It's Not Like It's a Secret
Books | Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Dating & Sex
3.7
(1.1K)
Misa Sugiura
Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature * 2018 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults * 2018 Rainbow Book List * A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2017"Well-paced, brimming with drama, and utterly vital."—Kirkus (starred review)This charming and bittersweet coming-of-age story featuring two girls of color falling in love is part To All the Boys I've Loved Before and part Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.Sixteen-year-old Sana Kiyohara has too many secrets. Some are small, like how it bothers her when her friends don’t invite her to parties. Some are big, like the fact that her father may be having an affair. And then there’s the one that she can barely even admit to herself—the one about how she might have a crush on her best friend.When Sana and her family move to California, she begins to wonder if it’s finally time for some honesty, especially after she meets Jamie Ramirez. Jamie is beautiful and smart and unlike anyone Sana’s ever known.There are just a few problems: Sana's new friends don't trust Jamie's crowd; Jamie's friends clearly don't want her around anyway; and a sweet guy named Caleb seems to have more-than-friendly feelings for her. Meanwhile, her dad’s affair is becoming too obvious to ignore.Sana always figured that the hardest thing would be to tell people that she wants to date a girl, but as she quickly learns, telling the truth is easy…what comes after it, though, is a whole lot more complicated.
Coming Of Age
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Author
Misa Sugiura
Pages
400
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published Date
2017-05-09
ISBN
0062473433 9780062473431
Community ReviewsSee all
"this was super good! i wasn’t expecting much from it and definitely recognized core elements that I have already seen together (ie, boy meets boy), but i really enjoyed it! wasn’t expecting race to have that much play into it and it was very cliche but it felt somewhat realistic. "
kzy
"“in Japan, the gay can’t be out of the cabinet”<br/><br/><br/><br/>this line made me CACKLE.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>WHEW!! this book was quite the wild ride. i didn’t give it a rating because i honestly don’t know how i feel about it. i honestly don’t think i can squish all of my thoughts into a singular, flat rating.<br/><br/>so let me just tell you everything!!!!!!!!!! :)"
Faith Taylor
"I didn’t really like this book. I just don’t like the cheating trope."
Octavia D' Haiti
"This book. It was so frustratingly realistic I wanted to bang my head against the wall several times while reading it. Very well written, doesn’t sugarcoat things. Probably will go back and read again."
Brenna
"A good (L)GBT+ read. But it does not quite have the happy ever after that you were hoping for, read and find out :)"
Kayla Maxile
"wonderful read! the end brought everything together very nicely"
kourt
"honestly it wasn’t my favorite, not that it was bad or anything but i just didn’t enjoy it a ton due to the writing style "
hannah <3
"Definitely frustrating at times, but it’s one of my favorite wlw books! I really identify with the love interest and it’s one of the only books I reread! "
Sophia (she/her)
"First, I can't believe it took me less than 2 days to finish this book. That really goes to show how strong and compelling the author's writing was for me. (Since that rarely happens for me)<br/><br/>I knew going into this book that "It's Not Like It's a Secret" was going to feature a queer POC pairing, but I had no idea that it was going to be the main topic throughout the novel. So that was greatly appreciated.<br/><br/>I did wish we got more development and backstories for Christina, Sana's friends, and of course Jamie (her especially!!) though, but I realize that technically this is not their story/POV, so I get it.<br/><br/>More fluffy queer POC reads please!"
Kelly Sarna
"One of those books that will have you yelling at the characters the whole time! Coming of age, finding your friend group, trying to be respectful of your parents and culture, all wrapped up in a wlw romance. "
Sara Pelland
