Oh, Cool for the Summer, you have my heart. I GOBBLED this book up and had a book hangover. I BOUGHT this book to have on my shelf. This book is one of those books that as I read it I thought, "this book is going to be so important for so many people." Adler brings us a powerful, heavy and emotional book with serious topics but delivers it in a way that allows for it to still be a great summer/beach read. I was rooting for all of the characters and at the end I felt very satisfied. I loved this book, I think it is very important, and I can't wait to recommend it for years to come.

Thank you to Adler, St. Martin's Press & Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lara's senior year is going great. Her friend group is close, and she has the all-star boyfriend she's been crushing on for years. So why can't she stop thinking about the girl she spent all summer with? When Jasmine shows up at her school as a transfer, Lara will have to decide between her perfect boyfriend or the girl who she cant get out of her head.

Lara's is a relatable disaster bisexual main character, confused by her feelings. This book does a great job of balancing the struggle of senior year of high school with summertime memories all while figuring out sexuality. With the summer told in flashbacks, you really get the feel for Lara and Jasmine's relationship, and are never sure who exactly she will end up with. Overall a very enjoyable read and great bisexual representation.

Holy cow, this is my new favorite book that I’ve read so far this year! I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it as I’ve never read anything by Dahlia Adler but I absolutely loved this book. I feel like it had great representation of bicurious and bisexual and I feel that a lot of readers can relate on the confusion of figuring out what gender you’re attracted to but I loved the way the author made it so okay for the main character not to know who she was attracted to.

I loved the main character Larissa and watching her go through everything with her relationships and finding out what she truly wanted. I was not expecting some of the sex scenes but they weren’t super graphic and they were actually on the sweet side. The conclusion of the book melted my heart and I really want to read more about Larissa and her love that she ended up with (not going to say who she ended up with, no spoilers)!

I’m very excited to read more by Dahlia Adler. This was a perfect book for going into summer that was light-hearted, sweet, emotional, and just an all around great book!

*Many thanks to Wednesday Books for the complimentary copy for my review*

3.5 stars
I enjoyed this story and hearing the inner turmoil of Lara while she was stuck in the middle between her long term crush and her summer fling. The drama of high school, the uncertainty and complicated relationships resonated with me. I liked the exploration of Lara figuring out that her dream come true may no longer be the dream she wants to chase. My biggest struggle with this story was Jasmine's character. I found her unlikeable in the present time. She really didn't do much to redeem herself and I found myself not cheering for her and Lara to get together even though I could tell that Chase was not what was best for Lara either.

I will start with the fact that I am not the intended audience for this book. I'm a 30 something, straight, married mother. However, I teach teens and I have a teenager, so I like to read books that I think my students and my daughter may be interested in. I think this is a book that a lot of teens will enjoy. The story is well laid out with flashbacks to help the reader get a better understanding of the main character's dilemma.
As an adult, I couldn't stand the main character.

Enjoyable ride from top to bottom. Well titled because it conveys the sense of fun that is to come and also of how great the characters are. That, to me, is what separates this book from others in the genre. The great characters and overall quality of the writing.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy of this in exchange for a review. I ended up listening to this from the library.

This was a cute story of a high school girl coming to terms with her bisexuality and her relationship with a girl over the previous summer. I really enjoyed this one.

3.5 stars

I like this book but nothing really stood out to me.

It is really well written, the story is interesting and the characters are all great, but I don’t know that I’ll remember this book next month.

What a fun book and perfect for Pride Month! I will definitely be recommending this to my YA book club as one of our future reads. I loved the Grease vibes where you meet someone and connect over the summer thinking it's a summer fling and then SURPRISE they're at your school in the fall. Also loved how the book approached questioning one's own sexuality and internalized biphobia and just how we can think there's this one idealized thing we want but really it's just what we've been told to want all these years. The format of the book - how it went back and forth between summer and the school year - was well done too.

Lara has had a crush on Chase Harding, the star quarterback at her school, for six years. When she starts her senior year, Chase finally notices her and starts flirting with her immediately. However, Lara isn’t the same girl she used to be. She spent the summer with her mom at her mom’s boss’s summer house where she met Jasmine, the daughter of her mom’s boss. Lara and Jasmine had a summer romance that Lara thought was in the past since Jasmine was going back to her home with her mom. Now that Jasmine has moved to Lara’s school, she is a constant reminder of their summer fling. Lara has to wonder if it was just a fling and she should enjoy the attention from Chase, or if she has deeper feelings for Jasmine.

