Named Most Anticipated of 2021 by Oprah Magazine * Marie Claire * Ms. Magazine E! * Parade Magazine * Buzzfeed * Cosmo * The Rumpus * GoodReads * Autostraddle * Brit & Co * Refinery29 * Betches BookRiot and others!A LibraryReads Pick “HONEY GIRL is an emotional, heartfelt, charming debut, and I loved every moment of it.”— Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal… New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal
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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With imagery that leaps from the pages, Honey Girl is a brilliant debut. A story about finding your place in the world, about finding love—and accepting it by learning to love yourself. Prepare for this one to vault its way to the top of your TBR pile.
Honey Girl is an emotional, heartfelt, charming debut, and I loved every moment of it. Morgan Rogers is an incredible talent; she creates characters I couldn’t stop thinking about, and who I loved immediately. I can’t wait to see what she does next.
This is the exact kind of contemporary fiction I love reading! Complex characters going on an emotional journey with a hopeful ending. It has a hell of a premise (accidentally married a stranger in Vegas!) but it’s really about Grace trying to figure out her life. She’s in her late 20s, just finished her astronomy PhD according to her strict, driven plans, but nothing else has worked out. She’s a biracial lesbian who isn’t interested in conforming to others’ more limiting standards, going so far as to walk out of a racist job interview. But that doesn’t solve her dilemma about where to work and what to do next. Who is she if her life plan goes off the rails? What happens if she doesn’t get the absolute best job? And where does Yuki, the stranger she drunkenly married, fit in to any of this? She’s a fascinating character, at times entitled but also just as aware of society’s marks against her and her own perfectionist tendencies.
Grace could be messy. She has a history of running away when things get hard and we see that happen a few different times before she winds up starting therapy and reckoning with her choices and her upbringing. I loved her to pieces through it all. Her group of friends was fantastic, even if her friendship origin story with Ximena was ethically murky. Regardless of that, I loved how they looked out for each other and spoke the hard truths. I would honestly read a book about any of them.
And then there’s Yuki, Grace’s new wife whose name she doesn’t even know. Yuki who spins magical yearning stories on her radio show to help people feel less alone. To help Grace feel left alone. This isn’t a romance but it does have a wonderfully moving love story.
This was such a gorgeously written debut. I can’t wait to see what the author does next!
CW: depression, anxiety, self-harm, racism, microaggressions, alcohol, inebriation marijuana, past suicide attempt (secondary character), HIPAA violation, secondary character uses ableist language to describe themselves, secondary character gets new mental health diagnosis, secondary character has prosthetic leg, past death of secondary characters’s mother, ableist language, reference to suspected child abuse (secondary character works in ED)
I so wanted to love Honey Girl. For some reason I felt so disconnected from the characters. I mean I liked Grace and Yuki’s relationship and their differences. The struggled Grace had to go through after getting her PhD and people not accepting her work made me angry. I just don’t know what it was, but I never truly got into this book.
Honey Girl is a fun, heartfelt and uncompromising look at the risks we take to find love and discover who we are. Morgan Rogers’ unique and often poetic prose makes you feel found. It makes you feel seen, no matter who you are. There is a sweetness to Honey Girl you’ll want to savor for a very long time!
A captivating story—readers will be rooting for Grace to come into her own.
Grace Porter has always had a plan, but getting drunk and married in Vegas was not part of it. She wakes up with fuzzy memories next to a picture and a note from her “wife,” a little horrified that things got so out of control. But when the rest of her life stops going according to plan and she finds herself lost and lonely, her mysterious wife may just be the one who can help her the most.
This book focused on self growth and acceptance. It really makes you stop and consider what in life matters and what is important. The writing is beautifully done, with many poetic lines that leap off the page into your heart. The characters were lovable and relatistic and the story moved along at a good pace. In some places, however, I felt the plot was a little lacking and somewhat repetitive at times. Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I definitely recommend it!
There needs to be more coming of age stories as college age adults get their degree and start their careers or find new directions, because this was incredible! The relationships, friendships, struggles and joys of this story and this character were so honest and authentic. The writing was lyrical and just absolutely stunning! I finished this book and immediately wanted to pick it up again.
Absolutely beautiful story. I read this book in one sitting, I couldn’t put it down, even when I noticed it was almost 3am. Compelling (and relatable) main character. highly recommend!
I definitely recommend this book, it was so raw and it just showed how a person can feel lost when going through life, not knowing where to turn etc etc- I think so many people felt the way Grace Porter did and that makes it relatable and realistic.
Good Job Morgan Rogers!
Honey Girl is a beautiful book from beginning to end. It will sit with me for a very long time.
