this was such an easy read for me with a hint of spice!

It started a little slow for me and it took awhile for the characters to really get my attention but I really enjoyed them at the end.

Sophia and Danny's relationship was everything and I loved their initial meeting. The amount of sass and tension was truly a moment. I really enjoyed the side characters as well.

I appreciated the author including the trigger warnings right off the bat so thumps up to them!

Thank you to Sonia Palermo, Xpresso Book Tours, and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review. I wanted to love this book but I really, truly didn't.
The pros: There were some funny parts. Sophie was a mostly likeable character, family and friendship oriented with a decent head on her shoulders.
The cons: The chemistry between Sophie and Danny was barely there. I read a lot of spicy books but the scenes in this read made me really embarrassed and uncomfortable. Instead of finding them hot or romantic I found them awkward and hard to read. I found the characters and plotline to be underdeveloped.
I think Palermo's writing has a ways to go in terms of maturity and also this book needs a lot of editing. The amount of times the term "f*** boy" was used was a huge turn-off for me. I would be open to reading more from this author in the future as I think the idea and heart was there, but the execution was a little off for me.

This book was a very cute, lighthearted read. I enjoyed the banter between Danny and Sophia and I loved watching the way their relationship developed in time. I also thought the friendships Sophia had outside of her relationship with Danny were very supportive and fun to read. Naturally, I was very frustrated with miscommunications with Sophia and her friends as well as with Danny.

Do I think this novel has amazing plot and character development? No, not at all. Did I think it was a cute and spicy read? Absolutely. This is a mindless romance novel that requires little thought or effort. If that’s what you’re looking for, this is a great addition to your collection. As far as thought provoking or compelling novels go… meh. It was fine. Wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to anyone if they had other novels to read, but it was okay.

An easy read with a bit of spice!

Sophia is fed up with casual hook-ups but is finding it hard to put her party girl reputation behind her. Then she meets Danny in a club - he is rude and cocky and tries his hardest to belittle her. He does eventually apologise, however, and buys her a G&T as a peace offering.

After that first encounter, they just keep running into each other and slowly but surely the ice between them begins to thaw to be replaced by a definite spark!

I enjoyed the book and how it dealt with some tricky topics - an eating disorder, sexual assault, divorce and mental health - and it comes with a content warning. It made the characters and the storyline more real, messy and human.

I also liked the focus on self-care and Sophia’s attempt to find herself and change her career. There were some interesting dynamics with other characters; the responsibility of being an older sister, the work relationships and her friendship group (although I didn’t much care for Ryan).

The storyline was a bit slow at times and some scenes felt more unlikely than others, but overall it was a good read!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for review!

Sonia Palermo's 'Hot Girl Summer' follows self-proclaimed “party girl” Sophia DeLuca as she navigates her transition into independent adulthood, including dealing with inconsistent friends, new opportunities for her career, and supporting her younger sister in her eating disorder recovery. Sophia's life is made even more complicated by Danny Pearce, a distracting and alluring musician that keeps running into her at every corner. The attraction between the two main characters was evident, and they were truly the most entertaining and endearing part of the book.

Right off the bat, it’s incredibly clear that Palermo has put so much love into crafting her characters, especially our heroine, Sophia. The main characters were well defined and distinct, and I genuinely cared about both Sophia, Danny, and their relationship. Part of this has to do with the writing style, which balances Sophia’s sass with descriptive, immersive prose that highlights the lovely setting of Brighton, England. The summer atmosphere was wonderful, especially towards the end of the book during Sophia and Danny’s many visits to the beach.

That being said, some parts of this book weren’t exactly my cup of tea. I think the story would have benefitted from alternating points of view, especially since at times it was hard to discern Danny’s feelings. I also think that while the various side plots were interesting and relevant, they often distracted from the central plot and made the story feel a bit bloated. As noted above, the unique writing style was effective in giving Sophia her own voice, but at times I found it to be over the top and cliché. Because of these factors, 'Hot Girl Summer 'ended up being an entertaining, but not wholly satisfying read.

Overall, I found 'Hot Girl Summer' to be an enjoyable romance that unfortunately ended up falling a bit flat for me. I would recommend this to fans of New Adult romance, or a reader looking for a sweet and spicy summer romance story. Once again, thanks to NetGalley for the review copy; I look forward to reading future work from Sonia Palermo!

This is a very fast read , it has some spicy moments and it was enjoyable for the most part, but there were times I got irritated with the characters and decisions they made but a good story overall.

