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Time It Right
Valerie Marsh and her three closest friends - Tara, Amber, and Kat - have just started their senior year of high school. Tara's a straight-A student with an Ivy League school in her future, Kat's the lead in every play performed at Riverbank High, and Amber is a popular cheerleader with boys lining up to date her. Valerie, meanwhile, has mediocre grades, works the light booth while Kat's onstage, and has never even gone on a date with a boy. When Tara gets a boyfriend and convinces Valerie to ask her neighbor Lucas out on a double-date, things quickly go awry, leaving Valerie to wonder who exactly she is and where she fits in amongst her friends and peers. Enter Lindsay Walker, an outgoing British bombshell who switches places with Tara's sister Kara as part of an exchange student program offered by their schools. She quickly upstages Tara in front of her family, competes with Kat for the lead role in the winter play, and becomes just as popular as Amber, if not more. But even as tension grows between Lindsay and all of Valerie's friends, Valerie and Lindsay grow closer, and Valerie finds her world turned completely upside down as she struggles to answer questions about herself she’d never been brave enough to ask before.
296 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2013
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900 people want to read
About the author
Siera Maley
7 books749 followersSiera Maley was born and raised in the southern Bible Belt. After coming out as a lesbian as a teen, she relocated to a more suburban area and now lives with her girlfriend and very adorable dogs while she works on writing young adult lesbian fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
September 2, 2017
This book annoyed me from beginning to end. And it was entirely due to me not liking the main character. 99% of the other characters were great. And it's weird, but I normally don't like the guy friends in these books, but Lucas was also great.
In theory I understood the decisions that were made. In practice they were crap.
In theory I understood the decisions that were made. In practice they were crap.
January 17, 2014
By necessity my review contains very minor spoilers. I don't mind spoilers but I know some will internet rage me for having any, but is impossible to properly review without mentioning something. The too long/didn't read version is at bottom.
The Good:
1) It was interesting enough to encourage me to want to keep reading.
2) One of the female leads was very engaging and endearing which is the backbone of this book in my opinion.
3) Most of the supporting characters were decently detailed and likeable.
4) Men aren't pigeon holed into being only the funny supporting friend or absolute rape/molesting/violence crazed misogynist as I've seen in a few other books.
5) The romance, when present is, is entertaining.
The Bad:
1) Length of book is a bit lacking but acceptable.Can read in about an hour, but for the $3.00 I paid, that's tolerable.
2) Valerie's love interest is a bit codependent and is sometimes taken advantage of by various people.
The VERY Bad: //yes caps is needed.
1) The primary female love interest, Valerie.
The, a book that I would have otherwise thoroughly enjoyed, is mired by a very unappealing young woman.
Detailed explanation in spoiler tag.
Such a turn out is really disheartening as I like much of this book. But when every page or so inspires disdain of the lead character, the joy is drained. The pleasure is even more so diminished when Valerie's girlfriend, who is one of my favourite characters in the book, is consistently being misused. That is the reason for the low score. An otherwise worthwhile book that could have redeemed itself from the troubles its main character brings are never really resolved. She makes me wonder if given the chance would she do what she did again. Luckily this is fiction.
I would likely buy a book by this author again as she is not unskilled, it's just that this book had a fatal flaw.
TL;DR VERSION:
The entire book reads as a love story mired by a cowardly woman who despite feeling strong emotions wants a romance of convenience and is more than willing to drop her beloved like a hot rock when the sea, no, not sea, tiny puddle gets rough (more like a ripple) and that's while wearing an inner tube and floaties. I spent the entire book going from 'this is good' to, 'O For the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!' and face palming.
The Good:
1) It was interesting enough to encourage me to want to keep reading.
2) One of the female leads was very engaging and endearing which is the backbone of this book in my opinion.
3) Most of the supporting characters were decently detailed and likeable.
4) Men aren't pigeon holed into being only the funny supporting friend or absolute rape/molesting/violence crazed misogynist as I've seen in a few other books.
5) The romance, when present is, is entertaining.
The Bad:
1) Length of book is a bit lacking but acceptable.Can read in about an hour, but for the $3.00 I paid, that's tolerable.
2) Valerie's love interest is a bit codependent and is sometimes taken advantage of by various people.
The VERY Bad: //yes caps is needed.
1) The primary female love interest, Valerie.
The, a book that I would have otherwise thoroughly enjoyed, is mired by a very unappealing young woman.
Detailed explanation in spoiler tag.
Such a turn out is really disheartening as I like much of this book. But when every page or so inspires disdain of the lead character, the joy is drained. The pleasure is even more so diminished when Valerie's girlfriend, who is one of my favourite characters in the book, is consistently being misused. That is the reason for the low score. An otherwise worthwhile book that could have redeemed itself from the troubles its main character brings are never really resolved. She makes me wonder if given the chance would she do what she did again. Luckily this is fiction.
I would likely buy a book by this author again as she is not unskilled, it's just that this book had a fatal flaw.
TL;DR VERSION:
The entire book reads as a love story mired by a cowardly woman who despite feeling strong emotions wants a romance of convenience and is more than willing to drop her beloved like a hot rock when the sea, no, not sea, tiny puddle gets rough (more like a ripple) and that's while wearing an inner tube and floaties. I spent the entire book going from 'this is good' to, 'O For the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!' and face palming.
November 29, 2015
Lesbian coming-of-age stories are almost always difficult for me to relate to. They typically center around the character who's just coming to terms with her orientation, rather than the character who's known she was gay from a very early age. The latter is typically reserved for the role of love interest, and this book is no exception to that rule.
So, to start with, I tended to identify with Lindsay, the love interest in the story, rather than Valerie, the protagonist. That turned out to be a real problem. Lindsay was already very charming, but Valerie's treatment of her became fairly...loathsome, a quality that only increased as the book went on. My eventual dislike for the main character made for very difficult reading.
Part of me knows that it's unfair for any one person to judge any other person's coming out experience, let alone trying to quantify and compare pain; I know with absolute certainty that my experience was no more valid than anyone else's. In this case, however, I found I just couldn't forgive the way Valerie went about it. It's one thing to suffer in silence, but it's another thing entirely to heap punishment upon the shoulders of the one who loves you most, and that's exactly what Valerie did here; she made Lindsay suffer. As a result, I found it difficult to find much sympathy for her.
Now, on a technical level, this book was as well-written as all of Ms. Maley's books are. The characterization was fairly deep, the side characters were easily distinguishable, etc. Based purely on the quality of writing, the book deserves a high rating. Based on the actual content, however, I just don't feel I can rate it higher than two stars. While it started well, this became a largely negative experience for me.
So, to start with, I tended to identify with Lindsay, the love interest in the story, rather than Valerie, the protagonist. That turned out to be a real problem. Lindsay was already very charming, but Valerie's treatment of her became fairly...loathsome, a quality that only increased as the book went on. My eventual dislike for the main character made for very difficult reading.
Part of me knows that it's unfair for any one person to judge any other person's coming out experience, let alone trying to quantify and compare pain; I know with absolute certainty that my experience was no more valid than anyone else's. In this case, however, I found I just couldn't forgive the way Valerie went about it. It's one thing to suffer in silence, but it's another thing entirely to heap punishment upon the shoulders of the one who loves you most, and that's exactly what Valerie did here; she made Lindsay suffer. As a result, I found it difficult to find much sympathy for her.
Now, on a technical level, this book was as well-written as all of Ms. Maley's books are. The characterization was fairly deep, the side characters were easily distinguishable, etc. Based purely on the quality of writing, the book deserves a high rating. Based on the actual content, however, I just don't feel I can rate it higher than two stars. While it started well, this became a largely negative experience for me.
June 8, 2018
3.5 stars. High school. A main character who thinks she's straight. Then discovers she's not. Not very different from other stories, only the friend she begins to develop feelings for is outside of her circle of best friends. She's an exchange student and also not straight.
There were some parts I disliked, and I wasn't a fan of Valerie and the way she treated Lindsay, but I also had issues with the latter, who I thought was just selfish at a certain point of the story (). However I think all of the characters, in general, were well-developed, and despite the few issues I had, the story held my interest and I enjoyed it for the most part.
There were some parts I disliked, and I wasn't a fan of Valerie and the way she treated Lindsay, but I also had issues with the latter, who I thought was just selfish at a certain point of the story (). However I think all of the characters, in general, were well-developed, and despite the few issues I had, the story held my interest and I enjoyed it for the most part.
September 11, 2017
Okay, so when I started reading this book and for almost 70% of it I was enjoying it. I as laughing and awe-ing and crushing on Valerie a lot. But then.. then the book got weird, and some things wasn't make sense anymore. It got weird and ended too fake to pretend it would be possible.