This is a beautiful story. The author addresses several important topics, such as mental health concerns, difficult relationships with parents, and how important the friendships we build can be. Her characters were wonderful. Honey’s drive in getting her PhD was relatable and real. The struggles she faces as a women of color pursuing higher education and what comes after one has the degree they worked so hard for was poignant.
This book is about perspective as Grace Porter completely reassesses her life, her goals, and her priorities. It’s about a girl who loses her way and chases after the only thing in her life (or rather, person) that has ever truly felt easy. Porter’s journey hits home for those of us who have ever felt lost and feel guilty because it seems like we should know where we are. Wrapped up in some really heartfelt and beautiful prose, I felt her journey of self discovery was really well done and will be relatable to many.
And of course the premise of the romance itself is adorable. It embraces the absurdity of the age-old “I accidentally married a stranger in Vegas and inadvertently found my soul mate” gimmick. It is definitely a warm and fuzzy kind of book and is incredibly fresh and inclusive. The romance too compliments Porter’s personal journey, which I liked a lot because that, to me, felt like the stronger piece of the story.
With all that said, there were still some parts where I struggled with the pacing. This was most noticeable to me when it came to certain side characters that seemed well-conceptualized but under utilized. There were too many moments where, simply put, I just felt bored, and unfortunately beautiful writing and a good overall plot didn’t do enough to bring me back.
Honey Girl is a beautiful story of a new Ph.D. recipient figuring out her place in the cosmos. Grace Porter has worked tirelessly and single-mindedly for the past eleven years to prove she’s the best, but, when the job that should have been hers slips through her fingers because she’s black and queer, she runs to Las Vegas with two of her friends, only to wake up married to a woman she barely remembers (and who woke and left before Grace did). Part romance and part women’s fiction, but mostly romance, I loved that it focused on Grace figuring out what she wanted instead of what others wanted and expected of her.
The Plot: Part Romance, Part Grace’s Personal Journey
Honey Girl had me fooled, but not really in a bad way. I mean, I knew it was listed as romance, but, while reading it, I kept forgetting. Most of the story focused on Grace figuring out where to go after the job that was supposed to be hers for the taking fell through so badly that she went to Vegas. The story followed her as she tried to figure out her next steps while taking care of herself and trying to take others’ expectations of her to heart. Looking back, there was a lot of running she was doing, but each time brought her closer to her being able to be true to herself instead of what someone else wanted for her. It felt more like women’s fiction most of the time. But, when I forgot, the ending hit me, and reminded me I was reading a romance.
I really did love everything about this story. Even though I’m not black or queer, Grace still spoke to me, the story spoke to me. Grace had her life figured out, but it didn’t work the way it was supposed to. I loved that the whole book focused on her trying to figure herself out and what was going to be best for her. She came into her own in this story despite fleeing Portland and NYC before ending up back at her mother’s orange grove in Florida, and what a beautiful journey it was! She learned and grew and experienced and had her eyes opened. Of course, things got scary for her now and then, but they made her grow and re-evaluate. The focus on her friendships was also absolutely stunning. None of them were perfect, none of them had their lives figured out, but they were always, unquestioningly, there for each other. Not only did this turn out to be a gorgeous story about Grace’s journey, but it was also a lovely story of the strength of friendship.
But Honey Girl is also a romance. Grace married Yuki in Vegas, but doesn’t even know her name when she wakes up alone in a hotel room. During the first third of the novel, the reader is introduced to Grace’s world and the people in it, and her tentative search for the woman she married. The middle part was all about the romance as Grace and Yuki finally meet, fully sober this time. 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. But the last third had Grace running yet again. I kept forgetting this is a romance, until the ending when it ends on a romance-perfect note, but had me longing for another chapter.
Honey Girl presents a real look at life for a millennial woman. There’s the pull between parental and self-expectations and also the need to stretch a bit and come into her own on her own. There’s the running away until there’s nowhere left to run to. Being neither black nor queer, I can’t speak too much about either experience, but, as an outsider, I thought it was beautiful and the whole book just felt like it could embrace anyone and let them find a bit of themselves in it.
The Characters: Strong and Bold
Honey Girl is Grace Porter’s story, but, while it was focused on her and her experiences, the people around her also had their own bits to say. This was most definitely a strong character-oriented and driven novel. It read like Grace had been given a loose outline of her story and then told to run with it. The characterizations were incredible and intense, as were each of the characters. I loved how interesting and distinct they all were, and they each lent a little bit extra to the story and to Grace’s self-narrative. Individually, they were all amazing, but, put together, they really made the fabric of the story come to life.
