For some reason, I've been on an old-school Demi listening kick, so this came out at the perfect time. This is a pretty short book, and I think that worked to its favor and to its detriment. It made it a quick and fun, breezy read but also left things flying by just a little too quickly. I also think the love triangle was too unbalanced for me; I mean, even the tagline "the guy of her dreams...or the girl in her heart," I mean, obviously. I also think the main character's friendship with her best friend, the "popular girl," was a little unbelievable. She never thought her best friend's intentions were good, and it seemed like there was a lot of resentment there that was never really explored. There were also a lot of characters, with the two love interests, the two friend groups, etc. for such a short book, and it made it difficult to connect with any of them. Overall, this was a cute, summery contemporary with quite a bit of angst. It's not at the top of my summer recommendation list, but I don't not recommend it, if that helps.

The title COOL FOR THE SUMMER and the cover are what made me want to read this book. The color palette and the fun sunglasses did it for me. It screamed: "I'm going to be fun, READ ME!"

COOL FOR THE SUMMER was just as fun and enjoyable that I had hoped it would be. It was a quick read that brought both the laughter and the longing. I loved the friendship that developed between Lara and Jasmine and how well they knew how to be with each other.

There were moments I was worried about Chase's intentions with dating Lara. Everyone knew about her years long crush and I wondered if he was playing with her emotions or did he really like her. Thankfully that question was answered early on and I didn't have to worry. Chase isn't the jerk that he could have been portrayed as.

I wanted to know more about Lara aside from her relationships with her friends and Chase and Jasmine. What makes her who she is? I think there is still so much more to know about her than what we were given in the story.

Each of her friends have their own lives separate from their friendships. One character who I really want to know is Kiki. What is her story? She's just so interesting with her podcasts and her sleuthing. I hope there's a Kiki book in the future!

COOL FOR THE SUMMER is a great book to kick off your fun summer reading. It's a story about romance and friendships and it's full of surprises that will keep readers turning the pages.

This was the cutest story. I loved it! This is a sweet rom-com with a queer love triangle. I enjoyed the ride along with Lara on her journey to self discovery and acceptance. I highly recommend putting this on your summer reading list!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s / Wednesday Books for the advanced reader copy.

Thank you Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the egalley in exchange for an honest review.

Cue the Demi Lovato music! Cool for the Summer is fun easy read. Definitely a great beach read. In the book we meet Larissa, fresh off summer break with a new hairdo, a new confidence and she’s finally catching the eye of her longtime crush, Chase. And then in walks Jasmine, a girl Larissa knows from this summer, who Larissa Did not know was moving to her school this year. I like the way the author went back and forth between the Then and Now to show us how Larissa and Jasmine met and how their relationship got to where it is now. The book was an easy read where I found myself reading quickly and not being able to put it down and just wanting to find out what happens next. In the end I just needed a little bit more. A little more development, a little more backstory, a little more conclusion, a little more communication.

3.5 Stars

LGBTQ Grease inspired love story and I’m here for it. After years of lusting, Lara finally snags the attention and interest of her crush, Chase. However as they begin their relationship, Lara is drawn back to the whirlwind summer with Jasmine … and then Jasmine shows up at Lara’s high school. Ooh, it’s juicy, it’s genuine, and it’s a beautifully authentic portrayal of a young woman exploring her sexual identity and speaking her truth to those around her.

Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler is everything you could want from a bisexual summer.

Larissa, our protagonist, is entering her Senior year of high school expecting everything to be the same after quite literally everything about her has changed. She’s tan from being in the Outer Banks of NC all summer long. She’s lightened and chopped her hair off. And most interestingly, has finally caught the attention of the boy of her dreams: Chase Harding, quarterback extraordinaire. Her friends are the same, she’s still popular, so everything should be running like clockwork. Except it isn’t.
On the first day of school, the second that Chase seems to notice Rissa for the first time is the exact moment that none other than Jasmine glides into the hallway like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
Except it isn’t. Rissa and Jasmine don’t exist out of the OBX bubble they carefully nurtured over the summer. The summer where Rissa spent her days and nights wrapped up in the arms of a girl. For the first time.
Now Jasmine is here. In Rissa’s town, and everything is muddled and awful.

