Well goodness. I feel terrible about what I am getting ready to say....I loved. I mean, let me make that super clear. I LOVED The Roommate.
The Intimacy Experiment....I didn't finish. I know, I know. I gave it a solid try y'all. 40% and I'm bored. I expected spicy based on The Roommate and it did not deliver. I didn't feel any chemistry between the characters and frankly. I just couldn't keep going.

To be fair, I would read Rosie again.....This particular book was not a good fit for me!

The relationship that Naomi has with herself and her religion goes on an amazing journey throughout this novel. I love that we are getting more OwnVoices Jewish novels this year and I love this book so much!

Rosie Danan writes so beautifully. Seriously, her words are like smooth, soft butter. This book managed to be so sexy, yet so soft at the same time. I adored Naomi for her strength, humor, vulnerability, honesty, and eagerness to grow. And Ethan. Well, if any of my rabbis had been remotely as openminded (and good looking) as him, I probably would go to synagogue (much) more often. Finally, I found the Modern Intimacy lectures to be extremely helpful on a personal level. I learned a lot that might help me in own relationships moving forward. Thank you for that Rosie Danan! I eagerly await your next novel.

I wasn't sure what to expect with Rosie Danan's follow-up to her wildly popular romance, The Roommate. Turns out I shouldn't have worried! Naomi Grant is one of my favorite romance heroines of all time, hands down, and I enjoyed The Intimacy Experiment far more than Clara and Josh's story. Naomi is an unapologetic (shameless!) former sex worker who now runs her own business creating sex education content online. When she's recruited by Rabbi Ethan Cohen to teach a seminar about relationships at his synagogue, these two opposites need to decide if their many differences are important enough to ignore the undeniable chemistry between them.

There are very few novels that cast sex workers as heroes and heroines, and even fewer that do so without judging them for their choices. Danan bucks the norm: Naomi is a loved character, full of strength and nuance and growth. Her sex work is respected part of who she is. Equally important, Ethan is never ashamed of her, never fails to support her, and never lets anyone insult her, even before he develops feelings for her. We need more relationships like theirs in the romance genre, and in the world overall.

As a survivor of revenge porn and slut-shaming, I was deeply moved by this book. I'm also amazed by Danan's ability to pull so many threads together, from faith to community to sex work to letting yourself be vulnerable when your defenses have kept you safe after so much cruelty. This book will stay with me for quite some time.

This one was just as hot and fun as The Roommate, which was honestly one of my favorite books of 2020.

Rosie Danan did it again! Last year, The Roommate was one of my favorite reads. The most wholesome and steamy book I could imagine, and I felt like this one lived up to the first book. It was lovely getting to know Naomi and Ethan was absolutely her perfect match.

Another great one from Rosie Danan! I’m really digging this series. “The Roommate” dealt with the ease of sex but the challenge of true love and intimacy. This book deals with intimacy and faith—Naomi and Ethan don’t fall into sex with the ease of Josh and Clara—which is a different kind of vulnerability. Chapter 26, the fifth of Naomi’s lecture series in the book, is PROFOUND. If you are prone to skimming, when you get to this part of the book, read the chapter in its entirety. There are too many great phrases to highlight. It addresses the challenges in a world where, because you’ve been a sex worker, then you must be damaged and deserving people’s scorn, not to mention willing to then give your body to anyone and everyone like you’re a blow-up doll. Naomi allows herself to be vulnerable, while still overwhelmingly sex-positive and being her usual fierce self.

And Josh’s path from Hollywood brat to Physics teacher to a Rabbi of Reformed Judaism brings a genuine complexity to his character.

I hope there’s one more book in this series—Danan’s been hitting it out of the park so far.

Stop me if you've heard this one.

A porn star and a rabbi walk into a bar.

Well first they meet at a conference for public educators where the porn star is looking for advice on how to improve her chances of finding work as a sex educator. As for the rabbi, Ethan Cohen, he's working desperately to save his slowly dying synagogue. He's been hired to try to revive the congregation with fresh, new ideas. When he sees Naomi deliver an impassioned speech on the need for the kind of education she provides he sees possibilities for his congregants and maybe himself.

This unlikely duo puts together a "Modern Intimacy" seminar series designed to bring a younger, more vibrant crowd to the synagogue and give Naomi some much needed, boots on the ground, experience as a teacher.

At first everything is going to plan. But, this being a contemporary romance, pretty soon both our heroes are pining away for each other. Naomi knows she could never be good enough for Ethan and he's equally sure he'd never stand a chance with anyone as beautiful and confident as her. But even when it seems they'll manage to overcome their personal insecurities and give love a chance other, more unexpected, challenges arise.

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. SO. MUCH.

I have never had this kind of experience with a contemporary romance. Never. I was on tenterhooks the entire time wondering if things would work out for this wonderful couple; whether Naomi would be able to find peace with her own, deeply conflicted, history with her Jewish faith, whether Ethan could find a true balance between his longing to serve and his undeniable love for Naomi.

I couldn't get over Danan's gorgeous prose. This woman is a true wordsmith. She dives so deep into both these characters, writing astounding internal monologues where they question themselves and what they believe and really delves into how they both feel about love and relationships of all kinds. Everything feels so rich and theatrical and kind of epic. She wants her readers to see these two as clearly as possible. They have such vibrant inner lives and realistic struggles and arcs that propel them from awkward and unhappy beginnings to a truly wonderful conclusion where we see how they've grown and changed. It seems like such an obvious thing for a novel, to have characters change in a believable and organic way, but its so important and so rarely done with this level of perfection.

She also devotes incredible amounts of time to the beauty and mysticism of Judaism, which I'm gonna go ahead and admit I know very little about, but she treats both the religion and Jewish heritage as the sacred things they are. I mean there I was in the middle of a sexy romance novel being moved to tears by the wisdom of the Talmud.

