I hardly ever read sports books, but this sapphic romance with all the usual sportsy romance tropes is the exception to that rule. I really enjoyed it and I know a bunch of teens who will too

another review, of another queer ya romcom, this time about the head cheerleader of a small-town high school and the new quarterback who happens to also be a girl, as much as the entire student body wishes she weren’t. the story follows amber & jack as the two become an unlikely pair, and have to keep their relationship a secret from the entire school for a multitude of reasons (especially because jack has replaced the golden boy qb robbie who recently died in a car crash). will amber be able to use her voice to stand up for jack and put her heart on the line?

despite my short summary, i did really enjoy this book! while at times it felt a bit young, i do appreciate the glimpse at being queer & in the spotlight in a small town, and the depth most characters had in the complexity of their feelings about jack & amber. it’s a shorter novel that read quickly, and would make a perfect read as we move into “back to school” season.

*Arc provided by Netgalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.*

Home Field Advantage is a modern sapphic take on the quarterback/cheerleader stereotype. Amber is desperate to become cheer captain but her feelings for new transfer Jack (Jaclyn) are putting that at risk. Jack struggles to mesh with the team after replacing their deceased friend and former quarterback. A story that puts social issues and stereotypes front and center to confront them.

This book is a lot deeper than a lot of YA I've read lately; it should be noted it does cover homophobia, teen drinking, death, and bullying. A good read and definitely recommended for anyone who enjoyed Adler's last book Cool For the Summer.

I have to admit, this took me a little while to read because I haven't had much luck with other Dahlia Adler titles. But still, the description of this book was too much for me to pass up. And of course, there's the freaking fact that Natalie Naudus was the narrator. By then I knew I didn't have to just read it, but I had to LISTEN to it.

This book was everything I wasn't expecting. It's a lot heavier than I was expecting. Especially since the cover is so sweet. But man, this book was filled with so much heavy convos. Homophobia, misogyny, mention of abortion & miscarriage, and more. And although these topics are super heavy, they are handled as best they could be in this story. It made me hate everyone in this book besides the two main characters. It stressed me out, but it showed growth for some characters as well.

Now for the good stuff. I LOVED Jack. I really wish I could have jumped into this book and been her number one fan. She was bad ass and I wish I could have seen her on the field. As a real football fan, I had so much fun imagining her out on the field during those times she was on the field. But I hated the way she was treated. After all the things she went through to even get there, she didn't deserve the things they threw at her. (No pun intended) Then there's Amber. I liked her, but she was just basic. She didn't spark anything in me and I don't think I would have cared about her if Jack didn't fall for her. (Especially when she had this friend who acted the way she did. There's no way I would have kept her around. And then on top of that she was the world's biggest hypocrite. So yeahhhh, she was not my favorite.)

This brings me to the best part of this book. The romance. I think it was because of Jack, but I liked seeing the two of them grow together. I hated that they had to hide, but I did understand it. But watching them flirt and grow together was absolutely adorable. But what I loved the most was seeing them do all the high school football-esque things they got to do together, like Amber decorating Jack's locker, the Lacoste shirt thing, the alligator clips thing. Ughhhh it was very cute lol I wish they could have loved each other out loud tho. Which makes me very happy when I got to the end of the book. It was too short, but I loved to see it.

Again I had another book narrated by Natalie Naudus. I don't know what to say about her that I haven't already said. She's amazing at what she does and she kept me hooked to the book even when I was upset with mostly everyone. Even when I got super scared and didn't know what was going to happen to them. She didn't have to work as hard with this one tho, she was accompanied by Lori Prince. I've only listened to one other thing by them, but they did an awesome job then too. And they definitely worked well together.


This book is about so much more than what I thought it was going to be about. It stressed me out, it put my emotions through the ringer, and I still loved it. I definitely recommended this one for the thing we're doing for work. It will give us so much to talk about.

When I tell you that I love Dahlia Adler and the three books that I’ve read by her I mean it. Good grief this book was everything I wanted it to be and more.

Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler is cheerleader and QB with a twist.

Jack and Amber. My god. Phenomenal. Would defend them with my life.