November 24, 2016
Glad to know that I'm not the only one that felt like smacking valerie half the time.
November 3, 2015
Time it Right felt quiet different than the author's other books, probably because it was her first. It took me longer to get into it, but by the end I thought it was a great. Valerie and her three friends are in their senior year of high school, and while things have been the same forever, they're finally starting to change. Val is the only single one, and when she tries to date her neighbor, it doesn't go too well. Then her friend Tara's family gets an exchange student from England, and Lindsay just may be the person she was waiting for.
Time It Right did start out a bit rough for me. Part of that was because it's in third person and we're immediately introduced to four girls, so it was hard to keep them all straight and figure out who the main character was. After a couple of chapters, I did finally settle into Val's story with minimal confusion. Her coming out story is darker than other ones I've read. In fact, this is more of a not coming out story. Valerie is terrified of how her classmates are going to treat her after witnessing other gay students get bullied. She's also worried about her less than open-minded friend Amber, and her mother who seems more interested in Val's relationships with boys than she is! This is all valid!
I loved that the author showed that it's okay to not come out if you're not ready or don't feel safe to do so. Valerie did get pressure from Lindsay, but I think she handled it perfectly. Time It Right is all about the personal decision to come out or not. Ultimately it's Valerie's choice, and she's not going to let anyone out her--although there are a few accidents--and she's certainly not going to let the first girl she dates give her an ultimatum when she's going to be leaving in a couple of months! After the rough beginning, I was very happy with the direction the story took because I think it's an important path to show.
Time It Right isn't a sad, dark story though. Val does have a tough time during her final semester of high school. She realizes she's gay, gets some support and some horrified reactions, falls in love, gets her heartbroken, but she takes control and comes out on her own time. There is a happy ending though, so don't worry!
Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.
Time It Right did start out a bit rough for me. Part of that was because it's in third person and we're immediately introduced to four girls, so it was hard to keep them all straight and figure out who the main character was. After a couple of chapters, I did finally settle into Val's story with minimal confusion. Her coming out story is darker than other ones I've read. In fact, this is more of a not coming out story. Valerie is terrified of how her classmates are going to treat her after witnessing other gay students get bullied. She's also worried about her less than open-minded friend Amber, and her mother who seems more interested in Val's relationships with boys than she is! This is all valid!
I loved that the author showed that it's okay to not come out if you're not ready or don't feel safe to do so. Valerie did get pressure from Lindsay, but I think she handled it perfectly. Time It Right is all about the personal decision to come out or not. Ultimately it's Valerie's choice, and she's not going to let anyone out her--although there are a few accidents--and she's certainly not going to let the first girl she dates give her an ultimatum when she's going to be leaving in a couple of months! After the rough beginning, I was very happy with the direction the story took because I think it's an important path to show.
Time It Right isn't a sad, dark story though. Val does have a tough time during her final semester of high school. She realizes she's gay, gets some support and some horrified reactions, falls in love, gets her heartbroken, but she takes control and comes out on her own time. There is a happy ending though, so don't worry!
Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.
May 25, 2015
I know many people want to slap Valerie for being so dense, but having been in her shoes once, I know that rationality flies out of the window when you're scared, no, terrified of coming out. Every bad reaction, every hurtful remark gets scrutinized under a magnifying glass and you can't put things into perspective. It's GREAT when people tell you "It's okay" but it's enough if your mother or father or whoever says something offensive and hurtful to remind you that some person very important to you might think badly of you if they knew - for something you didn't choose, for something you can't help. That makes people act in very stupid ways, especially teenagers who seem to have a knack for that.
Lindsay was so sweet, she's definitely a keeper. I would like to be her friend, if she was real. She'd be a really cool person. And Val was extremely lucky, to be honest, to snatch such a jewel.
All in all, the characters felt mostly real and genuine. Some people do indeed surprise you in real life (good and bad) and it was shown nicely. I wished we had gotten more Tara-Val interaction. From the get go, I sensed that there was huge pontential
Lindsay was so sweet, she's definitely a keeper. I would like to be her friend, if she was real. She'd be a really cool person. And Val was extremely lucky, to be honest, to snatch such a jewel.
All in all, the characters felt mostly real and genuine. Some people do indeed surprise you in real life (good and bad) and it was shown nicely. I wished we had gotten more Tara-Val interaction. From the get go, I sensed that there was huge pontential
October 23, 2020
I usually like Siera Maley's books but this one had way too much high school drama for me... Valerie prefering to stay friends with a homophobic girl instead of working things out with Lindsay was so weird? The girl literally stood on the pouring rain and told her she wanted her back. I know the problem is mostly me, a 21 year old person, reading a book targeted for teenagers, but I know her other works and they are definitely better.
Still, the book before the chaos started was nice, her friends (except Amber) are great.
Still, the book before the chaos started was nice, her friends (except Amber) are great.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 24, 2019
I’ve been on a Siera Maley binge recently. I really like her style of writing and she writes awesome f/f romances. This one was about a group of friends who all have their lives disrupted when a new girl joins their school on an exchange trip, not least of all the MC, who ends up realising she’s gay. What I liked most about this book was that it took a long hard look at he difficulties in a relationship when one of you is out and one isn’t and how stressful it is for both.
April 9, 2023
Hey!
So it turns out, Siera Maley has written at least one bad book. I had to go back a ways to find it, and it turned out to be her first, from 2013.
Yeah, this was not really good at all. It definitely had elements I liked quite a lot, but its flaws really killed it for me. I wanted it to be over long before it was, and I moved on very quickly after finishing it (to a fantastic book that I am very much looking forward to reviewing!)
This is probably a 2 star. Maybe 1.5 on a mean day. 2.5 would be being very generous. It's better than Her Name In the Sky, but that's not hard at all. I don't know, it's disappointing because I like the premise, and it started pretty well, but boy did the wheels fall off.
What I Liked:
Lucas: Oh my. I said in the review for Some Girls Do that I kinda liked the relationship between one of the girls and a guy more than the central pairing, which was a first. Well here, I think I like the pairing of me and Lucas more than Lindsay and Valerie. Some of that is undoubtedly that I was picturing Jack Quaid as Lucas as I read this, but in seriousness, Lucas is a really fun character. He is into Valerie at first, and then transitions into just being her friend and one of her biggest supporters when he finds out she's gay and into Lindsay, and I really liked him. He's a drug dealer, and I really like that that's just introduced and then... nothing is really done with that? It's just an open secret but otherwise, he's a lovely, supportive guy who is trying to better himself. I haven't really seen that before. I'm not saying the book exactly condones drugs or drug selling, but it doesn't condemn it nearly as much as I was expecting, which was a nice change. He also initiates a sexual relationship with someone he does not at all like, knowing it's not the best idea, which I liked. Amber is the worst, but that's what people in real life do. The book does treat this as a bad thing and a mean thing to do to Amber, because it's purely physical from Lucas' point of view, which is frustrating and not true. Lucas isn't wrong for wanting and assuming something is just physical, and if Amber wants or assumes otherwise, that's not Lucas' fault. Sometimes, people just have different assumptions and expectations, and that's fine. But yeah, Lucas was great. More of guys like him in stories, please.
Kat and kind-of Tara: two of Valerie's friends. I like them well enough. Kat is the second-best character in the book in terms of who I liked spending time with. She doesn't have a whole lot of character progression, but she gets a decent amount of development. Tara gets less of both, unfortunately, but as far as friends go, they were at least set up to be interesting. Tara also has the interesting note of being the one Valerie initially is interested in, and her getting a boyfriend is what sparks Valerie's initial journey into discovering her sexuality. This is kind of a weak positive though, because it's ruined. More on that later.
The start: I said before how much I like Lucas, and how Kat and Tara are set up. The start has a lot of great things going for it.It's hinted that Valerie likes Tara, we know Lindsay is arriving soon, but not yet, we see Valerie go on a kind of date with Lucas, and we see her reaction to all that. It's an interesting place to start, and I liked it. Valerie's family being borderline-negligent is also established well. I like how they are wealthy but at the expense of spending any real time together, because her parents are pretty much always working, and how well that establishes Valerie's isolation and loneliness despite her friends.
What I Didn't Like:
Lindsay. Valerie. Or Lindsay and Valerie: oh boy. Yeah, I feel like my review could have just been those 10 words, really. Because when you don't like either of the main couple, or them as a couple, it's always going to be an uphill struggle. Lindsay is just... well, she's British. And as a British person, I can say that they are the worst. No, on a serious note, she's just not very interesting. She's kind of a stock 'out and comfortable girl' who is generically good at things and is around. I don't really know what more I can even say about her, she's just uninteresting. And that is saying something, since she's gay, and I'm generally interested in all things gay. Oh, and then there's Sarah. I'll talk more about Sarah later.
