There were too many different storylines in this one for my liking. It meant that there was much depth to any of them.

Olly Smith-Nakamura is not happy about moving from San Francisco to small town West Virginia right before her senior year when her dads run into financial trouble. One thing is for sure, she's not going to let this town force her back into the closet. Everyone sees Ariel Hall as perfect but she’s got a big secret she’s hiding. The two immediately butt heads but it’s not so easy for them to hate each other, especially when they realize they might have more in common than they originally thought.

This story touches on a lot of big social issues including racism, homophobia, and sexual assault. However, none of these are addressed at more than a surface level. Instead, all the conflict seems to resolve much too easily. My favorite part of this was Ariel’s relationship with her father after she comes out to him. Olly’s family also added a nice mix of humor to the story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really liked this book. I loved both main characters. I've seen a lot of people complain about the amount of sports references but that didn't bother me in the slightest (probably used to it by now because of all the tv shows I watch). I liked that the story didn't revert to clichés. There were several times when I expected (and dreaded) the story to go in one direction when it surprised me by going into another.

Very good young adult book. I normally don't read this type of story, but this one pulled me in from the first few lines. I liked that this dealt with entire family dynamics and that not everyone was on board when one of the main characters decided to come out. There's quite a bit of angst and drama throughout this book, and in a couple chapters you can cut the tension and animosity with a knife. Some parts of this story was hard to read and other parts were laugh out loud funny. I really liked this authors writing style and I would definitely recommend this book to my friends and family and I look forward to what's next from this author.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the way Wallace wrote brought the characters to life, even the side characters were given depth. The conflicts and resolution also felt realistic and gave the story substance rather than just being in there for the sake of a plot. I would highly recommend this book!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🤼🏿‍♀️🥎👩🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏿🌈
🐕🦌🏚️🛶🏞️

I read this book in one setting. It was very hard to put down and very easy to read.

It is about Olly Smith-Nakamura, an out and proud lesbian, biracial ( African-American and Japanese-American) teenage girl who is forced to move with her two dads to West Virginia, where most of the inhabitants are stuck in their hold, conservative ways when it comes to LGBTQIA+ and people of colour. Here, she meets the daughter of a town's mayor, Ariel Hall, who at first, she thinks is one of those conservative people, when their first encounter goes wrong.

Olly learns she was wrong about, Ariel, after she learns that Ariel had her heart broken by her best friend, who had slept with her and continued to say it was nothing, even though she kept trying to get her back in her life with mixed signals. Olly and Ariel bond through this, and get closer through texting, and seeing each other at school.

This book had a lot of homophobic and racial slurs, which was a bit hard to read, but unfortunately, true. Politics was big, as well as sports (wrestling & softball).

There were some hard times, but Olly and Ariel got through it all, with the love of family and friends. Everything written was in it for a reason, and I loved the way that Olly fought for her rights as both an LGBTQIA+ person and a person of colour. z

Thank you, Yolanda Wallace, NetGalley & Boldstrokes Books for a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Olly Smith-Zakamura is in senor year of high school, but is forced to move schools when both of her dad's loose their jobs in San Francisco. She is angry and frustrated as "leaves all her family and friend0s behind.... and relocating to a tiny ass town.' Which our author describes as a Conservative town in a Conservative state.

While her dad's are renovating the new house Olly moves in with her nan and cousin who are great supporters of hers during this tough time of change.
When Olly starts at 'frog Wallow High' she meets Ariel Hall and their jealousy for one another begins and also more of a love/hate relationship.

This book also teaches us the importance of having strong friends and families around us is, if possible.
Olly is part of the school squad who and is the only female member but strives to do her best.

Olly sets up a  Gender Straight Alliance (GSA), group at her school 'gender identity  is fulid' so they can change every time the group meet so they decide to write down their pronouns each time. This is a very modern day approach and also new language  used throughout this novel. And having all gender fluid protagonist POV made it stand out.

This book was written for both this generations high school age reader and those to come as it lightly touches on the mentions virtually touring university's and the use of face masks without actually mentioning the subject. It just mentions that they were returning to full time school after covid, simple no need for detail!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me a complementary digital copy of this ebook in exchange for a honest review.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest rating and review.

I am rather conflicted on how to rate this novel. I mostly enjoyed the plot and the discussion of some really important themes. The writing, however, felt too juvenile, even for a YA book. Some of the themes did not seem well-developed. The end, especially, went from turmoil to wrapped up in a pretty little bow with very little information as to how the characters got there. There were also a lot of references throughout that are already outdated, and the book hasn’t even reached its publication date yet.

