Reading: JULIET TAKES A BREATH - Gabby Rivera (author), Celia Moscote (illustrator)

Prose (Story): Gabby Rivera takes her much-loved novel and, along with artist Celia Moscote, transforms it into a graphic novel in which nineteen-year-old Bronx resident Juliet Milagros Palante - Puerto Rican, lesbian, and barely out of the closet - discovers her inner feminist upon reading a book by the popular feminist author Harlowe Brisbane. A heartelt email to the Portland, Oregon-based writer lands Juliet a much-needed internship for her college, so with caution to the wind and a whole lot of faith, Juliet outs herself to her family just before leaving New York, taking control of her life even if she wonders if her mother will ever speak to her again, and arrives in a new city ready for adventure ... even if unprepared for some surprises life, and Harlowe Brisbane, throws her along the way.

Don's (Review): Within a handful of pages I was instantly smitten with Julia - a thick, beautiful girl with big hair and bigger dreams. Still very much feeling her way around this thing called Life, she arrives in Portland already stressed about leaving her mother - who she now thinks might hate her - and her painfully white girlfriend behind, and from the beginning tries to go with the flow when her feminist mentor Harlowe also comes off as a bit of a nut. Juliet's naivete and shyness, even as she is determined to stay strong and get what she can from this experience, is absolutely endearing, and I was rooting for this beautiful "baby dyke" with a heart bigger than the great outdoors from first page to last (proof being that I found it hard to put the book down until I was fiished) in her struggle to find both herself and her place in the world. A wonderful, beautifully-illustrated graphic novel of trying to fit in while standing out, Juliet's story is as funny, sweet, satisfying, and heartwarmiing as its heroine herself. (Available November 25) 5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exhange for an honest review.