Review of "Her Name in the Sky" by Kelly Quindlen

Page Count: 406 Pages

Publish Date: February 2014

Genre: YA/Romance/LGBT

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Hannah wants to spend her senior year of high school going to football, games and Mardi Gras parties. She wants to drive along the oak-lined streets of Lousiana's Garden District and lie on the hot sand of Florida's beaches. She wants to spend every night making memories with her tight-knit group of friends.

The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a girl - especially when that girl is her best friend Baker.

Hannah knows that she should like Wally, the kind, earnest boy who asks her to prom. She should cheer on her friend Clay when he asks Baker to be his girlfriend. She should follow the rules of her conservative community - the rules that have been ingrained in her since she was a child.

But Hannah longs to be with Baker, who cooks macaroni and cheese with Hannah late at night, who believes in the magic of books as much as Hannah does, and who challenges Hannah to be the best version of herself. And Baker might want to be with Hannah, too - if both girls can embrace that world-shaking, yet wondrous possibility.

Review: Her Name in the Sky is a beautiful coming of age story that skillfully handles the difficult issues of sexuality, discrimination, and religion. While Hannah and Baker's relationship can be frustrating at times, it's wonderful to find a lesbian romance with a happy ending even though there can be quite a bit of angst especially right before the ending.

The characters are incredibly real and relatable characters, which adds to the sadness in many parts of the book. When the characters are struggling, you really feel for them. I will admit that I may have cried a little bit (read: bawled like a baby)



This book is a wonderful contemporary read and is a lesbian romance that actually has a happy ending, which I have not found a lot of. Be warned, you will cry; probably a lot, but it's worth it because this book is absolutely beautiful. It's the kind of novel that you stay up till midnight reading because you just can't put it down.

Rating: 5 STARS