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COME AS YOU ARE by Dahlia Adler
Thank you Netgalley and WednesdayBooks for the earc (May 27)

When Everett "Evie" Riley is put in the boys dorm because of her name, rumors spread that she somehow orchestrated the whole thing. In order to save her reputation, she teams up with Salem Grayson. He'll teach her to be bad, and she'll teach him to be good.
Okay, I actually really liked this book. I read this book in the span of a day. It kept me intrigued as it played put. It was so hilariously, laugh-out-loud funny. And then the Evie and Salem duo was just great. I loved seeing them work together and I rooted for them.
On a different note, it felt a little unfinished. The ending, more specifically. I don't want to into details, though.

Dahlia Adler’s Come As You Are is a captivating, emotionally rich novel that masterfully blends romance, self-discovery, and the struggle to redefine oneself. With sharp wit, authentic characters, and a unique twist on the classic "opposites attract" trope, this book is an absolute must-read for fans of contemporary YA fiction.

Evie Riley’s attempt at a fresh start at Camden Academy takes an unexpected turn when she finds herself stuck in an all-boys dorm—setting the stage for an unforgettable journey of reinvention. Her reluctant ally in this endeavor? The brooding, effortlessly cool Salem Grayson, whose own struggles with family expectations make him the perfect partner in their pact: she’ll teach him how to be "good," and he’ll teach her how to be "bad."

The dynamic between Evie and Salem is full of tension, humor, and undeniable chemistry. Their growth—both individually and together—is beautifully explored, making every moment feel raw and real. Adler excels at portraying the messy, complicated emotions of heartbreak, friendship betrayals, and the daunting process of figuring out who you truly want to be.

At its core, Come As You Are is a story about self-worth and refusing to settle for less than you deserve. Adler’s writing is engaging, heartfelt, and packed with just the right amount of angst and swoon-worthy moments. Readers will root for Evie every step of the way as she learns that happiness isn’t about changing yourself—it’s about embracing who you are.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ — A must-read for fans of witty, character-driven YA romances!

Thank you Wednesday Books and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. Evie needs to get away from her sister, ex-best friend, and ex-boyfriend who all betrayed her. She takes the opportunity to attend Camden, a private school, the only problem they’ve mistakenly placed her in the boys dorm. There she meets the “bad boy” Salem. Evie could use a little bad in her life and Salem could use a little good in his so the two strike a deal to help each other. Can they change their reputations? Will they end up falling for each other in the end? I love a Dahlia Adler book because they always give you the warm and fuzzies! A slow burn with plenty of sweet and funny moments! A quick and enjoyable read!

I've been in a reading slump for over a month now, and despite reading books from authors I love that would normally pull me out of it, nothing has worked. At least, not until I read Come As You Are. It's the second Dahlia Adler book I've read, and while I really enjoyed Going Bicoastal, I hadn't been expecting to fall in love with Come As You Are the way I did.

Come As You Are had the perfect balance of friendship and banter leading into falling in love, and reading it felt like rewatching your favorite '00s teen romcom. While the setting was clearly more modern than that, the novel had the same charm those films did, and it was so nice to consume a new piece of media with that same feeling. Evie was such an easily likable character, even when she was working on herself and where she fit into the world, and it made it so easy to root for her to figure things out for herself. The dynamic she had with Salem was absolutely adorable, the back and forth joking and banter was top tier, and watching their relationship evolve was such a treat. The whole cast of characters were easy to love, and I'd honestly love to see another novel set in this universe about someone else who appeared in the book, especially Sabrina or Matt!

My only complaint (besides the book not being long enough lol) was that one of the plotlines was left unresolved, and in a way that felt rather hypocritical and out of character for Evie. I kept waiting for there to be at least some sort of resolution, but the book ended without one which was a little disappointing.

Overall, Come As You Are is a delight of a romcom, and something I can't wait to re-read again when I'm in the mood for a banter filled romance.

What a fun book! I really loved Evie, she had such a fun and bright energy about her. I always love a slow burn and it was so satisfying to watch the pay off in the end!

This was a fun read and I enjoyed the main and secondary characters. The school setting was fun and made for interesting circumstances!

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book. I chose to review it and this in no way impacts my opinion of it.

