I absolutely loved this book. It captured the pains of adolescence and discovering your identity and making peace with the parts of yourself you may not yet love. Lou was a genuine joy to read through the eyes of and I wish there were more!

A refreshing and devouring read.

I read this recently and have now seen this in my local bookstore and was so excited to see it there so everyone else can enjoy it as much as i did.

I liked how this was a queer romance but it wasn’t like in your face and wasn’t about discovering yourself it was a just a natural story of romance.

I cannot wait to see what else this author brings out x

"To the messy queer kids. Thank you for being unapologetically yourselves." To have this be the dedication is interesting, in the sense that it almost sets the scene for what the readers are about to walk into almost.
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"It's hard to explain, that feeling of desperately wanting to do something but being totally, painfully, incapable of doing it." That sounds like a classic case of executive dysfunction. And it's difficult to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it that executive dysfunction affects someone's ability to do both enjoyable and unenjoyable things. People like to assume that executive dysfunction only affects the things that the person doesn't want to do (in this case, homework and revision), but that's not how it works, and I like that that's shown in this book.
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And can we talk about this line. "You make it incredibly difficult not to watch you, Eloise." Dude, can someone explain to me how Lou didn't realise that Isabel liked her? That sentence alone screams 'I'm in love with you'. And there are plenty of other lines and whole scenes that are just screaming with tension.
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There are many tropes, especially in romantic fiction, that I'm not too fond of. The miscommunication trope is one of them. Literally every single one of the issues that Lou has with Isabel, and the issues that she has with Lily could absolutely be fixed with effective communication. It frustrates me to no end. But that didn't make me like the book, plot or characters any less.
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Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC copy of this book.

Liverpool's like home. I've visited a few times, and it is so full of generations of Irish people and Irish culture; we share a lot of slang with Scousers, and we share the same sense of humour, for sure. So, reading a Liverpudlian Sapphic YA debut? Count me in immediately for the ARC!
And what a dazzling, wearing-your-pyjamas-out-in-public Grand Gesture of an ode to teendom Egan has written! Without even finishing the first chapter, 'Lover Birds' went immediately onto my five-star shelf.
In it, I found that distinctive Liverpudlian warmth and spirit, as well as passion and a delightful shrewdness in this group of seventeen-year-olds. There's nothing gladdens me more than authors endowing young adult characters with high levels of emotional intelligence. Lou, as a protagonist, is especially affecting.
Watching her have a laughably similar revelation of her sexuality to my own, just brought home how true-to-life, how convincing, how heartfelt Egan's characters are. Characterisation absolutely dazzles, like I say. And representation? All the gold stars! In fact, I can swear that I've never before read the lived experience of ADHD through a main character's eyes that has given me such a genuine insight into the condition. It's fair to say that 'Lover Birds' ended up educating me about the condition - and I used to be an English teacher, just like Ms Price, so shame on me for the apparently shallow understanding I'd previously held!
Deep, deep thanks to HarperCollins Children's, and to Leanne Egan. I will be eagerly awaiting what comes next from Egan - a true standout debut of 2024.

I don’t think this was a book for me, by the end Id definitely warmed to them more but i found both of the main characters so unlikeable it made the first half of the book feel like a chore to get through.

I love a good enemies to lovers but this just felt so sudden between the two and the relationship itself a little forced; after they actually communicated I really was rooting for the two of them together.

One thing I did really love in this book was the female friendship representation; at a young age with so many different things going on the messiness of this friendship group was something I think any girl can relate to. Watching them navigate so many different parts of their lives together was probably my favourite part of the book.

I don’t think this was a bad read at all and I think it will be so well liked by certain YA readers.

I was really disappointed in this book, I couldn’t get bored with the writing style at all, I would have DNFd if I wasn’t reviewing it. Such a shame but I really disliked it

I have to admit, I do love a good pride & prejudice adaption and this book is definitely a good one!
I knew while reading the first page, that Lou is queer and fell for Iz, but she didn’t realise.

