Tell Me How You Really Feel Review: Is It Worth Reading?

Verdict: A warm, film-obsessed YA enemies-to-lovers romance with two ambitious girls of color and families that feel lived in, held back by a grudge that makes Rachel hard to like and prose a lot of readers found clunky.

Best for: Readers who want a sweet, low-heat sapphic rom-com set in Los Angeles, who’ll enjoy movie talk and Gilmore Girls echoes, and who can forgive a prickly heroine and a rushed final stretch.

Heat level: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5: no romance.io entry; a 13-and-up YA romance with kissing and one brief, non-graphic intimate scene)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.4/5: a 3.64 Goodreads average across 7,259 ratings, with strong trade reviews and a reader minority that keeps saying Rachel is just mean)

Tropes: Enemies-to-lovers, opposites attract, forced partners, dual POV, cheerleader and outsider, film-set romance, family expectations, senior year, interfaith couple, misunderstanding from the past.

Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi is a standalone sapphic YA romance from Feiwel & Friends (June 2019), set over one spring in Los Angeles, about Rachel Recht, a broke, blunt aspiring director who has hated cheer captain Sana Khan since freshman year, and who now needs Sana to star in the senior film that decides her future.

It sits at 3.64 across 7,259 Goodreads ratings, which makes it Safi’s most-read book by a wide margin. The trade press loved it: Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal and NPR all reviewed it warmly, and it made the 2020 Amelia Bloomer list of feminist books for young readers. Readers are cooler. Thirty percent of Goodreads ratings land on three stars, and the complaint that keeps coming up isn’t one the critics mention at all. That gap is the most useful thing to understand before you start.

What Is Tell Me How You Really Feel About?

This is a contemporary high school rom-com aimed at ages 13 to 18, and it wears its influences openly. Safi built it as a sapphic riff on Rory Gilmore and Paris Geller and dedicated the book to Amy Sherman-Palladino, the show’s creator. The chapter titles are movie references, and the plot runs on a film shoot, so expect a lot of talk about framing, takes and deadlines.

Rachel is Mexican and Jewish, works at a diner, and is at the school on scholarship. She’s sure Sana asked her out years ago as a joke and has treated her with contempt ever since. Sana is Persian and South Asian, Muslim, top of her class, and smiling through serious pressure at home. She meant that question. The book alternates between them, so you see the misunderstanding from both sides, and that’s what makes the hostility readable at all.

What Makes This Sapphic YA Enemies-to-Lovers Romance Work

The families: The most consistent praise in the reviews goes to the parents. Sana’s mother and Rachel’s father come up again and again, and readers call the family dynamics realistic and layered.
Representation without coming-out angst: Both girls are already comfortable with who they like. Several reviewers say outright that this is why they picked it up, and that the queerness is never the problem the plot has to solve.
The filmmaking: Rachel’s senior project is a retelling of the Odyssey, and readers who love movies call that thread the fun part. It’s also where the book’s feminist streak lives.
The enemies-to-lovers banter: When it clicks, it really clicks. The Lesbrary called it “the sweetest enemies-to-more story I’ve read in a long while.”
Two girls with plans: Sana is expected to go into medicine and Rachel wants film school, and both futures get taken seriously. Readers liked that neither girl’s future is just backdrop for the romance.

Book Synopsis

Rachel Recht has one goal for senior year: finish her film. Her college plans ride on it, and she fits the work in around her shifts at a diner. She has a script, a deadline and one serious problem. She needs a lead.

The only person who fits the part is Sana Khan. Sana is the head cheerleader, the straight-A student and the girl everybody likes, which is exactly why Rachel can’t stand her. Years ago Sana asked Rachel on a date, and Rachel was certain it was a setup. She never forgave her for it. Sana, for her part, never really got over Rachel, and she’s spent three years being glared at in the hallway for something she didn’t do.

So Rachel swallows her pride and asks, and Sana says yes. Now the two of them are stuck together on shoots across Los Angeles, with a deadline that won’t move and a lot of history nobody wants to talk about. Rachel is snapping at everyone, Sana is hiding how unsure she is about the future everyone has mapped out for her, and the film keeps forcing them to look at each other properly. The question is whether Rachel can admit she got Sana wrong before the shoot, and the year, run out.

My Review

The best thing here is how real both girls’ lives feel outside the romance. Sana’s home life, with a mother who has very clear ideas about who her daughter should be, is the part I’ll remember. Rachel’s relationship with her dad is quieter and just as good. A lot of YA romance treats parents as furniture. This book gives them weight, and that’s why the stakes around college and the future land.