Thank you St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Amber is a cheerleader who is on her way to being cheer captain next year. Jack is the school's new quarterback who is replacing their previous one who was killed in a car accident. The big problem? Jack is a girl and no one wants a girl on their football team.

Oh my gosh I loved this book! I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did but Amber and Jack are an adorable couple and seeing how they fall for each other in the cliche cheerleader dates the quarterback way is the cutest! I also enjoyed (most) of their friends and adored Amber’s relationship with her mom.

This is such a cute YA book about finding yourself and standing up for what you want.

Thank you to BooksForwardFriends and Wednesday Books for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Such a cute romance between a cheerleader and the quarterback -- except not what you think! The cheerleader is not out to the school about her identity and the quarterback is a girl brought into save the football team. They both face a lot of challenges along the way (and a few surprising twists). A sweet read with a satisfying ending. Highly recommended for grades 8 & up.

3.75 Stars. This is a funny and sweet romance between a cheerleader with all the expectations shoved on her and a girl who is breaking all the rules by being good at throwing a football and being unapologetic about her goals. It is a lot heavier than what I thought it was going to be, but the heavier subjects were added in a way that didn't make it feel like the tone was off.

I thought the book had some good pacing and the characters were engaging enough to make me want to keep moving forward in the book. I thought Jack fell a little too heavily into the angry, broody butch stereotype, but she is not a conflict adverse person and is bombarded from all sides for just doing something she likes. Amber, on the other hand does come off as understanding, because while she does want to be cheer captain, she is finding out that it might come at the cost of her own personal beliefs and her relationships. I actually found Amber to be the more interesting character of the two, and I think its because her conflicts are more internalized than Jack. Jack's storyline is more straightforward but Amber's conflicts are more subtle. That doesn't mean Jack isn't interesting - I just thought Amber's storyline was more to my tastes.

This is a YA book and it shows - the kids sound like people, and their conflicts are present in all teen groups. I also like that the small town atmosphere feels like a small town, where most things should fall into their places, and if people don't fit neatly into them, they are singled out. This is the second 'sports' type coming of age story that I read in a month, and I liked them both. This one does a much better job talking about the issues it wants to talk about though.

This is a really well done romantic sports story. It has well thought out characters with dynamic conflicts and interesting resolutions. Amber and Jake's storyline don't necessarily revolve around their growing relationship, and it makes the book feel more than a straightforward rom-com. The heavier topics are interesting and personal to the characters, while also fairly universal. This is sports book where the sport in question is important, but it is framed a part of the themes of the book. Good stuff here.

*I received this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Love. Love, love LOVE. I've read other books by Dahlia Adler, but this one made her an autobuy author.

This book was sweet, sweet perfection. I loved Dahlia Adler's first book, Cool for the Summer, but this book blew my expectations out of the water.

There wasn't a dull moment in Home Field Advantage, and I appreciated that I didn't have to wait through 75% of the book for the chemistry to really hit it off between the two main characters. It was immediate! While I'm not a huge sports fan, I found myself invested in both Amber and her cheerleading and Jack and football. I wanted them to push back against the status quo and misogyny they faced, and they didn't disappoint. I didn't feel like this was the typical YA sports love story cliche, and I found myself turning pages as fast as I could. In fact, I finished this book in two sittings, which is rare for me! This book definitely comes with trigger warnings, but the representation was really special (Amber's mom!) and there are a bunch of characters I'd read a whole book about (hint hint @missdahlelama ).

There were your typical jerk high school students…but I didn’t even mind them. I’m not NOT saying I’d read a whole book about that character….who doesn’t love a good villain story? 👀 But the side characters were all so wonderful that it made the cast cohesive and engaging.

Football is my least favorite sport, but Adler made it understandable and enjoyable. Delightful, funny, and sweet, I definitely recommend this book!

This YA is perfect for the fall. We follow the characters at the beginning of the school year as Jack starts as the new quarterback for the football team. When the cheerleaders and football players realize she’s a girl, Jack faces bullying. Amber, who wants to be captain of the cheerleading squad next year, starts to fall for Jack and grapples with the possible backlash.

