Soon by You

• Author: Dahlia Adler
• Genre: Romance
• Publication Date: May 19, 2026 
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for providing me with an ARC of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

27 Dresses meets The Intimacy Experiment in this sexy, emotional, opposites-attract rom-com set in New York City’s Modern Orthodox community.

If Arielle Becker has to serve as a bridesmaid one more time, she’s going to scream. Between the expense, the collection of dresses she’ll never wear again, the shower planning, the Spanx, the bridezillas, the family time, the heels, and a certain judgmental wedding singer she can’t stop bumping into, she is exhausted, burned out, and seriously beginning to hate romance and all its celebrations. Besides, it’s not like any of these girls are ever gonna turn around and do the same for her; Ari is not the kind of girl a good Jewish boy is looking to marry.

Judah Klein may be the tri-state area’s most in-demand Modern Orthodox wedding singer and eligible bachelor, but after years of uninspiring setups, he’s just about to give up on looking for his own Happily Ever After. Then a fiery, infuriating bridesmaid steps on his foot at a wedding, and before long, trading heated barbs turns into trading hotter kisses…and a realization that maybe he’s been looking for the wrong life all along.

For the first time, Judah can finally get on board with a romance, and of course it’s thanks to the one woman who has no interest in settling down – especially not with a guy who lives in the spotlight and has a professional reputation to uphold. But when neither one seems able to move on from a relationship that wasn’t meant to go anywhere, they’ll have to figure out whether there’s a possible future for two people who’ve already given up on love.

When I first started blogging, getting me to read a romance was like pulling teeth. But over the years, I’ve discovered that I actually enjoy romances, especially rom-coms. If you’re at all familiar with my blog, you might also be aware that I particularly enjoy Jewish stories. Fortunately, this book had all of the elements that make a good read for me so it was incredibly easy to request this and do a little happy dance when I was approved. It helps that I’ve read a few of Adler’s other books and loved them.

It is set in a little Jewish segment of New York City—the Modern Orthodox Jewish community. This is a subset of the Orthodox Jewish community that tends to integrate rather than live in environments that are more isolated. There are different ideas in play although the core meaning is still the same, and I really loved seeing how mindfully their practices are. Adler has written about Jewish characters in her other books, and always manages to present great representation regardless of the differences in community. In this book, she brings the Modern Orthodox representation to the forefront, and I loved learning more about this group of Jews.

The novel incorporates two of my favorite romance tropes: opposites attract and forced proximity. Belonging to an already small group of people, this smaller sub-group is naturally in forced proximity. Most Jewish Americans find themselves playing what is fondly known as ‘Jewish geography,’ where you look at potential shared family, friends, etc. The vast majority have at least one overlapping relationship, but when you deal with someone who is famous among their community, this puts immense pressure on them and places not only their performances, but also their everyday interactions and behavior under a microscope. 

Which brings us to the central dilemma of this romance: Judah is a well-known singer for weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs within this Jewish community, and Ari, the bridesmaid of the moment with a ‘bad reputation.’ As someone who depends on the community to uphold his in-demand status, Judah’s behavior is even more subject to scrutiny than Ari’s, and I want to talk a little about Ari’s ‘reputation.’ When you live within a small community (think of a very tiny town), nothing escapes notice, and any behavior outside the norm is looked down upon. Modern Orthodox people are either ‘shomer negiah’ or not, and that is translated to mean ‘guarding touch’ or not, which means they avoid physical contact between men and women outside of the family. People are allowed to make their own choice about it, but it often reads like Judah is always on and viewed as an ideal nice Jewish boy. 

This puts a lot of pressure on Judah as a man who is shomer negiah, and it is made clear early on that Ari is not. I personally don’t have a problem respecting someone who is shomer negiah; in fact, I worship at a Chabad synagogue where shomer negiah is pretty much a given unless there is an emergency. Ari has a history of short-term hookups, which is not abnormal in most American men and women in their teens and twenties, but since she lives in such a small community, it leads to hardcore judgment. There are elements of slut-shaming, but putting myself in Ari’s shoes made me think about the delicate balance between exploring natural urges while upholding religious and traditional ideals. Even so, hearing an immature nickname that sounds more appropriate in a high school used amongst adults in their 20s and 30s gave me some ick.

Underneath all the witty banter and funny jokes, this is also very much about how Modern Orthodox people inhabit their roles within the community and within American society overall. I enjoyed seeing both of these characters grow over the course of the story, and the way Adler chose to make this a dual perspective novel allowed me to get a better understanding of both Judah and Ari. I was on board for the romance, but I also felt like the central problem within their relationship was not actually resolved. 

I absolutely loved the side characters. Akiva, Gideon, and Liana were standouts, and I love that they offer such diverse perspectives to both Judah and Ari. Adler is also known for her queer Jewish characters, and there’s one character who is both queer and Modern Orthodox—I enjoyed seeing this character reconcile their religious beliefs with societal expectations and their queerness, and would have liked to see a bit more of this in the main characters.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable read that was the only spicy, Modern Orthodox Jewish romance I’ve ever seen. I was surprised at how spicy it was, although it was very well-written spice. The humor was another thing that made this a really enjoyable read, and it made me chuckle more than a few times. At the same time, I also loved the Jewish representation and the peek into a closed community that many people don’t see. I would have liked to see the differences between Judah and Ari get more of a resolution than come across as being brushed aside. Obviously, there are a lot of terms in Hebrew, and Adler includes a glossary at the back rather than interrupt the flow of the story each time a term comes up, which I thought was a nice touch. There is a bit of circular thinking in both Judah and Ari, which got a little frustrating in the central part of the novel, but there were so many other things I could focus on. The wonderful side characters, great representation, and the witty banter between all the characters had me eating this up, and the alternating chapters between Ari and Judah kept things interesting and ensured that I never had to guess what they were thinking. So this was a read I couldn’t and didn’t want to put down, flying through it in just a couple of days. 

Bottom line: A peek into the life of two Modern Orthodox young adults as they navigate their world and the dating experience, this spicy, hilarious, and relatable rom-com is one not to miss.