This book is DELICIOUS AND DELIGHTFUL! Perfect execution of the following tropes:
- summer romance gone wrong
- first bisexual experience
- rich girl/poor girl class issues
- angsty artsy girl + bubbly popular girl (opposites attract)
- fall from social grace

Cool for the Summer is such a wonderfully complex book and it was so lovely. It did my heart so much good. I had high hopes the moment I saw the title and they just kept rising the more I heard about the book and I am so happy to announce that my hopes were well met.
Smartly told in intertwining narratives of the present school year and the events of the summer, Cool for the Summer gives tantalizing looks at Larissa and Jasmine falling in love interspliced with the tension of the present. In the fall, Larissa is back at school, finally dating her dream guy but she can’t let go of the summer she spent with Jasmine, especially when Jasmine shows up at her school on the first day of classes. Larissa just wants to enjoy finally being with Chase but can’t ignore her very complicated, inexplicable feelings and attraction towards Jasmine no matter how hard she tries.
I loved this book. I loved seeing Larissa becoming more her own person. It was just so beautiful to watch her become more comfortable with herself and begin to explore her own identity as a person both while and through exploring her sexual identity. That’s not always how it works for everyone but there are so many cases, where, because being straight is tragically the norm, some people don’t even think to examine the idea of being more than that until opportunity arises or someone comes along to make them question. Some people know their whole lives they aren’t straight, for the bi folks or the folks who like more than one gender (or heck, ever aces or aros), it’s often a lot harder and it can take a lot longer and I loved this in-depth exploration of that.
Cool for the Summer is important in that it says that sexualities are not One Size fits all, as Larissa struggles with her own feelings in comparison to other bi and gay people she knows. Adler really delves into and marinates into the reality and confusion of figuring out who you are, especially as a teenager. Figuring out your sexuality can be easy for some people, some people do know all their lives, for others, like Larissa, it’s a lot less cut and dry and less obvious. That’s why I think it’s so important that books like this are out there for teenagers to read. For young people and even older people who are questioning and unsure to see that they aren’t alone, to see they don’t need to use labels if they don’t feel they fit, to see they don’t have to rush into it and that there is a lot of shades of gray in all different forms of attraction and romance. I’ve seen some people say that they wish Cool for the Summer defined things more but I loved that it didn’t. I loved that it showed how messy this all can be. When I say messy when referring to Larissa and Jasmine and this book, it is a compliment because it’s real and wonderful and I love that about them. Cool for the Summer was all I wanted it to be: fun, dreamy and sexy and yet somehow so much more and it will continue to live in my head rent free for a long time to come.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for a review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Cool For The Summer is a light YA Contemporary that focuses on Lara and the messy love triangle she finds herself in. When the guy Lara has been crushing on for forever finally falls for her everything should be kisses and sweet teen romance. However, Lara just spent the summer exploring a new fling with Jasmine, the daughter of her mothers boss. Now she has to figure out if she wants the boy, the girl or if she is stuck somewhere in between.

While I did enjoy this one, there's not really much I have to say. I thought everything was just fine. It was your typical light, fun, YA romance. The characters were perfectly fine and likeable. It was a fairly quick read and once I actually had time to sit down and read it I was able to fly through it.

I can't really say there was anything in the book I actively disliked, I just didn't feel any strong feelings towards it either way. It was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and I'm super glad I took the time to read it.

There wasn't anything wrong or problematic with it that would make me not like it, it just didn't wow me. However, I think if you're looking for a light story about discovering your sexuality that includes a good bisexual love triangle you should absolutely give this one a shot.

This is the story of Larissa. A girl, who has been in love with the same guy since forever and a summer that changed it all.

Now, i don’t wanna get too sentimental about the story because something quite similar happened to me when i was in high school. But i can confirm this kind of stories happen, more than you’ll think. And that is what i liked the most about this book, you can relate to it in a different level.

Larissa is the kind of character you can relate to. She isn’t sure of what she feels but she goes with it, she just, let’s the summer take the rails, and accepts the fact that she is having more than fun with a girl, instead of obsessing as always about the boy of her dreams.

The book started a little slow, it took me a while until i felt the flow reading it, but the moment i started really enjoying it i just couldn’t stop reading, i was so intrigueed by how things would work out, i just needed to keep on reading. This is the kind of books you just read in one or two seats, because it is just addictive. The reading came easy and it was so much fun. An absolute delight.

