Style Paperback – August 12, 2016

I am ashamed to admit that it took me until sitting down to write this review to figure out why the title is Style. Stella and Kyle. Duh! Stella is the pretty, popular, cheerleader who everyone thinks is a *!tch. Kyle is a bit of a nerd with overbearing parents. When Stella transfers into AP English, Kyle is not happy. Especially when they're paired up for a project. But Kyle can't stop staring at Stella and noticing how pretty she is. She also catches a few moments of Stella being a nice person. Meanwhile, Stella has sworn off dating and coming out until college, but Kyle is exactly her type and making things quite difficult.I'll start with that I didn't like about Style. The beginning was a bit rough. Kyle and her friends are constantly calling Stella a *!tch. It's like the only word that they have for her. We don't really see Stella acting in a way to earn that title, so it rubbed me the wrong way. But Stella refers to herself in this way as well, and owns it. It's actually a front that she's putting on because of some past trauma. I'm not sure if her actually purposely being a *!tch makes it okay for Kyle and Grace to call her one, but it does make it seem like they're not just saying it for no reason. If that makes sense. Of course, it does stop when Kyle gets to know Stella, and Stella tells her about her past.What I liked about Style was...just about everything else! There's lots of friction and tension between Stella and Kyle at first, and then they just explode! Basically, they channel all of that energy into making out. Stella already knows that she's gay and that she plans on dating in college. Kyle has no clue. She's dated boys and it was okay, but suddenly Stella is all that she can think about! Neither girl is sure if they should come out now or wait, but they do want to be together and hiding isn't exactly ideal. I did really enjoy the coming out aspects of the story. They do it on their own terms.I also appreciated that the author includes frank discussions of masturbation and sex in Style. Self love is not the territory of dudes; girls do it too! It's about time that that's acknowledged. Kyle and Stella also have sex on the page! It's nothing graphic, but it's certainly not vague. Kyle's mom even has a bit of sex talk with her, so hooray for involved parenting even when it's awkward!Clearly, I really liked Style once we got past those first few chapters. Kyle and Stella are wonderful together and seeing them navigate coming out and first love together made me giddy.

“This girl was probably going to wreck me and I was going to stand there and let her.”+ • + • + • +Ooo… this story got me feeling… all that comfy, warm, cuddly type of goodness you know. It's just sweet, tender, secure, inviting, glowing all over, peace & love feels that only comes from a genuine romance story —or hot chocolate with marshmallows on a cool night. It was just awesome!

Kyle and Stella are in their senior year of high school. They have seen each other over the years but never really talked or anything like that, in fact, Kyle (and pretty much everyone in their school) doesn't think very nicely of Stella, something the latter encourages with her behavior. After they're paired up for a project, they begin to develop feelings for one another, which are confusing for Kyle, considering herself straight, and inconvenient for Stella, who knows she's gay but didn't expect to do anything about it until college.And it's a pretty simple coming of age/coming out story. As predictable as you'd expect and with very little drama, and I think that's fine. Not every coming out story needs to be negative or overly dramatic.There wasn't a lot of character development (and speaking of characters, Kate walks with a limp, which I thought was nice to include), and sometimes it was hard for me to differentiate between their voices (it's told in the first person, from both POVs and it would also alternate between them in the same chapter), but I found the story cute and sweet and had me smiling throughout most of the book. Maybe I was just in the right mood for it!

Super easy read! I loved Kyle and Stella. It was such a sweet story with a little bit of angst and a lot of cursing! ( loved it).