This book tackles homophobia and misogyny and doesn’t shy away from challenging situations. While reading I was reminded a bit of I Kissed Shara Wheeler and am really happy books like these exist for teens today. I definitely recommend!

This book is literally everything cliched, in the best way. It's quarterback-meets-cheerleader, except the quarterback is a woman. I don't know how, but Adler manages to keep the tone fun and sweet while still having very serious conversations about what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a woman in a male environment, and what it means to be a woman who loves other women. The book goes back and forth between Jack (the quarterback) and Amber's (the cheerleader) POVs, as Jack deals with being the new transfer onto a team where their last quarterback died in a car crash, so she's dealing with the misogyny of being a woman in a male space as well as trying to live up to a dead man (that many characters are putting up on a pedestal, even though he wasn't... the best person). Amber is really focused on becoming captain of the cheerleaders and decides that uniting the cheerleaders and football team behind Jack is a way of showing her leadership skills, but her team isn't having that. Overall, the book is a super sweet and cheerful read that still manages to hold important and serious conversations.

Potential cons:
- Genuinely forgot which POV I was reading a few times. The writing style of each girl is very similar, like down to their voices, so there would be times that I was reading where I didn't remember which POV I was in and, since I was reading on my ereader, I couldn't flip back to the beginning of the chapter to see which it was.

- The "climax" was a little lack luster. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it but I really thought it was going to be a much bigger thing and in some ways, it kind of felt rushed, as if the author was hitting a word/page limit and didn't get to go into it as much as they originally wanted.

What I liked
- The cliche of it all. I love taking (in my opinion) overdone heterosexual tropes and making them queer. It just brings me such joy and the way this trope was done with such love and kindness and joy. Ugh, I loved it.

- It was a super easy read. I read this in a few hours on a train in the early morning, and I felt like I just fell right into the world and didn't really get bored or overwhelmed by reading it all in one sitting.

Amber wants nothing more than to become the cheerleading captain next year, and will do everything in her power to secure the spot. When the quarterback of the football team dies in a tragic car accident, the replacement QB happens to be a cute girl named Jack, who Amber begins to fall for. Without the support of her team, Amber needs to decide who she wants to cheer for.

I listened to this on audio in one sitting and thought it was a cute read, if you can get past all the misogynistic, homophobic assholes on the team and cheer squad... I liked the dual POV between Jack and Amber, I found it easy to tell them apart, but I listened to it on audio, and different voices were used for each of the characters. I like how both the girls grew as the story progressed and they both began to stand up for what they believed in, instead of going with the pressure of their peers. Jack was definitely my favourite of the two main characters. I found her to be extremely relatable and you couldn't help but root for her. I will say that I found Amber to be a bit more hard to like, especially when she wasn't standing up to Jack when the squad and team were being terrible to her. But, I also understand why she did what she did, and being afraid to "step out of line". I adored Amber's mom, she is openly bisexual, and such an awesome support system for Amber without being overbearing. Most of the secondary characters were terrible humans, and it was upsetting that the majority of them had no character development whatsoever.

Overall, I think this was a cute read, with some deeper topics that were explored well.

Amber McCloud has one goal. Become the cheer captain. It is her one and only dream and she will not stop until she gets it. She doesn’t expect it to be that difficult.

That is until Jack Walsh shows up at school.

When the cheer squad and the football team discover their new quarterback is a girl…most of them act like a bunch of assholes. Yes, even the other girl cheerleaders. All of them except Amber.

Amber doesn’t like Jack because she was kind of mean to her when they first met, but she can’t understand why the hell everyone is making such a big deal out of Jack being the new quarterback. Like yeah, it was surprising, but after that wore off…who cares??

But she thinks once the season starts and they see Jack play, everything will be fine. Jack thinks the same thing. Unfortunately, they could not be more wrong.

There is one saving grace though. Amber, in her effort to try to unify the football and the cheerleaders around their new quarterback, spends more and more time with Jack and they form a connection. At first, that connection is based on the fact that Amber is kind of the only one who will talk to Jack, but it then turns into something more.

