Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 Hold Me is both very ambitious and very uneven. We here at the Bitchery are unabashed Courtney Milan fans, to the point where I cannot possibly read a Milan book without both bias in its favor and very high expectations. As with all Milan books, I squeed repeatedly while reading, but the overall reading experience was not as enjoyable as I hoped it would be. 
 I love the inclusivity of the book. It incorporates characters of different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and classes. Much of the book takes place at University of California, Berkeley, which is where I got my Masters, and I can state from experience that if the book had not included this level of inclusivity it would have been ridiculously unrealistic. Maria is Latina, Jay is Chinese and Thai, and many of the supporting characters are non-white as well. Maria is a transgender woman, and the story avoids fetishizing her or reducing her to a coming out story. She does have a coming out story and some trauma associated with this story, but her being transgender isn't the sum of her character -- she's into shoes, she's into math, she's smart, she loves her brother, she likes soup, etc. 
 There is SO MUCH GEEKERY in this book. I love that Actual Physicist and Em flirt using math. I loved the glow in the dark shark (named 'Lisa') that Maria's ex-roommate kept in a tank in their apartment (very small shark, very big tank). I loved the reference to Douglas Adams. As an urban Californian, I also loved the reference to the fact that you can get soup here from four different ethnicities within a two-block radius. 
 The only part of the book that I didn't like was the actual romance, largely because Jay was so triggery for me. Actual Physicist and Em's messages back and forth often felt fake to me, like they had been practiced and rehearsed (which, to be fair, is in fact the kind of thing you can do with a written message). I felt like I was reading things that people wish they had said, not actual dialogue. When they are together in person, they unleash their worst qualities, especially Jay. 
 Jay has three personalities in the book and I didn't believe in any of them. His "in person with Maria" personality is so obnoxious that I find it hard to believe that that anyone associates with him. Actually, not many people do, which he thinks is because they move away or are too busy. Maybe they just hate the guy. I certainly do. 
 There were so many things about this book that I loved. I loved the shark and Maria's explanation for why she didn't love it all. I loved the science stuff. I loved the constant tension between people who had been raised with a lot of money and those who hadn't, and the tension between introverts and extroverts. I loved the relationship between Jay's parents and I loved how Maria's Catholic Latina grandmother breaks stereotypes about Catholic Latina grandmothers. The sex scenes are great examples of how consent, particularly explicit consent, can be incredibly erotic. Not to mention math. If they had convinced me in high school that math could be sexy maybe I would have stayed awake in class more often. 
 I always have to grade Courtney Milan books with a standard letter grade, and I'm giving this a B- compared to the romances I have read because the writing, the side characters, Maria, the sex, and the shark are all pretty amazing. But on our very special puppy cannon scale, which we reserve for Courtney Milan books, I'm only giving it one out of ten puppies - the puppy cannon is very demanding. 
 - Carrie S.