Ari Beck­er, the edi­tor of a spicy romance site, is exhaust­ed by the prospect of attend­ing yet anoth­er wed­ding, espe­cial­ly the one for which she’s asked to take out her ​“trashy pierc­ings.” Yes, she’s always the brides­maid, nev­er the bride, but mar­riage isn’t on her radar. She’s wor­ried about how her tight friend group has start­ed to slip away into the world of wives while she’s try­ing to sur­vive wear­ing impos­si­bly high heels. That’s what she’s think­ing when she acci­den­tal­ly top­ples into the Mod­ern Ortho­dox wed­ding singer under the chup­pah. Judah Klein is hav­ing a moment. He’s gone viral after a video of him croon­ing Elvis Pres­ley was post­ed by a dis­as­trous first date who treat­ed him like a celebri­ty juke­box. He’s been the tight-knit Jew­ish community’s most eli­gi­ble bach­e­lor for years, but he’s nev­er felt a spark with any­one, doesn’t believe it’s pos­si­ble for him, and doesn’t ini­ti­ate sec­ond dates. But after meet­ing Ari, he can’t get her out of his mind. And the woman he’s nick­named Stompy McGlare­maid couldn’t be more ill-suit­ed for him.

Dahlia Adler’s lat­est nov­el, Soon By You, is an ene­my-to-lovers romance that peeks into the closed world of New York City’s young Ortho­dox Jews with authen­tic­i­ty, spice, humor, and a gen­er­ous amount of f‑bombs.

Ari knows who she is, and she’s not a good girl. When she and Judah share one good kiss and then more, she sees Judah’s believed asex­u­al­i­ty and prac­tice of shomer negiah torn into sham­bles. She steps back because he needs to fig­ure him­self out. Besides, Ari believes she can’t be the right girl for Judah. At thir­ty years old, they’re both run­ning out of time to find a mar­riage match, and Ari knows she’s the one men want to meet in the bed­room, not under the chup­pah. She isn’t even sure if she wants mar­riage and chil­dren and the life that comes with being an Ortho­dox wife, espe­cial­ly one as pub­lic as Judah’s would need to be. As Judah leaves to go on tour, they agree to stop see­ing each oth­er, seek out oth­ers in the hopes of damp­en­ing the fire they feel between them. Judah meets and dates the Nice Jew­ish Girls the match­mak­er finds for him. They’re per­fect­ly fine. But they’re not Ari.

Judah returns to Ari and con­fess­es how he feels about her. They share the first date Judah always want­ed, at his favorite restau­rant, the fan­ci­est kosher place in Man­hat­tan. The place isn’t what makes the date amaz­ing, though: it’s the con­nec­tion between them. That con­nec­tion changes every­thing. Judah and Ari find them­selves live on the inter­net and Judah’s phone blows up with cru­el com­ments from his com­mu­ni­ty and his fans. When they post Ari’s crude nick­name, one relat­ed to her ease with phys­i­cal inti­ma­cy, Judah real­izes every­thing he has to lose.

Adler is at her best explor­ing the nuances of char­ac­ters forced to the mar­gins, espe­cial­ly her depic­tions of queer and ace sex­u­al­i­ty and body pos­i­tiv­i­ty. Soon By You is a sat­is­fy­ing read about the impor­tance of find­ing who you are, espe­cial­ly inside a com­mu­ni­ty with rigid expectations.

Join Dahlia Adler (Soon By You) and Lily Mey­er (The End of Romance) for a con­ver­sa­tion about nav­i­gat­ing the com­pli­cat­ed world of Jew­ish sex, romance, and iden­ti­ty in con­tem­po­rary life on May 13th at 7p.m. Grab your free tickets!