Book Highlight: Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

Title: Honey Girl

Author: Morgan Rogers

Publisher: Park Row Books

Publication Date: February 23, 2021

Genre: Women’s Fiction, Romance

When becoming an adult means learning to love yourself first.

With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She’s a straight A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that.

This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her parent’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows.

In New York, she’s able to ignore all the constant questions about her future plans and falls hard for her creative and beautiful wife, Yuki Yamamoto. But when reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.

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Why This Book

Honey Girl was largely marketed as a romance, featuring two women who woke up married in Vegas and neither having any idea who the other was. But most of the book was focused on only one of them, Grace, and what she wanted to do with the rest of her life after receiving her doctorate as she’s a woman of color in a predominantly male field. While this one deeply touched me and I appreciated it as women’s fiction, this turned out to be one either readers could identify with or weren’t fans of because the romance was not a large part.

But I chose this book because Grace and Yuki’s relationship is a part of Grace’s story. Their time together was awkward and sweet as they navigated being married, yet knowing nothing about each other. There are ups and downs, especially while Grace is in NYC and staying with Yuki. I enjoyed how they let each other into their worlds, but things were definitely not always perfect. Overall, their romance, while not a huge a part of the story as might be expected, was sweet and required both of them to put in the work and open their hearts. Both women also have some incredible friends, all of them queer, and all of them always there to support each other.

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Reviews

My review: “They were so adorable together, yet so awkward as they navigated a blossoming marriage. I loved reading about how they got to know each other and kept their hearts open yet protected as they explored each other. There were good times and not so good times, but I loved reading about how they let each other into their worlds, how they admired and supported each other”

Skye from Ideally Inspired Reviews rated it 3.5, saying “Watching Yuki and Grace fall in love was heartwarming. They had an indescribable connection from the moment they met on the page. I loved watching them get to know each other” 

Angie from Pinkadot Pages gave it a 2.5, saying of the romance “They don’t get to know each other beyond names and occupations. They do have a fight and Yuki asks if Grace ever figured her into her life plans, which made no sense. They just met!”

Michelle from Magical Reads gave it 3.75 stars, saying “this isn’t a romance genre book so it’s not super heavy on the romance after a certain part. That being said, I did love Yuki and how she helps Grace grow. They have such a soft love and I couldn’t help but smile at their scenes”

Kes from Book of the Gay highly recommended it, saying this “is the sapphic romance novel for all anxious mid to late-twenties millennials out there”

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Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Harlequin | Powell’s | Bookshop | Target | Audible | Hoopla | Walmart | !ndigo | Blackwell’s (UK)

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