(Review) Dress Codes for Small Towns

Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney Stevens

Publication Date: August 22nd, 2017

Pages: 352 (kindle)

Genre: Young Adult

My Goodreads Rating: 4 stars

Goodreads Synopsis: As the tomboy daughter of the town’s preacher, Billie McCaffrey has always struggled with fitting the mold of what everyone says she should be. She’d rather wear sweats, build furniture, and get into trouble with her solid group of friends: Woods, Mash, Davey, Fifty, and Janie Lee.
But when Janie Lee confesses to Billie that she’s in love with Woods, Billie’s filled with a nagging sadness as she realizes that she is also in love with Woods…and maybe with Janie Lee, too.

Always considered “one of the guys,” Billie doesn’t want anyone slapping a label on her sexuality before she can understand it herself. So she keeps her conflicting feelings to herself, for fear of ruining the group dynamic. Except it’s not just about keeping the peace, it’s about understanding love on her terms—this thing that has always been defined as a boy and a girl falling in love and living happily ever after. For Billie—a box-defying dynamo—it’s not that simple.

Readers will be drawn to Billie as she comes to terms with the gray areas of love, gender, and friendship, in this John Hughes-esque exploration of sexual fluidity.


My Review: This book was precious and pure and I loved it.

I could stop my review there and be done with it, but I won't.

Billie and her friends are very cool characters. They are young and troubled, but you can tell that they truly love each other a lot a lot. (I put two a lots on purpose.) They have been through so much together and, even though they give each other hell, you can tell how much these characters truly feel about each other. 

I loved Billie for her boldness, but also for the parts that she hid from others. Billie wants to be the good daughter that her pastor father needs her to be, but it's hard when it's not who she really is. 

When Janie Lee tells Billie that she's in love with Woods, things change a little. Billie is drawn a little more to Davey and, with Davey, she gets to be herself a little bit. Davey is from the city and Billie has her own thoughts about him, but all he really does it let her be who she wants to be with no questions. 

Honestly, I fell a little in love with Davey's character. I started the book expecting it to be Woods as the one, but it was definitely Davey. The way he cares about Billie and listens to her is so sweet that you can't help but fall for him. 

I truly enjoyed this book and the way that most of the supporting characters were exactly that. They supported Billie no matter what she looked like or who she loved. Mostly this book was about Billie figuring out who she was, but also figure out that she doesn't really need to know just yet.