Stacee's Reviews > Our Own Private Universe

I wanted to love this book. I love the cover and I was excited to read a love story between girls. Sadly I was a bit disappointed and since I'm not sure how to break it down, I'll do bullet points.

What I loved:

•A girl/girl romance. Aki and Christa have some very sweet moments together.

• Sex was talked about openly between them and safe sex was researched and in the moment.

•Sexuality and the characters struggling to figure out what they identified with: being bi or straight or gay or pan. There was even talk of romantic/sexual attraction.

•It showed the struggle kids have with coming out to their parents.

•Aki's dad is one of the best. He says some amazing and supportive things.

What I hated:

•There's an insane amount of drama. Yes, teenage girls and hormones, but JFC this was A LOT OF DRAMA.

•The lying. Aki lies about stupid things. Like she doesn't tell people her favorite song. Oh, in her head, she constantly talks about having one, but won't tell people because she thinks it's stupid. By the end, it seemed like everyone was lying about something, but her stupid lies were stupid.

•The bullying. There's one kid who is constantly getting picked on. It doesn't ever explain why and there wasn't a resolution and that irritated me.

Overall, even though I thought about DNFing, I kept reading for some reason. I'm sure a lot of people will love this and I definitely think the sexuality/coming out aspect is important for readers.

**Huge thanks to Harlequin Teen and Edelweiss for providing the arc free of charge**