”but I can’t take my eyes off the fancy-suit girl.“

So, the whole time I loved the dynamic and tension between Lou & Iz. How they started as rivals and then became friends and Iz began to find ways to help Lou coping with her ADHD.
I really loved how authentic her ADHD problems felt and I could totally understand why she was against the medication.

”This world just isn’t built for brains like yours. That was never your fault.“

All in all, this is a perfekt coming of age book with a really good representation of ADHD and a fcking perfekt romance.

This book hit hard in places. Although I’m autistic, rather than having ADHD, the crossover between the two means that this was a very familiar story to me. I didn’t have the attention problems, but it certainly took me at least three times the effort of a neurotypical person to actually study. There were many parts of the book that just completely hit home.

The relationship was cute. I loved it when they were in their little bubble exploring Liverpool. I liked it a bit less when their problems started to arise, partly because I didn’t like Isabel that much, but I liked that the story and the characters recognised that they were problems that she had to deal with. They didn’t just have her apologise and be forgiven, it’s something that she’s actually gonna have to work on. I felt that was a really healthy way to fix the relationship and more true to life.

I’ve seen people call this a love letter to Liverpool and that is something that I definitely saw myself. The author’s love for the city and it’s distinct culture can be seen clearly throughout the book.

If there’s someone in your life with ADHD this would be a great book to read to help understand the pressures they’re facing.

Lover Birds by Leanne Egan is both a happy book and a sad book, above love, neurodiversity and homosexuality, exploring these topics in a beautiful way for a young adult audience. It is the start of the sixth form, where things get much harder academically, and most people start preparing for University applications. This is made even harder when Isabel moves to Liverpool from London and is paired with Elouise from the first day, who is also struggling with her new ADHD diagnosis. Isabel and Lou have an incredible love-hate relationship, where they progress from being frenemies to entering a relationship, Lou having never considered she may be a lesbian. However, the story takes a turn for the worse when Lou and Imogen question whether they are compatible with each other. Will they be able to lead a happy romantic relationship? You should read this book to find out!

I absolutely loved this book; it was an incredible read! Starting with the story itself, it is a somewhat unique romance novel (if you can even call it that), which is really nice and full of drama from the start, which makes this an incredibly gripping book. I found it difficult to put this book down because of how addictive and beautiful it was! This book was also hilarious throughout, but one of the parts which had me laughing out loud was the reference to one of the characters saying, "You're a brand-new honorary Scouser". I also loved how this book explored the topics of ADHD and homosexuality in some detail, which is arguably relevant for the target market who may not only be trying to discover their own identities but particularly for those who are neurodiverse; there is very little literature out there featuring neurodiverse characters, especially for the young adult age range. It was also outstanding to see some practical advice on how to manage one's ADHD whilst studying, or just general study advice that is relevant for anyone, explored in this book. This book, therefore, was not just entertainment but of practical value for school and academia.

As a reader, I loved all the references to books and reading throughout this book, which was particularly explored through Isobel and Lou, both taking English Literature at A Level and studying Pride and Prejudice, amongst others. This theme was also explored further through the character of Isobel, who was a fan of not only Lesbian literature but also the classics. I loved all the references to the classics mentioned in this book, particularly this one spoken by Lou:
"...the last term of the school year is shaping up to be a circle of hell that Dante ended up cutting from the final draft because it felt like a bit much."
I was really surprised in a good way to see such a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy in a young adult book, not only by Lou, who is not portrayed as a reader but because this is a book which I feel that very few people, especially young adults, really read. It was, therefore, such a joy to see this subtle link to Dante, whose Divine Comedy I have read myself, thanks to one of my teachers at GCSE!

There is nothing I disliked about this book. Throughout the book, there were places where the plot could have gone different ways and still have been just as interesting and gripping, but ultimately, even though some of these alternative plots may have been even more gripping or, in fact, interesting, Egan does an incredible job at writing such a beautiful story.