I am a sucker for private school novels. I think it has to do in part with the fact that I never went to a private school, or stayed in a college dorm, and also because I used to love reading novels as a young child where girls got to go to private schools with their horses. So when I saw that Adler has a new novel coming out that takes place in a private school with a dorm room mix-up, I jumped on the chance to read it.

I thought this novel was cute and funny at the same time. I absolutely adored the friendship between Evie and Salem. I loved their easy banter and the way they sassed each other in every interaction. I also loved the way Matt took on an older brother kind of role for Evie.

I will say that I didn't overly enjoy the ending of this novel, but that's just a personal preference thing. I don't want to get into detail about what I didn't enjoy as I don't want to leave any spoilers but it was just one tiny little aspect I didn't enjoy, so don't let that stop you from reading this novel.

I thought this was a quick easy read and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun story of someone trying to find themselves while grieving their old life.

Everyone needs to read this book right now, and I’m not even joking. If you’re a fan of Lynn Painter or Jenny Han, you’re going to love Come as You Are by Dahlia Adler! It’s a fun teen romance that takes place at a boarding school, but the rest is just perfection. If you’re looking for a good time with big feelings, you’re going to love this one!

Our main character, Evie, is starting her new life at Camden, a boarding school far away from the drama she left behind. After a mix up, she ends up being asked to room on a boys floor (by herself!) but this leads her to meet Salem, a “bad boy” looking for a new identity. The two become reluctant friends to try and fix their reputations, but in the end, SPOILER: They fall in love!

There was something so cozy about this read. I don’t know if it was the school aspect, or the relatable nature that Dahlia Adler writes her characters, but I just fell in love. In fact, I haven’t stopped thinking about the book since I finished it last night and I want more books set in the world.

One thing I appreciated was that Evie was very real. She made mistakes, she struggled to make friends, she all around felt like a real person. She didn’t just immediately become best friends with everyone, like some teen romances like everyone to think. In fact, by the end, there wasn’t even clear closure for some situations, which I think fit the theme of the story. All in all, it was just so beautiful and I will definitely pick up more books from this author. (Please write more!)

And the COVER! The SYMBOLISM! Someone deserves a raise.

Come As You Are was fun & surprisingly fast paced for a slow burn romance. I don’t read a lot of YA and this book reminded me why it’s good to branch out every now and then. Dahlia Adler perfectly writes the universal adolescent experience. While I never went to boarding school or experienced many of the other hiccups that Everett “Evie” Riley experiences, this story is so inherently relatable that it can be enjoyably devoured by anyone. Each character was well developed and unique. I particularly love a well-written LGBTQ character who doesn’t seem like they’re just a token to the story and on this, Dahlia absolutely delivered time & time again. While there are discussions of sex, this was completely closed door and very appropriate for the target age group. Thank you to NetGalley & MacMillian publishing for this advanced copy!

Okay so I read Going Bi Coastal. And I liked it a lot more than this one.
Evie I find was so whiny. I understand why, her sister and ex bf cheated on her, her best friend and her got in a fight. Woe is me being entitled and wants to go to boarding school.
It started off interesting of her getting stuck in the boys dorm. But that was probably the only good thing about this book.
I feel like everything else kinda fell flat. You could guess the plot from the first few chapters. And it was very much a slow burn. Friends/enemies to lovers -whatever they were.

I don’t know I just did not connect with this book nor did I enjoy my time reading it unfortunately.

“Come As You Are” is great teenage-angst representation, while being realistic for readers both young and older alike. As someone out of high school for over a decade, I still found the issues faced by the characters to be interesting - which certainly isn’t always the case for a YA book! I could certainly see high school students enjoying the drama, romance, and realism of this book.

This YA book is about our main girl who goes to a boarding school to escape some complications she has had at home. The school accidentally mixes up her dorm and she gets stuck in the mens dorm area. Because of this she grows an unlikely friendship with Salem, and they strike a deal. She wants him to make her more like him “bad” and she wants to make him seem more “good” and behaved. This was a quick easy read. It was enjoyable and entertaining. There were lots of sweet and funny moments between the characters. I prefer longer books so I wish there were more chapters in it.

Come as you are is a really sweet young adult romance that surprised me with how much I liked it. Evie whose full name is Everett Owen Riley gets mistakenly placed in the all-boys dorm at her boarding school Camden Academy. She came to a new school to escape her older sister, the ex-boyfriend who slept with her, and her ex-best friend who knew about it. Because of where she is in the boy's dorm, there is gossip and rumors about it. So, she asks one of her dormmates Salem to teach her to be bad, if she teaches him how to be good.

