I appreciated Monique's journey learning herself, her body, and gaining autonomy. 

I laughed, smiled, gasped, got angry, and teared up. 

This book is a huge improvement from Joya Goffney's Excuse me while I Ugly Cry. I'm glad I gave another one of her books a chance. 

The only thing I wanted more of in this book was friendship. I wish we get to see Monique and Sasha bond more. I loved Sasha's character. 

Edit: I really had a lot of fun reading this. The ending pushed this to 5 stars for me. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I wish I had something like this to read when I was a teen. It handled the topics of religion, sex, friendship, family, romance, race—so many things—in such a respectful and honest way while still being funny, entertaining, relatable, and believably from a teen perspective. It felt affirming to read, as if I could have a sense of closure and healing for my childhood wounds through Monique’s coming of age story. 

I enjoyed this book, One because it showed a lot of what some people go through in the heart of the south especially in bible country. Inadequate sex-ed leads to a whole different problem in itself. This book tackles a lot of different topics, and I believe it has done it well. 

This book was thoughtfully laid out and made the experience of reading it a lot less hard, but also super insightful into what felt like a similar teenage mind to many.

I'm in love with the ease of how Joya Goffeny wrote this story. Every  character is  realistic  in certain traits they have . Not to mention  I read this knowing I was going to learn some things. But I mean even then, some of it was unexpected.  

So as the main teen character, Monique, Or Mo for short,  learned about her vaginismus I felt utter respect.  Even though its YA and there were moments  of lack of maturity on the MC and side characters, Reggie and Sasha decisions. In particular with  Reggie, the wild and funny reform teen project for Mo's dad. But I'm okay with him as things were often  hectic and upbeat.  A necessary personality for  a  character  in this type of setting to ease the things Mo faced. Also Sasha who if there was a next book I'd want to read from her point of view.  She is everything and mature for how things unpack. 

On to a more serious note since thats all my thought on the main characters trio.

Sometimes to firgure out sexual activity or concerns help comes in the most unexpected way. I mean the people in life who are seemingly  the most religious.  This storyline made it a reminder again that help comes in surprising moments. That and learning  that not everyone  can be trusted at first. 

Anyways my emotions are wrecked into pieces. Then have rebuilt with new hope  by the end of Mo's  story. It was relatable in certain  ways. But when it wasn't  I felt  genuine  eagerness for Mo's self-discovery  journey.  

I love Mo and her story. I related to a lot of aspects of her journey with self worth,  fear of $€><, and an obligatory need to “be good”. I don’t say this often but this would make a good movie; particularly a coming of age movie. All the characters were fun with a sense of depth. 
However, the adult characters of this story have messy characterization at best. They realize their mistakes way too quickly and are forgiven even faster. Monique shouldn’t be thanking her lucky stars for parents who take her to the doctor when she needs it. That is a necessity of parenting:/ I wish there was a better arc for her parents because the lack of deserved character development partially ruined my enjoyment