Just Juliet Paperback – September 16, 2016

Lena comes from an upper-middle class loving family, has a gorgeous football boyfriend, and great friends. Perfect, right? Close, but not quite. While Lena's parents may love her, their lives are consumed with their careers, barely qualifying them as actual parents. And her boyfriend? Well, he may be cute and nicer than she thinks she may deserve, their relationship is void of any romantic feelings, especially on her part.Enter Juliet.Juliet is the new girl at school. She's tall, beautiful, fun, and artistic. Lena finds herself quickly preoccupied with her, not understanding why. As their friendship deepens, she begins to realise that she is physically/sexually attracted and borderline obsessed with her. Never having questioned her sexuality before, and having dated boys exclusively, Lena goes through a period of confusion, trying to make sense of her feelings. She searches her past, researches the topic, and confides in her gay friend, Scott. At the end of this journey, Lena discovers and learns to accept that she is bisexual.Just Juliet touches on, not only the topic of self discovery, but the struggles of "coming out". It deals with a variety of situations ranging from love and acceptance to physical end emotional abuse, drug abuse, self-harm, and suicidality. Reagan does a wonderful job of incorporating a huge range of real-life struggles for homosexual and bisexual teens without deflecting from the story or bogging it down.Although I don't recommend Just Juliet to young readers do to the sexual nature of the story and the language (that seemed to increase as the book progressed), I do think that it's an important read, evoking much needed compassion.Disclosure: When I received a review request for Just Juliet, it was perfect timing. I had just completed my last book review and was searching for another YA.(I've limited my reading to YA for the time being to help my creative juices while working on Almana's second book.) The email didn't include much of a premise, and I had no idea that it was about a girl coming to terms with her bisexuality and falling in love with another girl. When I figured this out, after agreeing to review it, I thought about backing out and citing my Christian beliefs. But I thought better of it. Ultimately, as a Christian, I am a humanitarian. I strongly believe that I have no right to force anything on anyone. This includes my faith, my sexual beliefs, my vegetarianism, or heck, my love for my sweet kitty, Triscuit. I live my life according to my conscience, and I will not judge, I refuse to judge, someone for doing the same. I love and accept people wholly. In the end, I came to realise that the reason why I was thinking about backing out of reading and reviewing Just Juliet was because I was afraid of others questioning my faith. My faith and convictions are strong, and I see this an opportunity to shine in that faith, showing others that faith should equal love and compassion not hatred and judgement.Some food for thought...Fact: You choose who enter into a relationship with.Fact: You cannot choose what you are attracted to. Clothing, hair style, rough and rugged, lean and athletic, soft and round, male or female.What if you woke up tomorrow and your religious text had changed? What if it were wrong to be heterosexual? You love your spouse/partner and find them physically attractive. You could choose to remain with them and have a loving, fulfilling relationship. Or you could do what is right and choose to end the relationship and remain single, never to be loved or love again. Never to be touched or desired. Or you could enter into a homosexual relationship, looking for some sort of companionship, only to find that it is empty and lonely. Yeah, s/he is a great friend, but you want love! Not an easy choice after all. Is it?

