Probably one of the most realistic depictions of gay teenagers I have ever read. Of course, reading something from Jacqueline Wilson is always going to involve a nostalgia trip, but Lord this one took me back - way, way back - to being a gay teenager at fourteen desperately in love with one girl in my class and hoping and praying that it would all turn out the way I wanted it to. Almost 15 years later and I can't believe I was ever that naive. And then I read this book and I can absolutely believe I was. Of course, the writing is rudimentary because it is, after all, written for younger kids, but if you're between the ages of 12 and 16 and you want to read something about self-discovery that is realistic then this is absolutely the book for you. I read this book because I wanted to see how Jacqueline Wilson was holding up in the 2020s, and also because I was excited because it was her first book with a gay main character (Kiss doesn't count, as Sylvie isn't gay), but I mostly read it because as a school librarian in a secondary school in the UK, I feel I should be reading these kind of things to get an idea of what kids are reading nowadays and also what kind of books I should be getting for the library. For a secondary school library, this book is perfect. ( )

Ok but I think I love this book-
I love how honest it is. Jaqueline isn’t afraid to write about the hard stuff in kid’s lives, and coming out and falling in love as a young person I believe isn’t really talked about enough in literature. I loved Sam and Frankie’s friendship, but I absolutely despised Sally. I don’t read a lot of Jacqueline Wilson’s books anymore. In fact, I haven’t picked one up since I was 10 years old. However, when I saw this book in the store I desperately wanted to read it. I suggest you do the same. Overall, I loved it! I give it a four simply because of the ending. It’s kinda a paper towns (by John green) style ending. You like the book, but the ending doesn’t give it justice!! ( )

Jacqueline Wilson brings us the story of when Frankie falls in love with Sally, another girl in her class.

I really enjoy Jacqueline Wilson books, and I read this one really quickly.

If you have read a lot of Jacqueline Wilson's, you will definitely feel very comfortable - there are many of the usual tropes here. In fact, maybe slightly too many. Perhaps because it's aiming at more early-secondary-school and less late-primary, it is a longer book than many of them (and sadly lacking the wonderful illustrations I really enjoy) and does read a bit like Jacqueline Wilson bingo. Divorced parents, mother with a degenerative disease, squabbling sisters who make up in the end, finding out about step-siblings, boys who fancy you when you don't fancy them, heroes who want to be authors and write stories, bullies at school, learning you can be friends with the less cool kids who are actually nice, famous books casually name dropped into the novel.

I think the thing I liked least about the book was actually the most interesting thing, which is that Sally, the love interest, is just not actually very nice. The book starts with her bullying Frankie really cruelly, and the U turn where they have a heart to heart and Frankie just falls for her is very sudden. Which is an interesting set up - this isn't a tale about True Love, it's a tale about what to do when you get an unsuitable crush but your emotions are 100% - but I was looking for more of a love story where I could root for the heroines, and I spent too much of this book actually wishing she'd just fall for the cute boy next door, which is not what I really wanted from Jacqueline Wilson's first girl-girl romance.

It's well drawn though. There aren't that many books about that manic-pixie-dream-girl, everyone-on-a-string kind of character that Sally is, and it walks the line of saying that this sort of behaviour isn't ok but not actually condemning Sally as a totally horrific human being.

And it ends with Frankie getting a bit of a backbone and telling Sally what she needs in a relationship, and being prepared to leave if she doesn't get it, which feels like a pretty good model of how to deal with this sort of thing in real life.

It's a long time since I was at school, and an even longer time since Jacqueline Wilson was, I'm not sure how realistic the responses to an out pair of 13 year old girls are. We get a bit of mild eeugh, and a bit of the typical male 'ooh, can I watch', but basic acceptance. Likewise, Frankie's parents are both a bit concerned but broadly supportive. Maybe the message 'there's still going to be a bit of weird mild homophobia but it'll mostly be OK' is true nowadays?

[Which reminds me, the Frankie's Dad story line is one of my favourite bits of the book. He has basically run off with a hot woman from work and left, tried to come back when he found out his ex was ill, but left again two weeks later, and now is completely moving on planning his wedding and his new baby. He is so ridiculously weak, doing very little to help his first family, and trying to bribe Frankie back to liking him. And he is so hilariously rubbish when Frankie comes out to him, 'I get it now! This is just a reaction to me leaving your mother!' So gloriously egocentric and dim, trying to do the right things but so clumsily. You roll your eyes at him, you feel a tiny bit sorry for him even though most of his mess is his own doing, he's a glorious foil to everyone telling Frankie _her_ feelings are ridiculous because she's just 13, and while Frankie is a bit irritating when she's being around Sally or Sam, the way she tries to handle the relationship with her dad and her mum makes you really fall for her, she's a real star.]

I thought Sally's 'I'm not into labels like gay, I just want to have a good time, it's just not cool to be so serious and mushy-romantic, yeah, I probably would feel the same if you were a boy and embarrassing me like this at school all the time' was well drawn. Although you do feel like JW has met a lot of annoying bi manic-pixie-dream-girls who didn't want what she wanted and is getting her own therapy out in this book... ( )