Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

When Suzette comes home to Los Angeles from her boarding school in New England, she isn't sure if she'll ever want to go back. LA is where her friends and family are (along with her crush, Emil). And her stepbrother, Lionel, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, needs her emotional support. But as she settles into her old life, Suzette finds herself falling for someone new; the same girl her brother is in love with. When Lionel's disorder spirals out of control, Suzette is forced to confront her past mistakes and find a way to help her brother before he hurts himself, or worse.

(3.5, rounding up.) Loved the diversity of the characters and the characterization of Suzette and her journey - she felt like a fully realized person and I was entirely in her head. (Caveat: I'm neither bi nor bipolar, so I can't really speak to the accuracy of the representation, but more diversity in fiction is always a good thing.) The other characters were a little more vaguely sketched, which may have been intentional since it's such a tight POV with Suzette, but I would've liked a little more insight into Lionel and Rafaela, in particular. The plot here was a lot of buildup and then a pretty rushed conclusion, so I wish either the pacing had been different or the book were a little bit longer to give the story some time to breathe.

(Editing this review in June 2020: whoops, I am bi, denial is a hell of a thing.)

5 stars Not only is the story beautiful and captivating, but the cast of characters is effortlessly diverse. A+ 👌

Loved this, read it all in one sitting. I love how intersectional this is–like, yes, obviously we all know people who are LGBTQ AND POC, or POC AND disabled, let's include those characters in our books for gosh's sake.

Anyway, in addition to the great variety of rep here, I loved Little/Suzette as a narrator–her voice was so strong and I just couldn't put this down, and the way the tension builds throughout this was so compelling.