Valerie is spineless. And that feels mean, but I don't know, seeing her try to placate the feelings of Amber, who is the worst, for the tenth time while she's destroying her relationship with Lindsay because it makes her uncomfortable was just too much. I severely stopped caring about Valerie. She starts out really strong. Her place in the friend group is interesting, her crush on Tara is interesting, her relationship with Lucas is interesting, but once she begins dating Lindsay, she becomes really flat and is ruled by her fear. Which could be interesting, but it's made to seem so shallow when the thing she is so afraid of is being outed as gay in high school, and then the minute high school is over, she's just like 'yeah, I'm gay' to anyone. Seeing as how she had a great reason to, she really couldn't get over herself to get through the last two months of high school for a girl she said 'I love you' to? Really? The issue here isn't exactly in her fear or hesitation, but in the presentation of it. It was made to seem like she got stalled by a pretty trivial thing and wouldn't budge for this girl, which says to me she doesn't really care. So why should I? Also, Valerie is presented as not having any hobbies, which is good. I like that, especially considering how a lot of people nowadays live. We often don't engage with hobbies. So Valerie and Lindsay spend a day exploring different things, but they do it with an eye to seeing what Valerie is immediately good at, which struck me as really odd. That's not how things work. And you can also really enjoy things you suck at. But lo-and-behold, Valerie does start writing the school play and finds she's amazing at it. Honestly, pretty much all the play stuff irritated me.
Lindsay and Valerie meet on the page, thank goodness. It's not an exceptional meeting, but it's good enough. But then their first few weeks of knowing each other mostly happen off-page, in a 'yeah, we hang out a lot together now'. Which can be fine, but then the turn from friends to more doesn't feel well built-up, so I'm left just feeling underwhelmed by it. The swimming pool scene is fairly strong, but otherwise, a lot of the circling and dancing around each other period is really flat. Honestly, I'm not sure where these two ever get off the ground. I feel like there was a date or something in there where it was somewhat clicking for me, but it didn't last long.
Tara and Valerie: I was really intrigued by the setup of knowing Lindsay was coming and she was going to be rooming with Tara, and Valerie having a crush on Tara. Because there are so many interesting things you can do with that. Maley does... none of them. Lindsay does know that Valerie has a crush on Tara, and Maley flirts with doing something about it, but then she discards it in a very clear 'Valerie has resolved her feelings for Tara and is now fully focussed on Lindsay for the rest of the book' way, and... what? That's not fun or interesting or realistic at all. Crushes on people you've known for years are generally pretty deep and significant things, and the conflict between holding on to that and going with something new is tough. It's fine if that's not a focus of the book, but it's really strange to set it up and then just throw it away without using it really at all. And also, you can have feelings for two people at once, and it's totally fine and doesn't undermine your relationship. It feels like Maley wanted it done before doing anything with Valerie and Lindsay, but I think the book would have been stronger if more was done with Tara. We barely see her after the opening 1/4.
The last however-much: oh boy, does this book nosedive in the second half. I'm not sure exactly when, if it's the second half or last third or last quarter, but it becomes a real slog. This book has a Plot and a Conflict and a Rising Action and a Climax and I kinda hate most of it. Because it's not really set up for one. I get it, of course. This is a debut book that's looking to sell, and there's generally an expectation that things will happen in your book, but when your solution to that is to separate the characters and isolate the main character, who you have written as boring, jealous, and spineless to the point where I don't want to spend time with her anymore, you're really hurting the book. Kat disappears. I also really don't like her reason for disappearing, it is really selfish of her and seems wildly out of character. But the reader can't have nice things. Valerie and Lindsay split. Valerie then is mostly just sad, and nothing much happens until time passes, and we reach the end of the book. Like... why did any of that need to happen? Why not just have them be together and make it actually interesting? I don't know, I'm just getting really sick of books splitting the characters up in the last 1/3rd. It's bad, please stop doing it.
The end: I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming but I still hated it. And more than that, Maley made me hate it even more. So after Lindsay goes back home without saying a final-day goodbye to Valerie, Valerie goes to college. We see her parents, sister, and Lucas helping her move in. She meets her new roommate, and settles into college life before she happens to run into Lindsay again, who decided to stay in America for university, and go to the same one Valerie is. Not because of Valerie, though, but because of Sarah. I have previously mentioned Sarah once in this review, and that is how little she matters in this book. Still, Lindsay stays for Sarah, apparently. Great. So Valerie and Lindsay agree to hang out, now they're both out and comfortable. And what I especially hate about this ending is, on top of not caring about Valerie or Lindsay (I mean, I knew they would be together at the end. It's a lesbian romance. Apparently), we see a glimpse at a new start and college life that could honestly just be a whole new book of Valerie meeting someone she has better chemistry with. It feels like she almost got a new start and then got pulled back into high school BS. The book doesn't do nearly enough to convince me they made each other's senior year better, and now it's threatening to ruin their university experience as well.
Sarah: Sarah. Sarah. My Lord do I hate jealousy subplots. I don't experience jealousy. I don't understand it. So far as I can tell, it is one of the ugliest, least useful and least interesting emotions humanity is capable of. It makes your characters incredibly unlikable. It makes them act in really stupid ways. And it isn't necessary. So Valerie and Lindsay get together, and there's a lot of stuff that's happened, back-and-forth, and it's clear they both are really into each other. Lindsay has done a lot to prove to Valerie she's into her. Yet when Sarah starts hanging around her, Valerie instantly gets really jealous. Why??! Haven't you been paying attention? It makes Valerie so unlikable. I think that was the point I really started to get sick of her. After Lindsay and Valerie break up, Lindsay tries to make Valerie envious by kissing Sarah. I do experience envy, but even that didn't help this land any better. Lindsay then dates Sarah despite being very open about the fact she doesn't like her and would drop her to get back with Valerie in a heartbeat, which made me not feel super great about Lindsay. Lindsay is presented as being confident and relatively comfortable with herself. She could have just been single when Valerie and she split up. Or something very casual with someone, but that's not what this is. Again, she goes to university in the US because Sarah is going there. A girl she's been with as a rebound with stated little feelings for, for a couple of months - less, maybe, considering when the applications would be done.
Why do I care about these people? Let me see Lucas and Kat and Kat's dads, please.
This book was a big disappointment. Thankfully, Siera Maley goes on to do much better.
Thanks!
So it turns out, Siera Maley has written at least one bad book. I had to go back a ways to find it, and it turned out to be her first, from 2013.
Yeah, this was not really good at all. It definitely had elements I liked quite a lot, but its flaws really killed it for me. I wanted it to be over long before it was, and I moved on very quickly after finishing it (to a fantastic book that I am very much looking forward to reviewing!)
This is probably a 2 star. Maybe 1.5 on a mean day. 2.5 would be being very generous. It's better than Her Name In the Sky, but that's not hard at all. I don't know, it's disappointing because I like the premise, and it started pretty well, but boy did the wheels fall off.
What I Liked:
Lucas: Oh my. I said in the review for Some Girls Do that I kinda liked the relationship between one of the girls and a guy more than the central pairing, which was a first. Well here, I think I like the pairing of me and Lucas more than Lindsay and Valerie. Some of that is undoubtedly that I was picturing Jack Quaid as Lucas as I read this, but in seriousness, Lucas is a really fun character. He is into Valerie at first, and then transitions into just being her friend and one of her biggest supporters when he finds out she's gay and into Lindsay, and I really liked him. He's a drug dealer, and I really like that that's just introduced and then... nothing is really done with that? It's just an open secret but otherwise, he's a lovely, supportive guy who is trying to better himself. I haven't really seen that before. I'm not saying the book exactly condones drugs or drug selling, but it doesn't condemn it nearly as much as I was expecting, which was a nice change. He also initiates a sexual relationship with someone he does not at all like, knowing it's not the best idea, which I liked. Amber is the worst, but that's what people in real life do. The book does treat this as a bad thing and a mean thing to do to Amber, because it's purely physical from Lucas' point of view, which is frustrating and not true. Lucas isn't wrong for wanting and assuming something is just physical, and if Amber wants or assumes otherwise, that's not Lucas' fault. Sometimes, people just have different assumptions and expectations, and that's fine. But yeah, Lucas was great. More of guys like him in stories, please.
Kat and kind-of Tara: two of Valerie's friends. I like them well enough. Kat is the second-best character in the book in terms of who I liked spending time with. She doesn't have a whole lot of character progression, but she gets a decent amount of development. Tara gets less of both, unfortunately, but as far as friends go, they were at least set up to be interesting. Tara also has the interesting note of being the one Valerie initially is interested in, and her getting a boyfriend is what sparks Valerie's initial journey into discovering her sexuality. This is kind of a weak positive though, because it's ruined. More on that later.
