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Flowers and Keyboards #3
Colour Her
The Rainbow Collection, an LGBTQ+ pride flag themed makeup line, brings two unlikely girls together.
Amber runs a semi-popular makeup channel. It combines the two things she loves best, makeup and sharing her passion. While talking face-to-face with people scares her, talking to a camera is much easier, it feels safer.
That distance between herself and the people who watch her videos has always been right for her, until she meets a girl who makes her rethink that position.
Mya is a girl of many interests, from gaming to anime and manga to makeup and clothes, she loves it all. What she likes even more is to surround herself with people who enjoy similar things.
She’s good at talking to people, she loves it even. That’s why she’s training to become a primary school teacher, but there’s one problem, she hasn’t been able to pass her maths exam yet and if she fails it one more time she’ll have to drop out.
The two very different girls share one passion, makeup, and Mya has been a fan of Amber’s channel for years, a big fan. What starts as an unexpected chat in a store, followed by an anonymous gift from Mya, turns much more complicated when Amber might be the only one able to help Mya pass her maths exam.
Amber has no idea Mya sent her the makeup, and Mya doesn’t know how to tell Amber without ruining everything, breaking the fragile trust between them…
Amber runs a semi-popular makeup channel. It combines the two things she loves best, makeup and sharing her passion. While talking face-to-face with people scares her, talking to a camera is much easier, it feels safer.
That distance between herself and the people who watch her videos has always been right for her, until she meets a girl who makes her rethink that position.
Mya is a girl of many interests, from gaming to anime and manga to makeup and clothes, she loves it all. What she likes even more is to surround herself with people who enjoy similar things.
She’s good at talking to people, she loves it even. That’s why she’s training to become a primary school teacher, but there’s one problem, she hasn’t been able to pass her maths exam yet and if she fails it one more time she’ll have to drop out.
The two very different girls share one passion, makeup, and Mya has been a fan of Amber’s channel for years, a big fan. What starts as an unexpected chat in a store, followed by an anonymous gift from Mya, turns much more complicated when Amber might be the only one able to help Mya pass her maths exam.
Amber has no idea Mya sent her the makeup, and Mya doesn’t know how to tell Amber without ruining everything, breaking the fragile trust between them…
279 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2020
34 people are currently reading
218 people want to read
About the author
Emmy Engberts
5 books14 followersEmmy Engberts has been writing for years, she writes Young Adult fiction with diverse characters who won’t apologise for being different and who celebrate their differences.
She is Dutch and has lived in the Netherlands for almost all her life apart from when she studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester in England. This really inspired her to make writing her career and has been working towards that goal ever since.
Emmy currently lives in Groningen with her partner and two cats, and if she’s not writing, you can find her playing videogames or working on one of her many creative projects.
She is Dutch and has lived in the Netherlands for almost all her life apart from when she studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester in England. This really inspired her to make writing her career and has been working towards that goal ever since.
Emmy currently lives in Groningen with her partner and two cats, and if she’s not writing, you can find her playing videogames or working on one of her many creative projects.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 3, 2023
dnf @ 45%
December 4, 2024
I solely found out about and read this book through the Stuff Your Kindle event. I have kinda conflicting thoughts on it.
On the one hand, I thought Amber was written incredibly well and I found the way a lot of her experiences related to be autistic were described were really relatable and so she resonated with me, and I think she was just written well (mostly). I did find the occasional one-word sentence of 'Eep.' kinda jarring against the rest of the more narrative and writing - that felt a lot more reactive than the rest of the text, which whilst first-person still felt like it had a degree of distance from purely being just someone's thoughts.
On the other hand, I thought other parts throughout were just a little bit clunky and that the conflict in the book all got dealt with incredibly quickly e.g. when Amber found out Mya was M. I really thought that would carry more weight and be a more significant chunk of the story. Their relationship moved really quickly from Mya being a fan of Amber to them being friends then something else then officially girlfriends.
I also just found one part really confusing in that Mya was studying to be a teacher and that's why she needed Amber's help with Maths but she couldn't go and study in the university library because she's not a university student - so where is she learning to be a teacher? I don't know if it's a thing that teacher training works differently in the Netherlands but google is suggesting that teaching training is a uni course in the Netherlands so yeah, that just confused me and played on my mind throughout the book. Especially with how quickly so much that came up in the beginning - like Mya's teacher training - just slipped out of the narrative in favour of just having characters socialise. I get that it's just that the author is cherry picking moments in the characters' lives to share but it felt like some of these aspects just slipped out of the narrative past a certain point.
Yeah, this was an alright read.
On the one hand, I thought Amber was written incredibly well and I found the way a lot of her experiences related to be autistic were described were really relatable and so she resonated with me, and I think she was just written well (mostly). I did find the occasional one-word sentence of 'Eep.' kinda jarring against the rest of the more narrative and writing - that felt a lot more reactive than the rest of the text, which whilst first-person still felt like it had a degree of distance from purely being just someone's thoughts.
On the other hand, I thought other parts throughout were just a little bit clunky and that the conflict in the book all got dealt with incredibly quickly e.g. when Amber found out Mya was M. I really thought that would carry more weight and be a more significant chunk of the story. Their relationship moved really quickly from Mya being a fan of Amber to them being friends then something else then officially girlfriends.
I also just found one part really confusing in that Mya was studying to be a teacher and that's why she needed Amber's help with Maths but she couldn't go and study in the university library because she's not a university student - so where is she learning to be a teacher? I don't know if it's a thing that teacher training works differently in the Netherlands but google is suggesting that teaching training is a uni course in the Netherlands so yeah, that just confused me and played on my mind throughout the book. Especially with how quickly so much that came up in the beginning - like Mya's teacher training - just slipped out of the narrative in favour of just having characters socialise. I get that it's just that the author is cherry picking moments in the characters' lives to share but it felt like some of these aspects just slipped out of the narrative past a certain point.
Yeah, this was an alright read.
September 23, 2023
2.75⭐️
Good things first: I enjoyed the conversations surrounding neurodiversity and the honesty that was shown. (Mya not always doing the right thing)
Onto the rest: The writing style is very very descriptive and tending to lean towards telling and not showing.
The two MC’s felt very similar and had the same voice throughout the text. If it weren’t for the names at the beginning of the chapter, I hardly would’ve known when it switched characters. Mya also felt less developed than Amber. I don’t recall learning anything about her home life, her room is mentioned a lot, but I don’t even know if she lived by herself or not.
Lastly, I didn’t feel the chemistry. It started out as a toxic paradoxical relationship, and I never felt like enough happened to move past that. And either I missed time skips or it moved way too quickly. I noted that after just two days, Mya was freaking out so much about Amber trusting her, when they hardly knew each other.
Overall, this just wasn’t for me. You may enjoy this if you like very descriptive slice of life style writing.
Good things first: I enjoyed the conversations surrounding neurodiversity and the honesty that was shown. (Mya not always doing the right thing)
Onto the rest: The writing style is very very descriptive and tending to lean towards telling and not showing.
The two MC’s felt very similar and had the same voice throughout the text. If it weren’t for the names at the beginning of the chapter, I hardly would’ve known when it switched characters. Mya also felt less developed than Amber. I don’t recall learning anything about her home life, her room is mentioned a lot, but I don’t even know if she lived by herself or not.
Lastly, I didn’t feel the chemistry. It started out as a toxic paradoxical relationship, and I never felt like enough happened to move past that. And either I missed time skips or it moved way too quickly. I noted that after just two days, Mya was freaking out so much about Amber trusting her, when they hardly knew each other.
Overall, this just wasn’t for me. You may enjoy this if you like very descriptive slice of life style writing.
December 6, 2023
Boring. Repetitive. Somehow bad-written and, overall, bad.
It started nice and cute, but at some point we run out of plot so it is just the MC talking about her autism, which i can understand but i came here wanting to read romance.
