Yay!! This book was so cute. This was my first book by DaDahlia Adler. It’s such a light read sweet read. I loved Lara and Jasmine. They were so cute together.

4/5 Stars

** I received this as an E-ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review, Thank you!**

I really enjoyed this book. I loved how it had the main character re-evaluate herself and what she thought she wanted. I really enjoyed our main character in general. I liked that one of the things that this book says is that sometimes the more confident you become in yourself the more attractive you might become to someone else, but also the happier you'll be. I can't really speak on the queer representation in this book but it seemed to be well done. Overall a romantic, quick and easy read. Perfect for spring and summertime!

Definitely a wonderful coming-of-age story. Senior year is already stressful enough, with college applications and final high school moments, but also struggling with your sexuality on top of all that? That is a lot of pressure on a 17-year-old. After reading this book, I have a strong prediction that the title of this book refers to the oh so popular Demi Lovato song. I am a huge supporter of Demi Lovato, so I will definitely recommend this book to all the Lovatics out there. Lara is a strong representation of a character who is used to being on the sidelines and being afraid to stand out, but all it took was one summer, with one amazing person who brought out the best in her, to give her the confidence she needed. All of a sudden, her dream high school crush notices her, and she practically becomes the "it' girl at her school. The only issue is....she cannot seem to forget about that person she spent her summer with. A wonderful read!

HJ Recommends!

A last minute trip with her mother to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for the summer, is not what Larissa expected as her last holiday before her final year of high school. Except Jasmine changes all of that. What starts out as a coolish friendship driven by circumstance, quickly develops into something a whole lot more. With some Grease inspired, by the beach romance scenes, it’s no wonder Larissa is fairly tight lipped when she returns to school and her crew, processing what the summer meant and what that means for the here and now.

Interestingly enough, Larissa is stunned to find that after obsessing about Chase Harding for the past 6 years she finally has his attention and seemingly out of the blue, Chase is well…chasing her down. Before she even realises it, all of her fan girl fantasies are coming true; the complication being of course, her dreams seem to have shifted over the summer and her mind seems to be focused solely on a certain girl, who for some reason shows up at her school on the first day.

Delivered through a flashback style ‘then and now’ non-linerar narrative, we explore the duality of the romance unfolding between Larissa and Chase whilst experiencing the romance that occurred between her and Jasmine. Naturally, the complexity of the situation is attached to Larissa’s self-concept and her identity – it appears up until this point she has never realised her capacity to be attracted to girls and thus, her bisexuality comes as quite a surprise. In very similar fashion to Grease, Jasmine instantly becomes part of Larissa’s friendship group as her best friend Shannon appears to have dived on her the first day and by all accounts they have struck up quite the bond overnight not dissimilar to Sandy and the Pink ladies. Naturally, this creates further angst for Larissa who doesn’t know if she can trust her friends to disclose what happened over the summer, and why would she when she suddenly has Chase Harding where she has always dreamed he would be?

This sweet and at times sexy read manipulated tension effectively mostly due to the then scenes and how they played out as a contrasting backdrop to what was occurring in the present. Unfortunately, the friends Larissa returned to were described as being quite shallow, and it wasn’t really until the end that their value and certainly support for one another was evident. Similarly, Chase’s random explanation of why he was suddenly attracted to her after knowing she had been crushing on him for 6 years was a little flimsy. Having said that, Larissa had returned with a fairly powerful sense of self, despite not fully comprehending her sexuality and it was no doubt a statement on what people look like and how energy shifts when they fall in love.

Throughout, some fairly significant issues were tackled with style and at no point did it get too dark, or on the flip, too dismissive, hence, the balance was right particularly given its YA status. On the whole, I highly recommend this for YA who are awakening to their own possibilities, sexual or otherwise, and for those who enjoy a good teen love story with a cool nostalgic twist.

