring.

Princess Rosemary of Henland can’t afford distractions. She’s working tirelessly to repair her image following a scandal that lost the trust of both her country and her best friend. Unfortunately, when a beautiful and funny new student joins her boarding school, Rose finds herself quite distracted indeed.

Attending Bramppath College on a music scholarship, talented pianist Danni expects to be an outcast amongst the wealthy children of the elite, but she is pleasantly surprised to be taken in by the ex-best friend of the princess. The more Danni gets to know her new classmates, the more intrigued she becomes by Rose.

When somebody sees something they shouldn’t and rumours circulate throughout Henland, Rose and Danni must either find a way to deflect the ever-increasing eyes on their relationship, or end it altogether. Because one thing is, if Rose’s fragile reputation takes any more hits, the palace will do whatever they must to separate Rose and Danni. Forever.

This is totally on me, but I went back to read my review of The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist, which is the last book I read by Sophie Gonzales, and the exact quote I wrote in this section was: “Now I’m on my third, and I’m not sure I’ll be back. I think maybe I’m just too old for these now—and that’s perfectly okay. Teens and younger adults will probably be able to relate better than me.” And…this still tracks here, though I did like this one better. It’s really not the author’s fault. She’s writing for a (very) young, queer audience. And that isn’t me. So take this all with a grain of salt.

At the beginning of the book, Gonzales writes that she wrote this book 11 years ago and couldn’t get it published because queer royal YA was too niche. In the wake of Red, White and Royal Blue and others, obviously, that is not the case anymore, but the coming-out stories (though SUPER important to keep publishing) seem steeped in that time over a decade ago. Danni is from Colorado, a liberal state, and she makes it seem like being bisexual is unheard of there. Though I totally get that coming out is hard, everything around it (when it comes to Danni, particularly) just seemed…dated.

Though I really enjoyed the characters and the romance part of it, the other thing I struggled with was how the author was trying to broach pretty heavy topics in one breath, and then in the next, the main character would say something really, really young, like that having a leather bag automatically made someone rich enough to drive a Porsche. It was really disconnected.

The book has good reviews on Goodreads, so I recommend that you take a look there if young, queer romance is something you’re into. This one just didn’t work for me. I think I need a break from YA for a while.

3 STARS

“Because opening myself up to strangers is putting myself on a platter for them to pick apart and criticize, and I just can’t. But I wish, right down to my soul, that I could.” —Sophie Gonzales, Nobody In Particular

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.