My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Title: Cool for the Summer
Author: Rachel Gillig
Format: audiobook (borrowed)
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 5/10/21
Categories: Young Adult, New Adult, LGBT+, Romance, Coming of Age
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.
This is one of the books I’ve been waiting to read and I’m surprised I actually listened to the full thing as an audiobook (I usually cannot finish an audiobook) but this one was short, under 300 pages so this was definitely doable. This is what I thought:
+ I like how this is a coming of age story about Lara and her finally getting the crush of her dreams to look at her, popular boy, Chase – but yet harboring a secret summer affair with a girl, named Jasmine.
+ Apparently this has a Grease inspired vibe to it, but queer. I thought it was cute! “Summer lovin’, had me a blast!” Lara definitely had a blast with Jasmine and then she shows up up Lara’s high school and she has to figure out how she feels about both Chase and Jasmine. And I do like how it was okay for Lara to try to figure things out, even though if it got a bit messy, I like that as a character she was allowed to feel all her chaotic feelings about Jasmine and Chase. She’s a teenager, she’s not going to know herself overnight.
+ I do think this leans more towards new adult mostly because of Lara’s sexual experiences with both Jasmine and Chase. It’s not super graphic, but it does get hot and heavy.
~ I had to pay more attention to the story of course because it was an audiobook and maybe I missed some things but I think I got the gist of things. Lara is always in her feelings about Jasmine and Chase, so we are in her thoughts a lot. There’s a lot of angst. And at times I was impatient with her back and forth feelings but mostly because it was an audiobook. So that’s on me.
~ The flashbacks had me paying attention hard to this audiobook, because if I didn’t, I would think it was all in the present.
Why you should read it:
- coming of age book about trying to figure things out, Lara trying to figure out if she likes girls, boys or both
Why you might not want to read it:
- it’s one of those stories where a lot of things could be cleared up if the main characters would actually talk to one another
My Thoughts:
The best thing about this book for me was Lara’s coming of age story and trying to figure out who she is and who she likes and being okay with all of that, which is a great message for readers.
Book Links:
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