Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan

In this YA contemporary queer romance from the author of Hot Dog Girl, an openly gay track star falls for a closeted, bisexual teen beauty queen with a penchant for fixing up old cars. “Earnest, wistful, romantic, and real.” —Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue Morgan, an elite track athlete, is forced to transfer high schools late in her senior year after it turns out being queer is against her private Catholic school's code of conduct. There, she meets Ruby, who has two hobbies: tinkering with her baby blue 1970 Ford Torino and competing in local beauty pageants, the latter to live out the dreams of her overbearing mother. The two are drawn to each other and can't deny their growing feelings. But while Morgan--out and proud, and determined to have a fresh start--doesn't want to have to keep their budding relationship a secret, Ruby isn't ready to come out yet. With each girl on a different path toward living her truth, can they go the distance together? “Beautiful, necessary, and completely irresistible.” —Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

The first half of this book? Super cute. Fun banter. I liked it a lot.

Second half of this book? All the characters did was fight. It was 100 pages of fighting and then almost making up and then fighting again. I lost sight of their chemistry and I got bored.

2.5 stars *

The first half of this book was fairly solid. Wasn't blow-me-away fantastic but was easy to read and the characters intrigued me.

The second half of this book was a mess. The relationship between the two leads was a bumpy, potholed road full of miscommunication and zero empathy for the other's situation. Morgan, who I had liked at first, nose-dived into being very annoying. All character development was rushed through in short conversations and half-epiphanies, and the ending felt abrupt and somewhat undeserved.

Pros:
- Despite her rocky start, I did like Ruby. She got the most actual character development and was definitely the most interesting person in the book.
- Some very potent LGBTQ+ issues were touched upon and some good points were made. However, the actual conversations were surface-level and didn't dive as deeply as they maybe should have, considering how important they were to the plot.
- Someone did call Morgan on her bullshit when she got really out of hand. I had been worried it would be written off as justified because of her trials and tribulations, but thankfully it was not. Or at least not entirely.
- Billy.

Cons:
- The romance wasn't paced well. Some of the back and the forth at the beginning was good, but there was a bit of instalove in the later parts that didn't make sense to me.
- Bumpy messy second half as mentioned above.
- A couple of characters got dropped toward the end, and I would have liked more resolution.
- Morgan needed a lot more character development and understanding of how her situation and perspective, while important, was not the same as every other queer person.