A sweet Sapphic summer romance with journalistic flair!

Samira wants to get away from being used for her dad's political schemes. So when her uncle offers her a place to stay for two weeks to attend a local journalism course, she jumps at the chance. Supremely studious Alex is also taking the course while navigating the feeling of being the forgotten child at home.

Told over the course of two summers, Samira and Alex discover more about each other and themselves. The side characters are great, and the character arcs make total sense. Definitely a good beach read!

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!

I really enjoyed reading this book- I'm a big fan of queer coming of age novels, and this one was no exception. I enjoyed seeing the relationship build between the two MCs, as well as their relationships with their families. The struggles between Samira and Alex were relatable, as well as their struggles with their families. I found myself relating to both of them in different ways, despite being 12 years older than the characters.

From a craft perspective, this book was well written and the writing flowed beautifully. The vocabulary was neither too flowery nor too simple; it was easy to get lost in the story.

One criticism I have is the ending- while it does end in a happy for now as romance novels do, I wish we could have seen more past the reconciliation and decision to stay together. I wanted to see Samira and Alex reuniting in Melbourne for university, or see them a few years later after graduating. I want to know what their future holds!

Overall, this is a 3.5/5 star read, rounding up to 4 stars.

Samira and Alex meet in Tasmania on a journalism camp. They come from different backgrounds but the core issues they are having are quite similar. They both struggle with family relashionships but have one ally, they both want to leave their homes for uni and they both inexperienced in the love business. This is a YA romance that took me a little while to get into but a good read in the end, a story about growth and currage.
Free ARC via NetGalley.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📰🕵️‍♀️📱🇦🇺⛺

Loved this YA romcom that is set in Tasmania, Australia. It's always great to read something that is close to home. It feels more relatable.

I loved this book because we have two strong female lesbian main characters, Samira and Alex, who are both going through a lot, both with themselves and their families. I loved how they both bonded over their love of learning journalism and find each other.

The book starts a year earlier in part one of the book, where the two meet and grow an attraction to each other, but then leave at the end of the summer on bad terms. Part two is a year later when a lot has happened with each of the girls. Both have grown emotionally and had more sexual experiences which weren't all that good. They connect again and have that cute second chance at love.

I loved how the journalism itself highlighted well-known issues, such as homelessness, racism and politics.

It was a cute, light-hearted book about second-chance love and it was very well done.

Thanks to Netgalley and Emily O'Berine for the copy of the ebook. This review is left voluntarily.

I didn’t really get in to it till the mains are more on the same page together, about 20% in.
This book may be classed as Y.A. But that shouldn’t be a barrier to anyone else reading it. The mains are young adults, with issues that affect young people, but not only young people. I’m significantly older than the mains but can identify with many of the issues. That to me is also the secret of a good book. I can identify with the characters. I may not have exactly the same issues but the writer writes in such a way I believe and empathise with their challenges.
The romance is sweet, and when they make up I was a wee bit emotional. That connection is what elevates it to 3.5. Good job!

This was okay. The premise sounded nice and it was definitely interesting...I just don't think I'm the target audience for this book. Nothing really stuck for me.

This was super sweet and honestly flew by. There were times when I was surprised by just how much percentage I worked through. I blinked and I finished it. Really cute, sapphic comfort book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Literally PR Ltd for allowing me to read and arc of this book.

Big Island follows the story of two high school seniors who meet when they take a summer journalism course. After parting on bad terms, they have a second chance when, by a twist of fate, they meet again a year later.

After reading the synopsis, I was worried that the story might be quite angsty, but actually it had very low angst and was a very enjoyable and fairly light read. I also found the topics for the stories they investigated really interesting and they tackled very important subjects like racism and homelessness.

The hardest part about the book for me, personally, was the fact that one of the characters grandparents bred and raced greyhounds and they’re my favourite animal on the planet, but her family are meant to be unlikeable, so I guess they were just extra unlikeable in my case. Thankfully the racing was only referenced though and never written about in detail.