REVIEW: Experienced by Kate Young

Bette loves Mei, but Bette and Mei are on a break, so Bette can catch-up on the decade of dating experiences she missed before she came out.

So Bette is (reluctantly) on a dating odyssey: a quest to have lots of casual sex with lots of hot women and come back to Mei more experienced and more certain about what she wants. And now she has new friend Ruth as her queer dating guide, she can't possibly fail. It's just three months, then she'll be back with Mei.

It's the perfect plan … isn't it?

Experienced was a breath of a fresh air - a tender explorations of self discovery, with steamy sweet romance and a lot of fun. It’s a coming out and coming of age story about a young queer woman finding her place in the world on her own time and learning the many different ways love can manifest in her life.

Between the meaningful friendships that change your life, the sweetest romance and the hottest sex that left me a little hot under the collar and reminded me just how stunning women are.

The storytelling was fabulous — vivid and brightly descriptive in ways that brought waves of nostalgia for youth rushing back. Bette was a fabulously messy woman trying to figure things out in a way that was so relatably chaotic I loved her instantly and all of the antics she found herself in even when it was too painfully accurate. And honestly every single character was perfect — I felt like they were all my friends and the complex, beautiful relationships they had were so lovely to see. With the three months counting down above our heads, it moves through her adventure with an exciting and easy pace and I just couldn’t stop reading.

Every single chapter had me not sure whether to laugh, cry or cringe in the best way possible- and while I had my inkling where this was going from the start the journey there was so much fun.

384 pages of pure queer joy and heartbreak - this book was an experience.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Experienced will be available from June 6th with 4th Estate. I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title.

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