Evie, Salem, and his sister Sabrina as well as Matt were very likable and relatable. I loved how Evie's story mirrored Sabrina's. I loved the character development with not only Evie but most of the characters. The only characters I didn't like were the ones who were purposely awful, so that was kind of the point since some people are just not look people in books and in real life. I like that not everything was tied up into a little bow, especially with the side and background characters because that doesn't happen in real life and this story was not about them. Plus the possible relationship that didn't happen in the end, didn't need to because while they could have been cute together, they didn't have to end up together because they were the only lgbt in the school.

This was very different from my normal reads, so it was a nice change of pace for me, and this is a story that I think will resonate with especially teen readers. It reminds me in some way of the YA books that I used to read in high school, but it felt different and fresh. I would love to read another book about these characters, especially if Evie and Salem are involved. If you enjoy boarding schools, slow burn, and friends to lovers, check this out. :)

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

This book was quite cute. I appreciated the whole messaging of how being yourself and letting others see how you truly are is the best possible way to do things. I will say I would've liked to see Evie and Sierra have an actual conversation at the end of the book where they actually worked through things and not just the fight they had on the phone and a scene where Heather finds out what her boyfriend did. But I really liked Evie's relationships with all her friends new and old and how her relationships with her parents and with Salem developed.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC.

This was a great young adult romance read. I loved following Evie in this book and loved her relationship with Salem. This was such a cute read and it had a great cast of characters. I loved seeing how the characters developed throughout this story. There was a good handful of moments in this book that had me smiling and laughing and I really enjoyed following the characters on their journey of self discovery.

Read this if you like:

📖 Grumpy/sunshine
📖 Slow burn romance
📖 Friends to lovers
📖 Boarding school settings
📖 Complex characters

Thank you to @wednesdaybooks for the gifted arc.

'Come As You Are' is the story of Everett aka Evie who is heading to boarding school in high school due to an issue at her current school (her sister stole her boyfriend and best friend). Because her legal name is Everett, she gets assigned to the boys' dorm, so although she's going to boarding school to escape drama, she finds herself in the middle of drama on day 1. She ends up befriending the guys in the room above hers, and gets really close to "bad boy" Salem and his goth sister Sabrina. She ends up in a pact with Salem to help him be good and he is helping her be...edgy/bad?

Although entertaining, I had a few issues with the story.

First, I didn't love Evie. She comes off as a self-centered "pick me" for a lot of the book. The author also totally focuses on Evie and there's not a lot of character development for the side characters, which I think hurts the plot a lot. I didn't love reading 100+ pages of Evie's internal monologue about whether or not she thinks she has feelings for Salem. She wasn't that interesting.

Second, there is a huge pacing problem. The whole Salem/Evie plot to make one good and the other bad is half baked at best, but is the focus of about 80% of the book. It's a pretty slow read until you get to Parent's Weekend. Then the last 10% feels rushed because there's a lot of unresolved issues that got moved really slowly that have to get tied up real fast. It just felt like not a lot happened and then got resolved pretty conveniently for Evie.

Third, and this is related to the pacing, there were some loose ends that don't get tied up with the side characters. I think this hurt the plot a lot. Some of the side characters had potential to be really interesting and I'd have liked to get to know them better, and I wanted to know how things turned out for them. It just felt like these characters were plot vehicles instead of living breathing characters. I think the author could have slashed about half of the middle parts focused on Evie and devoted them to the side characters.

Fourth, the author hints at some mental health issues for Evie, but none of that gets addressed directly. If you are going to suggest that there's an issue, to the point where another character comments on it, give us the full banana and hit the issue head on. As portrayed, it felt brushed under the rug, which doesn't sit right with me.

It was an entertaining story for the most part, it just reads like it needs another round of revisions to sort out the issues with pacing, side character development, and tying up a few more loose ends.

Dahlia Adler has done it again. She has made this 43 year old woman completely fall into a book about teenagers at boarding school. Her books never feel "young", despite writing about teenagers. The relationships are always written so well and her characters are never childish, but not written as adults in teens' bodies. I loved "Skeevey" and her friends and am so glad she found her place. I also really appreciate that her relationship with her family wasn't wrapped up in a neat little bow.