But Amber is not out at school and she thinks that if she comes out, she won’t have a chance of getting the cheer captain spot. But will she let that get in the way of her new relationship with Jack? And is Jack okay with being a secret?

I loooooved this book! I like how it was light and fun in some parts but also dealt with some for-real serious issues like sexism and homophobia in others parts. It achieves a perfect balance.

I also LOVED both Amber and Jack and how much we got to learn about their lives and their struggles. The choice for this book to have two POVs was perfection. They are such a cute/fun couple and I would totally read about them just sitting in a park together lol.

I also loved the inclusion of their parents. Amber’s mom is amazing and I enjoyed how complicated Jack’s family life is. She and her mom moved to this new place so she could have a chance to be on a football team and that puts a divide in the family. It gave a little bit more depth to the story.

(I also wanted to kick multiple characters’ asses for being mean to Jack but I digress)

I am giving Home Field Advantage 4 out of 5 stars! If you love contemporary YA romances, you NEED this book!

Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler is available now!

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

It was super cute! Again, Dahlia Adler writes an adorable f/f YA romance that does not disappoint! I really enjoyed the themes in the book, and the depth of the characters. The reasons why some of them wanted to stay in the closet.
I really liked how they treated each other. How they reacted when they made mistakes. I liked how the author didn't make them ultimate stupid teenagers.
It was sweet, and adorable, and I'm excited to get an arc for her next book! :')

Normally, I leave the sports romance to folks who can appreciate all parts of the story, not just the kissing bits! But when I saw that the incomparable Dahlia Adler had written a queer ya romance featuring an in the closet aspiring head cheerleader who falls for for the new hot butch QB in a small southern town, I knew I would get out my pom poms and start caring about the big game!

And holy moly, DA made me obsessed with the outcome of a high school sportsball game!?! Like, I happy screeched out loud not once, not twice, but many times during the homecoming game!? Like, I’ve heard people describe the edge of your seat feeling during a game, but have just never felt it, but reading this delightful, gay af book, I was practically biting my nails and if I was im a crowd I would have been painted Gator Green and doing the wave!

Amber and Jack are such wonderful characters with deeply swoony chemistry!!! And the side characters, especially the Pride Squad, made my queer heart so full! And somehow, DA even gave some of the more problematic characters (a homophobic, pastor’s daughter, childhood best friend in particular) a sympathetic growth arc. This sweet and dreamy romance grapples with the way some of us can make strategic choices to tuck away parts of ourselves in order to fit in or get through, and some of us can’t; it explores that our choices don’t have to be static, they can change and grow along with us, that some things and people are worth a risk, and that our truest friends will love us in all our messy, changing glory!

If you a classic high school QB/cheerleader romance with a fabulous queer twist sounds intriguing, do some cartwheels to your local bookstore to preorder Home Field Advantage immediately!

Amber and Jack (Jaclyn) definitely have an interesting relationship. I felt like it was driven more by what everyone else said and thought, until Amber decides to be true to her self and so what she wants. It was a cute story with very little depth to it.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for a copy of this book. This is my honest voluntary review.

This is every high school jock-cheerleader rom-com... turned upside down, and it is absolutely perfect! Future head cheerleader falls for the new QB, but nobody can know because - GASP - she's a girl!

This was such a heartfelt read that managed to surpass any expectations I might have had. Light and sweet, but also heartfelt and compelling. Wonderful queer and queer family representation with some truly incredible adult role models tossed in (a refreshing change in this genre). Yes, some characters and their behaviours are cringey, BUT that's because they're too real (albeit slightly heightened for entertainment purposes).

The story is just as adorable as the cover, and I am so happy it didn't delve too deeply into cheesy eye-rolling territory. The focus is on characters and their development, and I loved that so much.

Also- the way Adler managed the narrative voice for that final football game! MIND BLOWINGLY impressive. I could see every play, held my breath for every throw and exhaled with every down. Such a cool juxtaposition to the "typical" romance fodder.