I am now going to discuss the theme of neurodiversity presented in this book in more detail. This is because I have read some books, both fiction and non-fiction, featuring this theme, but they all seem to go on about how great it is to be neurodiverse and/or start complaining about certain aspects of it. In my opinion, Egan presented alternative opinions, which I am sure many people share, which are not usually present in literature, and this was especially powerful being through Lou. Lou, for instance, shares that "I hate that word. Neurotypical. I'm neurodivergent, apparently. Just a fancy medical way to say insufferable if you ask me". To me, this really points out how so many people are given labels but, more often than not, are treated differently because of these labels and not given the support they deserve.

This leads many neurodiverse individuals to feel that they must mask or change to fit in, but this book addresses this issue really well when it mentions that

"nobody's asking you to change who you are. This world just isn't built for brains like yours. That was never your fault".
I am sure that for a neurodivergent young adult reading this book, it will be very valuable to see this because there are not many other books (or other media in general) to which they can relate. Similarly, many neurodivergent teenagers will likely question,

"If the problem is a world that won't accommodate me, why should I have to take meds to help my brain accommodate it?".
Through Lou's neurodivergent, young adults can feel heard and represented and be able to reflect on Lou's experiences in their own lives.

Altogether, I have found it very difficult to decide on what rating to give this book, but after much consideration, I have decided that this book can only be given 5 stars as it is an outstanding, incredibly well written and gripping book which is not only a beautiful and unique romance, but also explores many bigger themes which you usually expect to see in the classics. I really hope to see this book become one of those classics exploring themes of neurodiversity and homosexuality and the problems we have in the current society with these groups of individuals not being completely accepted and accommodated. I thoroughly recommend this book to everyone. Hopefully, you will find it a really great book and learn something new, but also have a laugh and maybe shed some tears. I must thank both NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book in return for an honest book review.

This is a spectacular novel which is even more impressive when considering the fact that it is a debut novel!

When Isabel moves to Liverpool, she and Eloise immediately get off to a bad start. Eloise thinks Isabel is a stuck-up posh brat while Isabel thinks Eloise is.... well brash and bold. When their English teacher makes Isabel tutor Eloise (who's struggling with school and her recent ADHD diagnosis), she quickly and unexpectedly finds herself becoming part of Eloise's friend group, but that does NOT make them friends... right?

A perfectly executed enemies-to-lovers romance that has so much heart to make the story rich and full, the side characters added to the story nicely but most importantly it was just really well written and with a YA concept like this one, being well written can uplift a good idea to a great novel. Just the depiction of teenagers felt very realistic, a lot of YA novels either write teenagers as wayy too young for their actual age or have them act like adults. This book did a good job of nailing that 17-18 year old age.

I will definitely be grabbing a physical copy of this and recommending it to everyone!

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK

Excellent book! Must read! Loved the characters very true to life. Very relatable! I look forward to reading more works from this author

This is a tender and funny story which tells the story of girl meets girl, they hate each other and then fall in love.
I just loved Eloise’s character – her boldness, her vulnerability, and her loyalty. Her ADHD was wonderfully represented, as was her burgeoning relationship with Isabel. I would have liked to read more about Isabel's back story but I guess that's another book! Eloise's mum and her friends were also relatable and likeable - even Lily, who made my heart ache. The representation of toxic masculinity and the challenges of school (and exams) are excellent. This is also a love song to Liverpool. I would strongly recommend this book.

*4.25 Stars*

I liked this book. I saw the relation to Pride and Prejudice at the beginning but after a while I kind of lost it. It was well written and a fast read, which I always love and I had a good time reading it. The main character was layered and I liked her a lot, I also enjoyed the depiction of ADHD. (that sounds weird but you know what I mean)
However, I don't think this one will really stay with me? But that just means I can reread it to infitnity.
Overall, a good debut that kept me entertained. I can't wait to read more books by Leanne Egan!

This book is definitely one of the best books i've read this year so far! The Pride and Prejudice references were so clever and also the direct quotes!!!!! Hello!? How is not everybody going crazy about this book?!

