Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler Book Review

Title: Cool for the Summer
Author: Dahlia Adler
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: May 11, 2021
Pages: 272

Lara's had eyes for exactly one person throughout her three years of high school: Chase Harding. He's tall, strong, sweet, a football star, and frankly, stupid hot. Oh, and he's talking to her now. On purpose and everything. Maybe...flirting, even? No, wait, he's definitely flirting, which is pretty much the sum of everything Lara's wanted out of life.

Except she’s haunted by a memory. A memory of a confusing, romantic, strangely perfect summer spent with a girl named Jasmine. A memory that becomes a confusing, disorienting present when Jasmine herself walks through the front doors of the school to see Lara and Chase chatting it up in front of the lockers.

Lara has everything she ever wanted: a tight-knit group of friends, a job that borders on cool, and Chase, the boy of her literal dreams. But if she's finally got the guy, why can't she stop thinking about the girl?

Cool for the Summer is a story of self-discovery and new love. It’s about the things we want and the things we need. And it’s about the people who will let us be who we are.

Pre-order it on Barnes & Noble or Amazon 

My Thoughts

**Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an Advanced Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review!**

Lara spent a surprise summer in Outer Banks with her mom, her mom's boss, and his daughter, Jasmine, who became close friends with her. Then school starts and Lara comes back to reality rocking a new haircut and a totally different aura around her. Everyone seems to notice, even Chase, who Lara has had a crush on since forever. Then Jasmine from summer walks in the school doors and everything goes upside down. 

A ghost is walking through the door of the school. A ghost with smooth bronze skin and full lips and lush dark waves and ember eyes that I know from experience can convince you to do things you never, ever dreamed you would.

Lara is popular at school, has the best friends, and now even Chase, the quarterback of the football team and long-time crush. She has everything but memories of Jasmine keep showing up now that she sees her every day. Why is this happening to her? 

I can't believe I did either. But 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.

Star Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3)

This book was a nice read but also touching as we follow Lara and her journey of figuring out herself and her heart. The confusion she felt must have been real and it was this aspect that I find in this book very true to the real world.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Chase and his sudden interest in Lara. His love towards Lara seemed shallow to me because Chase was only looking on the outside of her but then again, that's what a lot of people do right?

I loved how the book alternates perspectives between Lara's past summer and the present. Overall, Cool for the Summer was a fun, quick read. Lara's mom's acceptance of her and her relationship with Jasmine as it develops was also a  great emotional touch.

About the Author

Dahlia Adler is an Editor of mathematics by day, a Buzzfeed blogger and LGBTQReads overlord by night, and a Young Adult and Romance author at every spare moment in between. Her novels include the Daylight Falls duology, Just Visiting, the Radleigh University trilogy, and the upcoming Cool for the Summer (Wednesday Books, 2021); she is the editor of the anthologies His Hideous Heart (a Junior Library Guild selection), That Way Madness Lies (Flatiron Books, 2021), and At the Stroke of Midnight (Flatiron Books, 2022); and her short stories can be found in the anthologies The Radical Element, All Out, and It's a Whole Spiel. Dahlia lives in New York with her family and an obscene number of books, and can be found on Twitter and Instagram at @MissDahlELama.