September 15, 2023
Two young women are drawn together into a budding romance and must overcome hurdles to be together. When Maya, a Londoner, and Aisling, from County Clare, meet at a poetry club in Edinburgh, the two students are instantly attracted to one another. While Aisling has known she was a lesbian since a childhood friendship turned into a teenage relationship, Maya has just started dating her longtime crush, Ethan. The two young women grapple with their feelings separately--Maya questioning this sudden attraction to a woman and Aisling unclear of where she stands--as their friendship deepens. But once Maya ends things with Ethan to pursue a relationship, Aisling must confront the abuse she's endured from her conservative Catholic mother, who caught her with her girlfriend as a teen and continues to torment her emotionally and physically. While Taylor has a keen eye for building intimacy between characters, the plot quickly becomes predictable. What's more, set in 2013 and 2014, the novel lacks a broader context; Taylor stays focused tightly on Maya and Aisling and their families without interrogating how they fit into Irish and British culture. This is particularly disappointing in the case of Aisling and her mother's fraught relationship, which could have been the basis for an examination of Ireland's changing identity. Absent broader considerations, this is a standard-issue romance that will give casual readers what they want.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
October 1, 2023
Growing up in a deeply Catholic household in County Clare, Aisling is afraid to let her family know that she's attracted to women. Her budding relationship with her schoolmate Orla is cut short by Aisling's fear of her abusive, alcoholic mother. After moving to Edinburgh for college, Aisling meets Londoner Maya at a poetry-society meeting. That initial encounter has a flirtatious edge, but Maya is involved in a long-distance relationship, and she's never been attracted to women. It isn't long before they both admit their mutual attraction, and free from her mother's scrutiny, Aisling lets herself begin to fall in love--but she finds it difficult to share the painful truth about her mother and the trauma caused by years of physical and emotional abuse. Taylor's debut blends the joy of Aisling and Maya's love story with the pain of Aisling's past. The communication issues that plague the couple's relationship are realistic, and readers will care deeply about both characters and their emotional journeys. This tender coming-of-age, first-love story will resonate with fans of Sally Rooney and Naoise Dolan.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
October 23, 2023
Two young women in 2013 Scotland fall in love and attempt to deal with their respective trauma and anxiety in Taylor’s raw debut. Aisling is 18 when she leaves County Clare and her strict Irish Catholic family and moves to Edinburgh to study literature. Her first lesbian relationship, with a high school classmate, was made up of clandestine meetings, and when her mother found out, she punished Aisling during Mass by digging her fingernails into Aisling’s palm so hard she left a scar. Now, finally free to express her sexuality, Aisling joins a poetry group and shares poems about her high school love and her complicated relationship with her mother. Fellow group member Maya, a 20-year-old Londoner, recently started a relationship with a man. She seems an unlikely love interest at first, but as Aisling and Maya spend more time together, it becomes impossible to deny their feelings for each other. Aisling suspects her mother’s abusive patterns are caused by repression of her own sexuality and she struggles with the fear that she has inherited her mother’s rage. Tension develops, though, when Aisling takes issue with Maya’s heavy drinking, which is her coping mechanism for anxiety, leading to the novel’s abrupt and open-ended conclusion. Though the story feels unfinished, Taylor beautifully portrays the progression of the girls’ emotional intimacy. This shows promise. Agent: Millie Hoskins, United Agents.