4.5⭐️

Why was this soo good? I wished I could have curled up for a day with a blanket and snacks and a warm drink to devour it in one go.

It has all the YA contemporary feels that I beg for. It has banter and is clever and has all the messy relationships ( friends, family and romantic) that are so big at that age.

The only downside was it didn’t make me cry.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this e-ARC.

I started this book being slightly indifferent to it. I found the beginning slow. It eventually started to pick up, but not a lot of I’m being honest.

I’m not sure how I feel about the, what I’m going to call, “makeover” storyline. Felt it was a little unnecessary. Just let the nerdy girl date the bad boy.

I think this story is perfect for people in high school and if I read it back then I might’ve loved it. I did love the banter throughout the story!

Tropes:
- Boarding school
- Friends to lovers
- Grumpy sunshine
- Opposites attract
- Slow burn
- He falls first

I absolutely loved Come As You Are! From the very first page, I was hooked. The romance was incredibly cute, and the chemistry between Evie and Salem was undeniable. Their relationship developed so naturally, with the perfect mix of tension, banter, and swoon-worthy moments that kept me turning the pages. The way their dynamic evolved made it one of the most enjoyable slow-burn romances I've read in a while.

I loved this book for so many reasons, but mainly that the romance felt incredibly real. The connection between Evie and Salem was tangible from the first meeting, and every step after, I just couldn't wait for them to realize how much they had come to mean to each other. Both Evie and Salem were so well developed and had their own growth as individuals and as a couple, and there were also well rounded and well developed side characters to this story. This book had some serious moments, with real-life issues that could happen to anyone, but the book did a great job at juggling the serious with the lighthearted plot lines that feel like they can only happen in a rom-com.

I could go on and on about this book. This book is a beautifully done YA book, and I can't wait to read more of what Dahlia Adler has to write.

After experiencing an awful betrayal, Evie jumps at the chance to go to boarding school and decides to become the opposite of who she is so she can be in more control of her life but she needs help. Enter Salem, the bad boy who got kicked out of his last school and needs Evie’s help to become a good guy to avoid that happening again…. Evie has swore off boys but what if she’s already met her perfect match that’s literally in the cards of her future

I loved this book. It kept me hooked and it’s nice to just read a nice teen rom com that is sweet and funny. Salem is my new favorite and should be yours too :)

I really enjoyed this YA romance. The idea of a girl getting put in a boy’s dorm was a clever way of introducing the FMC and MMC to each other. I enjoyed the relationship between them and how they were each trying to help the other. I also loved the side characters the FMC befriended. I have read another book by this author, and I will continue to look for them and read any ones I missed.

The cover sold me on reading it. I automatically thought of the movie, Adventures in Babysitting when I saw the girl climbing on the cover. This was fun and well written. I enjoyed the FMC very much.

I really loved this book. The characters, the pacing, the flow all worked quite well for me. It felt like all the characters were fleshed out and explored. It was hard not to root for Evie who just wants a fresh start after a falling out with her best friend and boyfriend from her hometown. The banter between Evie and Salem was fun and watching Evie slowly find her place made it an easy read. The relationship between Evie and Salem was light hearted and made me eager to see how it all came together. This was a good read that I’m probably gonna pick up when it releases.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

DNF at around 60%. This read way too much like a Wattpad novel than an actual book for me to finish and enjoy. The concept was intriguing, but the writing and characters fell flat and were entirely too cliche and cringey. I hate not finishing books, but I found myself avoiding reading entirely so I didn't have to read this one.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital arc in exchange for my opinion.

This YA romance has many sweet moments in the story. Evie begins to blossom at boarding school as she builds friendships and a life she loves away from the shadow of her sister. The story is built on the friends to lovers trope - and the characters were written perfectly to match. This was the perfect weekend read that I struggled to put down.

This was adorable 🤍 I loved the banter, it felt very natural and the humor really clicked for me. At times, I wish it delved deeper into the topics it introduced but it’s not that kind of book and that is ok. I also am not a fan of the over explanation and detailed descriptions of day-to-day things, but that’s just me. If you need a low stakes and sweet book that reminds you of old school romcoms, this is your book!

I think I've decided that YA is just not for me anymore unfortunately. I think there were some cute moments and the banter was fun but overall...there needed to be more tension? Maybe I needed dual POVs to really know what Salem was feeling in the moment? It felt like 755 of the book flew by without romance happening?

Many thanks to NetGalley & the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! It was such a creative premise and a fun read. Cute slow burn romance, good friendships, and well written.

This was a really cute book but there was so much happening at once that it kinda gave me whiplash a little bit. Overall, I did like the book and I enjoyed the writing.

