Tee Franklin

A challenge to this graphic novel in the teen section at the Swansea Public Library led me to read it. It's delightful. A young girl whose parents kick her out for being gay runs to her grandmother, who understands: when she was a girl, Hazel and her new classmate and best friend, Mari, fell in love, but their families threatened to disown them and quickly married them off to men. The women discovered each other several decades later at church bingo and reconnected. When they realize they show more still feel the same way, Hazel takes the major step of leaving her husband and marrying Mari; their grown children have realistic reactions to this but eventually come around. show less

It's dumb, sexy fun as Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy take a road trip between seasons two and three of the animated series on HBOMax. They're trying to lay low, but of course end up involved in all sorts of shenanigans and hijinks . . . and beds, many beds.

I enjoy the show, and this book does a good job of capturing its salty, crude, and bawdy tone. And like the show, the plot doesn't necessarily make sense, but that's okay, because the relationship between Ivy and Harley is all that matters. show more And they are relationshipping all over the place here.

And with Max Sarin providing the art, it's like the show is having an unofficial crossover with John Allison's Giant Days. Bonus! show less

Pretty much the perfect Valentine's Day read!

(Full disclosure: I receive a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss.)

Hazel and Mari met at a church bingo game in 1963. The girls became fast friends and, four years later, their friendship blossomed into something more. Before they'd had a chance to exchange even a handful of kisses, though, their secret was discovered, and the girls were forcibly separated by their families. Mari was sent to live down South, and both girls were forced to marry show more men chosen for them by their relatives.

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Forty-eight years, eight children, and many grandchildren later, another chance meeting reunites the star-crossed lovers, giving each of them a second shot at happiness.

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Bingo Love is such an achingly sweet and beautiful story, and I kind of love that its major imprint release is on Valentine's Day. It made me laugh and cry - sometimes at the same time - and I'm not ashamed to say that the ending had me ugly crying onto my cat. The conclusion loops back into the beginning in a way that's pure magic. (I actually had an a-hah! lightbulb moment when I realized what Franklin had done.)

The art is fantastically gorgeous, too: the colors, the outfits, the different styles of the times. Hazel and Mari are both fabulous AF: Hazel, with her oversized Iris Apfel glasses; Mari, with that bitchin', DGAF white streak in her hair. This book oozes style, and it's only fitting that Hazel takes the fashion world by storm for her second act.

Really my only complaint is that the dialogue sometimes feels stilted; unnatural, even ... but don't let this stop you from falling in love with the world Franklin and St-Onge built here. Bingo Love is a story that's positively brimming with heart. Not to mention compassion and diversity. More, please.

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I read the original edition of Bingo Love, and stand by my assessment of that: a bittersweet - though heavy on the sweet - romance that succeeds in spite of some odd and unnecessary sci-fi elements...

The story was worth a re-read, and I was glad to see the side stories frustratingly mentioned but not included in the original edition. They don't add a lot, but their presence still makes this is a better package.