Even though I’m a few years older than Grace, she really spoke to me. Driven, hard working, always with her eyes on her goals, I loved everything about her and I felt so sad and angry when what was supposed to work out for her didn’t. The barriers she faced as a queer woman of color were front and center, but she always worked hard to batter through them. But there’s also a softer side to her, one that constantly wonders at the cosmos as her doctorate is in astronomy and who always cares about her friends even when she feels more self-centered. She’s afraid of letting down her guard, of being derailed, so I really loved the journey she was on to not just be there for her friends, but be there heart and soul no matter how it might affect her own plans.
And then there’s Yuki, Grace’s wife. If this is a romance, I can’t not talk about the other half of the couple. While the story revolved around Grace (and I do wish Yuki could have had her own narrative as that’s one of my favorite parts of a romance novel), the reader still gets a strong sense of her. She feels more self-assured, more confident of what she has to offer and where she wants to be. She’s tentative with Grace, though, and so hopeful it almost broke my heart. At the same time, it’s easy to pick up her fears and doubts, and I just wanted her and Grace to be so happy together forever and ever.
The Setting: Grace and Across the US
While Honey Girl kicks off in Vegas, the city of drunk romance and accidental marriages, most of the story is set in Portland, where Grace lives, works, and attended graduate school and where her father and stepmother live; NYC, where Yuki lives with the three most entertaining and wonderful roommates ever; and Florida, where her mother still owns and runs her orange groves when not traveling the world in search of herself. But most of the story took place in the small moments between the characters, in Grace’s heart and mind.
I got a lovely sense of rainy Portland, the ever bustling NYC, and the warm tropical Florida sun, but I really loved how the story was set against the people. The interactions were so nuanced, the friendships so strong and secure, that the characters could have been anywhere and still have played out the exact same story. The physical setting was a lovely backdrop, but it’s really the fabric of the relationships that shone.
Overall: A Gorgeous Journey and Romance
I loved almost everything about Honey Girl. I loved that Grace could still speak to me even though I’m quite unlike her. But I also appreciated that the story had a focus on the barriers placed before her, of her fighting tooth and nail against the rigidity of professional environments and her own and her father’s expectations. The story was gorgeous in so many ways. The one thing that let me down was how suddenly it ended, but, well, if one ever needed a reminder of the genre, there it was! Still, everything else was perfect. The romance was sweet, the friendships were strong, and the family was wonderfully loving and dysfunctional. Overall, an incredible and delightful novel from a debut author.
Thank you to Lia Ferrone for a review copy and the opportunity to take part in the book blog tour for Honey Girl. All opinions expressed are my own.
“You asked me before I left what best meant for me, and I’m still learning what that looks like.”
Honey Girl is a beautifully written story about a young woman’s struggle with her self and her place in the world. While yes this is a romance, it’s much more about the main characters personal growth and self acceptance.
“What if we are special, and we just don’t know? What if the stories of things bigger and bolder reaching out to claim us are true?”
28-year-old Grace has spent the last eleven years of her life accomplishing her plan to achieve her PhD in astronomy and be the best. To celebrate she goes to Vegas with her best friends and wakes up married to a stranger who she can’t seem to forget. Back home she thought her hard work would pay off, yet she still has to work just as hard to prove she belongs in her profession. Her race and her queerness are keeping the workforce from believing in her, and now she questions if it was all worth it. She tries to avoid her problems by going to New York to spend time with her new wife, but that only holds of her reality for so long before she runs to the one place she can breathe. When she lands at her childhood home she acknowledges that she needs to seek help and work on her self before she self-destructs.
“You’re my mess now, and I’m yours. No take backs.”
I loved so much about this book. The writing flowed and had a soothing quality. The story itself was believable with real characters. Characters that struggle with self harm and depression. Characters that believed in love and myths. Characters who formed unbreakable friendship and found family. Characters who embraced each other and loved without judgement. I honestly don’t know what to say except Honey Girl was so much more than I expected it to be.
This debut novel is stunning. Morgan Rogers has written a book that is subtle in its complexity with a main character so well-written you feel like you know her.
Twenty-nine-year-old Grace Porter heads to Vegas to celebrate having earned her PhD in astronomy. She wakes up on the morning of her departure for home to find a note that says she is now married to a woman whose name she didn’t know, but the note and the ring on her left hand verifies the truth of what happened. She returns to Portland and her life and begins falling apart under the weight of her father’s and her own expectations for her future.
Rogers’ characters, including the secondary characters, are all intelligent, complex people trying to deal with life that didn’t quite turn out to be all it had been promised to be. This is not your typical romance because the characters and storyline don’t feel contrived – this book could be about you, your best friend, or a family member. The writing doesn’t rush to the ending. Rogers takes her time to tell Grace’s story.
If you get the chance, don’t pass on this book if not for the storyline then for the writing. You’ll stay up into the wee hours reading this book. The writing is that of a much more experienced writer.
Thanks to Harper and Edelweiss for an eARC.