Ophelia Rojas knows what she likes: her best friends, Cuban food, rose-gardening, and boys – way too many boys. Her friends and parents make fun of her endless stream of crushes, but Ophelia is a romantic at heart. She couldn’t change, even if she wanted to. the way she shares her life with her parents. i used to jump into the car after school every day with gossip updates for my mom. she knew everything. except for the period of time when we also had a fight and i leaned on my dad. She’s going with Mark Vega now,” I say, remembering the few weeks Mark and I spent as partners in freshman biology. He almost caught me doodling Ophelia Vega in the margins of my notebook more times than I’m willing to admit. “He asked her during English, I think?” I look to Ags for confirmation. If I could read only one thing for the rest of my life it would be queer coming-of-age stories written by queer authors. Something about them just hit the nail in the head for me, and Ophelia After All was no exception. It is a beautiful exploration of queerness, allowing yourself to change and everything that comes with discovering your sexuality. This is the type of book that every questioning teen can see themselves in, and that alone is a win in my book.

Linds, Zaq, Talia, and Wes. I love all of them!! Especially Wes, his character was such a solace to me. I am so happy to say that, I FOUND MY COMFORT CHARACTERS! TLDR: Overall, this book was a great read. It fit what I look for and love about YA’s perfectly. I want a contemporary YA book to make me feel and that is exactly what this book did. I would absolutely recommend this to YA fans, especially if you have a box of tissues at the ready. This book is very emotional, and got to me often, but it is not depressing or dark. It felt real and the connection you have to the main character is just so well done that you go through her journey with her. This was really well written for a debut, or any book in general, and Marie is now on my list of authors to watch. the way she fears changing, because everyone has this preconceived idea of who she is. and if they know she isn’t that girl anymore, then what happens to the way these people see her. what if she changes and they don’t understand that this is who she is. that she can see her own change, but she doesn’t know how to let others see it too.Not all change is bad. We may lose some things but we will always gain something better. We cannot stay the same forever. It's okay to be unsure, confused, and scared. What's important is that we will face the change with hope and with a strong attitude. Let's also not forget that there are people rooting for us. Even if we change, those who truly love us will stay by our side no matter what. It’s a tragic cliché! It’s like the school wants us to spike the punch bowl and lose our virginities in a limo,” Ags huffs. Stars. This book! While I go into every book hopeful, this book was much better than I ever expected. I just had one of my worst book slumps in over a decade and this was the book that played a big role in getting me out of it. This reminded me of everything that I love in a good contemporary YA, and it was just the book that I needed. It’s not a perfect book, it had a few bumps, but damn if I didn’t love just about all of it. Finding great debut authors is something I really enjoy and I’m happy to say that Marie now goes on that list. This book didn’t get as much of that YA hype I would have expected, but what a great surprise this ended up being. There’s no shoulds or shouldn’ts here,” he says. “You don’t have to label yourself as anything until you’re ready. Or ever, if you don’t want to.”

While Ophelia After All wasn’t quite the cute & wholesome read I wanted it to be it still made for a better than okay read. The in-group drama, avoidable miscommunication, and one too many love triangles detracted from an otherwise compelling coming-of-age. If you are reading this expecting it to be a HEA romance, I recommend you adjust your expectations as Ophelia After All was more focused on Ophelia’s character arc and her coming to terms with her sexuality. Ophelia After All was one of my most anticipated releases of the year. I've followed Raquel for years so ever since she announced her debut I knew I was going to absolutely love it, and I wasn't wrong. While there was so much good here, there were a few newbie bumps. Honestly, if Marie is already writing this good now, it makes me super excited for what it to come. Anyway, one slight issue I had was I felt like the book was a tad off to have taken place in 2022. It doesn’t feel dated per say, but I felt it would have been a better fit if this book’s setting had taken place even just five years ago. I felt like some of the terms and just certain things the main character didn’t know felt off to me. Again, if it was a handful of years ago I would have understood, but teenagers now are so much more knowledgeable about sexuality and gender than my generation ever was. I thought all the rep in this book was great, including all the different types of queer characters and some we don’t get to see in books as much, so I don’t want to take away from that. I just felt like our main character was more clueless than she should have been to have this book take place in 2022.

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I adore Ophelia's friend group - by the end, I felt like they were my friends too? Racquel has this unique and stunning way of bringing her characters to life. Filled with realistic elements, this lovely coming-of-age story follows Ophelia as she explores her identity as well as the ups and downs of high school... This touching debut offers an emotional ride that readers will be happy to embark upon." — Booklist I can surely say Ophelia After All is a book that has claimed its place in my heart forever. A comfort read, as people call it or as I’d like to say, a warm hug to myself. You’re so full of shit.” He shakes his head at her, then turns to me. “You promised I could be in on the next bet.”