I LOVED this book and would absolutely recommend this read to anyone, adult or teen. I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I was instantly hooked by Evie's story and couldn't wait to see how her fresh start at Camden Academy would unfold. I found myself cheering for her as she navigated the hilarious and often awkward situations that came with being accidentally placed in an all-boys dorm. The rumors and gossip added a fun, dramatic twist that kept me eagerly turning the pages. The author did a fantastic job of blending humor, romance, and self-discovery in a way that felt fresh and engaging. The book was a perfect mix of laugh-out-loud moments and heartfelt scenes, making it an absolute joy to read.

This book is a light, fun, and incredibly entertaining read that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a delightful escape. I can't wait to see what the author comes up with next!

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC of this book, to be officially released in May of 2025. This was my first time using NetGalley, so it was super fun to be one of the first to experience this one. It was definitely an enjoyable and fun little rom-com with interesting characters and great character growth. Without further ado, my review:

Plot
Come As You Are takes place in a fancy boarding school after the main character transfers due to unfortunate events in her family and social life. The MC realizes that she was accidentally placed in a boy's dorm - and forced to stay there? This was my one major problem with the book - the school didn't even try to solve the issue, and instead left her to live with a bunch of guys who were not shy about declaring their less-than-noble intentions with women. I thought that was strange, and brought up way too much (students were constantly teasing Evie about it but she just let it go as if it made her cooler to be the bad girl who lived with guys... that brings me to my second biggest problem with the book, which you'll find in the content warnings section).
The rest of the story line was actually pretty fun though. I've always loved boarding school books that follow the daily lives of the students and all of their shenanigans - and plenty of shenanigans were had. While mostly unrealistic, the character's emotions and reactions were relatable. I also enjoyed Evie's character arc, learning to forgive and move on from her past.

Style
I really enjoyed Dahlia Adler's style and Evie's unique voice, sarcastic quips and banter with every character. The pace was a little inconsistent - some scenes barely moved the story forward at all, and others contained very sudden character growth or revelation.

Characters
The characters weren't super realistic, but they were so much fun! Everyone had their own unique personality. No character was just the mean girl or just the heartthrob - everyone had so many facets to their individual stories. It added so much realism that when the characters all came together, you could see yourself joking along with the friend group.
The main love interest was interesting, but I didn't like some of the decisions he made that they tried to play off as romantic or "okay" - such as his choice to hook up with another character while waiting for Evie. Excuse me? That's not the 'little wrinkle' in the love story that you think it is.
I was also confused about the character's ages. On one hand, their stupid decisions made sense for most of them being high school sophomores and juniors. However, the amount of drinking/drugs/hooking up they were doing seemed a lot heavier than real-life high -schoolers do. Maybe I missed something when I was their age, but they were all so needlessly focused on those activities. Again, see my content warning for my thoughts on this.

Overall
I would give Come as You Are 3.5 stars. It was an entertaining rom-com with interesting characters, but not very realistic at some points. I'd recommend this for fans of the genre - but to complete my mission on this site I have to say that I would not recommend for a Christian audience (see content warnings for why).

Content Warnings
Everyone in this book is obsessed with hooking up and doing things they do not need to be doing. Everyone is constantly making fun of Evie for that reason, because she ended up in a boy's dorm. Everyone's always propositioning each other or making crude jokes. It really took away from my enjoyment to be pulled out of wholesome moments by people talking about sex. I was surprised by how widespread and unrealistic it was, as if it was all people cared about. It's really hard to skip, and I almost DNF'd a few times because I didn't care to be reading it (I guess the fact that I got an eARC is the only thing that kept me going). Other than that, there's a healthy helping of language and substances as well. Plus, it's all discussed as if it's normal and good to be doing all that. I believe that what we put in our mind shapes us, so if you want to be "transformed and not conformed" I would stay away from Come as You Are.

I have loved all of Dahlia’s books, and this one was no different. Such a great capture of those first days of college where everything is unknown but relationships are being formed (good and bad). Loved it!

Come As You Are was a delightful coming of age story that followed Evie as she navigated a new boarding school after her social and family life fell apart at home. I really enjoyed this book. It was the perfect YA story, with romance, drama, friendship, and an exploration into some real world issues. The friendship to romance arc was the star of the show and made up for the few unrealistic aspects of Evie’s boarding school experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC!