Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the Lambda Award-winning author of Girl Mans Up comes an empowering, sex-positive coming-of-age story about a teen exploring first love and desire as her rocky relationship with her own body and a pandemic threaten to sabotage everything. Perfect for fans of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega and Cool for the Summer. Now in paperback!

Baylee has never been kissed but she wants to do way more than that. She's had a huge crush on her gorgeous best friend and neighbor, Freddie, for years, but since she doesn't look like his usual type, the judgmental voice in her head tells her he'll never see her as more than a friend. It feels like she'll spend the rest of high school fantasizing on the sidelines while everyone else dates and hooks up.

Then Baylee meets Alex online and she starts to fall for this sweet, funny barista who likes her just as she is. It's new, electric, and all-consuming to be around Alex. But when Freddie makes a move on Baylee and a virus shuts the world down, Baylee finds herself torn.

Everything is happening at once, and she is left navigating the messy waters of love and desire. It helps that she's observed her friends' relationship drama so she knows exactly what mistakes not to make . . . right?

This sophomore novel from M-E Girard centers a fat, confident girl going after what she wants and learning to love herself along the way.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

White-cued Toronto native Baylee, 16, has had a crush for years on her neighbor, Freddie, described as having brown skin. As much as she craves romance and intimacy, Baylee doesn't believe anyone as conventionally attractive as Freddie could be into "a fat girl like me." These same insecurities cause her to doubt her white-coded online friend Alex's flirtations. When it suddenly seems like Freddie is returning her feelings, the Covid-19 pandemic hits, forcing Baylee into quarantine. During lockdown, she begins a sexually intimate relationship with Freddie and wrestles with feelings of guilt as she continues to pursue a romantic relationship with Alex. Myriad secondary interpersonal conflicts complicate matters further, including Baylee's responsibility protecting her 12-year-old sister Rebecca, who has cerebral palsy, from the virus, and her fraying relationships with her mother and Sri Lankan Canadian best friend Lara. Baylee is a headstrong and decisive protagonist whose seemingly boundless confidence realistically juxtaposes her deep-rooted insecurities. Girard (Girl Mans Up) portrays Baylee's mistakes and triumphs with nuance while tackling negative self-talk and anti-fat rhetoric amid unprecedented crisis in this honest and believable portrait of a teen navigating her sexual awakening. Ages 14--up. Agent: Linda Epstein, Emerald City Literary. (Jan.)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up--In early 2020 suburban Toronto, grade 11 student Baylee Kunkel takes pride in her appearance, but she is consumed with self-doubt about her size and her idea that she isn't desirable. Baylee, who presents as white, pines for her handsome neighbor, Freddie Morales, but she begins to message Alex, a photographer for her favorite bookstore. Their flirtatious messaging gives Baylee lots of butterflies and rays of confidence. At home, her mother spends most of her time looking after Rebecca, Baylee's sister with special needs. Fearful for Rebecca's health, her mom begins to worry about the virus that is spreading. Faced with losing Baylee's friendship, Freddie recognizes his feelings for her, just as Alex and Baylee start dating. Then it's mid-March, the world turns on its end, and Baylee's problems are magnified and simultaneously shadowed by the encroaching coronavirus. While the story takes time to gain momentum, Girard does a great job of contrasting life before and after lockdown and its effects on the characters. However, Baylee begins to morph into something like a selfish teen caricature, masking some of the self-growth she's undergoing. Her relationship with Freddie effectively develops Girard's sex-positive message, but the other story lines fall short of their narrative potential. VERDICT Give to high school readers seeking stories about finding your self-worth.--Kate Fleming

Horn Book Review

A teenage girl's identity crisis coincides with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Girard's (Girl Mans Up, rev. 11/16) latest novel, set on the outskirts of Toronto. Baylee is a thoughtful yet highly self-critical young woman who struggles with body image after years of being bullied about her weight. Her once-strong friend group is filled with tension as romantic pairings emerge or fall apart, while Baylee believes she will never find a significant other. Gradually, she relaxes her defenses and affirms the feelings she has or develops for her best guy friend, a new female friend, and her one-time bully. Her emotional rollercoaster is intensified by caring for her twelve-year-old sister, who has severe cerebral palsy, and by the daily news about people getting sick from COVID-19. She is faced with decisions about exploring newfound romance during lockdown and putting her sister at risk. Baylee and her family, both blood and chosen, model how life's mistakes can be survivable with support from loved ones. Girard's strength as a writer is in giving Baylee voice as an outwardly strong person whose inner thoughts exist in a state of turmoil. The character and story are highly relatable and potentially validating for readers who are figuring out their identities as well as those who could benefit from their own tumultuous teenage experiences -- especially during the pandemic -- being externally validated. Nicholas A. BrownJanuary/February 2023 p.81 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Sixteen-year-old Baylee must navigate life against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. Baylee lives in a suburb of Toronto. She has had a crush on her guy friend Freddie for years but believes he could never like a fat girl like her. Baylee is also talking to Alex, whom she met online, but the energy with Freddie shifts, and it seems like something's about to happen. Just as Baylee's love life is starting to look up, the Covid pandemic hits, and she has to contend with its impact on her budding relationships as well as keep her sister, who has serious physical and cognitive disabilities, safe. The treatment of Baylee's body size feels realistic: She is a confident young woman who is also plagued by negative self-talk about her weight. Baylee's relationship to herself, her sexuality, and her partners is realistically complex. She does not always make the right decisions, and though she does go through a process of learning to love and accept herself, her self-esteem is not neatly fixed. Without being explicit, the story largely focuses on Baylee's sexual awakening, framed by the high stakes of the pandemic. This is not a typical romance--Baylee is not searching for the love of her life, and the sexual and romantic experiences she has help her discover who she is. Sex is treated with respect and reverence but not as obligatorily monogamous. Main characters read White. A pleasurable, emotional, and authentic coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.