Hot Summer

There’s sometimes a rhythm to subjects that get portrayed in popular media. Movies famously get released in pairs (The Prestige and The Illusionist, Finding Nemo and A Shark’s Tale), and books are no different (in 2023 the “professional bridesmaid” / “paid fake date” trope swept through the fields of lesbians fiction like a horde of locusts). 

Maybe it’s intentional, but more often it’s just that an idea is out there in the culture, and multiple people run with it. 

On the one hand, I’m psyched, because this is the second queer reality show book I’ve read and I loved both of them. But it can be a bit irksome, as a freak who inhales romance novels, to find plots hinging on the exact same contrivances. 

So a few points off of Hot Summer for (unintentionally) rhyming its plot with an absolute gem of a book, but there are so many already on the board it really doesn’t matter. 

Our protagonist, Cas, has closed herself off to love owing to some bad experiences in her life. She’s just in this for the job she’s been promised afterward. Ada, by contrast, is all about the love. She longs to find someone to connect with … and the eye-banging that starts the minutes these two see each other bodes well for that. 

Honestly, sometimes I feel like I’m on a reality show when I read fictionalized versions of them. All the emotions feel heightened, like the added layer of seeing behind the artifice of television shrinks the remove from the characters provided by the framing of a novel. I’m trapped with the book just as they are on location, and I found myself unable to stop until I’ve finished - just my little commitment to honoring their (voluntary) predicament. 

Cas feels so real, probably because I identified with her a lot (not sure I’m supposed to, to be clear!). I think I doubly identified with how she did - guarded, but wishing she were more like Ada, open and free. Ada, of course, was an absolute delight - everything a girl could want or want to be. 

I also thoroughly enjoyed all the other contestants as well - whether they were important plot-important friends or throwaway villains, each rise to the occasion perfectly and left me with an impression. I’d even be willing to read the Rashomon-esque take on Femi and Sienna, they were so well-written. 

Hot Summer is a perfect Sapphic beach read, sure, but it’ll also keep you warm the rest of year, too. 

This review is for an advanced reader copy of the book, provided by the publisher.