The character of Larissa was very easy to relate to, she was your typical girl, dreaming about some guy and what people expected her to want in life, until the moment she realizes she night want something more, she develops a “personality” over the summer, which i didn’t understand why she didn’t want to share with her friends when she came back to school, i mean, okay you might skip some details, but she became a different person in the summer and she choose not to let her friends see it.

I didn’t particularly care about her group of friends, most of the time they seemed shallow, the kind of friends that are friends because they have been for a while, but Larissa didn’t share much of her experiences with them. It felt awkward and weird, i wouldn’t want to have that kind of friendships.

Now, Jasmine was a complete different thing, she was ingenious, real, an interesting character i couldn’t completely read until the very end of the book, which was really fun, like trying to read a person through their acts and not completely seeing what is happening, you are set in the same spot as Larissa all the time. I found it very enjoyable.

The story between Jasmine and Larissa felt natural, fun and really a good thing for both of them.

I think, this book manages to show how much we can dream about something, but we need to live it to understand what we really want. Dreaming is not enough.

Overall, a great read. 4.5 stars for sure!

Normally, I'm not super into love triangles. After all, usually there is an obvious choice that leaves you shouting at the main character for being so torn when one is clearly leaps and bounds better than the other. However, this book took the love triangle trope and then spun it around by adding a sexual identity realization/crisis and making both love interests great options. Don't get me wrong, I was definitely rooting for one over the other, but Larissa's conflicted feelings were much more understandable and relatable than a lot of other love triangles.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story! I liked seeing the summer flashbacks to give us a view of how Larissa and Jasmine connected over the summer. I did feel like Jasmine's declaration towards the end came a little out of left field, but given that we are only shown Larissa's point of view, that does make some sort of sense. However, I was totally rooting for them the whole time, and I wish there was more of them as a couple!

Larissa's journey through the book was also really well done. Her emotions and confusion had me anxiously reading onwards to find out if she ended up happy!

I did feel like Chase was a little flat as a character. He was a seemingly great guy, but other than others telling us this and telling us that Larissa had been in love with him since forever, we don't really see a whole lot of what makes him such a great boyfriend choice. I also would have liked more information about him suddenly being into her when she had been apparently obviously besotted with him for such a long time.

This is a good book to read on your own summer vacation! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy of this book!

Lara has spent the entirety of her high school career obsessing over one guy... Chase. But, over the past summer something happened that Lara never expected. She fell hard... for a girl.

Now, she is back at school and she is thrilled to learn that Chase is finally interested in her. But her summer romance, Jasmine, wasn’t supposed to show up at her school. Lara and Jasmine pretty much act like they don’t know each other, and DEFINITELY don’t allude to the summer they shared. Lara is keeping secrets from her friends and jumping into a relationship with a sweet guy who she suddenly has but no longer wants as much anymore.

I wanted so much to like this and I felt like I had the potential to enjoy it... but as I got further into the story, I found myself completely detached from many of the characters. I love the idea of this book and I know there are so many who enjoyed it... and I am so happy that they do... but I just found so much of this story and the people to be superficial.

Cool for the Summer is a book that gives me so man *feelings*! Larissa spent the summer getting to know and developing a relationship with Jasmine, but at the end of summer vacation they have to go their separate ways. On the first day of school, Chase who is the star football player and person Lara has had an epic crush on for years, flirts with her, and suddenly it seems all her high school bucket list dreams are about to come true. Except it turns out Jasmine is spending her senior year with her dad, at Lara's school. What ensues is complicated and confusing feelings, but also the power of friendship and strong familial support network.

This was a book I had trouble putting down, especially as so much of Lara's confusion and experiences ere super relatable. I can tell this is going to be a book that means a lot to teen readers questioning their sexuality and navigating new feelings and relationships.

The story is told alternating between "then" (summer vacation) and "now" (senior year). I liked how telling the story that way, rather than straight progression, really showed how Jasmine and Lara grew close while contrasting the nebulous, confusing place Lara finds herself with Jasmine in town. I really liked the way their friendship progressed, and how much it hurt to feel like that summer was being erased to fit in personal expectations and roles of being back in the "reality" of school.

I also really liked and appreciated how much Chase and the feeling Larissa has for him color her understanding of herself. She has other queer friends, but their experiences are of the "I've always know" variety, so for Lara, who's only ever really liked Chase, it must mean she's straight after all. The confusion and complicated feelings areound labeling herself were just so nuanced.

Overall, I just adored this book. The characters are complicated and the feelings are so relatable. I felt so many things reading this book, and I'm so glad it exists for messy, questioning feelings.

