I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales Published by Hachette Children's Group on June 5, 2025
Genres: Juvenile Nonfiction / Social Topics / General, Young Adult Fiction / LGBTQ, Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Dating & Sex
Pages: 352
Format: ARC
ISBN: 9781444982688Young Royals meets The Prince and Me when a disgraced princess falls for a new student at their all-girls boarding school, but the two must hide their forbidden love at all costs.
Princess Rosemary of Henland can’t afford distractions. She’s working tirelessly to repair her image following a scandal that lost the trust of both her country and her best friend. Unfortunately, when a beautiful and funny new student joins her boarding school, Rose finds herself quite distracted indeed.
Attending Bramppath College on a music scholarship, talented pianist Danni expects to be an outcast amongst the wealthy children of the elite, but she is pleasantly surprised to be taken in by the ex-best friend of the princess. The more Danni gets to know her new classmates, the more intrigued she becomes by Rose.
When somebody sees something they shouldn’t and rumors circulate throughout Henland, Rose and Danni must either find a way to deflect the ever-increasing eyes on their relationship, or end it altogether. Because one thing is clear: if Rose’s fragile reputation takes any more hits, the palace will do whatever they must to separate Rose and Danni. Forever.
High school Darcy would’ve quite literally killed for a book like this when they were a teenager. To know they weren’t alone, that others in the world felt like they did, and that they weren’t abnormal or wrong would’ve been everything.
Both girls come to the relationship with their own issues and traumas that are pretty similar. The only difference being that Rose’s play out on a much larger scale. I love how Gonzales makes a connection between them in this way. It doesn’t matter whether being hated and blamed for so much when it’s not your fault is down on a school level or country level, both are horrible and traumatizing to go through.
I appreciate that the person who revealed everything to the palace wasn’t Harriet. I felt really bad for her by the end for she was going through similar issues as Danni (without the support of her parents) and had so much piled on her from everyone that I didn’t want another thing added to her plate. Not that it erases what she did to Danni at the party but it still sucks to be outed that way. I definitely had suspicious feelings surrounding Alfie. There was just something gross about this guy who was so willing to be a fake-boyfriend and how he interacted with Dannie was uncomfortable, especially how he acted around and treated Rose when Dannie was with them felt off.
Slight spoilers for the ending, but his explanation at the end to Rose about why he did what he did was so infuriating that I wanted to jump into the book and beat his ass! Thankfully, there was nothing homophobic about his actions in the end, which yay cause homophobia in queer books get old. Everything about his actions is blatant sexism towards Rose. His entire monologue is dripping in condescension. I mean he’s so close to patting Rose on the head and saying she should go off with the woman folk while the men discuss important business. The saddest and most infuriating part is that he doesn’t see it either, doesn’t hear his condescending tone or his sexism and misogyny. He believes he’s doing all of this for Rose’s own good, and he’s in the right. He doesn’t see that he did anything wrong. I’m reminded of the post that Gaston is the worst Disney villain because he can be any man in the world. That’s the same case with Alfie, although much worse because Alfie acts like a “good guy.” All of this was so well done though and definitely needed for Rose to see that none of it mattered.
The only part that was uncomfortable for me was the foreplay between Rose and Dannie. Obviously, not for the homophobia but for the fact that I’m in my 30s and reading about teenagers engaging in foreplay or having sex feels too gross for me at my age now. I also don’t think it’s a deal breaker for teenagers to read or for the book to be banned (although it probably will be). Those scenes between Rose and Dannie and even Dannie and Harriet, do a great job of explaining consent in relationships without being cringey that is important for teenagers to read.
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