🍒🎶 Got a taste for the cherry, I just need to take a bite 🎶🍒

Cool for the Summer was so good 😍 3.5 stars

My favorite parts were definitely the flashbacks from summer and I would’ve loved if we had more of those. I felt like both the flashbacks and present day were pretty surface level story wise and we didn’t really get to know any of the characters as deeply as I’d hoped.

I still loved the overall idea of the book, though! There definitely weren’t really books like this when I was in high school, but I think this book would’ve helped a lot of girls who were confused about who they liked and how they were feeling. My only issue was that I wanted MORE! The book alternated between “then” and “now” and I just felt like we barely got to scratch the surface on the story and the characters.

This book was emotional and funny and an absolute delight to read 😍

Cool for the Summer was such a fun book!! It's a YA Romance book filled with a love triangle, questioning of identities, sass and so much fun and feelings! I had such a good time reading this book and I know so many people that will want to read this book! Seriously, so fun and cute! Can't wait to use it in our pride display next month

For years Larissa has had a crush on hunky star football player Chase. Larissa spends a life-changing summer in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and her new-found confidence (and cute new haircut) finally catches Chase’’s attention. When they start dating everything seems like a dream come true -- until new girl Jasmine enrolls at Larissa’s high school. Jasmine just happens to be Larissa’s summer fling, a girl Larissa never told her friends about. Larissa, who has always been attracted to boys, can’t seem to get over Jasmine, and she must figure out who she is and who she wants to be with, knowing all the while that someone’s going to get hurt.

While Larissa’s friend group at first seems stereotypically superficial (and somewhat unlikable), just as Larissa keeps secrets from them, there’s more to them than meets the eye. I’m not a fan of love triangles, but Larissa is an endearing character, and I was honored to tag along on her journey of self-discovery.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After giving it much thought, I've decided to DNF at 57%. As much as I wanted to push through and finish the book since I was closer to the end, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I put this book down a couple of weeks ago and haven't felt the need to pick it back up again. As much as I really enjoyed how sex-positive the story was and really just how openly gay it was, I just wasn't vibing with it anymore. I can definitely see Cool for the Summer being a super hyped book and being well-deserving of said hype! It's definitely a super cute YA book that gives you all the sweet, romantic feels but it just wasn't for me and that's okay!

This was a terrific read about a girl struggling with her identity and coming of age. I liked how it went back and forth from the summer to the school year. It deals with important topics but is also really funny.

Cool For the Summer is a cute, summery romcom that puts a fun, sapphic spin on Grease. Adler takes her readers on a journey of self discovery and acceptance, all while exploring first love, friendship and identity.

There were a lot of things I loved about this book! Primarily, I loved Larissa’s character development as we saw her go from living in her best friend’s shadow and not being too sure of herself to really coming into herself and being confident enough to pursue her interests (namely, writing a romance novel and, well, Jasmine). I appreciated that although it was her relationship with Jasmine and getting out of her comfort zone over summer that gave her this initial push, we still got to see Lara develop this confidence on her own in the present timeline. Which brings me on to something else I really enjoyed – the romance! I may be the only person in the world that doesn’t hate love triangles and this one was no exception. Although it was very obvious who the ‘real’ love interest was, it didn’t detract from the story as navigating these relationships and what she really wants was so key in Lara’s development. I really loved the ‘Then’ chapters which gave us the build up of Lara and Jasmine’s relationship so that Lara’s conflicting feelings made sense and I could fall in love with Jasmine and their relationship as the story progressed. These snapshots of the past were placed perfectly to create a flowing narrative and have the most impact, especially as they contrasted Lara’s present relationship with Chase and all of its flaws.

