3,5 stars!

This started out very cute but about halfway through the book I knew more about Scott & Lakyn than I did about Juliet... I didn't even bother to finish it.

3.5 actually. Very fanficcy, that's probably the reason I was so into it. But really not a bad book at all. But honestly I wanna know what fandom Charlotte Reagan used to write for because I could totally substitute the names of the lead characters with my OTP and it would still make a completely sensible and in fact an excellent AU. I love!

I received a copy of this book through Inkitt Exclusive in exchange for an honest review.

After reading, and falling in love with, Loving Lakyn, I was so excited to see that Just Juliet had gone online to be reviewed through Inkitt. I couldn't wait to get back into the James' world and see what had happened with everyone since I'd last seen them.

And I was definitely not disappointed. If you go into this thinking you're going to get the drama and chaos of Loving Lakyn, you may be disappointed. It's a much more lighthearted, sweet book. It does have its moments of drama and chaos, but it has a lot more of the cute romance and fun moments between Lena and Juliet. 

The Good Points of Just Juliet:

I love how developed and unique the characters in this book are. It's so easy to feel like Lena and the gang are your good friends, rather than characters in a book. And even the minor characters are developed and unique and have such distinct voices.

It's always wonderful when we get great family relationships in books. None of them are perfect people, but they always stick together and support each other and it's something we definitely need more of in books.

I've come to associate Inkitt with average writing and poor editing as a general, but this is not the case when it comes to Reagan's books. She's a talented storyteller and her writing is such that it doesn't get in the way of the story, so you feel almost like you're watching it rather than reading it.

I like how realistic that Reagan portrays her characters. Some teens are sexually active, some aren't ready for that. Some are into drugs and alcohol, some aren't. You get a bit of everything, but Reagan doesn't shy away from any of it, and it's nice for a change.

The Downsides of Just Juliet:

Perhaps this is just because I read Loving Lakyn first and it was such a crazy, hard hitting book, but I was expecting a little more from this book. It was fun and cute, but I was just hoping to get a bit more out of it than that.

I did feel that some of this book dragged a little, and seemed to go nowhere for a couple chapters at a time. It didn't really impact the book, but it was noticeable.

All in all, I did really enjoy Just Juliet. It wasn't quite Loving Lakyn, but Reagan is still fantastic and put together an amazing book here. If you love cute romances, great characters, and wonderful family relationships, you'll likely enjoy Just Juliet.

So, this was the re-edited version recently added to Amazon. I haven't read the previous version so I can't do a comparison.

This wasn't a bad read but honestly it was pretty average. It's definitely YA and feels it. It's a pretty sweet coming out story with found family. There's a m/m couple that plays a large role too and they were entertaining. Not much else happens until the epilogue where I then had a wtf moment. I don't know if it ends the way it does so I'll read the sequel but I wasn't thrilled.

Please get an editor.

Seriously. Get an editor for your next book. If you have one, get a better one.

So many of this book's problems could have been avoided if the author would have had an editor worth their money at her side. There are no typos, at least, if you don't count the odd missing quotation mark, but writing pallet instead of make up palette is just a little bit embarrassing. The layout of the actual pages was also a rather odd choice. It looks like the report of a high schooler trying to get one more page without writing anymore by using large print and even larger margins. Given that the book is only a little over 200 pages, this is probably what actually happened.

About the actual content:

I don't usually read high school romances, but I picked this book up after seeing it in a list about lgbt literature and chose it specifically for the female bisexual character. In that department, there's nothing to complain about, Lena is first in a relationship with a guy, then meets the girl of her dreams, realises she's bi, makes sure to inform everyone that her earlier relationships were still valid. Her girlfriend is lesbian, while two close friends are gay. A transgender character is mentioned, however only when talking about his suicide. All in all, very lgbt.
One massive bonus is the very fact there's no big drama, no tragedy, nobody dies! All is well! More or less, but so much more than can be said for other lgbt novels. Coming out is a bitch, but nobody abandons Lena. The two gay friends have had it a lot worse, but are now with the perfect, loving, open to everyone family, so that's good.

On to the bad parts:

This book tries so hard to be colourblind and just fails hilariously. Not only do a splatter of non-white characters not make up for focusing entirely on the story of two people constantly described as "so pale I love it" and their white best friends, but the two "diverse" friends of Lena are lazy sterotypes. There's Aikiko Fujimoto, who's only ever described as loving math and having her head in her books, and then there's Lacey, the black, promiscuous, bitchy daughter of a preacher, who cusses out everyone, starts fights, and girl, you better get out of her way when she starts to take out her earrings. Also at one point she's described as paleing to the point she could pass as caucasian. But don't worry, she's also valedictorian. And a cheerleader. And super pretty. And popular. But also, she sits at the shittiest table in the cafeteria with the other outcasts (the smart Asian girl, the single mother with a 'beautiful biracial baby', and Lena herself, the beautiful artist with a football boyfriend), because she just doesn't fit into any group. What I'm saying is that this character makes little to no sense. Oh, also, she constantly makes gay jokes, and she and Lena constantly call each other whores and sluts.

The writing could be much better. Show not tell, thank you very much. They are all so sarcastic but there never is any sarcasm, Lacey is oh so bitchy but never actually says anything bitchy, people have a dark humour but that is never shown. Instead, there are entire paragraphs about people's outfits whenever they show up in any given scene.

Also, Lena and Juliet never ever fight. Never. In an entire year, most of which was spent in a relationship.

Also, the epilogue was terrible. Why did you feel the need to nullify your own ending?

All in all a nice coming out book, great for teenagers who like reading romance novels. Great for people who crave some bisexual characters! Good as an lgbt novel without overly sexual content or tragedies. I'm still waiting for something better though.

Sweet. Needed a copy editor

The book had a few good moments but those were basically ruined by a big amount of homophobic jokes and the terrible depiction of the characters of colour.

It only gets two stars because two or three chapters out of 18 were actually good and I've read worse, otherwise this would be one star.

So good...

... that I'm sad it's over. I fell in love with the characters, all of them well written. It was fun, entrancing... the kind of story you never want to let go of...