This book had very hype reviews from other similar authors so I was disappointed that it did not live up to the hype. The setting could have been described a little better, at times I didn’t know where it took place (country/city). The middle just felt like it kept going with no conflict or intrigue to keep reading.

This was a great rom-com. There was a lot of clever writing and I really enjoyed reading this one! While I mostly enjoyed the male main character, I think he could have been slightly better. I will definitely read more of this authors books. Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for the Arc!

Thank you @NetGalley and Xpresson Book Tours for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a 4/5 read for me.

If you enjoy a non-instant relationship, spice, HEA romance, this book is for you.

Sophia and Danny are the main characters and both have their back story. This book gives a take on how personal trauma can affect a relationship.

The characters were well thought out and written. There was good spice. I really enjoyed what caused the couple conflict, I thought it was a little different than some of the main tropes for heartache in romance reads. The only dislike for me was the constant theme of Sophia being labeled childish.

I will definitely read more from Sonia Palermo. I would like to read Luke's story.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Sonia Palermo and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I found this relatable and entertaining. A fun, whimsical story with a dash of wit and humor.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. This story is relatable! We all go through fuck boys just like Sophie. I loved all the characters. Sophie’s character growth throughout the book was relatable. This book has some spice in it ! I loved it ! I recommend this book for anyone looking for a quick read

Trust me when I say, I really truly DESPERATELY wanted to like this book, but I just didn't :(

I guess let's just start off with the synopsis:
Sophia DeLuca is an ambitious yoga instructor in her twenties and oh so sick of her dating life or rather the lack of, so she decides to swear off casual hooking up but then comes along,
Danny - he's charming, he's got a master's degree in smugness and he's a perfectly adorable dog dad but not in the market currently due to his impending divorce.
But what happens when after a series of chance encounters they start to wear off on each other? Do they battle their demons and fall in love? Or does it end in a heartbreak?

- ~ -

It's not that the story is bad per say, it's just that the characters and the plot are depthless.

This is one those books where I just couldn't resonate with the protagonist, she's had more than her fair share of struggles, both mental and physical, like I get it, life's messy as hell but it just doesn't give you a free pass to act like she did in the story. The woman makes highly ethically questionable decisions all the time!!

And while I didn't find Danny or his choices to be questionable, I didn't really care much for him either, other than for his dog of course, I loved the sweet golden girl :)

- ~ -

Another annoying factor to the book is that there are a million little subplots throughout the book which were left open-ended. The only subplot that was well appreciated was the sister dynamic between Sophia and her little sister, Kiki, with whom she acts like a reasonable adult and also cares for her like she's her own child which was quite refreshing, definitely not expected from Sophia and it might have bumped her character just a little higher in my opinion but very slightly.

Now let's see how I divided the rating into three stars:

One whole star for Lucas, Sophia's friend. Dude's got a heart of a Purple Iris for not jumping to make the dumbest decision in all of their existence, when Sophia was more than willing to!
( Purple Iris because they represent wisdom.)

One star for Sophia's and Danny's romance. And while it might be a little hypocritic of me to give a whole star based on their romance alone when I said I didn't care much for the characters, I won't lie, they were good together, if not individually. However, they had their moments which were cute, vulnerable and much spicier and steamier than I was anticipating, but those moments came too few and far between for the complete read to be a positive experience.

And lastly one star for Penny, the doggo :)
and also for Kiki, hopefully she recovers soon.

- ~ -

So in conclusion, it wasn't really a bad read just a bit disappointing. It's an average story, one that's unfortunately, not going to stick with me.

3.12 /5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘟𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘛𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 & 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

She is out celebrating her best friends birthday when she ask a guy to take their photo . He took it but is was not okay so she is going after him to complain . While talking she realises that she likes him but after been so hurt in life she is cautious . Will Danny be the her other half ?
I received this book from net galley and the publisher as an ARC. Thank you! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Adult Contemporary readers may find Sophia relatable and enjoy her no holds barred narrating style. She is easy to route for.

One of my favorite things about romance is how in-depth it can be when exploring the human psyche. Without a murderer to be found, a space craft to be repaired or rescued, a great quest to complete, or a mystery to be solved, we are left with a deep, intense exploration of the emotions that make us all human. Not that these other genres don't also offer this, but not without distractions.

