But as she settles into her old life, Suzette finds herself falling for someone new...the same girl her brother is in love with. When Lionel's disorder spirals out of control, Suzette is forced to confront her past mistakes and find a way to help her brother before he hurts himself--or worse.
Review: Little and Lion was a fantastic book. First off, Suzette is a wonderful character. She loves her family deeply, but she also struggles to look after herself. It was interesting seeing her hesitation at the start of the book because she has to get used to being back around her friends. She also has to get used to being around her family again. Especially her brother Lionel. I liked seeing Suzette's interactions with Lionel. Seeing how much she loves and looks after her brother was touching, and Lionel felt the same way for Suzette. That was refreshing. Often, when stories center around step-families, they also focus on family members getting used to one another. I liked that Little and Lion didn't do that. The family dynamics were already well established. This allowed for the book to focus on separate things like Suzette understanding her sexuality and Lionel dealing with his bipolar disorder.
The story itself was well-paced. No one aspect of the book dragged on and on. Every scene, every moment, felt important for the growth of each character. There's also a really good discussion where a couple characters explain the difference between bisexual and pansexual. Pansexuality isn't often discussed, so it was nice to see a character with that identity in this book and explain what that is to her. One other great thing Brandy was able to do was show the different phases of bipolar disorder. There were plenty of scenes where Lionel was in his manic phases, but we also got to see him in his lower moments too.
Wonderful book that deserves all the praise it gets.
5 howls
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