I don't usually like to review books that I didn't enjoy, but with Hotter In The Hamptons, it's not that I disliked it and more that this book dealt me increasing levels of psychic damage the longer it went on.
At first I thought that this book was just something that wouldn't be for me, that I had no interest in reading from the POV of an out of touch wealthy fashion influencer whose every other word was 'chic'. But, I wanted to give this book a chance.

Summary:
- Lola is just Tinx. Literally. Down to the design school she went to
- Every character is a total stereotype in the most UNIRONIC way
- Aside from their assigned stereotypes, every character is essentially the same person
- Lola's complete refusal to call herself anything other than straight as if it's the end of the freaking world
- Everything about this book trivializes the experience of being a queer person

At about 30% into the book I decided to look up the author, Tinx, who I'd never heard of before. She's a fashion influencer, who went to Parsons to study fashion journalism & in 2022 she was cancelled. Sound familiar? The main character, Lola, a fashion influencer who studied fashion at Parsons & then got cancelled. At first I thought that it would be interesting to read about how it is to be cancelled and come back from it, to really change and grow from the experience. Boy, was I wrong. Lola (AKA fictional Tinx) does not change or grow from her experience at all. She frequently expresses and demands sympathy for the fact that she was cancelled for "stupid" reasons that aren't a big deal. Is that the attitude that Tinx holds about her experience in real life? I sure hope not. The things she said about other women were vile. She calls herself "Tiktoks big sister" but fatshames women on twitter? Right. I sincerely hope she was more introspective than her characters.

When Aly was introduced and described as a 'heartbreaker' who 'tends to pull straight girls' it was really the first thing that set off my alarm bells. That is famously something that SO many people assume about gay women. For so many queer people it is a reality that when someone finds out you're gay, they assume you're attracted to them or that you're going to try to "turn them gay". And then this was DOUBLED DOWN by Aly not only having been with a straight girl, but also having her whole romance with Lola be made to revolve around the fact that Lola considers herself to be straight. What makes this even more frustrating to me is that this "information" (AKA blatantly homophobic rumor) is relayed to Lola by her best friend Ryan, who is the most stereotypical gay best friend character I've seen outside of an early 2000s romcom. And I don't even think the author realized that she was writing such stereotypical characters, because they are ALL like that (Aly the lesbian that goes after straight women, Ryan the sassy fashionable gay best friend, Justin the boyfriend who doesn't pay attention to or understand his girlfriend, Lola the clueless rich girl who never takes the blame, Colette the jealous ex gf who tries to break them up).

Aside from each character's assigned stereotype, they are all the same person. And they're all freaking awful. Every single one of them is selfish, immature and genuinely frustrating to read about. "Oh you got cancelled? You didn't think about how it would affect ME first? whatever let's get married or break up! who cares?" "Oh you just got outed and aren't even sure of your sexuality yet? and your ex who dumped you after you didn't want to get panic married is back? uhhhh let's break up" "What boyfriend? You didn't tell me that! Well okay yeah you did but what about MY fling with our hot neighbor that ruined my life?"

Throughout her summer fling with Aly, Lola struggles with her attraction to her. She repeatedly says how she's straight, straight straight straight. Couldn't possibly be bisexual. She's just always had sexual fantasies about women, watched lesbian porn, is dating a woman and frequently fooling around with her. But before Aly she only dated men so she's straight. Obviously, everyone's journey with their sexuality is different. As a bisexual woman, I know first hand that finding a label that suits you can be incredibly personal and difficult, particularly when you're attracted to more than one gender. But Lola's complete denial of the possibility of her being bisexual, to the point of melting down over it like a toddler, it's just feels as "bisexual" is a bad word to her. She has gay friends, so many in fact that she claimed to forget that queer language isn't hers to use when she was cancelled for it. But she can't consider that she might be bi? Is gay or straight the only acceptable option? Bisexual is NOT a bad word.

My last issue with this book is that it completely trivializes what it is to be queer. Queerness to this book is a phase, a summer fling. It comes SO close to hitting the nail on the head when Aly literally brings this topic up to Lola while they're fighting. She tells Lola "Some of us don’t have the luxury of just liking who we like. It’s who we are. It impacts our rights.” To which Lola responds "Please don't yell at me." and the concept is just. Never brought back up? It's so frustrating to seeing it come so close to being handled properly and then just dropped.

After their argument about Lola being straight, they spend some time apart, then Lola rides her bike to see Aly, Aly reads her a piece she wrote basically saying that she's in love with Lola, they get it on the pool & then pretty much immediately break up after that and never get back together. That's it, the end. Happily never after.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a #BookReview. Honestly, been a while since I found a book that I’ve jived with. Has it been a struggle for everyone?

Anyway! #HotterInTheHamptons was a #ReadNow approval on @netgalley and it caught my attention. I cannot tell you how much fun I had reading this. The ending was so unexpected, but so satisfying. #Tinx really nailed it.