The start: I said before how much I like Lucas, and how Kat and Tara are set up. The start has a lot of great things going for it.It's hinted that Valerie likes Tara, we know Lindsay is arriving soon, but not yet, we see Valerie go on a kind of date with Lucas, and we see her reaction to all that. It's an interesting place to start, and I liked it. Valerie's family being borderline-negligent is also established well. I like how they are wealthy but at the expense of spending any real time together, because her parents are pretty much always working, and how well that establishes Valerie's isolation and loneliness despite her friends.
What I Didn't Like:
Lindsay. Valerie. Or Lindsay and Valerie: oh boy. Yeah, I feel like my review could have just been those 10 words, really. Because when you don't like either of the main couple, or them as a couple, it's always going to be an uphill struggle. Lindsay is just... well, she's British. And as a British person, I can say that they are the worst. No, on a serious note, she's just not very interesting. She's kind of a stock 'out and comfortable girl' who is generically good at things and is around. I don't really know what more I can even say about her, she's just uninteresting. And that is saying something, since she's gay, and I'm generally interested in all things gay. Oh, and then there's Sarah. I'll talk more about Sarah later.
Valerie is spineless. And that feels mean, but I don't know, seeing her try to placate the feelings of Amber, who is the worst, for the tenth time while she's destroying her relationship with Lindsay because it makes her uncomfortable was just too much. I severely stopped caring about Valerie. She starts out really strong. Her place in the friend group is interesting, her crush on Tara is interesting, her relationship with Lucas is interesting, but once she begins dating Lindsay, she becomes really flat and is ruled by her fear. Which could be interesting, but it's made to seem so shallow when the thing she is so afraid of is being outed as gay in high school, and then the minute high school is over, she's just like 'yeah, I'm gay' to anyone. Seeing as how she had a great reason to, she really couldn't get over herself to get through the last two months of high school for a girl she said 'I love you' to? Really? The issue here isn't exactly in her fear or hesitation, but in the presentation of it. It was made to seem like she got stalled by a pretty trivial thing and wouldn't budge for this girl, which says to me she doesn't really care. So why should I? Also, Valerie is presented as not having any hobbies, which is good. I like that, especially considering how a lot of people nowadays live. We often don't engage with hobbies. So Valerie and Lindsay spend a day exploring different things, but they do it with an eye to seeing what Valerie is immediately good at, which struck me as really odd. That's not how things work. And you can also really enjoy things you suck at. But lo-and-behold, Valerie does start writing the school play and finds she's amazing at it. Honestly, pretty much all the play stuff irritated me.
Lindsay and Valerie meet on the page, thank goodness. It's not an exceptional meeting, but it's good enough. But then their first few weeks of knowing each other mostly happen off-page, in a 'yeah, we hang out a lot together now'. Which can be fine, but then the turn from friends to more doesn't feel well built-up, so I'm left just feeling underwhelmed by it. The swimming pool scene is fairly strong, but otherwise, a lot of the circling and dancing around each other period is really flat. Honestly, I'm not sure where these two ever get off the ground. I feel like there was a date or something in there where it was somewhat clicking for me, but it didn't last long.
Tara and Valerie: I was really intrigued by the setup of knowing Lindsay was coming and she was going to be rooming with Tara, and Valerie having a crush on Tara. Because there are so many interesting things you can do with that. Maley does... none of them. Lindsay does know that Valerie has a crush on Tara, and Maley flirts with doing something about it, but then she discards it in a very clear 'Valerie has resolved her feelings for Tara and is now fully focussed on Lindsay for the rest of the book' way, and... what? That's not fun or interesting or realistic at all. Crushes on people you've known for years are generally pretty deep and significant things, and the conflict between holding on to that and going with something new is tough. It's fine if that's not a focus of the book, but it's really strange to set it up and then just throw it away without using it really at all. And also, you can have feelings for two people at once, and it's totally fine and doesn't undermine your relationship. It feels like Maley wanted it done before doing anything with Valerie and Lindsay, but I think the book would have been stronger if more was done with Tara. We barely see her after the opening 1/4.
The last however-much: oh boy, does this book nosedive in the second half. I'm not sure exactly when, if it's the second half or last third or last quarter, but it becomes a real slog. This book has a Plot and a Conflict and a Rising Action and a Climax and I kinda hate most of it. Because it's not really set up for one. I get it, of course. This is a debut book that's looking to sell, and there's generally an expectation that things will happen in your book, but when your solution to that is to separate the characters and isolate the main character, who you have written as boring, jealous, and spineless to the point where I don't want to spend time with her anymore, you're really hurting the book. Kat disappears. I also really don't like her reason for disappearing, it is really selfish of her and seems wildly out of character. But the reader can't have nice things. Valerie and Lindsay split. Valerie then is mostly just sad, and nothing much happens until time passes, and we reach the end of the book. Like... why did any of that need to happen? Why not just have them be together and make it actually interesting? I don't know, I'm just getting really sick of books splitting the characters up in the last 1/3rd. It's bad, please stop doing it.
The end: I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming but I still hated it. And more than that, Maley made me hate it even more. So after Lindsay goes back home without saying a final-day goodbye to Valerie, Valerie goes to college. We see her parents, sister, and Lucas helping her move in. She meets her new roommate, and settles into college life before she happens to run into Lindsay again, who decided to stay in America for university, and go to the same one Valerie is. Not because of Valerie, though, but because of Sarah. I have previously mentioned Sarah once in this review, and that is how little she matters in this book. Still, Lindsay stays for Sarah, apparently. Great. So Valerie and Lindsay agree to hang out, now they're both out and comfortable. And what I especially hate about this ending is, on top of not caring about Valerie or Lindsay (I mean, I knew they would be together at the end. It's a lesbian romance. Apparently), we see a glimpse at a new start and college life that could honestly just be a whole new book of Valerie meeting someone she has better chemistry with. It feels like she almost got a new start and then got pulled back into high school BS. The book doesn't do nearly enough to convince me they made each other's senior year better, and now it's threatening to ruin their university experience as well.
Sarah: Sarah. Sarah. My Lord do I hate jealousy subplots. I don't experience jealousy. I don't understand it. So far as I can tell, it is one of the ugliest, least useful and least interesting emotions humanity is capable of. It makes your characters incredibly unlikable. It makes them act in really stupid ways. And it isn't necessary. So Valerie and Lindsay get together, and there's a lot of stuff that's happened, back-and-forth, and it's clear they both are really into each other. Lindsay has done a lot to prove to Valerie she's into her. Yet when Sarah starts hanging around her, Valerie instantly gets really jealous. Why??! Haven't you been paying attention? It makes Valerie so unlikable. I think that was the point I really started to get sick of her. After Lindsay and Valerie break up, Lindsay tries to make Valerie envious by kissing Sarah. I do experience envy, but even that didn't help this land any better. Lindsay then dates Sarah despite being very open about the fact she doesn't like her and would drop her to get back with Valerie in a heartbeat, which made me not feel super great about Lindsay. Lindsay is presented as being confident and relatively comfortable with herself. She could have just been single when Valerie and she split up. Or something very casual with someone, but that's not what this is. Again, she goes to university in the US because Sarah is going there. A girl she's been with as a rebound with stated little feelings for, for a couple of months - less, maybe, considering when the applications would be done.
Why do I care about these people? Let me see Lucas and Kat and Kat's dads, please.
This book was a big disappointment. Thankfully, Siera Maley goes on to do much better.
Thanks!
January 22, 2020
Okay, this one made me angry. And I feel bad getting angry about this story, because I read another book from the author yesterday and really liked it. Even worse, I liked this book a lot, for most of the story. I was set to happily give it five stars and put it on my favorites list.
Obviously, that didn't happen.
So yeah, spoiler warning, for those who end up reading this for some reason.
Let me talk about endings.
I've read a lot of romance novels, or fantasy novels with a focus on romance, and it feels to me like a lot of them don't want to have a satisfying ending. I don't know if this is how many people like it, or if it is more artistic that way. But I find it incredibly frustrating to get involved in the lives of characters, live through all their drama, get emotionally invested, see them finally find a measure of happiness, get even more invested, cheer along for them to take the last obstacle to their relationship/problems in life, and then...
Nothing.
Come to think of it, if the rest of the book hadn't been so amazing, I wouldn't be so angry at the ending. I got really, really invested. I love this kind of drama. I love stories that can be summed up as "good people making bad decisions for understandable reasons", and that's what this was. There were no big villains, no psycho exes or anything... there were some homophobic lowlifes who can eff off, but other than that... even the guys were pretty decent.
