This is an absolutely delightful sapphic YA contemporary with summer vibes all over it. Really like the characters and the story, though pretty mad at the moms for <REDACTED>. Parental manipulation is the worst! Thank you, Penguin Teen, for the widget. I will definitely recommend this to folks looking for a fast-paced hate to love contemporary.

I am a huge fan of Jennifer Dugan so I was so excited when Penguin Teen sent me a physical arc of this book, so thank you y'all!!

Okay, the best way that I can think to describe this book is a crossover between betty, tis the damn season, dorothea, and august. If that doesn't convince you to read this book I don't know what will.

Fallon is the main character and is forced to work with her ex-bestfriend, Chloe, at their mom's ice cream truck, a year after they hooked up before Chloe left for college. Them hooking up caused the friend break up, as is surprising to literally not a single sapphic person.

Dugan always made me fall in love with summer with her books. Something about sapphics falling in love during the summer just does something to me!! This is the perfect beach or summer read and adorable sapphic rep!!

dnf at 36%

I didn't have high expectations of this book after not really enjoying Some Girls Do, but I still was very bored. Usually if I get this far, I'd just continue reading, but I don't think I'd be able to write about anything in my review because I was very apathetic about a lot of things. This book just wasn't for me personally, but you may like it if you like estranged best friends to lovers or second chance romance stories!

An adorable and fun second chance romance! I love everything done by Jennifer Dugan and this also hits the mark. The romance, the tension, the main character’s narrative voice…all of it was incredibly done. I loved the coming of age aspect of the narrative and how beautifully it paired with the two best friends reconciling their differences and developing a romance on their road trip!!

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

4.5 Stars

Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for an arc of this one.

After a year of trying to get over her one-time-hookup and long-time-bestfriend, Chloe, Fallon is horrified to learn that she will not only have to spend the summer working on their moms' ice cream truck with Chloe, but that they will have to roadtrip together and work a festival alone. But Fallon is not about to tell Chloe that what she had thought of as a hookup really meant a lot more to Fal...

This was so adorable I absolutely could not stand it. I loved the slowburn and the relationship building and character growth! I love both Fallon and Chloe. Dugan writes characters so authentic and realistic it feels like they could just step off the page and fall into my life...can they?

I loved this! So cute! Definitely pick it up!

Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Content Warnings
Minor: Abandonment

Melt with you is an adorable summer romance. Fallon and Chloe are incredible together and it was so much fun to watch them grow.

In Melt With You, Fallon would love to spend the rest of her life never seeing her ex (best friend) Chloe again after one fateful, steamy night. But alas, they end up having to go on a week-long road trip with each other to save their mothers' ice cream truck business. Miscommunication, drama, and oh-god-there's-only-one-bed shenanigans ensue.

The premise of this book is absolutely adorable, and I found myself craving ice cream for pretty much my entire read-through. The chemistry between the girls is good enough, and I love love love that both of them are bisexual. The mc, Fallon, is bi with a preference for girls (which I LOVED), and her love interest Chloe is bi with no preference, at least none stated to the reader. The relationship between Fallon and her best friends, Jami and Prisha, is also so adorable and the absolute definition of healthy friendship. But, there were some things I didn't like about this book.

**BEWARE, SPOILERS AHEAD**

The whole deal between Fallon and Chloe is that they hooked up one night at Chloe's going away bonfire, and then Chloe ghosted the next day. This, understandably, made Fallon feel horrible, and Fallon proceeded to ignore Chloe's attempts at reaching out. So far, so good. The problems arise when Fallon and Chloe finally start talking it out: they don't actually talk about it. Fallon doesn't actually tell Chloe why she was so hurt after Chloe left, and Chloe actually ends up making Fallon the bad guy! Chloe gets super mad when Fallon says that their hookup was her first time, which I just. Don't understand. We never learn why Chloe is mad that she was Fallon's first time (other than some cut-off lines resembling "I would've made it better for you" which, fine, I guess) but everyone in the book is somehow in agreement that Fallon not telling Chloe she was a virgin was a big mistake. Maybe it's because I'm aspec, but I don't understand why this would be such a big deal, enough to detract from the previous issue of Chloe ghosting her! The assumption that a first time is something that needs to be carefully delineated is– I don't know, archaic? To me? It would be okay if Fallon and Chloe actually talked about what a first time meant to both of them, but we never see that. The book just assumes that we also think that first times are a big huge deal.

Another issue, that kind of ties in with the last one, is that the miscommunication between Fallon and Chloe is not resolved well. They never get an actual conversation where they delineate what happened that night and what it meant to them. Instead, they skip over that and somehow end up in a fulfilling relationship. I am *all* for a good angsty confrontation scene, but that never happened here, and I really wish it did.

Overall, Melt With You was a cute read. Fallon and Chloe are super sweet even though I hoped that their relationship would be handled better. Nevertheless, I can appreciate this story for what it is: an adorable summer read that made me wish for a bowl of ice cream.

The Author of HOT DOG GIRL! that was a cute read, so i knew i had to read this one too! AND IT WAS CUUUTE! it definitely has the contemporary cute vibes of summer, Twi girls who used to be best friends, hooked up and changed everything between them, now they’re working at an ice cream truck during the summer because their moms own it and they have to ultimately work together and finally discuss what’s between them. This was so good, definitely a book I would recommend.