Another thing that I particularly enjoyed was the positivity surrounding sex and sexuality in this book. Lara doesn’t shy away from discussing her sex life and the role it plays in her relationships, as well as masturbation. I firmly believe that YA is in dire need of more positivity surrounding sex and thought that this book did it perfectly, making it clear what was happening and discussing the repercussions and throught processes surrounding it, all while keeping it appropriate for the target audience. Furthermore, I also really liked Lara’s questioning of her sexuality and the emphasis on not needing to choose a label. Within this, I also appreciated the acknowledgement that everyone’s journey is different: some people know when they’re tiny, and others won’t know until much later. Neither is the ‘correct’ way to be queer and you’re no less valid for realising this part of yourself later in life. Especially as Lara is still only a senior in high school and doesn’t need to have everything figured out yet, no matter what anyone else says. I also appreciated that both Lara and Jasmine were Jewish and loved that the novel showed a couple of the different ways this can be experienced. And finally, there are plenty of easter egg references to other YA books, especially graphic novels (which I loved seeing get the attention they deserve) and so much love for books and reading in general that I just adored.

The writing was easy to sink into and I flew through Cool For the Summer in just a couple of sittings and really loved reading it. However, I would say that this book lacked depth and development outside of Larissa herself. In particular, I felt like I didn’t know much about her best friends, despite their near constant presence in the present timeline. I also thought that their relationship with her could have done with more development as, honestly, they weren’t always the best (looking at you, Shannon) and I’d have loved to see more attention given to both them and Larissa realising and rectifying this. Additionally, I did feel that at certain points the book felt slow and as if not a lot was happening and that it could have benefited from a bit more development of side plots to rectify this, while giving the main plot of Larissa working out her feelings time to develop. Nevertheless, the book does what it sets out to do in being a lighthearted rom com, these are more just things that I personally think could have brought it up from a good, solid read to something incredible.

Cool For the Summer makes for the perfect lighthearted, summery read and I’d highly recommend picking it up – and not just because the cover looks like me! Adler cleverly navigates questions of identity, friendship and acceptance to create a touching story of self discovery and the importance of being true to yourself.

I loved this YA contemporary novel. It was fun and cute but also dealt with real topics such as sexuality and friendship. I found the writing to be a bit juvenile, in that I found myself rolling my eyes or scoffing at the choice of words describing the appearance of each character. It was a little overdone in my opinion. Sometimes, descriptions like "the non-binary friend" can be left in the drafts. It is descriptions like this that we are trying to remove from our youth's vocabulary, yet here it is in a YA novel. However, all in all, I really appreciated what Adler was doing with the idea of identity and sexuality. I think more YA contemporary novels need to incorporate some of these very real scenarios so that our teens can relate to the characters they read about.

Cool for the Summer Review

Thank you Wednesday Books & Netgalley for an eARC of Cool for the Summer.

I wanted to mention that this was the first time I’ve seen a Russian American Jewish queer character represented in YA so thank you to @ Dahlia Adler for the representation.

What is this book about? :
Cool for the Summer Dahlia Adler follows Lara, a high school senior who has had eyes for exactly one person throughout her three years of high school: Chase Harding and he's talking to her and flirting with her now, which is pretty much the sum of everything Lara's wanted out of life.

Except she’s haunted by a memory. A memory of a confusing, romantic, strangely perfect summer spent with a girl named Jasmine. A memory that becomes confusing when Jasmine walks through the front doors of Lara’s school to see Chase and Lara flirt.

Lara has everything she ever wanted: a tight-knit group of friends, a job that borders on cool, and Chase, the boy of her literal dreams. But if she's finally got the guy, why can't she stop thinking about the girl?

Lara must now figure out her identity and what she wants.

Overall Thoughts:
This novel had #ownvoices Jewish representation as it featured a Russian American Jewish queer main character and a Syrian Jewish bisexual character whose Jewish identities were explored and portrayed in the story, had a unique spin on the movie, Grease, was well-written, had well-developed characters, was sex positive, had an interesting plot that focused on the main character and on her discovering and figuring out her identity as well as her figuring out her feelings, and the romance between Lara and Jasmine was well developed and felt believable.