The relationship between Valerie and Lindsay, and to a lesser extend Valerie and (most of) her friends was really sweet. I felt bad for Valerie for all the fears she went through. I understood her reasons for not coming out, even when Lindsay did not want to be the dirty little secret. And Lindsay was understanding and patient... until she couldn't anymore. She took blow after blow, protecting Valerie, until I could not fault her for having enough anymore.
They had a big fight, Valerie broke Lindsay's heart. I feld incredibly bad for Lindsay, even as I understood Valerie. Then Lindsay's exchange term ended and she left, back to England. Valerie goes through the painful process of removing her from all contacts, block and delete her number.
Cue timeskip to Valerie in college. She's out now, she goes to her first class and... Lindsay is there, having (as kinda sorta hinted at) chosen to apply to a college in the US if she found a reason (like, say a girlfriend) to stay.
They sorta hint at that this time, things are different, and end with Valerie asking Lindsay to come to a planned outing with their friends.
WHAT.
After all this emotional baggage they carried around this entire time, all the heartbreak, all the fighting, and relationship building, and the talks, and the pain and everything...
They just decide to maybe, possibly get back together.
All the emotional high just... poof. Gone. No mentions of lingering attachments, or regret, or ANYTHING. Like they met for the first time at college. Would have made no difference. And then its just the old "well, they have another chance now".
Like someone inflated a balloon bigger and bigger, until it was full to burst, and I sat there in anticipation of the big bang and the end... and the person just let go of the seal and all the air just sputtered out, depriving me of all the expected catharsis.
This was basically another rant more for my benefit than for others. So as much as I liked the writing style and the character building, I can't in good consciousness give this story anything better than one star. That's how much the ending ruined it for me.
Obviously, that didn't happen.
So yeah, spoiler warning, for those who end up reading this for some reason.
Let me talk about endings.
I've read a lot of romance novels, or fantasy novels with a focus on romance, and it feels to me like a lot of them don't want to have a satisfying ending. I don't know if this is how many people like it, or if it is more artistic that way. But I find it incredibly frustrating to get involved in the lives of characters, live through all their drama, get emotionally invested, see them finally find a measure of happiness, get even more invested, cheer along for them to take the last obstacle to their relationship/problems in life, and then...
Nothing.
Come to think of it, if the rest of the book hadn't been so amazing, I wouldn't be so angry at the ending. I got really, really invested. I love this kind of drama. I love stories that can be summed up as "good people making bad decisions for understandable reasons", and that's what this was. There were no big villains, no psycho exes or anything... there were some homophobic lowlifes who can eff off, but other than that... even the guys were pretty decent.
The relationship between Valerie and Lindsay, and to a lesser extend Valerie and (most of) her friends was really sweet. I felt bad for Valerie for all the fears she went through. I understood her reasons for not coming out, even when Lindsay did not want to be the dirty little secret. And Lindsay was understanding and patient... until she couldn't anymore. She took blow after blow, protecting Valerie, until I could not fault her for having enough anymore.
They had a big fight, Valerie broke Lindsay's heart. I feld incredibly bad for Lindsay, even as I understood Valerie. Then Lindsay's exchange term ended and she left, back to England. Valerie goes through the painful process of removing her from all contacts, block and delete her number.
Cue timeskip to Valerie in college. She's out now, she goes to her first class and... Lindsay is there, having (as kinda sorta hinted at) chosen to apply to a college in the US if she found a reason (like, say a girlfriend) to stay.
They sorta hint at that this time, things are different, and end with Valerie asking Lindsay to come to a planned outing with their friends.
WHAT.
After all this emotional baggage they carried around this entire time, all the heartbreak, all the fighting, and relationship building, and the talks, and the pain and everything...
They just decide to maybe, possibly get back together.
All the emotional high just... poof. Gone. No mentions of lingering attachments, or regret, or ANYTHING. Like they met for the first time at college. Would have made no difference. And then its just the old "well, they have another chance now".
Like someone inflated a balloon bigger and bigger, until it was full to burst, and I sat there in anticipation of the big bang and the end... and the person just let go of the seal and all the air just sputtered out, depriving me of all the expected catharsis.
This was basically another rant more for my benefit than for others. So as much as I liked the writing style and the character building, I can't in good consciousness give this story anything better than one star. That's how much the ending ruined it for me.
June 3, 2020
Everything was all right for a while. I loved Valerie, I loved Lindsay, I loved Lucas, and Kat and Tara and a little bit Valerie's father. Amazing characters, they are.
I loved the whole "discovering your sexuality" that was relatable AF, and I really enjoyed the friendships, and the coming out and the romance. The romance was sweet and cute and I fell in love with the idea of them together.
Alas, I'm upset. THAT ENDING. No. Scratch that. THAT LAST 15%. I HATED IT OMFG.
OK, I'm being a little bit over dramatic. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it. I do understand why it ended the way it did, and it's fine I guess. But, if the story was gonna take that turn, the author should've given us a different ending. IDK, I just felt really let down, like the ending didn't make justice for the rest of the story.
So I'm upset.
Also, this one feels different to other Maley's books. It's a lot of tell rather than show, and a loooot of infodumps in the first 20% or so. I'm not super upset about it, but after reading other of her more recent books, I completely felt the change and was expecting better.
As always, Maley's books have amazingly well crafted characters. Everyone felt real and human. I loved most of them (the homophobes being the only exception).
So yeah. I'd recommend it, but not really. It depends on what you're in the mood for reading and what your expectations are going in. It was good and enjoyable, but far from perfect.
[Tercer libro leído en Junio 2020 en honor al Pride 🏳️🌈]
I loved the whole "discovering your sexuality" that was relatable AF, and I really enjoyed the friendships, and the coming out and the romance. The romance was sweet and cute and I fell in love with the idea of them together.
Alas, I'm upset. THAT ENDING. No. Scratch that. THAT LAST 15%. I HATED IT OMFG.
OK, I'm being a little bit over dramatic. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it. I do understand why it ended the way it did, and it's fine I guess. But, if the story was gonna take that turn, the author should've given us a different ending. IDK, I just felt really let down, like the ending didn't make justice for the rest of the story.
So I'm upset.
Also, this one feels different to other Maley's books. It's a lot of tell rather than show, and a loooot of infodumps in the first 20% or so. I'm not super upset about it, but after reading other of her more recent books, I completely felt the change and was expecting better.
As always, Maley's books have amazingly well crafted characters. Everyone felt real and human. I loved most of them (the homophobes being the only exception).
So yeah. I'd recommend it, but not really. It depends on what you're in the mood for reading and what your expectations are going in. It was good and enjoyable, but far from perfect.
[Tercer libro leído en Junio 2020 en honor al Pride 🏳️🌈]
August 2, 2016
"Well, she certainly felt alone now. Not only for being the only girl to not have some boy after her, but for being the only girl to not want some boy after her. Without Tara matching her every reaction at their next sleepover while Amber or Kat shared boy stories, it would just be Valerie lying there alone, not understanding or relating."
Time it Right was a good book at first. This is exactly the kind of story I wish I could go back to 13 yo Maria and show her that she isn't alone, and that is completely perfect to feel the way she used to feel during her teenage years.
I related a lot to Valerie and her story of coming out, especially to her friends. The gay references here also made me very happy (especially the nod to DEBS!!).
I just feel like the last 20% of the book lost me a bit. There was some drama that could have been handled it a little bit better. But still, this is a book that I know LGBT teens will love and need to read. I'd have loved with all my heart years ago.
I also want to point out that this is Siera Maley's first book and, having read her last one before this, I'm glad that I could see how much she is growing as a writer. It's easy to see how much better her stories and characters are sounding in the text now. She is definitely the go to for lesbian happy endings with cute love stories!
Time it Right was a good book at first. This is exactly the kind of story I wish I could go back to 13 yo Maria and show her that she isn't alone, and that is completely perfect to feel the way she used to feel during her teenage years.
I related a lot to Valerie and her story of coming out, especially to her friends. The gay references here also made me very happy (especially the nod to DEBS!!).
I just feel like the last 20% of the book lost me a bit. There was some drama that could have been handled it a little bit better. But still, this is a book that I know LGBT teens will love and need to read. I'd have loved with all my heart years ago.
I also want to point out that this is Siera Maley's first book and, having read her last one before this, I'm glad that I could see how much she is growing as a writer. It's easy to see how much better her stories and characters are sounding in the text now. She is definitely the go to for lesbian happy endings with cute love stories!
January 17, 2017
YA lesfic: Valerie is the non-achieving friend in a small high-achieving group of girls, seniors in HS. When Lindsey, a British exchange student, arrives her interactions with Valerie lead Valerie to question her sexuality, especially since she seems to have no interest in boys. But while eventually Lindsay wants to be out about herself, Valerie is way too frightened of the repercussions. This leads to a back and forth in the relationship and an eventual ending that seems a bit contrived, but because this is after all a romance, you have to have the HEA, so the book gets a pass.