3 stars — This one had potential, and I was excited to read another F/F, but unfortunately it fell flat. The storyline was actually kind of boring, there was barely any conflict. I mean, I don’t mind lots of happy times, but there has to be something driving the story.The editing was HORRIBLE. And this is coming from someone who forgives a lot when it comes to editing, b/c I know it can be expensive, and nobody catches everything. BUT, in addition to the typos and other grammar problems, the author completely botched the whole dialogue thing, so most of the time you really had to sort through it to figure out who was speaking, and even then it was hard to tell. Basically she would have actions of the other character in the same paragraph of the current speaker, and so it was impossible to follow who was speaking and when it changed. When it’s a challenge to read, then it needs to be (re)edited. There were also loose story threads (graphic design, book blogging?) and continuity issues (Stella’s last name changed, was Davies at one point).The voices of our two main characters were remarkably similar for two girls who really weren’t that similar at all. Both characters also felt kind of two dimensional…there was an attempt at depth, but it just didn’t feel like quite enough for me. I thought both Stella and Kyle were all right, but I never really fell in love with either of them, or developed a strong connection. The reason for Stella’s meanness was not bad, but I felt like I wanted more…especially with the way she would constantly push Kyle away.The romance was pretty good…I did feel a connection between the two. I feel like I should note that the steamy parts went a bit more explicit than I was anticipating for YA — so I would categorize this as mature YA.It was nice to have a book where the girls got a good coming out experience, but it was so unremarkable it began to feel unrealistic. Particularly with Kyle…if Kyle didn’t know about herself, how did her BFF Grace know? Honestly, I was a bit bummed that bisexuality was completely glossed over in this story. I actually thought for sure Kyle was going to be bi since it felt like at the beginning of the story she eluded to attraction to boys. Honestly, it’s not that big a deal, I’m sure this is a valid progression for many homosexuals, it just felt like a missed opportunity (especially when I keep reading about the problem of bi-erasure).This is all feeling like a very negative review, but honestly it wasn’t that. I think I was just disappointed. It was a very fluffy story, with lots of cute moments, and happiness, and lovey stuff…which is not bad, but just could have used a plot arc. Hence the 3 stars. Not a bad book, just somewhat unremarkable for me.

I picked this up for less than £1 in October last year (may have been a BookBub deal) but have only just got around to reading it. What a revelation! Told in the first person from Kyle and Stella's perspectives it's a well written quick read about friendship, acceptance and mostly love. Not just between Stella and Kyle but also the love of family and friends. Blessedly free of miscommunications and barriers built-in where none exist, this just deals with two girls who find each other and then their truth and make it work. It was all rather lovely and I definitely ship them! If this is what Ms Cameron can produce in the lesfic genre then she's wasted writing straight romantic fiction...

This is a really heartwarming story about two high school girls who are on the verge of leaving for college, and who begin to develop a very strong attraction to each other. Which is difficult for Kyle, as she thought she was straight and also she thought Stella was horrible.It was very enjoyable watching Stella begin to thaw out, and to understand the reasons why she worked so hard to make everyone hate her.There was no action and no violence, just a lovely story with a happy ending.That said, I have absolutely no idea why this book was called “Style”.

This was a gorgeous, fun, and thoughtful love story. We really need more happy, cute stories of queer teens coming out and falling in love, and this is a wonderful one, hitting some traditional romance notes with a skilful and refreshing touch. Kyle and Stella’s experiences really rang true for me - trying really hard to like boys, feeling jarred when feelings for girls disrupt your visions of a safe, heterosexual future, not feeling ready to come out… I loved that Stella and Kyle were compatible emotionally and intellectually as well as physically, it made their romance sweet as well as exciting. Also I loved how frank this book was about the reality of teen girls’ sexuality and desire. A+.

This little fluffy romance book was the perfect book to bring me out of a mood. Every chapter brought a smile to my face. There aren't many books like this out at the moment which is one of the reasons i rated it so highly. This was simply a happy romance. Just like it would have been if it was a heterosexual relationship which i thought was great. There was no hate towards the queer character in the book, which just made the whole book more joyful. There where one of two spelling errors and mistakes, but they were easliy overlooked. All in all this was a very good read. But i would say, i recommend this book for 16+ as there is a detailed sex scene.

Loved the story. It didnt rush and really set a scene. Grew the anticipation. Made me think of my first love and all those craxy desperate feelings you have.