Rated this one 5 stars! Romance is not my top genre, but I am trying to get more into it. This was a fun setting with likable characters. Was great to read on my beach vacation.

This was a fun read, I would’ve liked it to have been longer though, loved the time we got to spend with Ada and Cas getting to know each other, and loved Femi and Sienna obviously
That breakup was rough though
Marisa did an amazing job with the audiobook! Loved her performance

If you are looking for a HOT SUMMER read, add this to your TBR!

What to expect:
🏳️‍🌈Queer romantic comedy
🏝️Love Island-inspired reality show
☝️Single POV
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩Sapphic romance
🤝Forced proximity (sharing a house for 8 weeks)
🎭Drama

Hot Summer follows commitment phobic Cas Morgan as she ends up on a UK dating show supposedly looking for love but really to score a promotion. Cas is an event planer/ host for Friday, a dating company in London, who is looking to partner with the tv network. If she can make it to the finale, she’ll gain a permanent break from all the nights of socializing.

Things get a little complicated when she meets beautiful, open and utterly charming, Ada Hall, on arrival. Can Cas resist the gorgeous red head…. Spoiler alert, she cannot!

✨my thoughts✨

I rated Hot Summer 4 stars. I really enjoyed watching Cas and Ada fall in love over the course of the wild competitions and lazy days in the mansion. They have an immediate connection, but I wouldn’t call it insta-love, more of a friendship. Due to the 24/7 forced proximity, things move somewhat quickly but that is something I expect with the dating show dynamic.

There were a lot of great characters in this book. I adored Ada. She is so sweet but kind of a secret minx. The lap dance scene… IYKYK. She kind of gave me Claire energy from Delilah Green, but without the mom status. Femi, Sienna and Freddie were some of my favorite supporting characters.

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for an e-arc; all thoughts are my own.

I am such a sucker for a romance that is based on/around some sort of reality dating show, so I jumped on Hot Summer when I saw that it was not only about a Love Island-like reality show, but it was a queer romance as well. Plus that cover? This was just a check, check, check on all the boxes.

This book is single POV & focuses on Cas, a long-time fan of Hot Summer (the show), who has just learned that her potential work promotion will be dependent on her participation in the same reality show. What she thinks might be an easy, breezy Cypriot-shaped solution to her current work woes basically blows up in her face even before she makes it inside the Villa. Why? Well, Cas wasn’t expecting to actually find love - you can’t find what you’re not looking for, right? But the reality tv gods have another plan when Cas finds she has a fierce connection with the first other participant that she meets, Ada. And well, this complicates things because Cas legally cannot talk about how she is on the show via a partnership with the dating app company that she works for. What could go wrong?

What follows is a level of shenanigans that you would only witness in a dating show full of ridiculously attractive people who are cut off from the outside world for an extended period. It’s basically ‘Forced Proximity, the Reality Show.’ Some of it is…not great (in situation, not in writing) but a lot of it is fun & steamy & hilarious & delightful. There are hookups. There are villains. And there are so many incredible friendships built among the participants.

The writing is fun, the pacing is quick, &, with the inclusion of some multi-media elements, like social media posts from viewers of Hot Summer, this book is a solid fun summer romance read!

Thank you to NetGalley & PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for providing an advance digital copy of this book for review. All thoughts & opinions expressed are my own.

This was so good. It was the perfect pool side read to get lost in laying out in the sun. I read this quickly because I had to know what happened next.

Thanks to Putnam and Netgalley for this advanced copy!

This was a fun second novel from Elle Everhart! I think it is heavily based on Love Island, which sadly I don't watch, but I still really liked it. Much like Cas, the main character, I forgot why Cas was actually on the reality show to begin with and so it felt like the tension of "is she there for the right reasons" never really played out as it could have. But I loved watching Cas and Ada fall for each other and it was a lot of fun. Can't wait for the next one.

This is like if love island wasn't afraid to have sapphic couples. I'm kind of obsessed with Cas and Ada. Cas was so cute in how oblivious she was to Ada being into her. The moment when she finally said fuck it was so good. I need two bonus chapters, one with Cas proposing and another with Femi proposing.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Such a perfect gay love island summer romance.

Ada and Cas were so perfect together!! I loved their relationship sooo much throughout this book. I loved the character growth that Cas had and I was rooting had for these lovebirds to make it.

Also shout out to the rest of the characters! Femi I love you so much!!!! I really enjoyed the found-family aspect of the dating show and it makes my heart so happy so think that dating show contestants really remain friends after everything is over.

So far, Elle Everhart doesn’t miss!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this earc in exchange for my honest review.

I was gifted a digital arc of this and I loved it so much that I had to buy a physical copy!! This queer romance was absolutely amazing! I went into this expecting a light hearted fun romcom and came out with so much more. I fell in love with main character Cas and loved her journey throughout the novel. The romance was so well written from the minute Cas and Ada met to the end of the story and I think Cas's reasons for being on the show were handled really well. Even the side characters were great and I wanted more from them!! I loved how the Hot Summer show is based on Love Island and now I need to go binge watch that show!! There was drama, romance, and nice spice! l'd absolutely recommend this one to anyone!

