With school starting up next week (already? I know! I can't believe it either), I thought I'd post some reviews of books about people going back to school.
After some trouble that left her physically and emotionally scarred, Amanda is getting ready to begin a new school in a new town. No one knows her here. No one knows what happened before. No one knows who Amanda used to be. And although Amanda is still apprehensive about trusting people, she sees this move as the perfect opportunity to leave her past behind and make a fresh start.
She didn't foresee Grant or that she would fall for him...or he her. For most other girls, the possibility of a new romance with a handsome jock wouldn't be an issue, but for Amanda it comes with a whole lot of potential problems. Because Amanda has a secret that would change everything:
Amanda used to be Andrew.
This is a secret Amanda would do anything to protect, because the bullying backlash of her coming out was so severe she was forced to leave not only her old school, but her old town. For the first time, she's happy in her new life, and she doesn't want history to repeat itself. But the closer she gets to Grant, the harder it is for her to keep her identity (and her past) a secret.
If I Was Your Girl was astonishingly good! It perfectly (I imagine) paints a stark and real portrait of what it's like to be a Transgender teen in a world that can still be pretty harsh and unaccepting of such a status (although, fortunately, things are much better today than they were when I was a teen in the 90s). Amanda is a character readers will want to root for and see her finally get her Happily Ever After...or at least find a happy place where she can 100% be herself.
I absolutely recommend this book to anyone looking for the courage to be themselves, whatever that might mean to you. --AJB
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