Sonia Palermo's "Hot Girl Summer" was one of those books that takes that deep dive into the psyche of its main character and explores the corners of her mind with unabashed honesty. This book, at least for me, was less about the love interest or the steam (which was lovely, BTW), but about Sophia, whose life seems to be a mess. And not just external messiness, but internal as well. She's so many of us who know that behaving a certain way has consequences, but we can't bring ourselves to stop. Spending time with superficial people, allowing oneself to be treated poorly because it's the evil we know... these are all evils in the world that many of us are all too familiar with. Add to that the stresses and reality of everyday life (jobs, misunderstandings between friends, etc.) and you have an identifiable chaos that makes Sophia understandable, loveable, and sometimes incorrigible, all at the same time.

The romance itself, between Sophia and Danny, felt organic and had a reality to it that not every romance author pulls off. We see the sparks fly between them, at first sparks of annoyance and conflict, but they eventually change to sparks of attraction. I liked Danny, though was equal parts frustrated with him at points throughout the book. That was part of the charm, though. He came off as human, and that adds all the more depth to the story and romance.

Overall, I really enjoyed this read. There were a few spots that felt slower than others, but (for me at least) it didn't affect the reading. At no point was I pulled out of the story, and the heartwarming HEA was enough to leave one feeling content by the end of the narrative. I definitely think this was a solid debut novel, and I can't wait to read more from the author as she continues to write.

This book was so relatable. the characters felt like someone you would want in your life and to be friends with. The situations were so real and not far fetched. it made the book extremely enjoyable to read. For a debut it was stellar, I would have never know it was the authors debut without reading a little more info after finishing.

**Thank you NetGalley and Xpresso Book Tours for a copy of this ARC. This is my honest review.**

Perhaps this is a reader problem, than an author problem, but I didn't really enjoy this story. I should preface that when I read the synopsis for this, I didn't do enough research on the author and found that this book's focus was a whole lot spicier than I came in expecting. Whilst I don't mind a fair amount of spice in a book if it fits well with the plotline, for me, I didn't find Hot Girl Summer was executed well enough for my liking.

I didn't like Sophia. I found myself questioning her reactions far too much, especially from the beginning. Even if some of them were a defense mechanism, it didn't build her up favourably in my mind. I felt her voice was much younger than 26, and struggled to place her within my mind as I read. Perhaps because I've never been a party girl, or cared much for that scene, I couldn't relate to anything she did and found her rather erratic, especially with the back and forth of her reactions and her contradictory thoughts about men. I did try to, and there were some small moments where I grew hopeful that I was warming up to her, but the pacing and use of several side characters made for a bit of a messy read. I was also rather impartial to Danny. I didn't see him as cocky or a jerk when Sophia did, and I didn't find him appealing when she was completely in love with him. I didn't hate nor love him, and quite often I struggled with their feelings and reactions being believable enough.

I think one of the biggest issues I had with this novel was how many side storylines that occurred. A few of them had really heavy topics that I could appreciate the effort the author put in with initial information, but again, it seemed too choppy jumping back and forth between them, and nothing helped build them up. I hoped that they would either stop taking the forefront or become something the author focused on to warrant their placement in this world. There was a lot of telling of emotions rather than letting the reader experience it, and I struggled with the point of there being so many heavy topics that I lost track of what the book was really about.

This is a spicier read. I was surprised by some scenes, whilst others made me wonder why they were written. Again, I will point out that I don't opt for spicier reads, and try to choose romances more driven by plot than romance in this genre - which is sometimes hard to filter through when the synopsis reads as something sweeter than spicy.

I think this book just wasn't for me and will be liked by others who can relate to this type of world that I've never had a part in so that's why it fell beyond my level of understanding.

Hot Girl Summer follows Sophia who is sick of men messing around, One day she meets Danny and falls for him. And realizes the only way she can fall for him is to move on from her past and reclaim her power.

Honestly, what in the world did I just read? Like I know what the story was supposed to be about. But, it was really bad. It felt all over the place, the characters did not seem relatable. I am so sad because this sounded like a good idea for a story. But I did not like this one at all. I don't think I would suggest this.

There are a few vague references to elements of this book that some may consider spoilers. So read at your own discretion.

I find giving star ratings for books like this very difficult as some elements I enjoyed and other elements left me wanting. So how are you supposed to balance that out in a simplified 1 -5 system?

I think this story has the potential to be a brilliantly fleshed out, exploring self-image, self-love and romance.

There is a large cast of additional characters, however, these characters are where my first issue begins. For starters, there’s possibly too many side characters?
I kept finding myself slightly lost trying to follow along with the inter-personal drama within our lead female character (Sophia’s) friendship group. I also frequently wondered if and how some of the side narrative was actually contributing to the plot.
For example at the end of the book I didn’t see the relevance of even including the Ryan and Chrissy characters.