“What am I? It's one summer. You can't change into a different person over a summer.”

The Gist: At the start of senior year, Lara’s longtime crush Chase finally seems to reciprocate her feelings. She should be ecstatic, but why does she keep thinking of her intense summer with Jasmine, a girl who, coincidentally, just transferred to her school?

My Thoughts: This queer love triangle was a ton of fun!! Apparently this was loosely inspired by Grease, and you definitely have the “summer loving, had me a blast” vibes throughout this. As well as those Demi Lovato vibes, of course. I can definitely see this becoming a Netflix movie starring a Riverdale actress at some point.

Here, Lara is discovering who she is, which includes her sexuality as well as all the other personal discoveries that come with knowing you’re nearing the end of your high school days and you can’t just rely on your friends to tell you who you are anymore. I really enjoyed getting to know Lara right alongside her. I loved her burgeoning confidence.

Even though you pretty much know from the beginning who Lara will end up with, I appreciated that both love interests were viable options. Even at the end, I liked them both. A rare feat for a love triangle!!

One other little thing I also loved: how many great graphic novel recommendations there were in here. Dahlia Adler has taste.

Overall: Relatable, even if it is Grease-ified.

Pros:
Self-discovery. I love a good self-discovery story and one about learning about yourself is one that I am always a fan of.
Writing style. I mentioned already that I wanted to read this because of Dahlia Adler, but I think it is important to mention that it is because I love the relatability in her writing style.
“Then and now” narration. I liked the choice to show both storylines in the story to give proper attention to the relationships in the story.

Cons:
Grease is what Grease does. Okay, I know this may get me some flack, but I am not a Grease fan. So a story inspired by Grease will take a lot to win me over.

Cool for the Summer is the quintessential story of a teenager finding herself by having the opportunity to see herself in a new light. It's also, more importantly, tells the story of what happens when she goes back to her real life and the people in it after spending a summer exploring new feelings and opportunities.
Lara is confused by her past clashing with her unknown future and the reader is along for a charmingly emotional ride full of teenage anxiety, first love, high school rites of passage, and acceptance.
This is definitely a book that's going to be cool for the summer. (Sorry, not sorry.)

Many happy thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the early read!

Cool for the summer is a quick read with cute characters who are like able from the start. A summer trip with her mom and her moms boss and his daughter changes things. Being a teenager now I’m sure isn’t easy but this book takes you through the journey of Jasmine and Larissa. I found it pretty cool they lived in Stratford because that’s where I live.

Lara thinks she knows what she wants but then she goes away to the Outer Banks for the summer and meets Jasmine and her world is turned upside down. She’s wanted Chase, the football star of her school, for as long as she can remember, but then she met Jasmine this summer and that want went out the window.

And it especially goes out the window when Jasmine shows up on their first day of school after summer!

It also doesn’t help that now Chase seems to want her back! And she and Jasmine didn’t exactly leave things on perfect terms. So now what is she supposed to do?!?!?!

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL!

I loved the way this explores sexuality and the not-knowing/questioning phase of that journey. It’s done really well and as someone who questions her sexuality on the daily, it felt very real and relatable.

I also loved how Lara’s relationship with Chase is written once she figures out “oh hey, I really want to be with Jasmine” Some bisexual stereotypes are addressed and I know a lot of people will appreciate that. It felt very adult how they handled it.

Let’s talk characters a bit more!

While I don’t think I’d be friends with any of these characters in high school (they are all quite popular and know how to do social things), I enjoyed reading about their lives and Lara and Jasmine’s struggles. I think sometimes people get bogged down in relatability. I can relate to a few things these characters go through, but it’s really their emotions and struggles that connected me more and that’s how I connect with so manty books where the characters are so different.

That being said…OMG TWO JEWISH GIRLS IN ONE BOOK!! I cannot express how much I love this and how much I wish more books like this existed when I was growing up. And seeing two different types of Jews was a breath of fresh air. I very much relate more to Lara’s Jewishness but I LOVED seeing Jasmine’s traditions as well.

And the parents!! OMG I love a YA book with supportive parents. It makes me so teary-eyed. Especially when Lara comes out to her mom. I love it so much!

I also really enjoyed all the friendships in this book. Shannon…well, I probably would have thrown her off a cliff, but the rest were so wonderful and supportive (Shannon was also supportive but she could be a bit….meh). I kind of love how a few of Lara and Jasmine’s friends knew something was going on between them even before they did.

