Honest and deeply emotional, Georgie, All Along is a smart, tender must-read for everyone who’s ever wondered about the life that got away . I can start with agreeing that I am not the target audience, but it's easy enough to see from these pages exactly what the target is. Sidebar that nobody asked for: I actually think though that, maybe, while this book starts out with time and "going back" as its major theme, it gently morphs that into being about taking up space and finding place? I loved, too, the theme of the story, of trying to go back, and how that was woven through for so many of these characters and yet they each had different emotional beats to tackle and resolve, things to face, and how those all shook out. It is rare to fall in love with characters at the same pace and to the same depth that they do on the page, but Clayborn’s writing is so immersive, so exuberant, it’s a truly multisensory experience.

So much like that test you do – you know the one, that formulates decisions about the age and commonality of all things in space to come up with how many billions of planets are likely to have alien life on – you can narrow things down quite readily here, and still come up with a huge number.He was the town troublemaker when he was young and the older brother of Georgie’s high school crush. As the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she truly wants might not be in the pages of her diary after all, but right by her side — if only they can both find a way to let go of the pasts that hold them back.

And, because of this, there are times when the book feels a little sprawling and structurally chaotic (although there’s a degree to which this is very reflective of its heroine, so I’m inclined to see this is a feature, not a bug) but, ultimately, all these connections come together absolutely beautifully---rendering this one of the most emotionally kind of nourishing? The one thing that gets her out of her funk is that, while helping Bel unpack, she finds a friend fic they wrote together in middle school.

Been Here All Along’ was a great novel to introduce me to the writings of Sandy Hall, but I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to pick up another one of her titles. Key message – We should overlook minor annoyances because friends are there to help in the darkest of times. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. I am not usually one who goes for that sort of thing but with the romance factored in Clayborn nails it. And I think that's exactly what Kate Clayborn does with Georgie and Levi: rather than trying to make them belong in genre-hero-and-heroine boxes, she uses recognizable codes of "romance novel depictions of masculinity/femininity" to create characters, but also deconstruct where those codes are coming from.

And what is it that connects readers, on a human level, to the archetypes of a "flighty and somewhat aimless" heroine and the "taciturn outcast" hero? There's a wonderful storyline of forgiveness in this that made me want to hug my book after finishing. I'm clearly an outlier and there are some great reviews for this book, so if you have read this author's previous books and enjoyed them, or in the mood for a cute, Hallmark-esque romance then maybe it will be for you. There was a part about 85% of the way through that I remember liking and thinking, “aww maybe this will have a strong ending!

With a perfect dose of humor, wisdom and insight and an endearing cast of characters, Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn is an emotional, heartwarming and feel-good read that will leave you with a smile on your face. When her boss decides to retire and advises her to figure out what she wants she heads home to visit her pregnant best friend and parents. To put in super blunt terms, the fact that it’s damage and toxic masculinity that creates these paradigms we are taught to find so desirable and admirable. Little ones will love pressing the sound button and joining in with each classic song in this range of sing-along books. The only person who gives Levi a chance is Paul, Georgie's peacemaker father, who invites him to stay in their vacant house until his house’s construction gets finished.