This one wasn’t for me. It felt as though some aspects were overdone. Almost like some ideas were too expanded upon that it felt almost like filler. I thought the characters were decent and the writing was done well. This one just wasn’t for me and took me a little longer than usual to finish.

This was my first book from the author and it was an ok read. It follows Olivia AKA Olly , a biracial teenager who is out and proud and her two dads who are dealing with with financial issues and have to move from San Francisco to West Virginia.

Olly is not sold on the town especially since she is starting her senior year but having her cousin Shemar around helps. She meets Ariel on her first day. Ariel is a softball star and president of the student council. Ariel struggles to be who she really is due to her mother’s political aspirations. Throughout the story she deals with this issue while sharing with Olly about previous situations.

What I liked
I like the family dynamic of Olly’s both the Lgbtia+ and the experience of her African American side of her family.
Shemar is funny and a character you’d love.

What I didn’t like
I didn’t like that while read the story seemed to shift and be more about Ariel. I found myself more caught up in her storyline than Olly.

Thank you to Bold Strokes Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books, Inc. for the eARC!

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me, and I have to admit to DNF-ing, which I don't usually do. But it got to a point where I kept putting every other book ahead of this one. I read an additional chapter and then decided to call it quits.

Although I am not a young adult anymore, I still read a lot of YA fiction, and was super interested in this title. But I struggled to get into it from the get go, and it probably isn't intended for my demographic.

The political commentary is so constant that it detracted from the story early on. Don't get me wrong, I'm big into politics (left wing) in real life, and I consume fiction and media based around the issues too, but this one is super heavy on something that is marketed as a YA romance more than anything else? Every other line seems to have some social commentary. As a white woman, it's absolutely not my place to speak on certain aspects of that, so I won't, as my opinion doesn't matter so much there.

The other thing is, this book is really dialogue heavy in a way that seems unnatural. People don't talk that much! They don't SAY as much in one conversation as these people did; often, there were full paragraphs of speech one person said in a conversation with five other people (for example), and I just found it to be unrealistic and somewhat clunky to read.

I didn't warm to any of the main characters during my period of reading, which definitely didn't help. I'm sure the queer romance aspect would have been welcome as the story progressed but I struggled too much to get to that stage.

Out and proud bi-racial Olly moves to a conservative town after her Dads get into some financial trouble. She doesn’t like it, of course, but her cousin’s presence makes things a little better. She then meets white privileged Arial and she doesn’t like that much either. Except Ariel isn’t who she seems at first sight.
I’ve read some reviews that made me dread reading this book but then I remembered my own dogma that reading is subjective and personal. And I enjoyed reading this book. I was connected to the story all the way through. It didn’t feel like too much sport lingo although in the end everyone wins something and that seems a little far fetched. It does deal with homophobia, racism, bullying and sexual abuse so a trigger warning would be welcomed. The ending feels a bit rushed, I would have liked more on Ariel’s mom at least. But all in all a book I can recommend,

3.5 stars

I was engaged in this book, I wanted to see how Olly fit in after moving to a small town after living in San Fran. I wanted to see Ariel grow into her self. I liked Olly's family dynamics quite a bit. Finally, we're at a time where the covid pandemic and its repercussions (losing jobs, having to move) are making their way into stories. Unlike other readers I didn't feel there was too much sports lingo. But I was often confused about the passage of time. Sometimes days, sometimes weeks, sometimes months went by.

As others have mentioned there is quite a bit of homophobia, bullying and racism, and perhaps this book needed a trigger warning or some toning down. I didn't love the Jesse story, it felt rushed. I was very unhappy with the resolution of Ariel's mom's politics.

Olly's dads are going through some financial trouble, so when her grandfather dies and leaves his hardware store to her Papa, the obvious choice is to run it. Unfortunately for Olly, it's in a different state. New state, new school, new people. One of those people is Ariel Hall. In the closet, stressed out little Miss perfect with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. For the most part, I struggled to finish this and almost abandoned it a couple of times.

I'm one of those people who read to escape reality.

Now, I'm aware that this isn't totally realistic because every book is gonna have some mention of politics or sly commentary about the state of the world and the exploitation of workers. Which I'm fine with, hell I even enjoy engaging with the hidden commentary.

But as a law student specializing in human rights, I don't wanna spend 11 hours a day reading about the cruelty of humanity only to come home to have a lesfic book carelessly mention all of it in every chapter. Covid, slavery, homophobia, and racism are all mentioned in the very first chapter of the book. Which is fine, but as I said, this book wasn't for me.