Chemistry? Noo, thats a subject in school and you wont find it here.
Personality? No, they dont have that either. Just being-autistic and liking the autistic girl but not knowing what to do are available.
The amount of spelling, and grammar mistakes is unbelievable. I get that this was self-published but didnt the author read what they wrote? There were sentences that were straight up missing a verb and making no sense at all.
The third act breakup? Wth was that?
I feel like i learned my lesson (not reading anything that i got in the stuff your kindle day)
Lost my time
I feel so bad after writing this
Vamos q se llega con el reading challenge 💪💪💪
It started nice and cute, but at some point we run out of plot so it is just the MC talking about her autism, which i can understand but i came here wanting to read romance.
Chemistry? Noo, thats a subject in school and you wont find it here.
Personality? No, they dont have that either. Just being-autistic and liking the autistic girl but not knowing what to do are available.
The amount of spelling, and grammar mistakes is unbelievable. I get that this was self-published but didnt the author read what they wrote? There were sentences that were straight up missing a verb and making no sense at all.
The third act breakup? Wth was that?
I feel like i learned my lesson (not reading anything that i got in the stuff your kindle day)
Lost my time
I feel so bad after writing this
Vamos q se llega con el reading challenge 💪💪💪
April 5, 2020
Emmy Engberts writes sweet romances that you can read over and over again and Colour Her (Easily Distracted Media, 979-8629838043, 2020) is no different.
Colour is the third book in the “Flowers and Keyboards” series and tells Mya’s story, Elliot’s best friend. I have to say I had no clue that Mya could be shy (laugh). It was such a delight to see this side of her.
Mya and Amber’s story is awkward, funny, and to reuse the word again: sweet. You will learn a lot about vlogging and makeup then you will ever want to know (laugh). Engberts is the expert on research.
Engberts is also awesome at giving readers real characters who just happen to fall in love.
I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.
Colour is the third book in the “Flowers and Keyboards” series and tells Mya’s story, Elliot’s best friend. I have to say I had no clue that Mya could be shy (laugh). It was such a delight to see this side of her.
Mya and Amber’s story is awkward, funny, and to reuse the word again: sweet. You will learn a lot about vlogging and makeup then you will ever want to know (laugh). Engberts is the expert on research.
Engberts is also awesome at giving readers real characters who just happen to fall in love.
I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.
April 6, 2020
This storyline opened my eyes to the worlds of video logging(vlogging) and gaming/manga/anime and the time, work and energy that is involved. Add a cleverly interwoven theme dealing with autism, depression and ADHD and you have a layered story with sweet love, and rainbow colours of life. Leads Amber and Mya with well fleshed out supporting characters bring life to the tale of two young women dealing with their vulnerabilities and insecurities and discovering love after meeting over makeup. A poignant young adult book beautifully written by Ms. Engberts that I read slowly to fully absorb the story. I recommend with 4.5 stars
I rec'd an ARC through Booksprouts and this is my voluntary and un-biased review.
I rec'd an ARC through Booksprouts and this is my voluntary and un-biased review.
March 18, 2022
What a sweet book! I had such a lovely time reading it. Mya and Amber were wonderful individuals and I loved reading their story. Every interaction between them was just so cute! They were great together.
I really enjoyed all the discussions about manga and anime and gaming. Some of my favorite scenes in the book were at the convention.
I know nothing about make up but I thought it was really interesting that Amber was was a beauty youtuber and I learned the lot.
The secondary characters were also wonderful. Amazing group of young people, so diverse.
Finally I really really loved all the representation, it was so well done!
Fantastic book, sweet and fluffy and at the same time with important discussions.
I would love to read more from this author!
I really enjoyed all the discussions about manga and anime and gaming. Some of my favorite scenes in the book were at the convention.
I know nothing about make up but I thought it was really interesting that Amber was was a beauty youtuber and I learned the lot.
The secondary characters were also wonderful. Amazing group of young people, so diverse.
