All the Worlds Between Us (All the Worlds Between Us #01) - Morgan Lee Miller

Title: All the Worlds Between Us (All the Worlds Between Us #01)
Author: Morgan Lee Miller
Rating: 3/5

Thanks to Bold Strokes Books, Inc. and NetGalley for letting me receive a digital copy of this book before its official release date.

Seventeen-year-old Quinn Hughes needs to be in top shape if she wants to medal at the swimming World Championships in ten months. This means no easy distractions, no matter how pretty they are. She’s still piecing her confidence back together after not qualifying for the Olympics, her relationship with her twin brother is getting worse the more he hangs out with the popular kids, and then Kennedy Reed suddenly squeezes herself back into Quinn’s life. The girl who was her best friend. The girl who gave Quinn her first kiss. The girl who hasn’t spoken to her since. Soon, Quinn finds herself juggling her new girlfriend, training for the biggest competition of her life, and discovering she’s not the only Hughes twin with a crush on Kennedy Reed. All these distractions are getting to her, and if she wants that medal she needs to find a way to stop drowning on dry land.

I'm not much of a sports featuring romance novel fan, let alone swimming as the main topic. What made me curious about the book was actually the cover. It screamed indie to me and I longed to read some great indie book again. And the writing seemed so very different from the mainstream novels there are out there, but I didn't get to fully enjoy the book as much as I hoped I would.

LGBTQIA is a huge thing in young adult novels these days. It's a huge thing in our daily life and I'm glad there's an increasement of this topic being featured in young adult and new adult novels, it's super important and shouldn't be considered as something else - it should be a given to talk about sexuality in teenage romance novels. But somehow, it's still considered special. Books concerning gay teens are still super hyped and though I'm kind of glad for it, it's for the wrong reasons. Because you still need to look at the story, at the plot, at the writing, at the characters and everything else. Just because gay teens are involved, doesn't mean the book is a masterpiece. And surely, All the Worlds Between Us was good, but it didn't fully convince me, sadly.

I'm probably taking my anger out on the author, that's not fair. I'm not even sure what I'm angry about. I can't put my finger to it. So let's point out the positive things - Quinn is anything but a clichee. She's very self-confident, but there's still some uncertainty to her character. She's still getting to know herself, even though she has experienced some relationships with girls yet. But when it comes to Kennedy, there's shyness. Probably because the two of them used to be best friends before Kennedy moved away. There's this kind of intimacy between them - apart from the sexual tension. They just know each other so well. But things have changed and Kennedy has become someone Quinn doesn't recognize anymore. That is before she finds herself crushing on her.

It was exciting to follow Kennedy's path of coming out. Quinn has been there, her friends have been there, but since Kennedy still isn't sure about her feelings, the reader gets sucked into her world more than in Quinn's, I found so, and cheers her on to come out, to just stand up to her friends and shout it out. And I think what's best is that she'd doing this for herself. Not for Quinn. That wouldn't have been the right reason. Ugh, I actually hated Quinn a bit for forcing her secret girlfriend to finally come out. Sure, she had been patient long enough, but some things she said to Kennedy just weren't fair. On the other hand, I wanted Kennedy to ditch that bitchy friend of her as well.

But what about that Liam (Quinn's brother) story? I didn't get that at all. It seemed like the author wanted to add more drama. It came out of nowhere and made no sense to me. Especially since Liam had seemed interested in Kennedy after what the reader found out. It was confusing as hell and didn't add up to the story. I would have liked to skip that part, but also, if this hadn't been involved, Quinn would have easily forgiven Kennedy and well... The book would have ended.

Again, I like how fierce all of the characters in All the Worlds Between Us were. No matter if it was Quinn or Kennedy or even just their friends who made a short appearance. I liked that. And I also really liked the ending, because it seemed so real, so true. My heart felt heavy and light at the same time. This was like a telling, not just a thought-up-story.

Anyway, the sport took up a great place in Quinn's life and in the book, too. She put that above everything else, but I liked to see things beginning to shift at a certain point in her life, because that's what teenagers do - they start questioning things, questioning intentions. So maybe all my hard words in the beginning of this review were too harsh. I didn't mean to take it out on the book or the author. But I won't delete them either, because I still long for this natural, uncomplicated LGBTQIA novel. All the Worlds Between Us was good, I'm not doubting that. I just expected something different, maybe.