3.5 stars This book has a lot going for it, the characters feel real and the story tackles some important themes with honesty. The pacing is steady, and it keeps you engaged without being over the top. With that, some parts dragged a little for me, and I wish a few moments had been a little sharper or deeper. It's heartfelt and relatable, but it doesn't fully hit the mark every time. Still, it's worth the read if you like character-driven stories that don't shy away from complicated feelings.

I listened to this on audio and I finished it between two work days so I'd say it's a really easy/fast read, but I think it fell flat for me. I was intrigued in the beginning but around the halfway mark I was easily zoned out while listening. I couldn't see the chemistry between Evie and Salem, and I didn't really like how fast Evie just forgave her family.

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thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for my honest review. all thoughts are my own.

I got an ARC of this book.

Let me start with my biggest complaint about this book. This would have read so much better for me if this were a NA instead of a YA. The humor, the boarding school experience just read really heavily as college dorms, and a few other small details. It felt like the characters should have been a year or two older.

The humor was cute and I was often left surprised. The sexism was always called out as wrong. There was no enforcement of purity culture by the male love interest. Instead he was the first to say that it didn’t matter and that it was silly. He was being presented as an emotionally stunted bad boy stoner, but he really wasn’t. He was sweet from the beginning. He just wasn’t writing love poems all the time. He was pretty flawless, outside of smelling bad (per the MC).

The MC was interesting. She had some baggage and a great deal of that baggage was never able to be solved. It was wonderful that it couldn’t be resolved. It made the story feel more realistic. It also made the backstory feel more deeper and complex. It felt a bit shallow and annoying, just drama for drama sake at first. The longer it went on and the more that was revealed, the better it was fleshed out.

Not a lot of the side characters felt really fleshed out for me. The most fleshed out was the horndog that literally was known for having a different girl in his bed every night. The girls knew this and he even had a rope ladder out his window to make it happen. He was a good guy and it was wild just how fleshed out her got. The queer characters were just sort of sprinkled in, so it felt like it wasn’t a big deal.

I do not want to label this book as queer as these characters really don’t do much for the story overall. Having an ace best friend that isn’t on page for more than a chapter doesn’t make a book queer. Despite expecting more queerness, since it is tagged as queer everywhere I am seeing this book, the queer rep that was there was fun.

There were great one liners and weird banter. So overall, I really enjoyed this book.

Of all the young-adult contemporary fiction authors I've read, Dahlia Adler stands out among the rest. Her writing style and characterization really hit the mark for me. This is my favorite of her works so far, and I highly encourage giving her a try.

An A+ young adult romance, mainly friendship focused—and not just between the two leads. The heroine is learning to trust and to build friendships again in general, beginning to open up again after a pretty impactful triple betrayal (the double betrayal, we are all familiar with. But the triple?! Unprecedented). This novel is funny, with great secondary characters. It's also really nuanced in its treatment of sex and teen relationships, with a lot of emphasis on honesty and trust and contrasting relationships with those integral aspects firmly in place with those in which it is lacking.

4 Stars

This was my first book by Dahlia Adler in about ten years & I enjoyed it! It wasn’t heavy on the romance front and more YA dramedy with some romance added in.

I do think it was more on the adult side of YA in my opinion. A lot of swearing, sex & drug talk. Which yes, are all things teenagers hear about and deal with. But they seemed so young as little baby sophomores in my mid-thirties mind! I think I’d let my kids read this at 16+. It had great representation which I appreciated!

Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of Come As You Are in exchange for an honest review!

I really tried liking this one and I couldn't get into it. I had a hard time connecting with the characters and the story. It felt long at first and confusing.

thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

2.5 out of 5 stars

The boarding school setting was a fun addition. I also enjoyed the "oh no! A girl in a boy's dorm" debacle. However, I felt like these characters were acting way older than they were. I think this was more befitting of college students rather than freshmen and sophomores in high school. I thought this had themes that were fit for readers a bit older than YA, in my opinion. This had me wondering where all of the adults were. I wasn't really a huge fan of the characters as a whole and had a difficult time getting invested. I think the "bad boy" helping the good girl and vice versa is a fun aspect to the story and some of the banter was good. I think you would like this book if you like YA that reads older.

Ok so the more I think about this one, the more I had to take off a star. While this was no doubt fun and easy to finish in nearly 1 sitting, I did find this to overall feel unfinished and half baked.