FORMAT/STRUCTURE!

Cool for the Summer goes between the present where Jasmine and Lara are at the same school and the past where they’re together at Jasmine’s dad’s place in the Outer Banks. It’s done really well. While I always want to see what’s happening in the present and how the relationship between Lara and Jasmine is developing, I was equally as captivated by what happened in the past too.

Overall, I enjoyed Cool for the Summer. It’s definitely a fun summer read. I’m giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

It’s one of those books that I enjoyed reading but am not sure I’ll reread. It didn’t yell “THIS IS THE BEST EVER” at me like some other books do. That’s not to discount it. As I said, I’m already recommending it to people I know will love it but it just didn’t hit me emotionally like I know it will others.

Highly recommend! but not a reread. (does that make sense at all??)

Cool for the Summer is out now!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Cool For the Summer is actually a cool book about self-discovery and acceptance.

Dahlia Adler takes us on the confusing ride of sexuality and what it means to yourself and how different it can be for others. Life is hard enough in high school, but it is even more difficult if you are discovering that everything about you isn’t what you thought it was...but you cannot even define it.

I think I love this whole process because Adler switches back and forth between bliss and discovery and misery and discovery. While Lara is experiencing everything she has always wanted in the now, she is unwittingly comparing it to a magical summer where everything was new. Lara does not realize until she is looking back, how much the summer and her experiences changed her. I am not just talking about “the girl”, but she explored new areas of life and met a completely different set of people. She survived the summer with none of the people who direct her daily life in her life back home. Lara got a chance to grow and came back home with a different outlook on life.

Adler is brilliant in this depiction of trying to merge who Lara now is and who she used to be pre-Summer. The struggle of trying to keep the changes and have the people around you recognize the growth. Never mind these are concepts not really explored in the high school arena of cliques and roles.

Then add in the love stories and Adler knocks Cool For The Summer out of the park. I love Jasmine and the exploration of different cultures and habits within their shared religion. Adler consulted friends for a realistic take on Syrian culture and I love it.

Let’s talk about the secondary cast of characters and talk about diversity in culture, sexuality, and gender. This is real life and it is great that Adler has made the connection where young adults are exploring earlier and some are free to be living their truth while others are not.

There is not one thing bad I can say about Cool For The Summer except I did not want Summer to end and neither will you.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an eARC.

A Grease retelling with a queer love triangle? Say no more! While Cool for the Summer won’t be on my favorites-of-the-year list, I still think it’s worth checking out.

Let’s start with what I enjoyed! Cool for the Summer deals with so many themes that are often overlooked in YA – it’s sex-positive and mentions masturbation and sex with the same and opposite gender; it deals with friendships that evolve and new relationships; it talks about how not everyone figures out their sexuality overnight or immediately finds the right label for themselves. The plot was entertaining and I enjoyed the flashbacks to Larissa’s summer holiday in Outer Banks and how we slowly got a better understanding of the characters as the story progressed.

Unfortunately, there were also quite a few elements that I didn’t love. I think my main issue was that it didn’t feel very authentic. It was trying a bit too hard to be relatable to teenagers with sometimes quite weird lines that no actual teen would say and questionable descriptions of characters that made it seem like the author had a diversity checklist that she wanted to cross off. I appreciated the representation of many different LGBTQIAP+ and BIPOC characters as well as the main couple being Jewish but I feel like it could’ve been incorporated into the story more naturally. I also wasn’t completely sold on the main character Larissa. She had some great development but I feel like the way she was supposed to be part of the most popular group of the school while also being shy and someone people usually didn’t notice kind of didn’t add up – I couldn’t really get a read on her and because of that her actions sometimes confused me. The story also just didn’t have the best flow – the pacing felt a bit off and the jumps between now and then were a bit abrupt at times. The fact that miscommunication between the main characters was the reason why they weren’t together from the beginning didn’t help either.

In conclusion, I liked the concept and many of the themes that were discussed but the execution didn’t quite meet my expectations.

This fun, sex-positive YA contemporary about self-discovery and being true to yourself is perfect for summer.

3.5/5 stars.

I absolutely freaking loved this book!! It is SO needed for teens growing up and trying to figure out their sexuality. Representation like this is so so so important and I’m happy that there are more stories like Larissa’s out there.