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

It isn’t often you have an honest representation of ADHD in girls. That was why I wanted to read it and seeing Lou’s daily struggles, I saw my own. It’s hard, as someone with ADHD to manage all aspects of your life without letting one or two parts drop - something that is accurately shown to us, without sugarcoating.

Also seeing so many different parts of our gorgeous rainbow on the page. And the reminder that it’s okay to not have it all figured out right away. I’ve been Lou, so I get it. 🧡

I just wasn’t convinced by Lily’s storyline. As an adult who’s done safeguarding- this should have been resolved with teachers/police. I get it was furthering other storylines, but it perpetuates that men get off without being held accountable for their crimes. (And yes, it is a crime)

Overall, enjoyable and cute. Smashed it out for the most part in one day. And it’s nice to see a book take part in Liverpool!

A gentle non-issue "issues" teen romcom. - with Scousers!

Girl meets girl, girl hates girl at first sight, girls go on magical beach trip... meanwhile, ADHD, chronic shyness, manipulative teen ex-boyfriends, running, the sights and sounds of Liverpool, romance here, there and everywhere: I swear, if you just genderflipped Heartstopper and added more issues, you might get this, only you'd be wrong. Lou, our Liverpudlian protagonist, is trying hard to deal with her new ADHD diagnosis in her own way, even as her best friend group are dealing with each of their own issues, until Londoner new girl Isabel joins and then the story gets going.

A gentle, mildly humorous romcom, with some light swearing, and with cameos from real Liverpool landmarks, including the Liver Birds, this reps Merseyside and neurodivergence and queer love. Nothing groundbreaking but certainly satisfying.

Four stars.

First of all thank you to NetGalley and Harperfire for the advanced copy of this wonderful YA debut novel!

Back to the book. It is hard to believe this is debut novel. I fell into the world Leanne had written sp easily. They are a born writer and look forward to more stories from them especially after what they described as their wip during book launch.

This is a pride and Prejudice for the modern world and with a sapphic love story at its centre. It also shows the journey of someone post diagnosis for adhd.

The story is in POV of Eloise 'Lou' and she is far from perfect and is a very real character to root for. Isabelle is the Darcy and again is far from perfect. These two go from enemies to lovers and discover lots about each other and themselves the biggest thing being that being in love does not solve all problems and communication is key!

The other characters in the book are wonderful mixture of personalities and took me back to uni/sixth form days when you find your weird people for life (I've still got mine)

This is also a love story to Liverpool. A city often portrayed horrifically this story tears down those preconceptions and shows the Liverpool I know and love.

Cannot recommend enough. Excellent YA debut

This was an amazing read, I would recommend it over and over.

Sometimes in books ADHD isn't portrayed well, however this book was so accurate, especially with the fear of rejection. The way Leanne Egan wrote her characters made it feel as if I could understand completely what they were experiencing.

As for everyone knowing Eloise was gay before she even knew; that was relatable considering that's exactly what happened to me. These characters were so lovable and relatable, the friendship dynamic was sweet.

Overall; I loved this book. The miscommunication trope isn't one I enjoy, but the make-up between Eloise and Isabel was worth it.

I want a book about Wil, want to learn more about them! And Benji, he was a fun character.

Oh my GOSH I cannot tell you how much I loved this book. Honestly just the most perfect YA romance with such a refreshingly clear focus on class and privilege. I don't usually enjoy enemies-to-lovers but this was done so well (and in any case was more accurately enemies-to-friends-to-lovers). And I just about wilted away with joy when - mild spoiler alert - Lou finally figured out that Isabel is queer because of the books she was browsing in (iconic Liverpool radical bookshop) News From Nowhere like has there EVER been a cuter way for a character to be sort of outed?

This book was absolutely delightful! There characters were messy and complicated but realistic and the references to other books where everything! So many moments had me giggling-kicking-my-feet and I'm just as much in love with Liverpool now as Lou is.
Thank you so much for the ARC!