The book held my attention and I stayed up quite late to finish it. The tension is more pronounced in the final 1/3 which is probably why I was eager to get to the end.
The secondary characters, especially Lucas and Kat, were particularly strong and it was ironic that Valerie seemed to have the most clever and interesting conversations with Lucas, even more so than with Lindsay. I wanted Valerie to show us a bit more of Valerie's strong attraction to Lindsay and a bit less of her fear. This would have made the pairing a little more believable.
But all in all a good coming out YA novel, complete with the pretty common trope of the "new girl in school" whose arrival upends the life of the MC.
The book held my attention and I stayed up quite late to finish it. The tension is more pronounced in the final 1/3 which is probably why I was eager to get to the end.
The secondary characters, especially Lucas and Kat, were particularly strong and it was ironic that Valerie seemed to have the most clever and interesting conversations with Lucas, even more so than with Lindsay. I wanted Valerie to show us a bit more of Valerie's strong attraction to Lindsay and a bit less of her fear. This would have made the pairing a little more believable.
But all in all a good coming out YA novel, complete with the pretty common trope of the "new girl in school" whose arrival upends the life of the MC.
March 1, 2015
There are many positives to Maley's writing. Her greatest strength is an ability to write Val's inner monologues in a way that felt authentic to her age and personality. These reflections on her experiences led us through her journey to deeper self-understanding. Paradoxically, even though the characters had jumbled emotions, or were less than forthcoming with themselves about their own motivations, these were communicated with a clarity that kept me engaged.
The piece had minor editing problems, particularly missing words that noticeable in important lines of dialogue (like that). It also seemed to run a bit long, which could have been remedied through selective pruning of scenes, particularly those surrounding the preparations and performances of the drama students.
Aspects of this storyline felt like an homage to Bjorkman's My Invented Life, and could easily sit on a school library shelf next to any title of Julie Anne Peters or Lauren Myracle. Another promising new author has arrived on scene.
The piece had minor editing problems, particularly missing words that noticeable in important lines of dialogue (like that). It also seemed to run a bit long, which could have been remedied through selective pruning of scenes, particularly those surrounding the preparations and performances of the drama students.
Aspects of this storyline felt like an homage to Bjorkman's My Invented Life, and could easily sit on a school library shelf next to any title of Julie Anne Peters or Lauren Myracle. Another promising new author has arrived on scene.
April 1, 2017
Genuine Story of First Love
Whenever I begin a Siera Maley book, I end up getting just a couple of hours of sleep before I have to go to work. Why? Because it's impossible to stop reading her books before the end. Time it Right is no exception. Valerie is a young woman trying to understand herself and her own strengths and weaknesses. She falls in love for the first time in her life and it's with an exchange student from England, named Lindsey. Via that love, Val begins the journey of coming out. Funny, heartbreaking, sweet, everything a first love should be. The main characters are multi layered, the friends are great too. The story seems simple enough but the author makes the leads so genuine, both flawed and powerful, that I was totally invested to the end. Now please, Ms. Maley, write that sequel.
Whenever I begin a Siera Maley book, I end up getting just a couple of hours of sleep before I have to go to work. Why? Because it's impossible to stop reading her books before the end. Time it Right is no exception. Valerie is a young woman trying to understand herself and her own strengths and weaknesses. She falls in love for the first time in her life and it's with an exchange student from England, named Lindsey. Via that love, Val begins the journey of coming out. Funny, heartbreaking, sweet, everything a first love should be. The main characters are multi layered, the friends are great too. The story seems simple enough but the author makes the leads so genuine, both flawed and powerful, that I was totally invested to the end. Now please, Ms. Maley, write that sequel.
February 14, 2014
I loved the two main characters, I found myself frustrated with Valerie sometimes, I just wanted to slap her and tell her that her happiness comes first. Valerie and Lindsey's relationship totally pulled me in, I couldn't stop reading I until I knew what happened between and even though i was happy with the ending, I wish they kind of did a month or year prologue to see what would of happened. I would recommend reading this book :)
December 1, 2018
Good overall, but similar to some other lesfic stories set in schools that I've read, dealing with acceptance and homophobia etc. There are a quite a few names to get used, who are all introduced at pretty much the same time. Chance meeting towards the end. My least favourite Siera Maley book so far, but that's partly because she's set the bar so high with her other books. Still a good book though
February 22, 2025
suprised better than i thought
March 17, 2018
The fourth book that I've read of Siera Maley on my book binge before I move on to The Noble of Sperath (The Heirs of Eveinia Book 1) and Colorblind. I'm excited! She has me hooked on all of her stories! Once again, a great story.
The plot was great and I loved its development and narrative. The third person POV threw me off a little because I've been reading first person for the past two-three days so I wasn't expecting it. But I guess it would make sense the change in POV since this is one of her earlier books, if not the first. The emotional turmoils were really well-written and I liked that this book had more of a coming-out aspect to it than her other books. (Spoiler???)
Once again, the characters were amazing and I loved them! I love seeing the journey of Valerie as she discovers who she is as a person. I love that we really got to see it from to start to as finish as anyone can be in the end of the story. I love that her friends were supportive and the struggle of those who had a harder accepting her, including herself. It was great to see that Lindsey wasn't the stereotypical lesbian (that you see all the time in media, mostly written by straight people) who was trying to force Valerie out of the closet. It was refreshing to see her help Valerie in her adventures of uncovering who she is. I liked that the jealousy between the four girls never came to a point where it was just incredibly toxic and horrible, . They were realistic and you really felt for them and I think we all know by now how much of a sucker I am for stuff like that. This book also had a surprise for me and his name is Lucas. I don't usually like male characters because they're often written really horribly and they're boring most of the time but Lucas was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. I actually really liked his character because he was an ass but he was an ass that you could like. He was a break-out character for me and while I do like the main characters more, I would say that he was my second favorite. As for the other characters, I do think that the friendship between the four girls were established well at the beginning. There was good exposition for it, but I didn't see it throughout as much as I would have liked to. I know that the friendship was there but I didn't feel the closeness despite the circumstances. You know, Tara was like the best friend but we had the least interactions between her and Valerie. And I felt like Amber was the odd one out instead of Valerie. I didn't really understand how she was one of their best friends. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it didn't feel like they were best friends, it felt like they were just closed friends. But it wasn't really a negative, it didn't like take away a star because I still feel like this is a five star book because of how it made me feel. I just would have liked to see the best friends aspect of it more. I really wish that Amber would have taken a different direction with her hate but oh well, we can't have them all. I actually liked the ending, I didn't think I was going to but I did. The characters were awesome as always!
I will be ordering the paperback version of this novel, along with On the Outside in the upcoming week and probably the other two books that I have yet to read. Such a magnificent story!
The plot was great and I loved its development and narrative. The third person POV threw me off a little because I've been reading first person for the past two-three days so I wasn't expecting it. But I guess it would make sense the change in POV since this is one of her earlier books, if not the first. The emotional turmoils were really well-written and I liked that this book had more of a coming-out aspect to it than her other books. (Spoiler???)
Once again, the characters were amazing and I loved them! I love seeing the journey of Valerie as she discovers who she is as a person. I love that we really got to see it from to start to as finish as anyone can be in the end of the story. I love that her friends were supportive and the struggle of those who had a harder accepting her, including herself. It was great to see that Lindsey wasn't the stereotypical lesbian (that you see all the time in media, mostly written by straight people) who was trying to force Valerie out of the closet. It was refreshing to see her help Valerie in her adventures of uncovering who she is. I liked that the jealousy between the four girls never came to a point where it was just incredibly toxic and horrible, . They were realistic and you really felt for them and I think we all know by now how much of a sucker I am for stuff like that. This book also had a surprise for me and his name is Lucas. I don't usually like male characters because they're often written really horribly and they're boring most of the time but Lucas was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. I actually really liked his character because he was an ass but he was an ass that you could like. He was a break-out character for me and while I do like the main characters more, I would say that he was my second favorite. As for the other characters, I do think that the friendship between the four girls were established well at the beginning. There was good exposition for it, but I didn't see it throughout as much as I would have liked to. I know that the friendship was there but I didn't feel the closeness despite the circumstances. You know, Tara was like the best friend but we had the least interactions between her and Valerie. And I felt like Amber was the odd one out instead of Valerie. I didn't really understand how she was one of their best friends. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it didn't feel like they were best friends, it felt like they were just closed friends. But it wasn't really a negative, it didn't like take away a star because I still feel like this is a five star book because of how it made me feel. I just would have liked to see the best friends aspect of it more. I really wish that Amber would have taken a different direction with her hate but oh well, we can't have them all. I actually liked the ending, I didn't think I was going to but I did. The characters were awesome as always!