I needed a lighthearted palate cleanser after some heavy reading and this YA boarding school opposites attract romance full of cute banter sounded like just that for me, but it didn't work for me.

Evie has escaped her old life where her boyfriend cheated on her with her sister and her best friend knew about it. Her grand plan is enrolling at a boarding school. After an unrealistic mixup placing her in a boy's dormitory, she makes the best of it in a cute way and enlists the help of the dorm's resident weed-smoking slacker to help her with bad girl lessons so she can shed her reputation and she'll teach him to be good. The two form a close friendship and Salem turns out to be surprisingly competent at both guitar and basketball. I did like Evie's character and thought she was a complex but cute ball of sunshine.

I just didn't see the chemistry between Evie and Salem and thought they made better friends. I was also disappointed at how quickly Evie reconciled with her best friend and family, who didn't even show up for her at important milestones. This was supposed to be a high school but it read more like college; there were never any adults or classes. It mostly focused on their social lives.

So if you're looking for a lighthearted, surface level, easygoing romance for fans of Becky Albertalli, this could be your cup of tea but sadly this wasn't mine. I read it in one sitting so it's definitely compulsively readable, I just got bored by the second half.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars, rounded up

Dahlia Adler is becoming a go-to YA romance author for me after this book and “cool for the summer”.

This book was fun and easy to get through, I literally read 75% of this in one sitting.

Salem and Everett make a pact to help the other become better at something they’re lacking. In Everett’s case, she wants to seem cool, and for Salem, he wants to start to have a good boy image.

I think one of the largest drawbacks for me with this novel was the pacing. The romance does not build super effectively and only becomes obvious around the 75% mark. Before that it was not clear that Salem and Everett were love interests, even though it’s implied in the summary of the novel. More focus on these two having tension or some sort of buildup one of benefitted the relationship compared to what seems to be a very quick switch from being in the friend zone. Perhaps even a dual perspective would have benefitted this novel because it seems that Salem was interested from the start, whereas Everett never gives this impression.

I would still recommend this for anyone looking for a quick light read which focuses on self discovery and self acceptance, and has a lot of good themes that are more well done than in most YA.

This is my first book by this authors, i was searching through netgalley for a book in between my other series, and this did NOT disappoint.

i LOVED this book! it was light, easy, fun and a fresh read. i will 100% read another book by this author, i love her writing style. i also saw she re wrote this a couple times and it definitely did justice! i love that in an author.

read this book you won’t be disappointed if you’re just looking for a fun read! 💖

This was REALLY fun! I greatly enjoyed the opposites attract, and also the dorm room situation. It was written so well, and I liked the banter with the characters.


Thank you so much for allowing me to read the ARC!

If you’re in want of an easily readable story that lifts the corners of your lips, you need to pick up one of Dahlia Adler’s YAs. Don’t expect stories full of twists and depth because they’re pretty simple, but I just had a great time with Come as You Are.

First of all, Måneskin makes an appearance in this story. For all of you who’ve never heard of this band, they won Eurovision a couple of years ago and then conquered the world.

Another thing, Dahlia used one of her own books as a cameo. I laughed out loud.

Okay, so now to the story and the MCs themselves. Evie is someone who you either love or hate. She can be pretty direct and, therefore, get under your skin. But I loved the way she settled into the all-boys-dorm-except-for-her. And Salem, the weed-smoking emo boy (I have no clue, btw why he suddenly stopped smoking), was such a good, bad guy.

And … I want to highlight Matt. The ladder on the cover is his. For his sleep dates. And there were a lot of them. He was clear about it: no cheating because he didn’t do relationships. His friendship with both Evie and Salem was a fantastic one.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

First off, huge thanks to NetGalley for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book! The romance was so freaking cute, and I was hooked from the very first page. The chemistry between the characters was great and I adored how their relationship developed. It felt so natural and had the perfect mix of tension, banter and swoon worthy moments.

The characters were so well written. I found myself really rooting for them, and I loved their personalities. Particularly Evie and Sabrina. They each had their own struggles and growth throughout the book, which made them feel super real. I could totally picture every scene, and the setting added so much to the story.

The only reason I’m knocking off half a star is that I wanted more! I flew through it and honestly wish it had been a little longer because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to these characters. But overall, Come as You Are is such a fun, heartfelt romance that I’d totally recommend. If you love cute, swoony reads with great characters then this one is definitely worth picking up!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book before its release date.

This book was adorable. I love the quasi love triangle trope, and it’s good coming of age novel that I wish was around when I was in high school. Her sisters is a REAL bitch and had no business acting that way 😭 definitely a 4/5