In addition, both characters were bookish and shared their love of reading as Lara was a romance reader who worked in a bookstore and Jasmine was a graphic novel enthusiast who shared her graphic novels with Lara. However, it was never made clear why Lara had a crush on Chase and what made him so special as he appeared to be one-dimensional at certain times and even made a biphobic statement and thus, the direction the story took made it clear who the reader was supposed to root for Lara to end up with and who Lara would end up with. Overall, a great read that could have a bit better. 4.8/5

Who would like this?:
Anyone who enjoys queer YA books with Jewish main characters

TRIGGER WARNINGS: internalized biphobia, biphobia

Recently, I have been reading a decent amount of Jewish own voices books and it has been such a balm on my soul. This most recent one, "Cool for the Summer" by Dahlia Adler, was such a delight. A YA romance, this one is essentially "what happens if the boy of your dreams finally became interested in you, just when you can't forget about the summer girl?" Jasmine, a Syrian Jew, is the child of divorced parents and lives with her dad in the Outer Banks, NC every summer. Larissa (aka Lara) is a Russian Jew, to a single mother, and follows her mom to the beach for the summer. I loved the way that Jasmine and Lara's relationship developed, the chemistry came through and there was some nice tension as well as they each tried to figure out their sexuality and the fears of going public with that. This was probably my favorite aspect of the book. Coming back to school in the fall, Lara's longtime crush Chase finally notices her. The story bounces between then and now, and allowed the story to better unfold. While there was an element of "boohoo, you can't decide between two fabulous people. I'm so sorry for you," I also loved the romance with Jasmine and just wanted them to work it out. The ending was great, and I enjoyed that Lara worked at a bookstore and wanted to be a romance writer. This is a definite 4.5 star read for me, and I urge you to read it.

Special thanks to Wednesday Books / St. Martins Press and Netgalley for the digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to netgalley.com for providing an eARC of Cool for the Summer in exchange for an honest review.

Larissa is a high school senior who has had a crush on the school quarterback, Chase, for years. But right when he finally starts to show interest in her, Larissa’s summer fling, Jasmine, transfers to her school. But Larissa always thought she was straight, and considering how cold Jasmine is being, she’s not sure what the relationship meant to either of them. All she knows is that even when she’s with the boy she always wanted, she can’t get Jasmine out of her head.

This was a cute novel of queer self-discovery. The strongest parts of the novel were definitely the “Then” chapters (i.e., those occurring in the past), featuring Larissa and Jasmine’s relationship. I liked their ease and comfort together, and that, at least at first, Larissa doesn’t really question her attraction for Jasmine, although she always believed herself to be straight. I also liked that despite being rich, Jasmine recognized her privilege and used her privilege to prevent Larissa from embarrassment. I also appreciated the incorporation of Jewish culture. The title is also perfect, especially given the added context later in the novel. As a mystery and podcast lover, I also loved Kiki. Overall, I liked the story and thought Adler’s writing was strong. However, there were some issues in plot and character development for me.

First, she is shown standing up to her best friend Shannon who is mean and treats her badly. Shannon’s bad behavior throughout the novel is justified because Larissa “knows Shannon would always have her back,” and Shannon eventually recognizes what she did wrong, but it’s really underplayed and normalizes bad treatment amongst “friends.” This dynamic especially made the first few chapters difficult for me.

Second, the relationship between Larissa and Chase seemed forced. There was no clear reason that Chase suddenly liked Larissa, and Chase’s sudden reciprocation after years seemed unrealistic. The way her crush on him was discussed makes it seem like she was borderline obsessed with him, and it seemed a little creepy how much Larissa had imagined her possible relationship with Chase. The reader also did not get to know Chase at all before Jasmine’s introduction, so he is mostly a plot device -- something that keeps the true love interests of the novel apart. It might have worked better if Jasmine showed up after Larissa and Chase had already established more of a connection.

Third, a lot of the problems in the novel were based on a lack of communication between Larissa and Jasmine, which was uncharacteristic of their relationship as shown through the flashbacks. This made the novel seem a bit more juvenile to me, and overall this contributed to me thinking the novel was better suited for actual teenagers and might be more frustrating for adult YA readers.

