Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Coming of age story of self acceptance and discovery that was heartwarming and empowering.

Oh gosh. Not my jam at all. Writing good. Me thing but book thing. I think I'm just too old for this kind of book (I'm 38) DNF'd at 20%

I can honestly say I would have loved this had I been a teenager! I’m unfortunately slightly too old for this one so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would but this one will do great with a younger crowd!

I found this book very engaging and could not put it down

The main characters journey ans discovery of self really touched a cord with me

I will definitely be buying this book and also buying anything else the author does

A YA novel for the ages! No one else does it quite like this author. Equal parts educational and riveting, I was sold on the romance between the two leads and the compelling story they were set in. 5 stars!

This is a book that every young girl needs to read.

Monique’s story of self acceptance and discovery was heartwarming and empowering. I wish I had this book when I was younger. It delivers a message that all young women I think need to hear and I think this book will resonate with a lot of people.

Monique had such an incredible network of people around her, Reggie and Sasha are the type of people everyone needs in their life.

This is a great YA novel and Joya Goffney has a brilliant way with words!

While I liked the topics in this book, I didn’t love the story. Well actually no, It was most of the characters that I didn’t love which made me like the story less. BUT this is a great book for older teens and an important one for them to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 ⭐️ I just wish there had been more books like this when I was growing up! Black teens need more books like this.

The story was cute whilst also tacking complex family dynamics - faith, sex education, alongside female coming-of-age. And overall a fun wholesome read. I just loved Joya's writing style.

My biggest surprise was confessions of an alleged good girl by Joya Goffney. Really loved learning more about the pressures and culture of those brought up in strongly religious families and POC. I found it both educational and enjoyable, plus I loved the characters.

The moment I heard about Joya Goffney’s new book, I knew I wanted to read it. A Young Adult book that discusses women’s health? Where do I sign up? I had to get an ARC and thankfully, I was approved via NetGalley.

Now, I was going to wait until closer to the publication date to read this but I decided to treat myself to this book. I read this in January and the book won’t be published till May but it put it this way…I will be pre-ordering this book the moment I can.

Because Miss Goffney did it again.

At this point, I just want to know how?

This book felt so incredibly personal that I just want to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you because the way this book was written…

I don’t even think I can truly put into words my feelings. I don’t know if I ever will be able to. But I’ll give it a try.

The way Vaginismus, sex and therapy is portrayed was simply beautiful. Goffney explores the possible mental, physical and emotional sides of Vaginismus. Through Monique, we witness her take ownership of her body, her mind and ultimately, her life. Her relationship towards sex begins to change and evolve. The emphasis on being a ‘good girl’ and obeying rules is instilled into her from a young age and we witness the detrimental effect it had on her growing up.

We see it all the time and how society explores sexual liberation between men and women. But yet, this was entirely different as Goffney emphasises that the pressure to abstain from sex comes from the church. It’s even more intense for Monique as the pastor’s daughter...

I am totally in love with this book!

I thought I was going to connect with it from the blurb but I wasn't quite prepared for how deeply this book affected me. As a former Sunday school child, I felt that being in touch with my body was a bad thing and I still find my mind swaying that way many years later. Goffney looks at this in such depth and I love how this book is not afraid to dive deep.

Mo is such a relatable character and I love that she isn't afraid to challenge her parents when her own choice is being taken away from her or she feels shamed. Reggie is also so great. He is supportive and makes Mo feel at home which I love so much. While Mo and Reggie are great, I love Sasha the most and how she is so unapologetically herself! She also is willing to risk so much for Mo to find herself too and I love her so much for it.

This book is definitely one that I'll be passing down when I'm the mum of a teen.

(Also just realised that like Mo, I have managed to avoid the word sex in this whole review... I could definitely learn something from her!)

I love a story about a love triangle! It's one of my favourite tropes in romance novels. This YA novel explores just that, following a preacher's daughter in small-town Texas and her journey toward loving herself and her body. It also explores religion and friendship, as well as body and sex positivity. The most wonderful things about it is its voice: it is told with warmth, heart and humour, and its attention to love, sex and even a medical condition that's not often discussed, makes it an engaging, entertaining and enjoyable read. I would certainly recommend this book to YA readers and will be keeping an eye on what Joya Goffney comes up with next.

When Dominic broke up with Monica because she couldn’t have sex with him I felt so angry that I wanted to knock the boy out myself. But then she forms a friendship with Sasha (the perfect catholic girl) and Reggie (the rogue one) and it’s the best thing ever. This book made me laugh and get so angry and I’m glad it raised a topic I’ve never heard of before vaginismus. I think it’s a serious topic that should be brought to attention more. Such a fantastic book gutted I left it on the shelf for so long.

After having read 'Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry' by Joya Goffney as well, I was not surprise that I enjoyed this book too. This book was incredible. I loved how the characters developed and also just how educational this book was. I learnt about Monique and her medical diagnosis, something that I did not know much about before but now feel a lot more aware about it. I loved the mixture of the coming of age and romance in this book and how it covered important issues in an informative yet interesting way. This book had so many layers to it, tackling many struggles in which teens, not only in the church, face too. The friendship with Sasha and Mo was well written as well as the development between Reggie and Mo.

All in all this was an excellent read with a great pace where i felt I could not stop reading until i was done.

GO READ THIS RN!!

Joya had me first with Excuse me while I ugly Cry and I didn’t think YA romance could get better than that but then I read this. I want to first highlight that as a a black woman I’ve never been able to see myself accurately reflected especially when I was younger but having authors like Joya, Monique felt stifled in life the same way I was growing up, and see her get over her ‘purity’ hang ups and learning about love and having true friendship set me up so well while I sobbed

I loved this book, I read Joya's other book and absoltely adored it so I was really pleased to get a Netgalley copy of this one.

A great tale of worry, sex, parental and boyfriend pressure, cultural and religious issues, and finding yourself. Really moving and fantastic, and I loved the way it ended.

Late feedback:

I am absolutely obsessed!

I had never read a Joya Goffney book before this one, and let me tell you I am now forever a fan.

I can’t express enough how much I absolutely adored the story. The story felt like it had such a personal touch and I related to Monique so much. It was really nice to see such serious topics be handled in such a sensible way, especially in a book with a black main lead. It feels good to be represented.

I also absolutely loved Reggie, he’s actually one of the best book boyfriends that I have read in a while. He was just so pure so full of life so excepting and go with the flow!

This book! This book… THIS BOOK! It’s fantastic! It’s relevant, and absolutely should be made available to all teens to read! I wish there were books like this around when I was growing up!

I loved reading how Monique navigated her way through strong religious upbringing, peer pressure, body woes and getting to know herself and her body!

There are toxic relationships, gaslighting and also some beautiful relationships! I found some moments made me belly laugh and I just devoured it!

I didn’t know what I was really going to get, but I’d 100% recommended it!

Good exploration of how people hide behind the mask of expected social behaviors.
Loved how the toxic "good boyfriend" and the actually good "bad boy" are viewed by the community. Also, I've never seen this medical condition discussed in a YA novel before, and was pleased to see it in print as it should be more widely known.
I did find the American medical systems baffling - thank goodness for the NHS.

I loved the found family aspect of this book, and there was some great discussions of sex and sex education in the book. This is something I feel a lot of YA books are lacking so that was a huge plus point for me. A great YA romance for summer.