With my own trauma still resonating from losing people from Covid and the social isolation, and even more of my own history with homophobia and racism as an afro-south Asian lesbian woman, it might become more obvious why I wish to avoid reading about it so often.

That is not the fault of the author.

However, I feel as though it was too careless, clearly, these topics are something the author really wants to talk about. This shows passion. Yet I feel like this passion overtook the way in which this could have been substantial to the story. A bit like jumping the gun.

When it came to grammar the book is fine. But it is too heavily dependent on dialogue and it's a bit repetitive. "He said" or, "She said" make too many appearances in one scene. I've also seen other reviews point out the overuse of sports lingo which I also agree with and once again, the author is passionate about something but it's as though their urge to bring that across overshadows storytelling.

Character-wise, they're all good. Probably my favourite part of this book is the various dynamics. I liked Ariel and Olly yet the dependence on dialogue made it hard to place their scenes. Olly is a vibrant character, and Ariel is a bit more determined and as I said, stressed.

Maybe without all the excessive social commentary (if you can even call those careless mentions commentary) and a more simple sports talk, I would've enjoyed this book more.

My recommendation status: If you don't mind the topics mentioned or all the non-explained sports talk and dialogue dependency, go for it.

2.5 stars

Thank you, NetGalley and the Publishers for the Arc in return for the honest review.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Olivia aka Olly and her two dads moving back to their home town in West Virginia because due to their finances. Olly is dredging starting a new school in her senior year but it’s doesn’t stop her from being herself she out and proud. She meets Ariel who is softball star and popular and dealing with being who she is they don’t get along at first but as they spend time together feelings starts to emerge.

This book deals with a lot of bullying, racism, politics, coming out etc. Although the story was ok it’s has too many sports lingo that took me out of the story for a bit.

Olivia (Olly) moves with her two dads to small town West Virginia. She is out and proud and bi-racial (Black & Japanese). They’ve moved to be with the Black side of her family in a town that is economically and racially divided. On her first day she meets Ariel Hall, softball star, president of the student counsel and sure to be valedictorian. Olly is athletic and tries out for the wrestling team with her cousin. This book tries to cover a lot of things, segregated proms, bullying, racism, politics, coming out etc. Olly who is initially very angry at leaving her old life comes off as very zen and almost too perfect to be a believable character. She is everything from team leader to peer counselor which is a lot for a 17. I’m surprised there isn’t more push back on her. I liked Olly. She is the typical wants to come out but may effect how her teammates see her or hurt her mom’s political ambitions. I enjoyed the naturalness of her friendship with Olly.

There is a lot of sports talk. Somehow this town with less than 1,000 people has multiple state winning teams. Plus Ariel’s brother is a professional baseball player as was her dad. If you don’t like sports this may not be your book. The author choses not to explain terms or meanings if you aren’t familiar. I found myself distracted by the teen speak but it is appropriate for the intended age group. There are stereotypical characters like wise grandmother, political mom, angry uncle who didn’t inherit the family store. But the MC's are the focal point and there is depth to them. The book doesn’t go beyond kissing although there is talk of a previous hook-ups.

This can easily be recommended for high school and up. Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. (3.5 stars)

The Frenemy Zone is more of a young adult story with Olly and her two dads moving back to their home town due to finances.
This is difficult for Olly as she is about to start her senior year of high school and is now in unfamiliar territory. However that doesn't stop her from being her usual out and about positive self and trying out for the wrestling team.
She'll meet Ariel who rules the school and they don't appear to get along until they spend more time together and their attraction begins to blossom.

This is a very quick and light story with some teen angst and young love but still another enjoyable story by Yolanda Wallace.

Thank you #NetGalley #BoldStrokesBooks for this ARC

ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

To be honest, I gave up on this book at about 40% and skimmed through the last 60%. Character-wise, the only ones I really liked were Brian, David, and Shemar. Olly was too On The Nose, all-knowing, self-righteous teenager and Ariel was bland. M'Dear was a very stereotypical Southern grandmother. Everyone else was just ignorant and not likable, which may have been the intention. In that regard, very realistic, but it didn't feel realistic or natural. The environment and the story felt very forced, and without Olly's all-knowing-ness, it never would've moved forward.

I don't usually mind books that focus on something specific, or have niche references, but that was one of my huge problems with this book as well. It was full of a lot of Softball/Baseball/Sports lingo that wasn't explained or elaborated on in any way to the reader, which felt like a wall I couldn't get over. Half the time I was reading Ariel's narration, I didn't know what was going on. The other half was just very repetitive. Overall, this book wasn't my cup of tea. Loved the representation, loved the idea, was not a fan of the execution.