This was such a fun story. It would be perfect for summer because there were many scenes from Lara and Jasmine’s summer spent at the beach. There were also lots of feelings in this book. Lara was experiencing so many emotions, with her surprise feelings for Jasmine and her dreams of dating Chase coming true. This was a heart pounding story about figuring out your teenage romantic feelings.

This story explored what it means to identify as bisexual. In other novels that I’ve read with bi characters, they have a hard time defining their feelings. Lara had always had a crush on Chase so she assumed she was straight. When those feelings were finally recognized by him, she thought she had to be with him since that was her dream. However, she started to question her sexuality after having a relationship with a girl. For some reason, it’s sometimes difficult for people to accept that people can like both girls and boys, including the person experiencing those feelings themself. It’s possible to identify as bisexual and be in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex or the same sex, without being identified as straight or gay. Lara had to come to terms with her feelings before she could become her true self.

Cool for the Summer is the perfect summer read!

Thank you Wednesday Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book despite all the teenage angst, but they don’t call it YA for nothin! Larissa spends the summer with her mom and meets a girl she begins to have feelings for. These feelings are reciprocated by Jasmine. Because Larissa has never thought about a girl this way, she’s slow to put a label such as lesbian or bisexual on herself. As the story moves on and Jasmine starts going to the same high school as Larissa, Larissa has to start self reflecting what she really wants. This was a sweet, yet steamy, YA romance. There are some definite sexy scenes, but done tastefully enough to leave the mind to wander. I would definitely recommend this book for more mature, older teens and the YA group in general!

Oh boy, where do I even start? Buckle up because this is about to be a journey. The only spoilers in this review are issues I had with some of the remarks made by the characters and I feel that they are important to read.

I wanted to love this book because the idea of a girl being with the guy of her dreams but instead all she could think about was the girl? It sounded absolutely amazing to me! Sadly this book let me down in so many more ways than I expected.

I didn’t love Lara as a character, at all. She grew on me throughout the book, but at the beginning she’s very snotty whenever she’s at school. In the flashback scenes she’s much better and grows into somewhat of a better person, but it wasn’t enough for me to love her.

There’s also a comment made by Lara, there are a few comments made by many characters in this book, that didn’t sit right with me. She’s talking about her lab partner, Jamie, and the person that Jamie is dating, Taylor. Taylor is non-binary and Lara makes a comment “…my lab partner, Jamie Nguyen, who’s sitting with her—what do you call it when someone’s neither a girlfriend nor a boyfriend? Non-binary friend?” This comment did not sit right with me at all when I read it, but I pushed through the book and made a note about it.

From the synopsis, we can tell there’s a hinting that Lara is bisexual. Her longtime crush, Chase, makes a comment about this that made me sick to my stomach to read being bisexual myself. He says “I mean, this is a bisexual thing, right? Not being able to choose?” This is a stereotype and, while Lara regards it as such, she doesn’t treat what he says as something negative. She just brushes it off after saying it’s a stereotype that she doesn’t like and continues to speak highly of him. I didn’t like how it painted the idea that even if someone stereotypes you, that it’s best to move on from it.

Lastly, there was a comment made by Lara’s friend Shannon that was regarded in the same vein. This comment made me both furious and sick and only added onto the anger that I felt from the others. I won’t go into too many spoilers, but their friend group believed—assumed—that one of their friends were gay without the friend ever speaking about her sexuality. After they find out about Lara’s own questioning Shannon says “Okay, I feel like I’m falling behind on coolness by not liking girls now. This may have been a missed opportunity in Paris. I still have time to catch up in college, right?” This is not okay. This character is blatantly saying that liking girls is a trend and by not liking them, she is not “cool.” Sexuality is not a trend! Being LGBT+ is not a trend! Under no circumstance should this comment have been included, not even to paint a character as a villain. And Shannon isn’t even really the enemy in this story. By the time she says this, their friend group is perfectly fine with each other and on great terms. Lara even makes a comment immediately after this saying “Glad to have you back Shannon” after she makes yet another rude comment about how everything, including making Lara’s sexuality about herself, is about her. She accepts the half-assed apology that Shannon gives, as if everything that she said was okay and perfectly normal to say.

A rollercoaster of emotions, Cool for the Summer is the book for anyone who's ever had a crush that felt so unobtainable. Lara has been in love with Chase Harding for three years, and everyone knows it. After years of pining Lara writes off the possibility of them ever moving past being friends. After one life altering summer though Lara returns to school to find Chase is very much into her now. This is it the moment her adolescent heart has been waiting for, the only problem, she's sort of in love with the girl she spent the summer with. Trying to put her confusing thoughts about Jasmine behind her should be easy until Jasmine transfers to her school upends Lara's life once again.

