I Love You Just the Way You Are by Riley Rian
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**I was provided with an ARC for an honest review.**
This book took me a long time to begin. A long time to finish. And an even longer time to process…. But d@mn was it worth it.
If I had to describe it in one sentence then Id say: its a cliche cutesy high school romance where the quarterback falls in love with his transgender girlfriend.
But if that alone isnt making you click the ‘want to read button’, there is so much more… almost 500 pages worth of it actually
The Characters
Maddie is a transgender woman twin total goth nerd who has fully accepted herself and wont let the sh¿& of high school ruin it for her
Honestly she had the cutest POV that I enjoyed reading the most just from all her inner thoughts
“That was me on my bed. What had started as anger and sadness about a rough day morphed into full blown dysphoric meltdown.”
I felt validated and enthralled and giddy all at the same time. Being able to point and say HERE !! SEE THIS !! THIS IS WHAT RUNS THROUGH MY BRAIN
Then was Kallen the star quarterback… with a horrible homelife
Okay heres where Imma put some Trigger Warnings: Parental abuse, alcoholism, and generally rough home life all occur.
Whereas some gay romances get ripped on for being too real or too hallmark (f.;% off, i like my gay hallmarks)
This book definitely rode a fine line of showing realistic hard situations for teens these days with hope threaded throughout the plot. The contrast between father figures of Jack, Hugh and Baker forced me to set down the book for much needed breathing exercises. It was just so real and much needed to be portrayed so people know they arent alone, but also readers need to know what you are getting into when starting the book.
And yeah there were some secondary characters with Ty, Charlotte, Katie, Jasmine, and Mark. Unfortunately, they really flatlined for me to the point of skipping around to just get to the good parts with Maddie and Kellan. But another factor of that couldve been the…
Writing Style
Definitely heavy in the purple prose. There was great descriptions, background info, and heavy internal dialogue. Potentially more internal dialogue than actual dialogue back and forth between characters. A strong writing style in itself but not my favorite as it makes a 500 page book feel longer.
But when its full of sentences like…
“But I do care. Shes been my world for two months. I cant just snap my fingers and let her go.”
Then ya keep going. Also there were some other writing style choices with messaging and tik tok referenced and streaming. If ya like it then good on ya.
Back to the cuteness…
From mario kart, fear of acceptance, betting a kiss, and trust — this book covered a lotta queer highschool bases that kept you reading.
I think my biggest critique… Maddie is very emotional. Like i thought i knew emotion but man… When the foreshadowing fight was coming, I was still SHOOK by the consequences of the fight.
I dunno. To me, it felt disportionate. Yes get angry and you fight and you need space and you fight more and you set boundaries.
But the idea of the sudden cold shoulder, closing the door, refusing to talk…
Maybe my own issues got in there but just someone suddenly turning their back on someone else, man i was devastated reading it happen.
Good intentions or not, im not excusing eithers actions, just saying that is hard to read.
Trans sex. Amazing.
She made him go vegan
And the general cute moments that kept me going…
“And look, Im not going to lie, you’re sexy as anything the way you are now. But if you want to change your style or whatever, thats not going to change my feelings for you. Youre allowed to evolve and grow… as long as youre being true to yourself. The only thing youre not allowed to change is your youre feelings toward me. Thats off limits”
“Youre messing up my eyeliner, you big cute jerk.”
So while I acknowledge people’s critique of this book doing too much or not enough — I think we need MORE queer, romance, identity books, instead of bashing on this book for not doing it all within its pages.
Overall. Wow. That book was a cute amazing story and I’m so glad I read it! I see the writer’s potential and i hope they continue to grow and write these stories that need telling!
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