Finally I really really loved all the representation, it was so well done!
Fantastic book, sweet and fluffy and at the same time with important discussions.
I would love to read more from this author!
July 29, 2023
Cute and enjoyable entry to the series, this time with make-up and vlogging as the themes. Mya gets the spotlight this time, along with the new character Amber, and it's nice to see that Alex and Fleur, and Elliot and Izzy again.
If you've read the other two entries in the series, you know what to expect, and that's a good thing. It's light, easy to read, with some angst part way through that they of course overcome. It's about Mya and Amber learning about each other, how to be together even with their differences, and of course, falling in love. And it also explores neurodiversity alongside the lgbtq+ aspects.
All in all, a very much a nice wrap up for the series, and an enjoyable read.
If you've read the other two entries in the series, you know what to expect, and that's a good thing. It's light, easy to read, with some angst part way through that they of course overcome. It's about Mya and Amber learning about each other, how to be together even with their differences, and of course, falling in love. And it also explores neurodiversity alongside the lgbtq+ aspects.
All in all, a very much a nice wrap up for the series, and an enjoyable read.
ugh
November 5, 2024DNF - PG 7
Why?
In an effort to get clear of some of these books that I have on my kindle that I honestly have no idea why or how I have them, I've been attempting to read some of them. At least this one I did make a handful of pages of.
The truth is, though, I don't know why I ever thought a book where one of the MC's was a makeup vlogger would be a good match for me. If I was ever in the mood for this, and I must have been, I should have read it when I got it. Because, honestly, this is not my thing. At all.
Why?
In an effort to get clear of some of these books that I have on my kindle that I honestly have no idea why or how I have them, I've been attempting to read some of them. At least this one I did make a handful of pages of.
The truth is, though, I don't know why I ever thought a book where one of the MC's was a makeup vlogger would be a good match for me. If I was ever in the mood for this, and I must have been, I should have read it when I got it. Because, honestly, this is not my thing. At all.
March 5, 2024
Queer romance (not erotica) where two young college students meet over their love of make up. It is part 3 of a 3 part book series where each book is about a different couple among overlapping friend groups.
It's a cute story which I found relatable (personally less so than the first two books of the series, but still enjoyable).
It's also handy that the author starts each chapter with a relevant definition that the reader may or may not be familiar with (such as types of make up).
It's a cute story which I found relatable (personally less so than the first two books of the series, but still enjoyable).
It's also handy that the author starts each chapter with a relevant definition that the reader may or may not be familiar with (such as types of make up).
September 23, 2023
It's sweet and cute, but there are some repetitive things. Like even though the characters said or thought something, after a couple of paragraphs they restate it again. There's also explaining or giving details of mundane things that might not be important enough for the story,
November 17, 2023
Made me smile and cry.
I saw a lot of what I wish was a much younger me in the story.
I wasn't half as brave as anyone in it, not when I was that age, but I'm doing way better at that than I was.
And they are so cute.
I most heartily recommend this one.
I saw a lot of what I wish was a much younger me in the story.
I wasn't half as brave as anyone in it, not when I was that age, but I'm doing way better at that than I was.
And they are so cute.
I most heartily recommend this one.
February 17, 2024
Rainbow YA.
Interesting storylines. Great telling of individuality, but also, inclusivety. Thought provoking, but very informative without being force fed. Might be good to include in curriculum reading for year 10 and up.
Interesting storylines. Great telling of individuality, but also, inclusivety. Thought provoking, but very informative without being force fed. Might be good to include in curriculum reading for year 10 and up.
May 29, 2021
Eindelijk een representatieve queer vriendengroep!
August 15, 2023
A really sweet romance exploring diversity, the online world and balancing how we show up in the world versus how we experience the world. Super cute and easy to read!
January 31, 2024
Love this story
Absolutely loved this book! I was brought in by the cover and was blown away by the words. Will recommend!
Absolutely loved this book! I was brought in by the cover and was blown away by the words. Will recommend!
May 29, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews