I need to stop reviewing books by influencers.

Lola is a vapid self-absorbed character. When she makes an unthinking comment on a live stream, she is characterized as homophobic, and the people cry out for her cancelation. In an effort to save her reputation, Lola does an interview for a hot journalist, Aly, who is known for her affairs with straight women. Instead of resuscitating Lola’s reputation, the article instead calls out the influencer culture and the blandness it had infused into society. With her boyfriend away in California for the summer while they are “on a break”, Lola makes the only logical choice and runs off to the Hamptons with her BFF only to discover that her neighbor is the dreaded journalist lady-killer, Aly.

My biggest complaint with this book is exactly what Lola is labeled as, bland. It was highly predictable, the characters are not very likeable, and it wasn’t very interesting. The characters were over the top. Lola had to hit that influencer vibe so hard, even when pulled away from limelight. It doesn’t feel like she really learns anything from her actions and instead dabbles in fooling around with a woman. It doesn’t feel authentic. What is even odder is the love interest being a person who hurt Lola by writing an article so painful, it caused her to stay in bed for days. If there was true resolution or even a fully formed conversation about this, the enemies becoming lovers would make a little more sense.

As for other characters, Aly was an immature pouty baby. Every time she didn’t get her way, or someone said something meanish to her, she would go radio silent. One would think a fully functioning adult would have better coping mechanisms. The boyfriend Justin makes plans for and about Lola without ever consulting her. There is a scene where Lola looks around their apartment and realizes that the only area she is allowed to make her mark is in one small room. The rest of the apartment is… bland. Ryan, the best friend, seems great but is also super self-absorbed (maybe a commonality that brought Lola and Ryan together as friends). He seems more focused on doing his own thing but when Lola gets wrapped up in her own situationship, Ryan gets upset that she isn’t available for him. He invites her to a party and goes without her. She finds out when he leaves her a note. Yet he gets mad when she misses dinner with his boyfriend to screw around with her love interest. No one is likeable in this entire story.

I will readily admit, I am probably not the preferred audience for this book. I was hoping that this was a fun and flirty LGBTQIA+ summer fling love story. Instead, I got this book. I hope it finds its target audience, and someone out there fully appreciates all it has to offer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for an advanced copy of this book.

While I enjoyed the fun and spicy queer romance of this book a lot it seemed pretty cliche. There was so much drama. Too much predictability. It had lots of potential but didn't quite make it for me.

This was like if the girls from "The Clique" grew up in the best way. A perfect beach read: fun, some spice, some personal growth, something for everyone. Extra points for saying ON Long Island and not IN Long Island.

ARC Review: Hotter in the Hamptons by Tinx
This one just wasn’t for me. The influencer/reality TV vibe didn’t really click, and while I can see how it might appeal to some, I found it hard to connect with the main character—she came off more self-absorbed and whiny than relatable.

As someone in the LGBTQIA+ community, I also struggled with how those elements were portrayed. It felt like they were included in a stereotypical, overly performative way that made me uncomfortable rather than seen.

While I appreciate what the book might have been going for, it ultimately didn’t land for me.

Hotter in the Hamptons is a no for me dawg. I didn't like this at all and ended up DNFing because of that.

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.