I will be ordering the paperback version of this novel, along with On the Outside in the upcoming week and probably the other two books that I have yet to read. Such a magnificent story!
March 2, 2017
Read this review and more on my blog at [Roxie Writes].
'Time It Right' by Siera Maley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
Finished on February 28, 2017
Read with Kindle Unlimited Subscription
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BOOK DESCRIPTION:
'Time It Right' centers around Valerie Marsh and her three best friends, Tara, Amber, and Kat. Tara is studious and set to attend an ivy league college after graduation. Amber is a popular cheerleader who jumps from boyfriend to boyfriend. And Kat has the lead role in every play their high school puts on and a long-term boyfriend. Valerie is the only one of the four who can't seem to really find her place. She's never had a boyfriend and doesn't really seem to have any talents. When Tara gets her first boyfriend, she convinces Valerie to go on a double-date with her, much to her chagrin. To placate her friend, Valerie asks her her guy friend, Lucas, to go with her, unknowing that he has harbored a crush on her for quite some time. Things quickly go off the rails, leaving Valerie question what is wrong with her -- why she can't just be like her friends.
Then, Tara's family take in Lindsay, a beautiful and gregarious foreign exchange student from the UK. Lindsay upstages Tara in her family, usurps Kat's part in the school play, and is stiff competition for Amber's spot as most popular. More than anything, though, she awakens feelings in Valerie that she's never before experienced.
MY REVIEW:
I read this book as part of my #yearofindiewomen.
COVER: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5
This is a cute cover. I would have probably picked this up as a teenager. It's simple but not overdone.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Maley does characters well. This is the second novel of Maley's I've read, the first being 'Taking Flight' which I absolutely adored, and 'Time It Right' did not disappoint either in the character department. Each and every one is complex and well-rounded. As the novel progresses, they grow and evolve naturally without any real hiccups that feel unnatural or rushed. As a reader, you get the sense that Maley understands teenagers and teenage relationships of all sorts, not just gay and straight. She portrays friendships and parental and sibling relationships well, too.
WRITING STYLE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Again, as I said in my review of 'Taking Flight', I very much like Maley's style. She's a natural storyteller. I won't waste your time by repeating myself here. If you'd like to know more, you can check out my earlier review.
OVERALL REVIEW: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
What I liked most about this book was how real it was. 'Time It Right' is the perfect title. A lot, if not most, romances out there paint these, almost, too-perfect pictures. Ones that are unrealistic, and I have a hard time with those stories. It's why I don't read and enjoy many romance-centered stories. But this story is not like that. It's about how you can fall in love, but the timing isn't always right.
Without being too spoilery, this novel tackles the topic of coming out and doing it when you're ready and not too soon. This is another topic that's important to talk about and one that Maley does and does well.
'Time It Right' by Siera Maley
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
Finished on February 28, 2017
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BOOK DESCRIPTION:
'Time It Right' centers around Valerie Marsh and her three best friends, Tara, Amber, and Kat. Tara is studious and set to attend an ivy league college after graduation. Amber is a popular cheerleader who jumps from boyfriend to boyfriend. And Kat has the lead role in every play their high school puts on and a long-term boyfriend. Valerie is the only one of the four who can't seem to really find her place. She's never had a boyfriend and doesn't really seem to have any talents. When Tara gets her first boyfriend, she convinces Valerie to go on a double-date with her, much to her chagrin. To placate her friend, Valerie asks her her guy friend, Lucas, to go with her, unknowing that he has harbored a crush on her for quite some time. Things quickly go off the rails, leaving Valerie question what is wrong with her -- why she can't just be like her friends.
Then, Tara's family take in Lindsay, a beautiful and gregarious foreign exchange student from the UK. Lindsay upstages Tara in her family, usurps Kat's part in the school play, and is stiff competition for Amber's spot as most popular. More than anything, though, she awakens feelings in Valerie that she's never before experienced.
MY REVIEW:
I read this book as part of my #yearofindiewomen.
COVER: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5
This is a cute cover. I would have probably picked this up as a teenager. It's simple but not overdone.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Maley does characters well. This is the second novel of Maley's I've read, the first being 'Taking Flight' which I absolutely adored, and 'Time It Right' did not disappoint either in the character department. Each and every one is complex and well-rounded. As the novel progresses, they grow and evolve naturally without any real hiccups that feel unnatural or rushed. As a reader, you get the sense that Maley understands teenagers and teenage relationships of all sorts, not just gay and straight. She portrays friendships and parental and sibling relationships well, too.
WRITING STYLE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Again, as I said in my review of 'Taking Flight', I very much like Maley's style. She's a natural storyteller. I won't waste your time by repeating myself here. If you'd like to know more, you can check out my earlier review.
OVERALL REVIEW: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
What I liked most about this book was how real it was. 'Time It Right' is the perfect title. A lot, if not most, romances out there paint these, almost, too-perfect pictures. Ones that are unrealistic, and I have a hard time with those stories. It's why I don't read and enjoy many romance-centered stories. But this story is not like that. It's about how you can fall in love, but the timing isn't always right.
Without being too spoilery, this novel tackles the topic of coming out and doing it when you're ready and not too soon. This is another topic that's important to talk about and one that Maley does and does well.
March 3, 2018
Ok so I'd grade this a 3.5 stars only because this book is not Sierra Maley's best work and because I'm mad at her.
The reviews stating that the main protagonist, Valérie is very unlikable and all are not all too objective. People, and yeah LGBTQ+ people handle their sexuality differently from one another. And the way I see things is that Val was very honest; rather the author wrote her honestly. What I mean is that there are undecisive people out there, who feel rushed and pressured into coming out, by their environment, their friends or some circumstances...
Anyway, this book and the story it tells is very genuine. Of course this is the second LGBTQ+ book I'm reading that showcase the tendency LGBTQ+ people have of falling in love with their best friends (what's up with that?).
I really liked how the story progressed; I liked the interactions with the characters, and sometimes I was mad at them, and other times I wasn't. I'm not saying there are no clichés, though, and they're adressed pretty well; not all gay guys have a gene that "typically gave gay men good fashion sense".
I didn't always agree with Val but I understood most of her choices, although i'm pretty sure if I'd ever loved someone the way she loved Lyndsay, I'd have come out to the entire universe. But that's me, or that's you, and not the main character. If Val, Lyndsay, Lucas and other few characters were well written and seemed whole, others didn't. Like Amber was this judgy, religious, hypocrite, poser... Okay she wasn't maybe my favorite character.
And by far, Lyndsay was my favorite, and what she did in order to protect Val's secret. I mean I guess she was an exchange student and that she wasn't that concerned with the repercussions; so saying or doing things that put her in that situation (NO SPOILERS) was easier to do.
The reviews stating that the main protagonist, Valérie is very unlikable and all are not all too objective. People, and yeah LGBTQ+ people handle their sexuality differently from one another. And the way I see things is that Val was very honest; rather the author wrote her honestly. What I mean is that there are undecisive people out there, who feel rushed and pressured into coming out, by their environment, their friends or some circumstances...
Anyway, this book and the story it tells is very genuine. Of course this is the second LGBTQ+ book I'm reading that showcase the tendency LGBTQ+ people have of falling in love with their best friends (what's up with that?).
I really liked how the story progressed; I liked the interactions with the characters, and sometimes I was mad at them, and other times I wasn't. I'm not saying there are no clichés, though, and they're adressed pretty well; not all gay guys have a gene that "typically gave gay men good fashion sense".
I didn't always agree with Val but I understood most of her choices, although i'm pretty sure if I'd ever loved someone the way she loved Lyndsay, I'd have come out to the entire universe. But that's me, or that's you, and not the main character. If Val, Lyndsay, Lucas and other few characters were well written and seemed whole, others didn't. Like Amber was this judgy, religious, hypocrite, poser... Okay she wasn't maybe my favorite character.
And by far, Lyndsay was my favorite, and what she did in order to protect Val's secret. I mean I guess she was an exchange student and that she wasn't that concerned with the repercussions; so saying or doing things that put her in that situation (NO SPOILERS) was easier to do.
