Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Cool for the Summer

I am not sure what I was expecting from this book, but I loved most of it. I am not a devote of Demi Lovato, so I didn’t know that “Cool for The Summer” was a song about sexually experimenting in summer. I also did know Demi changed a lyric from “don’t go” to “no go”. Hopefully, I didn’t just give the book away.

Lara has had the biggest crush on Chase Harding for as long as she can remember. Her senior year, he finally has a crush right back. Everything should be prefect, but there is a nagging that things are just not right. You see, over the summer, Lara hooked up with a girl. Her mom’s boss’s daughter to be exact.

This story is told in two time periods consecutively. The “now” is when Lara is with Chase, and the “then” is how Lara and Jasmine went from acquaintances to much more. Both parts of these stories are interesting, but the “now” timeline gets a kink when Lara walks into school and finds out that Jasmine has moved in with her dad, and now goes to her school too. Chase is her dream. Jasmine was just her summer. But why does she fell so awful.

I loved this book. It is heavy on tropes such as mis communication, but it’s the ride of the story that makes it worth it. It does have some dry points, and one does get a bit tired of the two ladies trying to upstage, ignore, but also make each other jealous. But it’s teenage love. That is the drama for which one picks up this book. Now is this the best sapphic teen romance there is, no, but it was well done, a bit sappy, and just fun. It left this reader with a smile on their face at the end, like a good romance should.

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booksdogsandcoffee's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Larissa found herself over the summer, along with starting to figure out her sexuality with her moms bosses daughter Jasmine. They partied, they kissed they….

Just like that it’s back to reality and senior year where qb Chase finally starts noticing Larissa after she has come into herself during the summer months. She’s had a crush on him since she could remember. But senior year isn’t going to be that easy. Because first day of school who should walk in the front door, Jasmine. And all the memories from the summer come flooding back. Will Larissa choose the qb she’s been dreaming about since middle school or the beautiful Jasmine who opened up her world over the summer?

I thought this was an adorable coming of the age novel. As an adult though it was tough reading teen characters because the miscommunication trope was in this one lol. So I was screaming at the book a bit. I really enjoyed seeing Larissa figure out what she wants and who she is. Coming of the age books have become my bread and butter. I love them so much. Not only is it coming of the age it’s about young love and friendships.

Rep
Bi, pan, Jewish, Russian, non-binary side character

Cw
Biphobia
Toxic friendship
Alcohol
Mild sexual content

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thefatpaperback's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

5.0

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’m not going to lie, originally I bought this book because the cover screamed bi vibes and I just couldn’t not read it then. I absolutely loved this book. It was such a lovely read. It was lighthearted and the humor was very much on point and it even had a great happy ending that did not disappoint. There really wasn’t anything I disliked to be honest. I loved reading the glimpses of then and seeing how much Larissa changed and started questioning things and figuring them out eventually. It was also rather nice reading about an MC that didn’t worry about labels so much and just went with it. Overall this was easily one of my new favorites.

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internationalreads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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shoohoob's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A cute sapphic YA rom-com to kick off pride month!! I loved this and it made my lesbian heart happy :’) Loved this!

Also: this book was the first time I ever saw my culture printed in a book. As a Middle-Eastern Jew, I loved being able to connect with Jasmine and read about food I eat. So much power in representation!

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