Thank you so much to St Martin's Press for providing me with the opportunity to read an ARC of "Home Field Advantage" via Netgalley in exchange for my fair and honest review.

this was a well done ya romance with a sports twist. the book got a bit heavier than i expected, which i did not mind, but it did take me by surprise. however, the romance between amber and jack, who were two very likeable characters, balanced things out. the romance was sweet and everything i like in a ya contemporary.

Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14/15+
Over All: 4.25 stars
Plot: 3.5/5
Characters: 5/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 4/5

Special thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.

This was freaking adorable. I’m a sucker for a sports romance. I’m a sucker for a dual POV. Everything about this book had me hooked before I’d even picked it up—and it was just as good as I had hoped.
Let’s just run through every amazing thing about this book:
* sporty cheerleader x QB romance
* sapphic
* dual POV
* girls in sports! Girls in FOOTBALL!
* amazing flirtation & banter
* nicknames!!
* lesbian & polysexual MCs
* and honestly so so much more.

Home Field Advantage is told from alternative POVs. Amber is a closeted queer cheerleader whose one goal is to get cheer captain next year. Jack has moved into town to replace the previous quarterback after he died in a drunk driving accident.
Both characters’ voices were strong, unique, and engaging. I read an ARC of this book, so the formatting of the switching between POVs was not always clear, but even when I missed that it told me the narration switched, the change in voice made it obvious within the first few sentences.
I liked that both girls knew they were queer and had experience in being in wlw relationships. I think a lot of coming of age and coming out books focus on discovering your sexuality—which is great and so so important, but I enjoyed reading about two girls who fully knew their sexuality beforehand.
Watching Jack’s relationship with her family grow, evolve, and mend was an aspect of the book that I really loved and wish I got to see a little bit more of. At times, her POV felt a bit less developed than Amber’s. She had story lines of her family and friends back home and the bullying she faced that were touched on a bit, but never fully felt fleshed out to me. Her POV focused mainly on Amber, with a fair amount of focus on the team and her interactions with them—though, really, I could have used a litter more of those interactions as well.
Amber’s POV, on the other hand, focused, of course, on Jack, but also on the cheer squad, her friendship with Cara, and how all of this plays in to her potentially coming out. I think these story lines were overall better fleshed out than Jack’s, though they too got a little lost in the Jack-and-Amber-ness as well. We got a lot more back story with Amber, especially surrounding her relationship with Cara. That storyline was really engaging, and I felt I could viscerally connect with Amber’s feelings on the matter, however, in the middle of the book, it felt like it just faded out for a little bit. Cara had been Amber’s best friend. She drove her to and from school every day, and they were attached at the hip, but I’m not sure she made any sort of appearance in the middle 1/3 of the book. That made her re-emergence as a driving factor of the plot in the last bit of the book feel as if it came a little out of left field. Like, I knew it was going to be an issue, from what we learned in the first part of the book, but she was so absent in the middle I all but forgot about her.
Despite the fact that the story line seemed to get a little lost, once it returned, I was quickly able to get reinvested.

The romance, of course, was adorable. I love Amber and Jack (Jamber? Amback? AmberJack?) as characters, and I love them together. Their chemistry was amazing; their banter and flirtation made me want to shriek. Every time Jack called Amber “Cheer Girl”, I’m pretty sure I actually did squeal. Seriously. Team AmberJack forever. I love them.
I also absolutely adored Miguel and Amber’s friendship. MLM/WLW solidarity in the best way. They were just so pure. I want a friendship like that, please. I liked seeing the blossoming friendship between Migs and Jack as well. I was frustrated with him for not always doing the right thing, but I could understand and empathize, with his past. Also, he and Malcolm were perfection.

All in all, this was an amazing read. It’s definitely a romance and character driven plot. It had a lot going on, and sometimes those story lines got lost in all the romance, but they always eventually resurfaced, and the romance was cute and angsty enough that I really couldn’t get myself to care. I highly recommend this one. Dahlia Adler is amazing, and I think I’d read just about any book she puts out.

Not gonna lie, gay YA is one of my favorites to read when I need a pick-me-up and this was just what I needed. I felt like a cheerleader waiting for Jack and Amber to get their H! E! A! What’s that spell? HEA!