Lola is an influencer. She spends her days promoting brands and being “that girl”, but when she says one thing off hand - she gets cancelled. From there, things spiral out of control - so she leaves the NYC in exchange for the Hamptons - where things get a little hot!

I can’t wait for this one to come out in May and I hope that all of the #Booktok & #Bookstagram girlies love it as much as I did.

I really wanted to like this book. I don’t often find it hard to finish. This one was hard for me.

I should have known when it look me many attempts just to get past the first few pages. I couldn’t connect with the writing. The writing felt flat and the style wasn’t one I preferred.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me but I appreciated the opportunity to read it.

This was such an enjoyable and effortless read—quick-paced and lighthearted, yet deeply thought-provoking. It sheds light on the way society tends to idolize its "heroes," only to tear them down just as swiftly. The book explores how people are quick to elevate social media personalities, but just as quick to abandon them when the tide shifts. It highlights our tendency as a society to judge harshly, cancel without mercy, and deny others the grace to make mistakes—let alone have an opinion.

The FMC, Lola, can initially come across as self-absorbed and a bit snobby. Amid the whirlwind of brand deals and collaborations, she's lost sight of why she started creating content in the first place. It takes a rude awakening—watching her life fall apart—for her to rediscover her true purpose and reconnect with what really matters.

I’d give it 3.5 stars, but I’m rounding up to 4. The premise was intriguing, though I do wish the character development had been more fleshed out.

What I thought was going to be a fun and flirty summer coming into ones sexuality story was far from it. Lola is a cancelled influencer who got caught saying a queer term as a straight woman. And after a botched attempt at an article that was supposed to help her save face, added to the cancellation fire. All the characters are problematic and self centered, the narrative around being queer is unintentionally harmful in my opinion to the community itself. I felt as if the author used queer and relevant buzzwords just to stay relevant when they didn't add to the plot at all. Lola is a terrible friend and although at the end of the story she does have some growth I feel like she left a disastrous wake behind her.

This book was a good look at influencer and cancel culture. Lola was an intriguing main character and I enjoyed her growth as she explored her sexuality. I would have liked to have seen more dimension to her character as I found her pretty self absorbed but I think that’s more of a personal preference. I anticipate this will be a popular beach read for the summer!

Hotter in the Hamptons is a standalone title written by Tinx.

*Influencer fall from grace
*Sapphic romance
*Love triangle

Lola is a fallen from grace socialite after making some insensitive comments on a live video. After her followers, boyfriend, and sponsor companies drop her, she decides to hide away for the summer in the Hamptons.

She soon finds herself falling for her female neighbor who happened to write the article that initially caused all of the trouble. Their relationship was sweet, but Lola isn’t in a good place mentally, and ends up having to reinvent herself and figure who she is and what she wants for her life.

No technical cheating but the FMC does have breakup sex with her boyfriend while having feelings for Aly. Since she isn’t technically “in a relationship” with either of them, I guess it isn’t cheating.

Story does end on a cliffhanger of sorts, she is single after ending both of her situationships. That does leave the door open for further stories involving this FMC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for the opportunity to read and review this title!

Format: NetGalley ebook
Genre: Contemporary fiction, Romance
Overall score:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level:🌶️🌶️🌶️
Characters: Lola (FMC) Aly (FMC) Justin (MMC)

First off, I’d like to say thank you to Netgalley and Bloom Books for providing me with an ARC for my full and honest opinion! Now, for honesty…

Lola Fine is perhaps the worst protagonist I’ve read in a while. She’s vapid, conceited, and barely capable of maintaining the one (1) friendship that she’s managed to keep throughout her twenties.

A social media influencer who is canceled after saying something problematic goes to vacation in the Hamptons with said singular friend and proceeds to have her first lesbian encounter/relationship. Yet for the entire novel she refuses to acknowledge that fact. As a bisexual woman who didn’t look too closely as identifying my sexuality until my late twenties, I found this entire conflict of Lola’s boring and irritating. I also found Aly’s pressure of Lola to label herself problematic. This may be personal experience talking, but I haven’t met very many queer people with this agenda. Oh, and let’s not forget that Lola spends the entire summer ignoring her best friend to hyper focus on Aly, constantly forgetting plans and even forgetting the name of the man he’s dating, though he’s mentioned it several times.

I wanted to like this novel, I wanted to like Lola. I kept rooting for her to change, but by the end (spoiler alert) she still only cared about her followers and what they thought of her. It was still the Lola Show by the end with her, as always, making everything about her.

The ending fell extremely flat for me. What was decorated as a romance novel ended up…not being that. Or at least not what the current romance genre is producing. Also, the author namedropping herself in the last chapter gave me the ick.

I would recommend this novel to readers who are not interested in HEA, and are interested in character-driven stories where the FMC is in love with herself and herself only.

This book is fast paced but not entirely for me, it has a warm summer vibe, the characters are likeable but not enough that I actually cared for the book. If you like LGBTQ reads you might enjoy this one.

okay so the book is pretty quick, it’s a fast paced read. i didn’t want to put it down truthfully.

however, i did feel kinda bad for Aly. i feel like she was used as a crutch and the emotional unavailable lesbian for a bi-curious woman.

i absolutely did however enjoy our fmc’s growth. it
was nice to see her become her own.

thank you to Netgalley for this opportunity!

