seriously romantic: ask me anything by molly e. lee

at wilmont academy abstinence-only education is the only way to talk about sex. never mind that the student populace is left confused and underinformed about sex, relationships and how to keep yourself safe from assault, pregnancy and other stds. ask me anything opens at the annual student lecture about how sex is all that is wrong with the world, and our heroine, amber is so over this attitude. but she's not sure how to make things better for her friends.

or for herself really. until recently she had a boyfriend, but after he assaulted her at a party she's struggling with trust, safety, and guilt. for a young adult novel, the way the characters talk about and experience sex is open and upfront, so if that isn't what you are looking for in your young adult fiction, then this is probably not the book for you.

that being said, the openness and honesty about sex and the consequences of sex and nonconsensual sexual situations is absolutely wonderful. when dean (amber's male hacker counterpart) challenges amber to a white hat challenge to wilmont's evil principal, ed tanner, amber starts up a blog that allows the student body at large to comment and ask questions about anything.

amber has an erotic romance author mom and a psychologist dad to help her figure out the correct way to handle some of the tricky questions sent her way. but when the blog comes to tanner's notice, he blackmails dean into helping him dox the anonymous blogger, inadvertently pitting him against amber.

some of the tension comes from the fact that the leads keep a lot of information from one another, which is somewhat ironic in a book that aims to be open and honest about interpersonal communication especially in romantic relationships. and there is this prologue scene that i would have begged the author to cut if i'd been editing this, because it's so completely unnecessary and useless. the same scene is included later in the text. those are my least favorite kind of prologues. and i already hate prologues in general. i'd tell most readers to just begin with chapter 1, honestly. skip the prologue you don't need it and it kind of spoils the dark moment.

but other than that, i actually really, really loved this book. amber and dean are just so great together. and even in the dark moment where he says some pretty harsh things, you kind of get it because he's been blindsided twice in a short span of time, and his betrayal looks worse than it is.

oh and as much as i hated the prologue, the epilogue in this book is really sweet.

**ask me anything will publish on may 7, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing in exchange for my honest review.