Eluneds life is grey - her family and the community are suffering through the miners strikes and police brutality that follows. She's trying to support her family with her wages from the shoe shop and her sister seems to have abandoned them in favour for one of the coppers trying to beat them into submission. Even her seemingly perfect boyfriend doesn't bring joy into her life.

But then she meets June, with her leather jacket and wonky teeth - she's the most beautiful woman Lun has ever seen. When she arrives in town as part of a Gay and Lesbian fundraising group supporting the strike, the grey fades and life suddenly seems neon and bright. Soon, she finds herself venturing away from her hometown to a fundraising gig in Camden hoping to see her again.

She can't deny she's inexplicably drawn to this woman, and her liberal activist lifestyle in ways she doesn't quite understand - but is figuring out who she is worth giving up everything she thought she was?

"I think I finally understand the word comrade, and why say it's an international brotherhood-sisterhood. Whatever. That sensed of being in the same fight."

Neon Roses is a gloriously queer coming-of-age story about finding yourself over and over again - set against the nostalgic backdrop of 80's tunes, excess hairspray and thatcherism.

Dawsons exciting debut tackles such important topics at its core, but its also immensely fun, full of wickedly smart humour and heart. We watch Eluned throughout her journey, and even though she isn't narrating directly to us, her casual conversational tone breaks through easily; she notices little things, goes off on tangents and shows us how she sees the changing world in front of her. I loved her Welsh dialect and phrases throughout, I understand some very basic welsh but even if you don't it's easy to understand in the context.

Her life is drab and difficult, struggling to make ends meet in her fractured family. Her world is one of strikes, discrimination, generational trauma, poverty and desperation for change. Then, it's like the entire story is imbued with energy and hope when she meets June - the entire tone shifts into one of nervous excitement. Her world opens up, she'd never met people who don't conform to the gender binary, who are proudly queer, who is bold about female sexuality and willing to fight for others. Lud tries on new identities, and at times she isn't the most likeable person but that just made her feel so authentic that I loved her anyway.

The story moves slowly - like the way you look back over the last few months and didn't even notice your whole life has changed. Lud has her moment of realisation, but a million times over - and soon the most ordinary moments of her life like finding a job, meeting roommates, seeing friends seem extraordinary. I love how the whole story isn't just about June - she's just the catalyst.

This is gritty and real story, giving us a snapshot of a pocket in time - holding a lens to our past to show how much and how little we've changed.

Neon Roses is a joyfully queer, indulgently steamy and beautifully liberal triumph with an electrifying soundtrack - a bold statement about acceptance and love, not just for ourselves but for the people that surround us.

This book is quite different from my usual choice of queer lit, but I’m glad I picked this up! It opened my eyes to a lot of what I simply hadn’t known as part of queer history of the UK. Definitely have to credit the extensive research done by the author here, as it brings to life the era and the characters; I read it with an absolute feeling of immersion. Definitely a rec to all readers looking for different flavours to queer joy in literature!

The story follows Eluned, a Welsh young woman, who falls for the artsy June at a charity event to support the miners striking in her hometown. This slice of life unfurls as the relationship with her sister grows more strained over time, and she come to terms with her sexuality.

I enjoyed learning about the strikes and the class solidarity of the miners and the LGBTQ groups, both suffering under Thatcher’s government. I wish we could have seen more of Eluned’s relationship with her family/her community as the story progressed. Eluned’s internalised homophobia was also only brushed off, and I did not find she had a lot of chemistry with June.

June could have been an extremely interesting character, along with her flatmates and friends.

Overall, it was a nice story but it felt a bit lacking.

Thank you Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a review!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. A beautiful cover and a fantastic read! I could not put this down from start to finish. The book appears really well researched and it beautifully written. I cannot wait to read more from this author.

An absolutely fantastic read. There had been a large amount of research done and the care taken bleeds through into the pages. The writing was beautiful and well crafted.
Loved it!

When I saw the description, of Neon Roses I wanted to instantly read it, partly from my love of the film Pride. The book starts during the miners strikes in wales in the 1980's. From the point of view of the main character, her family and her community.

As well as describing the beautiful welsh countryside that the main character Eluned has grown up around, During the book, she learns more about herself and her sexuality. During the book, there is a feeling of queer joy, a critique of the book is unfortunately that there are parts that I felt contained body shaming, the ending also feels a bit abrupt and wouldmaybe have benefitted from another chapter or two.

I'll start by saying that I love how well researched this book is. It's clear that a lot of time and thought has gone in to ensuring that this story is told as authentically and respectfully as possible. As it's inspired by a real period of time, place and people, it feels important that when creating something new that is inspired by and that builds on a true story's legacy, it needs to be done in a respectful manner. Neon Roses absolutely achieves that for me. There is a palpable sense of love and respect for the true events that permeates throughout the book resulting in a lovely ode to 1980's South Wales.

As a queer person living in Wales, this felt like a must read for me. I really liked the book's concept, and I loved the 'Pride' film that came out a few years ago (as I suspect many people who will be interested in reading this book did). I enjoyed that Neon Roses replicates much of the film's charm whilst also building its own distinct identity.

For me, Neon Roses' main strength is in it's Welshness. It is gloriously and unapologetically Welsh! I loved that there were bits of Wenglish in there and places I knew. And I love that in addition to it being wonderfully Welsh it's also wonderfully queer!

My one niggle with this book is the ending, as it felt a little anticlimactic. The story felt like it was building up to something different, but it seemed to stop a little abruptly and the ending was smaller than I was expecting. I can appreciate that in many ways this was a full circle moment for the characters, and it by no means ruined the reading experience, but it wasn't an entirely satisfying end to the story for me personally.

I enjoyed Neon Roses, it wasn't 100% to my taste, but I have some friends that I know will devour it! Thank you to Netgalley and John Murray Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I guzzled my way through Neon Roses in just over one sitting. Although it took me a while initially to warm up to the story, as I kept noticing similarities with the film Pride (which I adore, and covers some of the same events), the second half felt much stronger and I was utterly engrossed. There’s some real queer joy on display here, which I appreciated. Eluned’s awakening also felt very real, and the racy scenes are genuinely sexy. From a historical standpoint, I loved seeing a different perspective on LGSM and the Miners’ Strike.
If I have one quibble, it’s that I’m unsure how I feel about the novel’s conclusion - possibly, this is just because I wanted to keep reading more! However, I also felt a keen sense of impending doom for the last couple of chapters, which thankfully did not pay off, but detracted from the joy I would have felt otherwise.
I adored Neon Roses, and can see myself revisiting it. I’ll definitely pick up whatever Rachel Dawson puts out next.