Still, this was about a 4 star read for me because it was a cute and quick read, and I really liked Larissa as a character. I would definitely read more books by Dahlia Adler.

This one started out slow for me, but it picked up around 40%. It was such a good book at understanding and explaining bisexuality. Also the perspective as a teenager was just so good. It really brought me back to feeling like I was in highschool.

I think if you like YA contemporary romance you will like this book. It has some stereotypical high school tropes (love triangle, hiccups with friends, miscommunication), but I like the spin this book takes. The characters are likable, and the situations are relatable. Definitely check it out. I think it is a great summer read.

Cute and fast contemporary romance with a really great bisexual love triangle. I really loved watching Larissa explore her identity and who she wanted to be.

Love triangles can be difficult sometimes because it’s usually very obvious who the main character is going to end up with. But this was really well-handled. It was still obvious, but both options were really good and you could tell the characters still had love and affection even when they weren’t sure who they wanted to be this.

I didn’t however love the flashback scenes mixed in with thee present timeline. Not that they weren’t good, they just felt too sporadic and brief. I wanted more or the summer stuff instead just a few scenes here and a few scenes there for context.

This is my first book by Dahlia Adler and I see why everyone really likes here. She is a fantastic author of coming of ages stories and queer romances. If, like me, you haven’t read any of her check this book out.

3.5 stars

Lara is pretty, popular, and has been in love with Chase Harding, her high school’s football star, for as long as she can remember. But after a summer away, Lara starts to develop new interests she never expected...including a romantic interest in her temporary roommate, Jasmine.

I wish there had been books like this when I was in my teens and twenties. I don’t remember a single queer book being on my radar until my early twenties, and even then they weren’t YA and they were often about secret affairs and were full of pain and tragedy. I’m so glad this generation of teens get books like this one: fun, light, inclusive, and with happy endings.

There were so many things I enjoyed about this book. The fact Lara was an aspiring romance writer. The dual timelines. The fact it didn’t shy away from sex talk and was surprisingly steamy (we see straight teens having sex in YA all the time, but I haven’t come across many LGBTQ+ YA books like that). The overall message of figuring out who you are and what you want, even if those things are completely different from what you originally thought you wanted, or maybe even something you never even knew you wanted. I also appreciated how realistic Lara’s struggles felt, and I sympathized with her confusion and uncertainty when it came to her sexuality, her feelings for Jasmine, and grappling with the fact her literal dreams of being with Chase were coming true but she didn’t feel the way she always expected to feel.

What took away from the story a bit for me was how shallow and superficial Lara was. I get that she’s a teen - and also that I’m not this book’s intended audience in that I’m not a teen - but her whole life (and the whole plot) revolved around Chase, Jasmine, her friends, and being pretty and popular. Her friends were equally vapid, as was Chase, who had known her forever and yet didn’t take any notice until she suddenly came back looking different, aka hotter.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I know it’ll be one I recommend to people looking for f/f YA romance.
While it wasn't a total win for me, I think books like this are a great addition to LGBTQ+ YA and will be exactly what some teens need to read. I genuinely hope those people find this book and see themselves in the pages.

COOL FOR THE SUMMER follows Larissa unexpectedly falling for a girl over the summer, and then getting the boy of her literal dreams come the school year—except finally having Chase Harding is anything but what she imagined when Jasmine Killary is on the line. I wasn’t exactly invested in Larissa’s story because this seemed like a story told from the perspective from one of the cool, popular kids in high school, but I can’t deny that stories about bisexuality are always needed. It was funny and well-written, but I also can’t help but point out how oversexualized the whole book was for being YA. I’m on the fence about this one.

Man, do I love a messy queer love triangle. This book was SO MUCH FUN. It is full of pining and sass and questioning and FEELINGS and I highly, highly recommend checking this one out if you like YA romance! Seriously, so cute. This needs to be made into a summer movie asap bc I NEED IT

(Also, I listened to this one via audiobook and thought the narration was fantastic! Highly recommend x2!!)

CW: biphobia