Keeping You a Secret
Peters, J.A.
2003
New York: Little, Brown and Company
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ Fiction
Rating: 3.75/5

Chronicling the first real love affair of Holland Jaeger's life, Keeping You a Secret describes the intense highs and crushing blows that love can offer. Holland's life up until this point has been pretty white-bread: good grades, handsome boyfriend, stable family, great social life. But as soon as she recognizes her feelings for Cece, the new girl at school, Holland must deal with issues that reach far beyond the reality of regular teenage love pangs.

A decently written account of the threatening nature of LGBTQ life in high school, Keeping You a Secret kept me interested, but didn't quite make it's way into the "really good book" category. I found the drippy, cutsey love talk a little too, well, teenage! And although I understand that the characters are adolescents (YA literature, right!), I still thought it was a little overdone. The description of Holland's journey towards self-disclosure and self-acceptance was well crafted and felt genuine as I was reading, but it could not make up for what I felt was forced love-dovey melodrama at certain points.


Luna
Peters, J.A.
2006
New York: Little Brown and Company
Age Range: 14+
Genre: Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5


After reading Peters' Luna, a novel from the perspective of Regan, the sister of a transexual adolescent dealing with the pressure of being the only person who knows about her brother's real personality, I just can't help comparing! Luna is much better written, with fuller characters and complicated, beautiful familial relationships. I felt much, much more for Regan and Luna (Liam) than I could for Holland and Cece, and that connection made this a great book!