I also liked the film thread a lot. Rachel making an Odyssey film on no budget gives the book a clock and a reason for these two to be in the same room every day, which is the hardest part of forced partners to make feel natural. And when the banter works, it’s sharp. Sana is far more than the perky cheerleader Rachel thinks she is, and watching Rachel slowly figure that out is fun.

Where it struggles is Rachel, and this isn’t just my reaction. It’s the most repeated complaint in the reader reviews I went through. Her grudge rests on one misunderstanding from freshman year, and she spends a big chunk of the book being cruel to Sana and pretty rude to everyone else. Plenty of readers couldn’t see why Sana would still want her. The second problem is the writing itself. Readers describe it as dry, meandering and clunky, with long inner monologues, a lot of film references and a jump from hate to love that doesn’t feel gradual. And the ending comes in fast. A late breakup and a very public confession split people.

One expectation to reset. The cover and the Gilmore Girls hook sell it as a bright rom-com, and the critics reviewed it that way. Readers found a slower book, with a first half that drags and a lot of its weight on family drama rather than laughs. If you came for a breezy comedy, calibrate. If you were worried it’s all fluff, relax, because there’s real weight in the family storylines.

My honest note: A big-hearted YA romance with great families and a fun filmmaking hook, dragged down by a heroine whose meanness outlasts its welcome. If an unlikeable lead ruins a book for you, this will test you. If you can ride out Rachel’s first half, the second half is sweet.

Element	In Tell Me How You Really Feel
Central relationship	Rachel Recht and Sana Khan: scholarship film nerd and head cheerleader, enemies-to-lovers
Core tropes	Enemies-to-lovers, opposites attract, forced partners, dual POV, film-set romance, family expectations
Setting	A Los Angeles high school and film shoots around the city, over one spring of senior year
Heat level	2/5: YA, kissing and one brief non-graphic intimate scene
Series	Standalone. The leads end up together, nothing to wait for
Content notes	Frequent swearing, parental abandonment, heavy parental pressure, homophobic microaggressions, sexism, heteronormativity

How Spicy Is Tell Me How You Really Feel?

I’d call it a 2/5. I couldn’t find a romance.io entry for it, which is normal for YA, since that database tracks adult romance. So the number comes from the publisher’s 13-and-up age range plus what readers report. Most reviews don’t mention physical content at all, and the ones that do focus on chemistry and slow burn. One reader describes a single intimate scene that is “YA appropriate but doesn’t fade to black.” That’s one voice, but nobody contradicts it, and nobody I found flags anything graphic.

The thing worth knowing in advance is the language. Rachel’s chapters are full of swearing, and NPR’s reviewer noted it. If you want the same YA band, Home Field Advantage is another dual-POV cheerleader romance kept behind a closed door, and She Drives Me Crazy is the cleaner, kisses-only take on the cheerleader rivalry.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want a sapphic enemies-to-lovers story where nobody agonises about coming out, you love movies and filmmaking, you like YA that takes parents and family pressure seriously, and you’re a Gilmore Girls fan who always wanted Rory and Paris to kiss.

You may want to skip it if: a cruel lead with a thin reason for her grudge will put you off, you need the romance to build step by step, clunky or meandering prose pulls you out of a story, or you want characters to use words like “gay” or “lesbian” on the page.

In short: a warm, family-rich YA romance with a great hook and a heroine you’ll have to forgive.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

There’s no current viral moment behind this book. I didn’t find a Reddit thread recommending it, and its BookTok presence is thin: a Book Riot count of the top 50 queer BookTok videos found it mentioned four times, and noted that many of those videos came from one creator. What it does have is a long library life. It got a hardcover push from Feiwel & Friends in June 2019, a Square Fish paperback in October 2020, and the 2020 Amelia Bloomer list. Kirkus called it “a queer romance that will sweep readers away,” School Library Journal said it belongs in every collection, and Publishers Weekly praised its diverse cast. None of them mention the complaint that dominates the reader reviews.

The audiobook came later. It was released on April 12, 2022, narrated by Safi herself and running 9 hours 7 minutes, and it sits at 4.2 stars on Audible, though only from 19 ratings. That’s too few to say much about how the narration lands, so I’d try the sample first.

