Review: Soft on Soft by Em Ali
Genre: Contemporary, romance, wlw
Blurb: June Bana may be a perfect makeup guru online, but in real life she’s a hermit with a crush on the beautiful model Selena Clarke. When she finds out Selena likes her back, June has to confront her anxieties about relationships to gain not only a girlfriend, but a better understanding of how far she'd go for love. Can she leave her comfort zone for something softer?
This wasn't entirely my thing, but if you want a fluffy romance that's all about comfort and sweetness and going at your own pace, doing your own thing, and girlfriends supporting each other So Dang Much, you're going to love this.
There isn't a ton of plot, it's more of an emotional arc. Being in a relationship scares June in the beginning, and the book is about how she and Selena work hard and are kind and understanding with each other to build a new relationship that's good for both of them and their individual needs. Which is a really sweet thing to read, and it's personally validating to read different kinds of relationships that don't emphasize sex (and of course, a relationship between two girls).
Since I thought the model/make up artist romance premise was really cute, I was disappointed that it wasn't focused on as much, but I guess that was just the background to the real story, the progress of their relationship. The writing is also not always great. There's unnaturally stiff dialogue, some typos, etc. The goodreads profile currently says the book is “under edits for an undetermined period of time”, so perhaps all that will be fixed if you read this.
Verdict: it's an interpersonal development book, not so much a plot book, but it's cute and sometimes funny!
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