his book probably should be THE book a teenager (or actually anyone) reads if they are questioning their sexuality or want to come out to loved ones. It showcases the good, the bad and the ugly….without glossing anything over. Take for instance Scott’s coming out to his parents. For me, that is the worst case scenario. It is the bad and the ugly all rolled into one and I was in tears reading it. Not to get preachy but you loved your child before he/she was born….why should that change because of who THEY love or what gender they identify with? Maybe I am in the minority but if my son or my daughters came up to me and said “Hey, Mom, I think I am gay/bisexual/trans (just sticking to the basics here but you get my gist)”, I wouldn’t be throwing them out. I wouldn’t be screaming at them “I didn’t raise a f--t or a d--e or assaulting their SO’s (like Scott’s father did to Lakyn). Like I said above, they are your children. You carried them in your body and molded them into who they are. I can’t understand WHY anyone would choose to act like that to their own flesh and blood. Strike that, I do and its called IGNORANCE and FEAR.Ok now that I went off that tangent, let’s continue with the review….lol.Juliet’s father, for me, was the best case scenario. He knew his daughter was a lesbian and could really care less. Actually, Juliet did explain why he was so tolerant but you need to read the book to find out why (I know, I’m awful).I honestly didn’t connect with Lena, at first. I don’t know why, she just didn’t really jive with me….at first. I think it was that while she was very attracted to Juliet, she didn’t know how to express herself to her (as weird as that sounds). But once she did, and oh boy was that scene funny, she all of a sudden got more likeable and by the end of the book, I loved her. Her coming out scene to her parents was bittersweet, especially after what Scott told her about how his parents reacted.Juliet, I absolutely loved. She was that girl that everyone stopped to look at because she commanded attention and she didn’t take anything from anyone (the scene at the football game stands out in my mind the most). She was out and proud and I loved it. While she was definitely more experienced than Lena, she slowed it way down and to it at Lena’s pace.The secondary characters totally made the book too. Lakyn, Scott, Lacey (OMG, she had me in tears laughing at points in the book and you couldn’t have asked for a better best friend).The ending was great. It really wasn’t a HEA per say but it was close to it.How many stars will I give Just Juliet? 5Why? It is just a really well written book that explores all sides of coming out to parents and friends. It is also a book about first love.Will I reread? YesWill I recommend to family and friends? YesAge Range: TeenWhy: No sex but some scenes of making out, language.**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**

When Lena first saw Juliet her whole world shifted on its axis. Lena, a football player dating girl who was neither popular nor unpopular, had her life mapped out in front of her, just like her parents had hoped. Her growing fascination with the beautiful new girl, Juliet, puts her on a journey of self-discovery that leads her onto a path that both terrifies her and feels right.This is a story about a young girl and her sexual identity. A novel about coming of age and coming out. It is sweet and endearing, emotionally charged, and full of lingering sensuality. The story spans more than a year in Lena’s life and we get to see the changes that are sparked by Juliet’s presence and the effect that she has on her.The story is beautifully written and really invokes an emotional response. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and it brought tears to my eyes several times. It is a young person’s must-read but also a good insight for parents who don’t understand their children’s choices.

I may be a middle aged woman but I still enjoy a largely pain-free young adult 'coming out' story now and again! This certainly fits the bill as Lena falls for Juliet and finds a label she's happy with - bisexual. Lots of kissing and no sex (between Lena and Juliet anyway - references to Scott and Lakyn's sex life are fairly plentiful!). The characters around them are well drawn and colourful - Lena's best friend Lacey in particular is a scream! Some pain and angst near the end but fortunately the author keeps it short and ultimately sweet. Not my absolute favourite of this genre (which is still ME Tudor's "Suddenly") but recommended nevertheless, not to mention a complete bargain at 99p currently! If you liked this, try the aforementioned "Suddenly" and "Time it Right" by Siera Maley (actually anything by Siera Maley - and if you want bisexual rather than pure gay, then take a look at that author's "Dating Sarah Cooper" and/or "On the Outside"...)

This was a great story that really did surprise me. It didn't follow exactly the same story line as similar books, it had something a little different. I really liked the fact that there wasn't a huge stress on sex in this book, and it concentrated instead on the emotional relationships between the characters. There were one or two characters that were quite flat, and it made it hard to understand if they were joking or being serious. Lacey in particular at times I thought that she flew a bit too close with some of the jokes. There was also quite a bit of voyeuristic interest in the male gay couple relationship in the book (I don't want to spoiler with names), which I thought was a bit over the top.There were a few typos - (too versus to), and a few grammatical errors (passed/past) that could be fixed with a good edit. Overall a good read, with a few reservations and the need for a good proofing.

This book is absolutely great. The writing is slightly clumsy at first but flowed better towards the end. This book was amazing and I love how all the characters were very relatable. The ending is a rollercoaster but its amazing and interesting. It's so real how this book 's portrayed and I recommend to anyone who is figuring out who they are etc but is a strong thing on its own. If youre looking for a lgbt contemporary read, I do highly recommend to read this book as it can be cheesy it's still not too overbearing.

I really enjoyed this book but found it a bit too emotional at the end. It wasn't the end I wanted, made me feel their commitment wasn't equal - it disappointed me. If there had been an another couple of chapters confirming the outcome that would have been much better.