Prefer audio? Listen to Tell Me How You Really Feel on Libro.fm, the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The families, first. Around six of the thirty reviews I read closely on Goodreads single out the family dynamics, with Sana’s mother the standout. The representation comes next: two girls of color, an interfaith Muslim and Jewish couple, and a cover readers kept praising. Around four reviewers name the lack of coming-out angst as the thing they valued most. Then the romance and banter, with “slow burn” and “chemistry” the recurring words among the people it worked for. The fans who loved the film thread really loved it, and several call the feminist angle on Rachel’s Odyssey film a highlight. A few readers defend Rachel directly, arguing her flaws are what make her feel like a real teenager.

What readers argue about and complain about: Rachel, above everything. About ten of those thirty reviews say she’s needlessly mean, and most of them add that her grudge is too flimsy to justify three years of it. One reviewer quipped, “I can see why she has no friends.” Second: the writing. Around five readers call the prose dry, repetitive or clunky, and others say the pace drags in the first half before the hate turns to love too suddenly. Third: the missing labels. Around five reviewers noticed the book never uses “gay,” “lesbian” or “queer,” and one said it felt like the author was “twisting herself into avoiding” those words. Fourth: the ending, which at least three readers call rushed. Beyond that, a couple of readers felt the side characters were thin, and one called the Greek myth references inaccurate. The big split is Rachel herself. For some readers she’s the most relatable teen in the book, and for others she sinks the whole romance.

The standalone question worth asking first: it’s a complete standalone. Rachel and Sana end up together, with an “I love you” in the final chapter, and the story closes as a happy-for-now teen romance with college ahead. There’s nothing to wait for. If you liked Safi’s voice, her Robin Hood remix Travelers Along the Way (2022) is rated a little higher at 3.84 across about 1,240 ratings. Her other two contemporaries sit lower: This Is All Your Fault at 3.36 and Not the Girls You’re Looking For at 3.23. So this is her most-read book, though not quite her best-rated one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Tell Me How You Really Feel a standalone?

Yes. It’s a complete standalone with no sequel, and Rachel and Sana end up together by the final chapter. A few readers feel that last stretch is rushed.

Is Tell Me How You Really Feel based on Gilmore Girls?

Loosely. Safi wrote it as a sapphic take on Rory Gilmore and Paris Geller and dedicated it to the show’s creator. You don’t need to know the show, and reviewers who hadn’t seen it still enjoyed the book.

How spicy is Tell Me How You Really Feel?

About a 2/5. It’s a 13-and-up YA romance with kissing and, by one reader’s account, a single brief intimate scene that is YA appropriate. There’s no romance.io rating because it isn’t catalogued as adult romance.

What age is Tell Me How You Really Feel for?

The publisher and Kirkus list it for ages 13 to 18, and School Library Journal recommends it from grade 9. Expect frequent swearing and family conflict, all handled at a YA level.

Is there an audiobook?

Yes. It came out on April 12, 2022, narrated by the author, Aminah Mae Safi, and runs 9 hours 7 minutes. It has only 19 ratings on Audible so far, so try the sample first.

If You Loved Tell Me How You Really Feel, Read These Next

If it was the rivalry with a Muslim lead that got you, The Henna Wars turns two girls into business rivals at a similar YA heat and leans harder on family. For the cheerleader-meets-outsider engine with lighter prose, She Drives Me Crazy is the most-read take on it we’ve reviewed. And if the Los Angeles film-set side was your favourite part, Sizzle Reel moves that world into adult romance, though readers rate it lower.

For more like this, browse our enemies-to-lovers lesbian romance guide or the whole Book Reviews collection.

The Bottom Line

Tell Me How You Really Feel wants to be the sapphic Rory-and-Paris story a lot of readers wished for, plus a love letter to movies, and in places it is. The families are rich and believable, the filmmaking gives the romance a real engine, and the queerness is never treated as a tragedy. It’s also built on a grudge that’s too thin for how cruel it makes Rachel, its prose loses a fair number of readers, and its ending arrives in a hurry. If you’re coming to it for a warm, low-heat YA romance with real family stakes and you can forgive a prickly lead, it’s worth the weekend. Check Tell Me How You Really Feel on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Tell Me How You Really Feel ranks as a well-reviewed, family-rich YA sapphic rom-com. Its strengths are the parents and the filmmaking hook, held back by a heroine many readers can’t warm to and uneven prose. It’s best read for the families and the film shoot rather than for the banter.