My main issue however was how unlikeable I found these characters in the opening sequence of the book. It certainly didn’t help when starting this read. Two key moments that stood out to me in relation to this are:

1 - April (Sophia’s friend) shared a nude image she is sent, by a man, with her friends. It seems as though she’s consensually/happily received this image, so I have no qualms there. However, the person who has sent that photograph has not consented to having their image shown around to her friends. I don’t know if it’s just me (perhaps people do this and I just had no idea) but that made me immediately feel some animosity towards the entire friendship group. It felt like a bit of a double standard. Imagine if it were a woman’s nude photograph being shared around.

(The double standard between genders remained a theme to me throughout the book. As Sophia spoke about not wanting to be shamed for having casual sex or sleeping with multiple people. However she would then judge men who behaved in that exact way.)

2 – The meet cute between Sophia and Danny.
This I think is the root of a lot of my issues with Sophia as a character. This of course may not be everyone's opinion, however, I think Danny was completely in the right when he said she was behaving childishly. If I saw anyone in a bar go after someone like Sophia goes after Danny for taking a bad photograph I would genuinely be shocked. Particularly because, as Danny says ‘There are over one hundred people...’ in the bar for her to ask. If he was that bad at it, you would just pick someone else.
And whilst Danny is not the most polite to her during this interaction, she speaks about him afterwards as if he is the worst person she’s ever met. Remaining so irate about something that she started and could have been completely avoided did read as childish to me. It didn’t feel realistic to how someone would behave in that situation and it put me off her character.

I think I also had a lot of issues with character consistency and clarity. Having such a large cast of characters requires them all to be very clearly defined as individuals, and to each have an important role in the narrative. Some seemed to blur together for me personally, and others felt like they could be cut out entirely with no impact on the story. In terms of inconsistencies one example I noted was when Sophie thinks, ‘I usually keep my thoughts to myself’. Which for me was a direct contradiction to how she has been introduce to us.

I also found it difficult to understand Sophia’s immaturity. The more we learn about her the more we learn what she’s been through. I would personally think that as a result of all that she’s experienced, she would have had to grow-up very quickly.

The books structure had way too many ups and downs in my opinion. Rather than a 3 or even 4 act structure, it felt as though there were about 15 peaks and troughs. With so many issues coming up throughout, resolutions felt rushed and ultimately disappointing.

For example, I was really connecting with Sophia about her anxieties when it came to men in bars and clubs – owing to her previous experiences. I felt her anxiety in that environment and really appreciated the author discussing that topic and successfully exploring that side of Sophia’s personality. However when Sophia discussed her traumatic experience with Danny it seemed to be swept up neatly into one sentence and then brushed off, Sophia seeming completely unaffected by it. It was not mentioned again until their first kiss much later.
(I did enjoy that topic being brought back and felt that it was very well approached during their first kiss. The fact that it was a narrative tool abandoned earlier on however meant that I was surprised that it was brought up again at all.)

The subject was then replaced by a different trauma point for Sophia. It felt as though there were almost too many topics represented/discussed, meaning some did not get the recognition and time that they deserve.

The discussion and representation of food/eating disorders was excellent. You could feel how much Sophia cared for her sister. I think the book would be stronger for me personally if the author focussed on this particular aspect of Sophia’s life above all her other issues. It’s clearly the strongest narrative thread throughout the novel and contributed the most to Sophia’s successful characterisation. Better to have one topic represented with the emotion and sensitivity it deserves than to cast a wider net and only touch on much larger topics than there is time for.

I found the final third of the book to be the most enjoyable to me as the narrative began to focus in on our main characters who’s love story, up until this point, had felt rather sidelined. This is where I felt the biggest development of their relationship and individual characters.
Whilst the final act conflict felt a bit flat and rushed to me (due to my previous comments on the structure) I do think this was the most successful portion of the book. I wanted more of that!

Overall it wasn’t my favourite read but I do think that if you were to peel back some of the layers of other characters and narrative points that feel as though they aren’t necessarily adding to the narrative. You’d find the sturdy bones of a fantastic story.

One quote that really stuck with me was from Sophia,

‘… feelings are sacred, and they don’t come around often enough for me to give them away freely...’

I hope my feedback was structured in a helpful way. This is not meant to be aggressive to the author, only to give my honest feedback on how I experienced the story.