LOVED THIS! For fans of Love Island, this may be the perfect reading break for you. I want to see the characters come to life on my screen! Thanks netgalley & the publisher for the great summer read, in exchange for an honest review.

If you're looking for a book that models those reality shows you grew up with ..... Hot Summer is a must! Hot Summer is a cocktail mixed with Love Island and all the VH1 reality shows!
This story is a lighthearted , easy read about finding an unexpected love in an unexpected time. The main characters have a natural magnet towards each other the instant they meet and their love gets challenged by the dram of being in a reality show.
I give it 3.25 stars because although it was enjoyable, it felt like the ending was rushed and there was a gap of time missing . I also felt that it was predictable and did not contain the depths I usually crave in a book .

I love a good sapphic romance, and this one checked all the boxes for me. I loved the premise of Love Island-esque show, I enjoyed reading this instead of watching the actual show. This book was such a fun, easy summer read and I was a fan of the romance in it. It was the right amount of heat and tension between Cas and Ada as the competition continues.

thank you to netgalley, the publisher, and to elle everhart for the advanced reader copy of "hot summer", a queer summer romance that is totally deserving of being on your TBR. i have not really watched love island before, but i totally think this would be perfect for readers that enjoy reality television shows like that. if you enjoy love island but wish there were queer couples, you will LOVE "hot summer". all the characters were lovable and i enjoyed reading all of cas' calculated (yet warranted, arguably) schemes. something else that solidified "hot summer" as a five star read for me is the fact that everhart implemented the found family trope into the storyline, and did it SO very well.

I was so excited to read this book after reading the premise and seeing the cute cover. I enjoyed the story and it's going to be perfect for anyone who is looking for a fun beach read! I can't wait to read more books from Elle Everhart. Thank you for a chance to read this story!

I thoroughly enjoyed Hot Summer by Elle Everhart. Reality dating shows are my guilty pleasure and Everhart was able to make me feel like I was watching one of my favorites with the added bonus of a queer storyline. I found myself truly invested in the characters' journeys and rooting for their happiness. The sapphic spice, the friendship, the portrayal of the effects of social media: I loved it!

Hot Summer is a reality tv dating show set on an island with hot single people ready to have some fun and Cas has been selected as a contestant!

She always watched from afar but snatched the opportunity up from her employer when offered the position from the show. The deal is that if she makes it to the finals, she’ll receive her dream promotion! She needs the public’s vote week after week to secure her spot on the show. I started off really enjoying the behind the scenes aspect since I’ve watched shows like this but it got old very quickly and at some point became very mechanical sounding when aspects of the show were being explained to the reader. It made it extremely difficult for me to connect to the characters and I had zero investment in their lives once the middle hit and I never returned by the end. It sounded like a fun idea in the description but it was not a concept I would ever read again.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Elle Everhart, and Penguin Group Putnam for providing this free ARC. This is my honest review! This published on June 25th!

I have posted my review on Goodreads, and in my Facebook book club.

Perfect summer read! Thank you for the early copy, it was very refreshing, I advise you all to read it at the pool just like me!

4 stars!

I don't watch a lot of reality television, but I have read enough books to know that "Hot Summer" by Elle Everhart is one of the good ones! I found myself devouring this queer rom-com in virtually one sitting. This book is a lot of fun, especially if you're a reality TV junkie. There is a lot of drama in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Some readers will not like the main character, Cas, because her intentions start as deceitful, but the longer the book goes on, you'll start to understand that she's being manipulated by other forces as well. The main romance between Cas and Ada might read a little too insta-love-y, but I think that comes with the reality TV show territory. Unlike other insta-love books that I have disliked, I actually believed in Cas and Ada's romance beyond surface-level attraction. That's mostly because of Everhart's excellent writing. She gets you to care about these characters as if they were real people. They feel fully fleshed out and have great chemistry with one another. The secondary character also feels realistic, too, and some in villainous ways. Just well-written all around. You can see the third act coming from a mile away, but other than that, this is a fun, steamy, sapphic summertime beach read. Pick this one up before you head to the pool!

Thank you to NetGalley, Elle Everhart, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the eARC.

I fliping LOVED this book. I loved the concept of the reality TV show setting, I loved the relationships, and Ada + Cas.... man oh man. This book did not disappoint me. I was rooting for Cas the entire time, but especially at the end. I really found this to be lighthearted and fun, enjoyable and steamy. A perfect summer read.

If you are a fan of Love Island, but you wish it was a little more gay, you absolutely need to read this book. This book has all the drama, the humor, & romance of the show, plus spice and I was hooked. I really enjoyed the FMC, Cas and I loved watching her open herself up to love and friendships. I wish we would have gotten Ada's POV, because I think she could have had a really interesting story as well. I also wish we could have seen more of Cas's backstory, it felt just a little rushed.

Overall, this was just a lot of fun. A perfect spicy, swoony summer read.