Somebody That I Used to Know by Dana L Davis

Welcome Back, Booklovers! Honestly October was feeling kind of slumpy and I didn't end up reading much. But then I started reading this book on the second to last day of the month that renewed my fervor for reading.

Dylan lives in Iowa but yearns for the day she can leave her small town and move to New York. She knows Julliard is her destiny. It's the only school she applied to and if she practices violin hard enough she can nail that audition. What she doesn't expect is her childhood best friend turned R&B superstar, Legendary to come back into her life after years of ignoring her. Legend has gotten himself into some trouble and was placed under a conservatorship so he makes a deal with Dylan to grant her a place to stay for her Julliard audition if she helps him prove to his mother that he's still the same boy she used to know.

It was refreshing to read a story that felt like it was written for Black teens. While the Black girl was the only Black girl but it wasn't the gist of the entire story and time wasn't spent exploring her being the first or suffering through microaggressions on every page. When race was addressed it felt more for the Black girls who are growing up in very white environments vs trying to teach white readers something about race. Dylan is a transracial adoptee and the struggles with growing up with a family of a different race is so well done here. Her family loves her fiercely and she loves them but sometimes she feels out place when people stare at her when they're out together. Dylan wears colored contacts and extensions to fit in and she's struggling to feel pretty especially compared to the gorgeous Instagram models Legend surrounds himself with.

Dylan loves classical music. But her love of classical music isn't used to set her apart from the other girls. Instead she and Legend use their love of music to collaborate and create a very cool audition piece blending old styles with new. Readers follow along as they rekindle their friendship and discover new things about themselves. The romance in this book is slow- burn but well paced enough to keep you turning the pages.