How to Excavate a Heart
Books | Young Adult Fiction / Romance / LGBTQ
3.8
(190)
Jake Maia Arlow
Stonewall Honor author Jake Maia Arlow delivers a sapphic Jewish twist on the classic Christmas rom-com in a read perfect for fans of Kelly Quindlen and Casey McQuiston.It all starts when Shani runs into May. Like, literally. With her mom’s Subaru.Attempted vehicular manslaughter was not part of Shani’s plan. She was supposed to be focusing on her monthlong paleoichthyology internship. She was going to spend all her time thinking about dead fish and not at all about how she was unceremoniously dumped days before winter break.It could be going better.But when a dog-walking gig puts her back in May’s path, the fossils she’s meant to be diligently studying are pushed to the side—along with the breakup.Then they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve. As things start to feel more serious, though, Shani’s hurt over her ex-girlfriend’s rejection comes rushing back. Is she ready to try a committed relationship again, or is she okay with this just being a passing winter fling?
Lgbtq+
Teen Romance
AD
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More Details:
Author
Jake Maia Arlow
Pages
384
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published Date
2022-11-01
ISBN
0063078740 9780063078741
Community ReviewsSee all
"I went into this book hoping for a cute holiday romance and while certain parts of the story were definitely cute overall, I felt let down. Shani was a very difficult character for me to like and a huge part of that was how combative she was with her mom and her distracted behavior at work. I think at Shani's age the rude behavior without any prior bad behavior on her mom's end felt very weird. She's in college but is acting like she is a moody teenager whose hormones are all out of whack. Every time she was mean to her mom without prompting, I disliked her more. She treated May pretty awfully too on several occasions and that made it harder to believe they fell in love so quickly. <br/><br/>Then there is the issue of her getting the opportunity of an internship yet can't focus on anything other than a new relationship. I felt like the story would make more sense if the characters were younger. This could also just be a pet peeve of mine - when I feel like coworkers are not putting in an appropriate amount of effort into their jobs. <br/><br/>Also, there were too many cringy jokes that I felt were way too over the top. I think if the characters had felt a little more age appropriate, I would have really enjoyed this book! But as is I had too many issues with Shani's character and because she was the main character it was hard to move past it.<br/><br/>Thank you to Edelweiss for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review."
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Alyssa Czernek
"it was good! included asexual-ish awakening and put light on sexual assault in relationships (not violent/descriptive) and also fish!!!"
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lilly
"Yep, I read a winter-set romance in June because it was the only romance novel I had. Did I enjoy it despite the time that I read it? Yes. It was a little generic in terms of the setup, but it was fun, and the relationship between Shani and May was pretty cute, and they had good chemistry. I think the main benefit of the book was the representation, with both Jewish and LGBTQ+ representation. There was also a lot of emotion and development for the characters, and it’s one of the heavier romances that I’ve read due to this. The DC setting was also amazing, and that corgi will forever be the best part of the book. I did feel the romance moved a bit too quickly, even for a romance where the leads were bitter around each other in the beginning, since there was a lot of pages still left after the first kiss, and also a lot of periods where the leads would avoid each other for many chapters at a time, which annoyed me to death. I also got a bit lost in the last 20 pages and felt that they got repetitive, but I think that was more me being like “uggh I’m tired and almost finished with this book.” Maybe I should’ve saved this for the actual Winter season, and it’s not really a new favorite for me, but I would still recommend for people looking for a fluffy and emotional YA sapphic romance. "