The pact premise between Salem and Evie felt flimsy at best, but I did love seeing their activities and how each of them pushed the other. The bad fork day was especially very cute and funny. Overall I loved all the scenes with Salem and Evie, their banter and relationship felt very natural, same thing for his twin Sabrina and Evie as well.

And this is where I think the overall “romance” with Salem just wasn’t needed. They worked so well as friends with so little in terms of feelings or more being present honestly that when they ultimately do get together, it felt too abrupt and at the cost of a lot of other relationships that were brewing. The second half especially felt like it took an axe to a lot of the friendships and growth Evie was having by trying so hard to make her pivot into jealousy that it felt jarring. It felt like Evie and Sabrina started to have a more superficial friendship at the cost of giving Salem and Evie more moments with Salem being the first person Evie confides in for 2 major secrets which made me wonder when, if ever, she would tell Sabrina, which contrasted sharply with the beginning with how Sabrina was Evie’s rock and who she first explains her home drama to.

There’s also a secret Evie keeps where by the end, I can’t even say the mental gymnastics given to justify keeping it were there, it’s more so a glancing statement that Evie will continue the charade and secret for very flimsy reasons. It was especially out of character yet because by the end of the book, Evie seems to come through on the other side of her home drama, yet this secret very similarly reflect that situation and Evie chooses to do nothing about it. Even as she sees another girl being set up like she was. Never mind that Evie again never confides in Sabrina…

So ultimately, while this was fun, I feel like it was at least 50-100 pages too short, trying to shoe horn in a romance at the end at the cost of significant developments in Evie’s character and Evie’s relationship with others, both of which were main drivers in the beginning — not getting a boyfriend.

This was my first Dahlia Adler book and now I totally understand the hype. I was hooked from the very first page and didn’t want to put it down.

Kayla is such a layered character. I really felt for her as she tried to navigate what she wanted, who she was, and how to move forward after everything she’s been through. Em was the perfect counterpart. Steady, grounded, and a little mysterious in the best way. Their chemistry felt so natural and the slow build made every moment between them feel earned.

I also really enjoyed the friend group and the way the school setting added just enough chaos and comfort. There were moments of humor, introspection, tension, and growth, all wrapped up in a very satisfying romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Really cute contemporary romcom where our FMC mistakenly gets placed to live in an all male dorm.

I really loved the FMC and the hijinks with the side characters in this one.

After suffering a dramatic betrayal by all of her boyfriend, sister, and best friend, Evie escapes to boarding school where she can start fresh as a new sophomore. But she doesn't anticipate her new beginning including accidentally being placed in a boy's dorm--and the rumors and gossip that come with it. Evie is determined to transform herself into the cool bad girl everyone thinks she is, and enlists her dorm mate Salem to assist.

I was very excited to read this, as I am a big Dahlia Adler fan and I also went to boarding school, so I was curious to see how it was portrayed. This book had a slow start and it took me a while to get into it, but by the time I was about halfway I was really enjoying it. It's a bit more general YA fiction than pure romance, with her growing connection to another character being much more of a subplot and later development (and perhaps that's why it took me a while to get into it). I do think it was a fun summer read, though, and ultimately happy I read it!

Thanks to Wednesday Books for my eARC and finished copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4 stars - 8/10

I've read and loved some of Dahlia Adler's other books, but I just don't think this one in particular was for me. I do appreciate a good spin on the "girl in an only boy's dorm" trope however, so I give Dania props for that and making it fun as well!

I am trying to catch up with all of Dahlias backlist and I truly enjoy her writing, her quips, the stories. While I do prefer the queer stories, I did really enjoy this one too! I think I went in being unsure what to expect, and dahlia just has such a way with words and making you nostalgic for the days of old (albeit some people hated high school I still think no matter what a YA story dealing with STRONG feelings resonates with everyone). The boarding school setting, the feels, the chaos of youth. Beautifully done.

Grumpy/sunshine! I enjoyed that trope more than I thought I would. While I enjoyed this title, I didn't really like how some things were not resolved. I liked the premise of this story but it did take me a little while to get into it. Once I did, I really enjoyed the story. Dahlia Adler does it again!

