Book Review: Honey Girl by Morgan Rodgers
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 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 father’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.
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.
I absolutely loved this book. I wasn't a huge fan of the premies and only chose to read it cause it was a shorter one with less than 300 pages. Honey Girl was such and unexpected joy to read. From the very beginning this book grabbed me and sucked me into the story I almost couldn't put it down. If not for life getting in the way I would have finished it in one sitting. It definitely gave me Solitaire by Alice Osman vibes so if you like that you would probably like this one to.
First off Morgan Rodgers writing is so beautiful. the way her words spoke to me was insane I loved it. Graces journey over the course of this novel was relatable and inspiring. You see her rise and fall. this book really spoke to me. I would definitely recommend this book it was so good.
this next bit has a few little SPOILERS
There were few things I didn't love about this book like her interactions with her parents they mostly just didn't make a a lot of sense to me. and maybe that because I couldn't fully relate or understand her parents but there reactions were a bit strange. and her friends reaction to her leaving and needing a break. it was almost like they didn't want to her to heal. very very weird because then they would say things like "we only want what's best for you" I don't know I was weird.
I do wish that we could have seen a little bit more of Yuki and Grace cause I really felt that I didn't get a great since of their relationship. I would love for Morgan to write a second book about their life in New York anyhow things have changed. I would buy it immediately.
Quotes (there are quite a few):
"They are doing their best for all the people that star up at the dark and do not know that they, too, shine brilliantly." (pg 23)
"She thinks, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, like a mantra. She has to be okay, because there is no other option. She is okay because she must be." (pg 31)
"Who else, Grace wonders, can understand loneliness if not someone who sits in solitude all their own?" (pg 49)
"The Grace Porter I know isn't afraid of anything. The Grace Porter Grace knows is afraid of so many things. she is afraid of disappointing people. She is afraid of straying from her carefully curated life plan." (pg 53)
""I wonder", Yuki asks quietly, "do you ever get scared like I do? Do you ever wonder how things will come together, and how things will fall apart?"" (pg 59)
""I put my head down and grit my teeth for a long time, and I never stopped to consider if it was good for me. If--if things would be different now if I had been honest with myself from the start about what I would need and how I would get it. I haven't been" she starts to pinch her skin and catches herself. "I haven't thought about myself or taken care of myself for awhile now.""(pg 97)
"you know being vulnerable and honest is not weak." (pg 248)
plus many others that are one my Goodreads account if you want to check them out!