October 22, 2021
2.5 stars
take out the entire middle section and this could’ve been a cute coming of age/coming out story. as it stands i had to force myself to finish it, and for less payoff than it was worth.
the entire book was rushing to tell a story that could’ve been told in fewer words for a greater impact; we don’t need a play-by-play of every character’s life and feelings. i felt like i was being told things, but i wasn’t being made to *feel* them, which i think is an unfortunate trait of an immature writer. i’d put this down to TIME IT RIGHT being (i believe) maley’s first published work, given that DATING SARAH COOPER and THE GAY GIRL’S GUIDE TO RUINING PROM, which came out in 2014 and 2019 respectively, both manage to tell their respective stories concisely and in a way that both grips readers and makes them invested in the characters and their development. if you’re looking for a siera maley book to read, i’d highly recommend either of those instead.
i didn’t hate this book; like i said, it just felt a little immature, writing-wise. and none of the characters were quite convincing enough for me to form an attachment to them, aside from, surprisingly, lucas. one thing i will applaud, however, is its use of the word lesbian. for a book that came out in 2013, i was impressed that both the mc and li used the word freely, considering that seems to be a task for most authors in 2021.
i don’t think it was necessarily worth the read for me, but it was interesting to see how much maley’s writing has changed and improved with each release. i’ll definitely be aiming to read the few books of hers i haven’t yet in the near future.
cw for: homophobia, lesbophobia, f-slur, d-slur, bullying, coming out
take out the entire middle section and this could’ve been a cute coming of age/coming out story. as it stands i had to force myself to finish it, and for less payoff than it was worth.
the entire book was rushing to tell a story that could’ve been told in fewer words for a greater impact; we don’t need a play-by-play of every character’s life and feelings. i felt like i was being told things, but i wasn’t being made to *feel* them, which i think is an unfortunate trait of an immature writer. i’d put this down to TIME IT RIGHT being (i believe) maley’s first published work, given that DATING SARAH COOPER and THE GAY GIRL’S GUIDE TO RUINING PROM, which came out in 2014 and 2019 respectively, both manage to tell their respective stories concisely and in a way that both grips readers and makes them invested in the characters and their development. if you’re looking for a siera maley book to read, i’d highly recommend either of those instead.
i didn’t hate this book; like i said, it just felt a little immature, writing-wise. and none of the characters were quite convincing enough for me to form an attachment to them, aside from, surprisingly, lucas. one thing i will applaud, however, is its use of the word lesbian. for a book that came out in 2013, i was impressed that both the mc and li used the word freely, considering that seems to be a task for most authors in 2021.
i don’t think it was necessarily worth the read for me, but it was interesting to see how much maley’s writing has changed and improved with each release. i’ll definitely be aiming to read the few books of hers i haven’t yet in the near future.
cw for: homophobia, lesbophobia, f-slur, d-slur, bullying, coming out
September 5, 2017
The story is about Valerie who shies away and is oblivious to all that is gay. Turns out, she had a small crush on her childhood friend all along. However, she falls head over heels for an exchange student. Feelings that bring forth change in the way she looks at herself and others. And the way she presents herself to the world.
To be honest, the first few chapters were too slow, in my opinion. Too many useless details were given. This was the most prominent in the beginning, but throughout the story the problem made a comeback. And the funny thing is that there were not enough details given at crucial moments.
Then there is also Valerie...
Don't get me wrong, the story is good, the setting is convincing and most characters are well thought out.
I just couldn't identify with the way Valerie was handling the situation, but that is my problem. I guess my experience with coming out of that damned closet was different in too many ways. For others, who are inclined to do it in Valerie's way, will have a field day, because the story is a good one. Despite my critic on some parts.
I recommend the book for people who have trouble coming out, reading this may give you a feeling that you are not alone out there.
To be honest, the first few chapters were too slow, in my opinion. Too many useless details were given. This was the most prominent in the beginning, but throughout the story the problem made a comeback. And the funny thing is that there were not enough details given at crucial moments.
Then there is also Valerie...
Don't get me wrong, the story is good, the setting is convincing and most characters are well thought out.
I just couldn't identify with the way Valerie was handling the situation, but that is my problem. I guess my experience with coming out of that damned closet was different in too many ways. For others, who are inclined to do it in Valerie's way, will have a field day, because the story is a good one. Despite my critic on some parts.
I recommend the book for people who have trouble coming out, reading this may give you a feeling that you are not alone out there.
October 22, 2020
I normally enjoy this genre and also this writer's books but every single character in this one was horrible and I felt zero sympathy or interest in anyone except Lindsey, who I hoped would go back to England and find someone better for her. Between Kat the drama queen who tries to force people out of the closet, Tara the absolutely spineless and Amber the homophobe, I had trouble being interested in any of the friends. The main character, Valerie, is absolutely devoid of any redeeming qualities. She has no hobbies or interests (this is a plot point where Lindsay literally takes her to try different things to find her a hobby), is out to half the people in her life anyway but still refuses to step out of the closet despite apparently being in love with Lindsay and watching her get bullied about being gay, and throws away this wonderful girl time after time and then is suddenly "up to her ears in gay" three months into college. To me, the happy ending would literally have been for Lindsay to stop wasting her time with Valerie and her idiot friends, find someone actually cool to date and then go back to a happy life in England, never to hear from or speak to any of them again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 29, 2022
Has the ring of truth
Though this story is apparently set around 2012, the cultural background seems to come from about 10 years earlier! I live in a tiny backwater in Pennsylvania, but even here, everyone has come to terms (with a heavy sigh) about non-traditional pairings.
Yet, what little the story loses from anachronism, it more than offsets with the gain of authenticity. All the experiences, the reactions, the missteps, the misunderstandings, sound real and genuine. Painfully genuine, I might add, as the best stories in this genre are. Either Ms Marley has a brilliant imagination, or she (or someone close to her) has actually lived this experience.
Ms. Maley: if you're reading this, please read through the book slowly; in sections where the writer is most agitated, there are multiple instances of battered, and sometimes incomplete, sentences, which should be repaired. Also, in one instance, there is 'wailed' instead of 'waled', which is a word common among kids, I understand.
Though this story is apparently set around 2012, the cultural background seems to come from about 10 years earlier! I live in a tiny backwater in Pennsylvania, but even here, everyone has come to terms (with a heavy sigh) about non-traditional pairings.
Yet, what little the story loses from anachronism, it more than offsets with the gain of authenticity. All the experiences, the reactions, the missteps, the misunderstandings, sound real and genuine. Painfully genuine, I might add, as the best stories in this genre are. Either Ms Marley has a brilliant imagination, or she (or someone close to her) has actually lived this experience.
Ms. Maley: if you're reading this, please read through the book slowly; in sections where the writer is most agitated, there are multiple instances of battered, and sometimes incomplete, sentences, which should be repaired. Also, in one instance, there is 'wailed' instead of 'waled', which is a word common among kids, I understand.
April 30, 2020
Under Pressure: Stay Closed In or Come Out? . . .
This book isn’t your typical coming out story. No, in fact you’d think by the way the story blurb hints, it may even be a typical teen falls for new girl kinda love story. Don’t get me wrong there is a bit of love, but it’s a side bit.
The main point of the story is having the main character Valarie coming to terms with her sexuality and what that means to her and those around her. She’s a high school senior and doesn’t want to be famous for coming out or being THE lesbian. Anf in high school labels and peer perception means everything.
The epilogue is cute but I’d wished for more scenes of Valarie in college be bold or a bigger “I’m gay b*tches moment!” just to showcase true growth, because the story wasn’t about her falling in love it was about accepting herself and figuring out how to tell others.
This book isn’t your typical coming out story. No, in fact you’d think by the way the story blurb hints, it may even be a typical teen falls for new girl kinda love story. Don’t get me wrong there is a bit of love, but it’s a side bit.
The main point of the story is having the main character Valarie coming to terms with her sexuality and what that means to her and those around her. She’s a high school senior and doesn’t want to be famous for coming out or being THE lesbian. Anf in high school labels and peer perception means everything.
The epilogue is cute but I’d wished for more scenes of Valarie in college be bold or a bigger “I’m gay b*tches moment!” just to showcase true growth, because the story wasn’t about her falling in love it was about accepting herself and figuring out how to tell others.
August 21, 2021
What an awful turn around
This book was great till the main character became a total b**** and drove the other main character away. Literally ended up skipping about 30% of the book. Absolutely an awful ending. Like I legitimately do not understand the good revies. The main girl Valerie goes from this character who's questioning her sexuality culminating in her coming out to her parents but then even with her parents and friends accepting her she decided the people she only has to see for like 2 more months are more important and breaks Lindsay's heart and drives her to date another girl. But it's okay they meet again in college and it's totally okay cause
Lindsay apparently has amnesia or something and totally forgets this is the girl who told her she wasn't worth fighting for..
This book was great till the main character became a total b**** and drove the other main character away. Literally ended up skipping about 30% of the book. Absolutely an awful ending. Like I legitimately do not understand the good revies. The main girl Valerie goes from this character who's questioning her sexuality culminating in her coming out to her parents but then even with her parents and friends accepting her she decided the people she only has to see for like 2 more months are more important and breaks Lindsay's heart and drives her to date another girl. But it's okay they meet again in college and it's totally okay cause
Lindsay apparently has amnesia or something and totally forgets this is the girl who told her she wasn't worth fighting for..
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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