Thank you to Bloom Books and Netgally for the opportunity to eARC Hotter in the Hamptons.

I walked into this expecting summer fling romance with deeper content and instead I have found myself sitting up at 313am crying over Lola. The first 25% of the book as a little hard to dig through since I don't have much of a connection to influencer lifestyles, but once I made it through that, I found myself deeply attached to Lola and hanging on this story.

Hotter in the Hamptons is an unique take on influencer lifestyles, the impact social media has on them, and how easily we as the people consuming their content can cause them to lose themselves. I think Lola was the perfect muse for this story and the growth we get to see her go through had me in tears by time I hit that last page.

While the craft is not perfect, the vibes of this book are almost addicted. Between the romance, the spice, the self discovery, the healing, the realization Lola has regarding her happiness, this was something I would take 14 more of.

My biggest complaint of this books is ARC and Lola's relationship and how it is handled once Lola decides it was time to prioritize Lola. However, how this ends did make up for that enough that I've been debating between 3 and 4 stars before settling on a 3.5.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloom Books for providing me with an ARC. After all the controversy on BookTok surrounding this book, I was curious to give it a read. Unfortunately, I really struggled to get through it. Primarily as a result of all the high end brand name dropping. Reading this book felt like swiping through the TikTok shop. And as someone who operates in the space depicted in the book, I just found this to be a very surface level, tough read. And since the central conflict of the book is a straight character making a culturally insensitive comment about the the LGBTQ community, it really does feel too on the nose that the author has found herself in a similar situation. This book might be fun for Tinx fans, but I just fear I am not the right reader for this book.

Thank you to the publisher for the arc copy! So. the author repeatedly stating that she is straight makes the queer aspect of this book feel like it’s catering to fetish audiences. The author calling this a ‘🌽 book’ on TikTok discredited any anticipatory investment I had in the romance and women’s fiction storyline. Overall, I found this was an okay read, but its marketing isn’t doing it any favours. It was advertised to me as an LGBTQIA+ book, I am a sapphic reader, and the way the author speaks about being sapphic outside of inside the pages of this novel made this whole book feel disingenuous and icky. Disappointed I didn’t enjoy this one, probably could have to a degree had the external rhetoric been different.

Thank you to Bloom Books for an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

The cover and synopsis of this story sold me right away, and I was so excited to read it. However, after finding out that Tinx used a ghost writer for this book, for the Queer love interest feels extremely wrong. And because of that, I will not be reading this book.

Especially this day and age. Queer voices need to be amplified in the publishing world, so this entire situation feels very icky to me.

Hotter in the Hampton ended up being a DNF, and in a way that I know I will not want to revist. This book was definitely not for me.
The tone of the book made me really cringe (and it is pretty rare that I find myself really cringing this much reading a book). It felt empty and kind of superficial, in the way influencer can sometimes come across in other media. Honestly, considering this is writtten by an 'influencer' you would think she would try to make it look a little better. Even the other characters felt empty, superficial and stereotypical.

This book wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but I can appreciate that others would enjoy it. I did enjoy how it had a fairly real feel to it, something that you would hear happening to an influencer in real life. The story progressed well, but the characters felt a bit stereotypical in general. Overall, it was just fine for me.

I unfortunately did not connect with this story so after about 25% i decided to put it down. There was a slight disconnect between the writing, the characters and the plot and for that it just did not work for me.

Hotter in the Hamptons by Tinx is the ultimate summer escape! It’s messy, full of glam, and super addictive. This book has everything I want in a beach read, including scandal and chaos. If you’re craving something fun and flirty you need to read this!

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Hotter in the Hamptons by Tinx is a third person contemporary exploring the cancelation of a fashion influencer. Lola was once an aspiring fashion designer and is now one of the biggest fashion influencers. When she calls an outfit ‘lesbian chic’, she’s cancelled by social media, is called bland, and loses her boyfriend. To get her spark back, Lola spends the summer in the Hamptons with her best friend and the same woman who furthered her cancellation, Aly Ray Carter.

I felt this was a real missed opportunity to discuss the prejudices that are ingrained in those of us who grow up in a white supremacist society (including the main character’s possible own internalized Queerphobia and wrestling with why she has never deconstructed why she never considered that she could be Bi/Pan), the people who expect perfection of public figures despite either hiding their own mistakes behind anonymity or not recognizing their mistakes because no one is holding them accountable, and individual humans making mistakes in this ecosystem. Instead, we got a lot about how the algorithm makes us bland so we can all be marketable. There's nothing wrong with that take, but given the set-up, I was expecting a deeper look at how the internet, especially the American side of it, handles being confronted with the ills of our society and what we can and can't reasonably expect from our fellow humans, whether they are a public figure or not.

