I read Adler’s Going Bicoastal a few years ago (go look into the tags for my thoughts on it) and since it was fine, and since she pops up on so many of my bookstagram stories, I decided to give the rest of her YA catalogue a try. Perfect since she’s just released another one in May.

First up was Cool for the Summer which I believe was her YA debut. 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?

This was a fun love triangle because it doesn’t go through the typical angst of a love triangle. I think it’s obvious to everyone who Nat is going to end up with. At least she has the alternate love interest be a nice guy who is simply not the right person for her rather than a jerk that she built up in her head.

Adler does a great job in the switch between past and present, and her descriptions of the Outer Banks makes it come alive. Nat’s summer feels so vibrant and fun that you can feel how that freedom combined with her relationship with stands out as so special. It’s like one of those magical, memorable summers that you love for the memory. You know it can’t happen again.

So the abrupt news that Jasmine is in her “real” life and in her school feels surreal and I can understand why Nat feels unsure of approaching her again. Like what if it was a summer fling? What if it’s supposed to stay in the past? Nat’s internal confusion were on point and gave it much needed suspense.

Unfortunately, Nat’s confusion is less focused on whether it’s just as a summer fling or if Jasmine has real feelings (it’s a part of it but not all of it), a lot of it is trying to convince herself that she’s not bi. I get internal biphobia is a thing, but when you sleep with a girl and enjoy it, and want to do it again, I think it’s hard to say you’re not some sort of queer. Like maybe the kissing and hand-holding you can explain away, but not that so I found it kinda frustrating how she was stuck on that question.

It also led to Jasmine feeling very side-lined in the present POVs since Nat was avoiding her a lot. A shame because she was such a fun character in the past POV and provided a very rare glimpse of Mazrahi Jewish representation. The Shabbos dinner scene with her mom and Nat was so sweet.

This was also an issue in her lates book-Come as You Are.

Hot on the heels of a broken heart, Everett “Evie” Riley arrives at Camden Academy ready for a new beginning – one far away from her cheating ex-boyfriend, the sister who stole him, and the best friend who let it happen. But her fresh start is stopped in its tracks when she’s accidentally placed in an all-boys dorm, with no choice but to stay.

When rumors and gossip about Evie’s housing predicament spread like wildfire, she decides the only way to survive is to lean into her questionable new reputation… but she’s definitely going to require help. Her grumpy emo dorm mate Salem Grayson isn’t exactly her first choice, but he does need her help to repair his relationship with his parents every bit as much as she needs his to learn how to be cool. And so they make a pact – he’ll teach her how to be bad, if she teaches him how to be good.

It’s a flawless plan, except while Salem thrives academically, even romantically, and – annoyingly enough – even physically, Evie’s quest feels like one dead end after another, and the girl she’s becoming certainly doesn’t feel remotely cool. But when Evie realizes what she wants more than anything, she’ll have to contend with her thrice-broken heart and figure out how to become someone capable of chasing happiness.

The characters are interesting, the banter and premise are humorous (Matt is my fav), and you feel the feelings but there’s one aspect that brings it down a notch for me.

In this case, I enjoyed how Adler writes Evie’s insecure state of mind. While it’s not exactly depression or intense levels of self-loathing, it’s clear that she’s not in a good place and needs someone to talk to about her sister sleeping with her boyfriend and her best friend keeping it a secret from her. It has clearly shredded her self-worth and she isolates herself even more because of that trauma that she’s too boring to maintain good friendships.

It also makes it so sweet that Salem becomes her person to talk to. They get each other even as they snipe at each other. Major Beauty and the Beast/She’s the Man vibes, and you can relate to Evie’s feelings of failure when Salem is outpacing her in their project (she helped him become a “good” guy while he helps her become a badass). That combined with him getting a gf brings up all the scars from home.

The only problem is that while some things are resolved like her relationship with Salem (goals), her friendships, the plot line with her sister is not. Maybe Adler was going for realism, but I was left wanting. Same with another plot thread regarding Evie keeping a secret from the sweetest girl in the world, Heather. It seemed like it was going somewhere and just ended up unimportant.

Although she has been working on this for over a decade, I felt like it could have used another readthrough to make it feel more complete.

The one book of hers that has no such con that brings down the entire thing for me is her Home Field Advantage.

Amber McCloud’s dream is to become cheer captain at the end of the year, but it’s an extra-tall order to be joyful and spirited when the quarterback of your team has been killed in a car accident. For both the team and the squad, watching Robbie get replaced by newcomer Jack Walsh is brutal. And when it turns out Jack is actually short for Jaclyn, all hell breaks loose.

The players refuse to be led by a girl, the cheerleaders are mad about the changes to their traditions, and the fact that Robbie’s been not only replaced but outshined by a QB who wears a sports bra has more than a few Atherton Alligators in a rage. Amber tries for some semblance of unity, but it quickly becomes clear that she’s only got a future on the squad and with her friends if she helps them take Jack down.

Just one problem: Amber and Jack are falling for each other, and if Amber can’t stand up for Jack and figure out how to get everyone to fall in line, her dream may come at the cost of her heart.

This one was the best written. The romance at the center was sweet, but it was all the more compelling due to Adler’s skill in writing the emotional points of Amber and Jack’s journeys. Both are queer, but only Jack is visibly out and has to deal with the harassment of the town. Amber is not, but fears how it will change her relationship with her best friend who’s a preacher’s kid.

Not only that, but Adler touches on the different ways queerness can manifest, emphasizing that it’s not a monolithe. Everyone’s experience is individualistic. The homophobia is less so, and allows for her to dissect sexism in sports and how being feminine or being masculine are just labels, not indicators of your personality or sexuality. It’s a perfect mix of thought-provoking yet wholesome high school romance.

If you’re looking for thoughtful YA with lots of queer representation, Adler is one to look out for as she comes up with endless creative premises and characters that are never repetitive.