Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Cool for the Summer

🦇 Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

❝ "Just because you're telling a good story doesn't mean it's the right story. And I think it's really important to tell the right story. ❞

❓ #QOTD What song is your summer anthem this year? ❓

🦇 For three years of high school, Larissa had extreme heart-eyes for Chase Harding; the sweet, popular, football star any girl would die to date. After returning from summer break, Chase finally seems to notice her, but it's not Lara's stylish blonde bob that catches his attention: it's the newfound confidence she gained over the summer. A summer spent with an enigmatic, too-cool photographer, Jasmine, whom Lara spent all summer beside...and, on more than one occasion, kissing. The girl Lara can't stop thinking about. The first time Chase flirts with her, Jasmine walks through the doors, only to reveal they're completing their senior year together--and that she has no interest in picking up where they left off last summer. Everything about Lara's senior year appears perfect—supportive friends, the most popular boy in school at her arm...so why can't she get Jasmine and their summer together off her mind?

⚠️ Spoilers Ahead! ⚠️

💜 Cool for the Summer is a light-hearted, quick summer read with definite queer Grease vibes. The story's sweet, relatable sapphic spin is bound to hook you from the get-go. Lara is a first-generation Russian Ashkenazi Jew who thought she'd spend the summer working at an indie bookstore, only to travel to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with her mother instead. While staying at her mother's boss's beach house, she bonds with seemingly stand-offish Jasmine. The two bond in little moments we see through flashbacks; snippets that demonstrate even a summer is enough to discover real, life-changing love. Larissa's character development, especially as she steps out from behind the shadows her friends have cast, is a beautiful example of how one moment can trigger metaphoric self-discovery and growth. Though her time with Larissa triggered that development, we see the continuous ripple effect it causes.

💜 Adler doesn't shy away from topics rarely explored in YA, including positivity regarding masturbation and sex. However, I do wish she'd explored some of the emotions behind those moments. Since Lara internalizes a lot of what she's thinking and feeling, there was no real discussion that would have added depth to those scenes. However, I do wish I'd had this story growing up; it possibly could have changed everything.

💜 I can't stress quite how relatable this story was for me. Everything from the three-year-long unreciprocated crush to one summer of stolen moments and unexpected feelings that ultimately led to newfound self-awareness and -discovery were all pieces of my own bisexual coming-out story. Sometimes, the ever-after we write in our heads isn't the ever-after we end up wanting; a realization Lara almost has too late.

🦇 This story was an opportunity to shatter a great number of bisexual stereotypes, especially since Lara is in a relationship when she realizes her feelings for Jasmine. There's a brief comment, made by Chase, that almost delves into and defies those stereotypes of bisexuals "not being able to choose," but Lara bites back her anger and brushes by it too quickly. While I'm beyond grateful that we're getting more bisexual and overall queer stories, I do wish we could have opened that discussion. At the very least, it should have been a conversation Lara had with herself— her constant internalizing provided the perfect opportunity for it.

🦇 Anyone who's read one of my previous reviews knows my biggest rom-com trope pet peeve is miscommunication. The entirety of this story feeds off the miscommunication between Lara and Jasmine. While that fear and confusion are real and relatable (I've lived through it myself), I do wish there was at least ONE attempt from either of them to try, long before that miscommunication escalates the conflict between them.

🦇 With how short this story is, there's definitely room to explore the emotions behind certain scenes in-depth. Again, Lara internalizes almost everything instead of using a friend as a sounding board, leaving this story with more "telling" than "showing."

💜 This quintessential summer read is ideal for lovers of YA, happily-ever-afters, and stories of self-discovery. It's also perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Alice Oseman. Happy reading!

✨ The Vibes ✨
☀️ Summer Love
💜 Bisexual (Questioning) and Aroace Rep
✡️ Jewish (Ashkenazi and Sephardi) Rep
🔎 Self-Discovery
⌛ Past/Present Timeline
🩷 Happily Ever After
💕 Love Triangle

⚠️ Trigger Warning: Brief Biphobia, Underage Alcohol Consumption, Parental Divorce

Content Warnings

torikate7's review

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emotional lighthearted relaxing medium-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

Content Warnings

dwoht's review

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

someone recommended me this book by saying that "it's the best representation of a horny teenager i've ever seen." which i disagree, because although there are sex scenes, and yes the MC is almost always horny, i don't find the scenes explicit. and that's something that i really liked about this book. i also liked lara's relationship with her mom, it's so sweet.

i just feel frustrated about some things with this book. given that this book is about our MC lara. i feel like her friends or the side characters are one dimensional. sometimes it feels like they only exist in this story for lara to have friends. i wish the author explored their friendship more!

the ending is also frustrating!

why would you let us spend reading an entire book pining about lara and jasmine only for them to not have romance scenes at the present time!!!

the flashbacks are great but

WHY DIDNT THEY GET TOGETHER SOONER. i hate when books do this, when they have the characters only get together at the very end and show little of the main characters relationship that you’ve been rooting for the entire time.

and it's such a cliffhanger and i wanna demand a book 2 but i know that's not possible lol. they spent more time apart than they are together.

all in all, i really enjoyed this book. it's a quick read and i wish it was longer. and i might read more books from dahlia adler :)

Content Warnings

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

Content Warnings

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.

Content Warnings

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

Content Warnings

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!

Content Warnings

brokenbodybitch's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

Initially I didn’t think I was going to like this, about 40% in I wasn’t totally into it and I was thinking about DNF’ing, it just wasn’t a book for me, for today BUT… then it started to pick up and I found myself more invested.

I think the main reason I wasn’t loving the first bit was because of the way the book is formatted and paced, it jumps back and forth in time in a way I didn’t totally love and the pacing throughout the book wasn’t as fluid as I would’ve liked. Later in the book however you get a bit more into fleshing out the characters and their emotions rather then just the background information.

The way the queer rep was done was pretty accurate I found, The way at the end of the book, how Lara was saying that she knew it was something but at the time she couldn’t recognize that it was even a possibility, that it was more then them fooling around, and that she didn’t know she was even allowed to like her like that and how she got caught up in the ‘dream’ crush so she couldn’t realize what it actually was… yeah that’s an ouchie to read as a 20yo who didn’t realize it till 5 years later.
But I really liked the way it showed someone who may not have fully recognized these feelings because of not understanding their sexuality at the time.

I also enjoyed the little Arabic things in there, hearing kibbeh casually talked about was really nice

Content Warnings

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