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher. My opinions are my own.*

I absolutely loved Come As You Are by Dahlia Adler; it was witty, full of heart, and such a fun read from start to finish! Though the characters are in high school, the story definitely reads more like New Adult, with mature themes around identity, heartbreak, self-worth, and the messy, wonderful complexity of figuring out who you are.

The LGBTQ+ representation in this book was fantastic, and I especially loved how naturally it was woven into the fabric of the story without feeling tokenized or overly explained. The banter? Top-tier. The characters? So well-written and layered. Evie and Salem’s dynamic was hilarious, touching, and full of chemistry--I devoured every interaction between them.

Also, I need a spinoff. Some of the side characters totally stole the show (and it ended perfectly for their story to continue), and I would happily spend more time in this world.

If you love grumpy/sunshine dynamics, boarding school hijinks, and stories that balance humor with vulnerability, Come As You Are should be on your radar!

**I received an eARC of Come As You Are by Dahlia Adler through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity.

Come As You Are by Dahlia Adler is a young adult boarding school romance about a girl named Evie who mistakenly ends up in the boy's dorm.  It was set to be published on May 27th, 2025.  I rated it 5 stars on Goodreads:

Here is the summary from Goodreads:

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.
Dahlia Adler’s Come As You Are is about refusing to accept less than you deserve, and realizing that the best relationships are with people who know exactly who you are.

I actually ended up listening to this one as an audio arc, though I also had access to the eARC.  I've just had more success with audiobooks lately.  I've also been really enjoying romance books lately, so it was so much fun to read this book and get into the life of Evie as she tried to pursue her fresh start.  The narrator for the audiobook was great, and really brought Evie to life as a character.

The meet-cute premise in this one of Evie ending up accidentally in the boy's dorm and then striking up a deal with Salem to 'better herself' was such a fun concept.  I found myself giggling a bit as she attempted to navigate the crisis that came with her trying to advocate for herself because her traditionally masculine full name caused a bit of a mix up.  It was just the kind of absurd that I really enjoy.  I also really enjoy boarding school stories, so that was a really fun aspect.  

Evie was a really compelling character to me.  She was well-written and well-developed.  You knew a lot about her, and she demonstrated a lot of growth over the course of the book.  I found her character arc really relatable, and I imagine it will be even more relatable for teens.  I also enjoyed most of the side characters.  Salem and his twin sister were both really interesting characters.  I also liked the popular girls that Evie befriended.  They really made the story come alive.  I have students in my classes who very much remind me of these characters in some ways, so it's wonderful to see such realism.

On the whole, I had a fantastic time reading this book.  If you like cute young adult romances, I would highly recommend that you check this one out.

I enjoyed this boarding school romance - but felt a little disconnected from the characters. A cute quick read.

🃏eARC Book Review🃏

“I was a peach. Now I’m a bad apple.”

Come as You Are by Dahlia Adler
Pub Date: May 27, 2025
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4/5)
Spice: (0/5)

Summary:
After her sister lets her down and a tough breakup, Everett “Evie” Riley just wants a fresh start. She enrolls in a boarding school where she gets placed in the boys dorm due to a clerical error. While trying to redefine herself and get her bearings in a new environment, Evie learns who she is and who she wants to be.

Review:
I absolutely love Dahlia Adler. I really wish I had her stories growing up. Her ability to tap into a high schoolers mind and have their voice is so great. I loved Salems growth along with Evies. Every character in Dahlia’s books always becomes a better version of themselves and I love it.

If you like:
- Boarding school
- Unexpected romance
- Phish
- Found Family

QOTD: What club would you join if you were back in school?

Thank you to Net Galley and Wednesday for proving me with an eARC of this novel.

DNF @ 10%

I was really excited about this book, but unfortunately, it wasn't for me. It is marketed as YA but it didn't feel like it. Evie is a sophomore in high school, but I felt like she should've been older. The YA genre shouldn't have spice because it's marketed towards 12 to 18 year old, which is why I was confused on why Evie almost had sex with a guy. Besides that, she realizes that the guy that came on to her is actually dating someone she knows, but decides NOT TO TELL HER, even though she's been cheated on?? Unfortunately, I don't approve of this so I had to DNF this book. I also wasn't quite vibing with the main character. I have read another book by Dahlia Adler, which I enjoyed, but this one was not for me.

Thank you Dahlia Adler and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.