Hotter in the Hamptons just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t stand nearly any of the characters and found myself wanting the book to be over. That being said, I do know some people that would absolutely love and devour this book and I would suggest this to them. For me, it just wasn’t the big win I was expecting it to be.

This wasn’t the worst but it also wasn’t the best.

I was actually very intrigued by the whole influencer situation Lola found herself in because I’ve seen how easily you can either make or break your career. However, she got so annoying and whiney in constantly needing that validation from her followers. I know it’s hard sometimes to not seek it but Lola needed therapy.

I was happy to see that little bit of growth at the end but I felt the situation lacked a depth to it. It all felt surface level and it just kind of happened. The entire time I thought she needed to be on her own and I’m glad she finally figured that out.

Here is my concern with this book however. I did not know who Tinx was and I realized she is in fact an influencer. This book is heavy on LGBTQIA+ stereotypes and I’m hoping it’s coming from a place of experience and not just trying to use it for a storyline. I’ve heard it’s even getting picked up to be a series as well so I truly hope this is not a money grab.

I did have moments I enjoyed the storyline but mostly, I just couldn’t get past the whole Aly writing such a mean article about Lola and Lola starts dating her? I love me an enemies to lovers trope but this just felt weird. The spice was a bit spicy though so I give it a 3 🌶️ out of 5.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Let me just start by saying the vibes in this book were immaculate!! This book makes me crave summer and the classic Hamptons lifestyle. I thought the writing was quite good for a debut novel. All the characters were extremely loveable. The end of the book took a turn that I wasn’t expecting and didn’t love but still thought it was well done. Overall I’m giving this book 3.25 stars for the vibes/plot/characters.

For one thing, I like how the novel approach the sex relationships. If you’re into LGBTQIA plus books, you will love this one. The book is fast paced in that perfect type of summer fling meets scandal way many of us love reading. That said, I really did struggle with the likability of the characters. Lola was hard to like, and the overall escape to the Hamptons felt more self-indulgent than romantic at times. I think that this would make a really good push for lit thick over romance, but many romance readers will still enjoy this.

I appreciated how this novel approaches same sex relationships without labels. I think it’s being marketed more as a romance when it’s not. But I recommend for anyone looking for fiction with pop culture and spice.

Hotter in the Hamptons is a fast-paced, easy-to-read, summer fling. The book follows Lola, a New York City fashion it-girl whose life spirals out of control after a highly publicized scandal. Seeking refuge and a fresh start, Lola retreats to the Hamptons only to find herself living next to Aly Ray Carter, the culture critic who seemingly destroyed her life.

Lola’s emotions are incredibly realistic and, at times, even relatable, though her influencer lifestyle definitely isn’t. However, despite her often questionable choices, I couldn’t help but sympathize with her. It felt like Lola was being pressured by everyone around her, leaving her lost as she struggles to figure out who she truly is.

The dynamic between Lola and Aly was interesting, but the situation with Lola’s boyfriend was so frustrating to me that it kind of took away from it. The ending, however, was fitting for all the characters. It gave Lola a satisfying character arc and felt like a perfect conclusion to her journey. In fact, I was wishing for that exact ending multiple times throughout the book (without being too spoiler-y).

Overall, Hotter in the Hamptons is at the very least, entertaining, and was an interesting look into the influencer lifestyle!

Before I get into my review of “Hotter In The Hamptons”, I’d like to thank NetGalley and Bloom Books for the eARC!

I have so many thoughts about this book, mostly negative but let’s dive right in. My biggest pet peeve with this book was with the characters themselves. I honestly couldn’t stand Lola as a character. Yes, I felt empathy for her at certain points throughout the book but most of the problems that arise are all or partially her fault. She did have some excellent character development towards the end that I appreciated.

Both of the FMCs made huge mistakes throughout this book but there was excellent character development.

In the end, I feel like this book is for lovers of “Mistakes Were Made” by Meryl Wilsner, an easy read with a lot of spice.

And remember, sometimes you don’t need a partner; you just need a cat.

The Hamptons in the summer is a magnificent setting for a HOT book! I was enthralled with the characters and action throughout this story. Tinx is an excellent and captivating writer. It was easy to get hooked and sucked in! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc. Lola heads to the Hamptons to escape after everything in her life starts falling apart. She escapes to fix everything and drink her sorrows away when she notices her rival being right next door.

I miss summers that I spent in the Hamptons. It was just an experience about anything else! The beaches and the friendships were the best! This book follows a rising social media influencer Lola on a journey of finding herself. She goes through some really tough life lessons and hard experiences to see that things need to change for the better. Lola is such a complex character with lots of layers that need to be pulled back to fully understand her and her actions. I loved the side characters in this story and found this one such a fun read. It would be a great book to add to your beach bag for this summer!