Arc Review: Sleeping Around by Morgan Vega

Title: Sleeping Around
Author: Morgan Vega
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publication Date: August 3rd, 2021
Publisher: Tearstain Books
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to the author for reaching out to review this book!

“Hard-hitting yet humorous, this young adult contemporary following a teen’s transition from foster care to college by debut author Morgan Vega is perfect for fans of What I Carry by Jennifer Longo and Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour.

Foster care always promised her a bed. Now she doesn’t even have that.

Coralee (Corey) Reed can’t wait to trade her current foster house for Harmony Hall, the dorm for music majors. Corey arrives at Borns College with her pawn-shop violin and a borrowed duffle bag, ready to leave her foster care baggage behind.

But Corey’s first day on campus starts on a sour note. She runs into her archrival violinist Dylan Mason, then her name’s not on the dorm’s roster. Worst of all, Corey can’t live at Harmony Hall. Period. Because she’s not yet accepted into the music program. Instead, Reslife shoves her into a temporary triple with two unsuspecting (and beyond different) roommates.

When one of her roommates does the unforgivable, Corey starts sleeping around campus—from air mattresses to random couches—while waiting for an open room. But how can she beat Dylan for first chair if she can’t keep her eyes open? How can she pass her finals without a good night’s sleep? Will college, the place she thought would launch her dreams of becoming a professional violinist, be the place her dreams end all too soon?” (Goodreads)

This hadn’t been on my radar before the author reached out as Instagram’s algorithm sucks and I miss out on content because of it! It sounded like a book that was definitely up my alley so I am glad that the author did reach out because it gave me a chance to read it early.

Content Warning (From Author): Underage drinking, very brief mentions-not-depictions-of infertility and police brutality; and lots of sexual innuendos

Coralee Reed aka Corey loves the violin and has a special connection with the one she recently purchased. She has been in foster care for a lot of her life and has rules to make due with it and passes on that knowledge to the other foster kids she has lived with .Corey is finally breaking free to go to college but things don’t always go the way she had hoped.

I have never had to deal with the foster care system so I can’t really give my two cents about that. It is heartbreaking though to see the news that circles around it. I will say that I feel like this book does a good job of detailing the feelings and hardships that come from it like changing foster homes, not wanting to get too close, and just feeling like you don’t have a place in this world. Corey deals with this among other things and when you add the struggles of transitioning to college on top of it any person would eventually break.

Even though it’s been years since I was in college myself, the author captures the first year of it well. Meeting people can be hard and sometimes the people who you think are friends aren’t. There can be roommate issues (luckily I lived off campus!) and sometimes the experience just isn’t what we thought college would be. I liked seeing Corey maneuver her way through the hardships and growing from the process. She does finally let her foster parents in and it was precious. I’m glad that it all worked out in the end.

There is a bit of romance but it is a very minor aspect of the book. The banter between Corey and Dylan was gold. I do think that their relationship was rushed through so it was hard to fully connect with them as a couple.

Overall, this was a unique plot that involved foster care and finding yourself through the struggles. I think it will do well for those going to college or someone who loves a good YA contemporary.

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