A review by sarahesterman
Sweet Summer Serpentine by Rose Santoriello

lighthearted 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? Yes

4.0

“Am I something to you?” I ask, unsure of if I want an answer. 
“What do you mean?”
I sigh. “Am I … a girlfriend, a friend? What am I to you?”
“You are whatever you want to be, farfora.” 

🥹🥹🥹


A sample of thoughts that went through my mind as I was reading Sweet Summer Serpentine over the last few days: “Omg cute!” “Ugh so sweet” “Awwww” “Hot” “Perfect summer read” “Again, hot”

Which is to say, Rose Santoriello’s latest is both very aptly named and also a great time. IRL, I’m definitely afraid of snakes, but apparently that doesn’t apply to Serpentines, it turns out. 

What to expect:
  • Multiple appendage MMC
  • Plant daddy dom vibes
  • Giant age gap
  • ADHD rep
  • Bisexual main characters!
  • Workplace romance
  • Low angst

What I liked:
  • I don’t know that I’ve read many—if any—other books with a pronunciation guide at the beginning. But I really appreciated it. Especially when you have characters with different cultural backgrounds, it’s so nice to know how to say everyone’s names correctly. 
  • I loved Iris. I loved that we got to have such a complicated main character.
    At first, I expected Iris’ issue to be imposter syndrome to the max. It was such a breath of fresh air to discover that she was actually lying! We so rarely get main characters that have truly done something wrong.
     
  • What a fun world Santoriello has built! I love the mix of magic with modern technology. It’s my favorite sort of fantasy world. 
  • Adeib had plant daddy dom vibes and I was into it.
  • The familiars are so cute omg I want one!


What didn’t work as well for me:
  • I feel like we got too much before the book began. The pronunciation guide and content warnings were thoughtful and inclusive. The glossary was… a lot. Maybe it’s because the ebook starts you before all of that, so it felt like a lot to page through. Maybe it would have been better for the glossary to be at the end of the book. But also I’m unsure we needed the glossary at all. I certainly didn’t need to read it to understand enough, because I felt like the world building is sprinkled into the prose well.
  • There were a lot of different plot lines that I didn’t feel fully got their justice. This is bound to happen in a novella. But I feel like some things—
    Adeib losing his magic, some details about Iris’ new friend group, and then Iris getting lost in the tunnels of the city
    —could have either been expanded on or cut altogether. 
  • On that note, Iris falling into the tunnel in Naiad City felt out of left field, unnecessary, and like a way to force Ingrid into forgiving her sister.

Overall, this was such a cute, fun monster romance read perfect for the (northern hemisphere) season ahead. We got good ADHD rep, and I’ll be happy to read more in this series in the future!


Thank you to Rose Santoriello for the eARC. It was a pleasure to read!!