Put this book in every high school library pronto. Cool for the Summer is a fresh take on discovering your sexuality while navigating the pressures of high school. With characters that actually support LGBTQ+ characters it's nice to see literature moving in a direction that not just supports but embraces what it is to not be straight. If you can't relate to Lara's hardcore crushing on Chase and fell excited for her when they get together I'm genuinely envious of your high school love life. This story proves that sometimes the thing or person you so desperately want isn't what or who you truly need.

This is a good choice for someone looking for an openly accepting lgbt ya read. It’s cute and I can see a teen enjoying this. As for me? Well I’m not the right reader for this one.

This was cute. I liked the way Adler treated teenage sexuality; Lara’s exploration of her desire felt very natural and honest. However… The entire premise of this book could have been erased if ONE (1) honest conversation had occurred between Lara and Jasmine at the beginning of the book. I found myself wishing there had been some sort of incident keeping them apart beyond just not talking. Also... to be clear, I was not rooting for Chase at all, mostly because he didn’t seem to have any personality beyond the embodiment of the ~football golden boy hottie trope~, but I lost a lot of respect for Lara due to her treatment of him. Having conflicting emotions is completely normal and understandable, but Lara was very self-aware of her own confusion. She had no excuse not to take a step back to figure out her stuff before entering a committed relationship. Adler turning him into the villain of the piece at the very end was lazy.

THIS COVER! The title, the colors, and the whole aesthetic was way up my alley. I love that there are more bisexual stories being told right now and this one was pretty good. I didn't connect with the characters as much as I wanted to—I had a hard with the actions of Lara. However, I think this was a really nice representation of the struggles with bisexuality and how to come to terms with your feelings.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc!

Cool for the Summer is a cute summer romance with a big main character! A very lighthearted and fun read, would definitely recommend for younger readers. It explores themes of friendship and sexuality very well and a great example of the voices we need in publishing.

What I liked:
▪︎Topic of self discovery (Lara exploring her sexuality and working through her identity crisis)
▪︎Lara's mom
▪︎Lara's totally overbearing, but loving friends
▪︎Sex positive romance

What I didn't like:
▪︎Total teenage angst (though it is YA, and this is how we learn and grow, so it makes sense)
▪︎Lots of miscommunication

All in all, it is a quick and fun summery YA novel that I think many teens would enjoy. Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This story encapsulates the mess that comes when someone realizes they are bi-questioning. Lara has had the dream of dating Chase for years, but when Jasmine and Lara meet the summer before senior year, everything changes. Lara grows more confident and independent, sparking the interest from Chase. But every moment that Chase and Lara grow closer is met with confusion and jealousy. If Lara dates Chase, will she grow apart from Jasmine? Or worse...what if Jasmine finds "a Chase" of her own?

As someone who has navigated a similar experience to the Lara in my own life, I was blown away by how accurate the confusion and yearning was in this book. Many books centered around the LGBT community have characters who are very certain of their identities, leaving out the nuance that often exists in real life. Lara said it best in the novel: when you know you like the opposite gender, it can make it harder to realize that liking other genders is okay too. I also appreciated that Lara didn't have her identity completely figured out and still was able to find the ending that was sincerely the best for her.

The only thing that I would say I found hard to relate to while reading the novel was the stark class difference between myself and the characters. There were moments where Lara would talk about indulgent spending sprees and multiple course meals for three people, and at times it tore me out of the story. The moment when Lara mentioned how much clothes Jasmine bought when she already had so much at home was a great example, because it was immediately followed by the fact Jasmine had such a kind heart for donating her older clothes to make room for the newer outfits she bought. I couldn't imagine having that mindset, but it certainly affirmed early on the level of unknowing crushing Lara was participating in. Ultimately, the fact that money was little object for most of the characters allowed for shopping trips and dinners which were used to further develop characters and their relationships with each other, so it didn't necessarily take away from the narrative that Dahlia Adler strove for.

This book is a quick and fun summer read. I highly recommend reading it, as its Jewish and LGBT representation offers new perspectives that adults and teens alike could truly benefit from. Be aware that this story is about choosing between two people, so naturally with this trope there will be moments where characters end up in a gray area when it comes to cheating. Alcohol and drinking is present in the book.

This is sooo cute! It was precisely what I needed. It's fluffy, swoony, cute and just amazing! I had so many butterflies while reading it, and that's what a rom-com should feel like. Lara did annoy me sometimes, but at the end it was hard to say goodbye to her. Can't wait for another book by the author!