Okay… I really tried with this one, but Hotter in the Hamptons was just vibes, aesthetic, and zero actual plot. I went in expecting summer chaos, messy romance, and high-end drama with heart. Instead? Shallow characters, lifeless storytelling, and absolutely nothing to keep me engaged. I made it to about 30% before DNF’ing because I couldn’t take another scene of rich people whining with no real stakes.

And then I heard it was ghostwritten, which, honestly? Tracks. It felt like someone trying to capture a voice that wasn’t theirs, and it just came off flat and disconnected. There was no tension, no romance to root for, no emotional weight. It read like someone took an influencer’s Instagram aesthetic and tried to stretch it into a novel, but forgot to add a story.

If you’re into ultra-light, drama-lite, plot-less beach reads, maybe it’s for you. But if you want anything deeper than a Pinterest board in book form? You’re not missing anything here.

Thank you to Bloom and NetGalley for the ARC.

I went into this with an open mind, because I don’t really know anything about Tinx, and the summary made it seem like something that would be right up my alley. First I will start with the writing— it’s very elementary. She names popular luxury fashion and home items, but never gets into actually describing them— which is odd in assuming that most people just know what they are. The LGBTQ+ characters felt so stereotypical and they come across like caricatures. Overall, all of the characters are underdeveloped. I won’t even get into the fact that a straight woman wrote these characters. This is such a huge miss, and I think Tinx needs more “no” people in her life.

Going into summer this is the perfect read. It's fun and flirty and going to be a perfect spring break or beach vacation vibes read. I had never heard of this author before and love finding new ones to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for this ARC. I was really looking forward to this book after a cute cover and the synopsis sounding like a version of Gossip Girl. Unfortunately the writing was choppy and knowing the author is a straight person writing about a queer person’s struggles, was really painful when queer voices are already being quieted.

This book sounded like it would be super cute and just fell flat for me I found the characters and I had no connection wo where they made me want to read more. Just seemed like I was forcing myself to finish I did have hopes for this book as it sounded so cute and i loved the cover.

Okay so this is a Sapphic book and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, I did feel that it sometimes lead to the more stereotypical forms than it needed to be? Don't get me wrong, it was a fast paced book, spicy and easy to read but I feel like it needed just more depth per se.

But if anyone wants a quick read, there's nothing wrong with this one.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC opportunity!

Man, this one was TOUGH. I really struggled to finish it. The writing style was not great, and at times it felt very immature. I got this book because of the influencer drama trope. It sounded exciting, and a little Laguna Beach meets Gossip Girl vibes but with the modern influencer twist. Unfortunately, that fell very flat for me. None of the characters were likable, and that made it hard to root for them or find any connection piece with them.

I feel like this was a case of someone writing a book because they are already "famous", and they should've let it be.

So wait... this straight woman used a ghostwriter to write the sapphic parts of the story. So essentially a straight person is profiting off of a queer person and their work. I can't support this. I'll never support this. Please publish this work under the ghostwriter name as it should be. I'd love to give them a glowing review. Until then, I just can't do it

While the title "Hotter in the Hamptons" suggested a steamy summer read, the experience felt more like being bombarded with influencer advertisements. Despite my initial enthusiasm, the immature writing and overall execution ultimately fell flat.

I want to say thank you to netgalley for giving me this book to read and review. Unfortunately after learning that the sapphic parts of this book were ghost written, I do not feel comfortable reading it. Straighten authors profiting off of queer work when it is so difficult for queer people to have their own stories shared crosses the line for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Hotter in the Hamptons for my honest review.

I thought a book about an influencer would be a lot of fun. The idea of a book set in the Hamptons also sounded like it would make for a fun summer read. Unfortunately, it just did not hit for me. I found the main character Lola to be very unlikable. Her influencer lifestyle felt heavily needy. Constantly searching for validation. And her relationship with Aly felt more contrived than real. It lacked any real Enemies to lovers tension.

I had a really hard time with this book I just didn’t enjoy it and to be honest I could not finish it. With the publishing date only a month away, I wanted to get it read but I just did not feel motivated to finish it, and for that I am sorry. I hate leaving a DNF review, but honestly I just didn’t feel great about reading this book.