This is everything we should demand from modern American literature. That's right I said literature. Because that's what this is. True, beautifully written story telling of the absolute highest caliber. Its hiding behind a goofy, cartoony looking cover but its there. Yeah one of its main characters is a sex worker, so what? They get to have big, beautiful romances too you know. Yeah there are incredible, hot sex scenes that will leave you in a sweaty mess. Yeah its funny and silly and jaw droppingly romantic. Its also so well written it stopped my heart and made me almost giddy with excitement that human beings are capable of writing something so lovely.

So yeah a comic love story about a porn star and a rabbi is maybe one of the best books I've read in years.

Hell of a way to start 2021.

This worked for me on pretty much every single level. It's like...what if Fleabag and the Hot Priest were actually allowed to date and also had a lot of talks about their feelings? Here. For. It.

This was an absolutely fun romp of a romance read that enthralled me and captivated me, so much so that I just couldn't even put it down. Here, Naomi aka 'The Roommate' protagonists' Clara's and Josh's best friend and business partner is ready for her own love story. She, as a former sex worker turned CEO of a sex-positive startup, pretty much always goes against the grain. The book starts as she wants to extend the Shameless service into an educational platform with lectures. However, higher ed won't hire her despite her long list of qualifications for the gig. That's where Rabbi Ethan Cantor comes in. He's searching for a way to boost membership to his congregation before closure and thinks a modern intimacy slash dating seminar is the way to go. Together, they join forces to host a buzzy seminar series while dealing with their mutual attraction. So, while Rosie Danon's first novel was uber-popular in the romance community, I hadn't read it, but recalling its popularity and the high five-star reviews of this book, I was intrigued to give this one a shot. And now, I'm ready to go back and dive into the world which started it all, especially for more background on Shameless because I felt I was missing some crucial details by just diving in with the follow-up. And if you have read its predecessor, you'll enjoy seeing Clara+Josh and Shameless once more for more postHEA goodness. This book, told in dual perspectives, features fresh, fun, and engaging language that reads quickly, draws me in, and made me laugh right from the start. Here, it's very interesting and intriguing to see the correlation between sex slash intimacy and religion that's well-thought-out and interesting. Then, having two Jewish leads is such a refreshing bit of diversity rarely tackled in the romance genre, and also the queer representation, which you really love to see it. This fun romp of a book features such sizzling, delicious banter that kept me on my toes. It's empowering and sex-positive, yet vulnerable and romantic. Danon also delivers a super precious ending that had me up until two-thirty in the morning because I couldn't put this book down. Now, usually, there's a second book curse for authors, but Danon's broken that with this delightfully fun romance.

We met Naomi Grant in The Roommate by Rosie Danan and now we get her story. Naomi may have first made a name for herself as a performing adult star but now she has co-founded a successful sex positive company. Looking to expand her company into teaching in person classes, Naomi attends a seminar where she meets Ethan Cohen, the rabbi at Beth Elohim. Ethan is gorgeous and Naomi is instantly attracted to him. When Ethan offers Naomi the chance of teaching a Modern Intimacy seminar at his synagogue to increase the attendance, she jumps at the chance.

As Naomi and Ethan spend more time together, sparks begin to fly and these two find themselves going through Naomi's class syllabus at record speed. Though the seminar is increasing attendance at Beth Elohim, the synagogue's board of directors isn't too happy with the idea of Naomi being involved. As the situation starts to escalate, Ethan is forced to chose between the job he loves and woman he loves. Just when it looks like all is lost, the forces all come together and Naomi and Ethan get their happy ending.

I just loved Naomi and Ethan. Naomi is such a great kick a$$ type of girl. She has a lot of baggage in her past and she has learned how to handle it. Ethan was just as great. He was such a perfect type of guy....sweet, gentle but then so strong in his faith. Together they make for a perfect couple.

Oh this was so much fun! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about these two and LOVED how their differences only made them stronger. This author is an auto buy from me!

I liked this author's previous book a lot and was happy to get the ARC of this one. The premise was great and I loved the interweaving of religion and intimacy throughout the novel.

You know when you read those books (as a writer) and think to yourself, welp, I'm never going to be able to write anything this good. It's one of the highest compliments I can think of and Rosie Danan has done it to me twice. Her debut romance, The Roommate, was one of my favorite reads of 2020, and even though it's only January, I know The Intimacy Experiment is going to be on my list for 2021.

Naomi, who we met in the first book, is a force to be reckoned with, to say the least. After turning her successful career in porn into an empire built on sex education with her website Shameless, she has conquered it all and taken no prisoners on her rise to the top. But Naomi still feels like she is missing something. She loves the work she does online through her website, but she wants to feel that in person connection as an educator. Unfortunately, people suck, and no one wants to hire a former porn star to come teach at their school. Enter Ethan Cohen. He's a young rabbi at a failing synagogue who needs to attract new blood, and wants to target a younger audience. When he and Naomi meet at a teaching conference, he asks her to host a seminar on modern intimacy. Naomi and Ethan embark on a journey (ugh, can't believe I used that phrase, but it's true!) together that forces them to question everything they know about faith, religion, sex, love, and relationships.

First of all, I went into this book expecting to fall for Naomi, and I did. But the wholesome pure cinnamon rollness of Ethan caught me by surprise and I fell for this guy hard. Like I would die to protect him hard. He is everything I want in a hero in 2021, feminist, good, willing to admit when he's wrong, open to new experiences, the man is just about perfect. I am not religious at all in the slightest and I didn't know if that would make me feel disconnected from him, but it mostly definitely did not. And Naomi carries over all of her badassness from the first book, while also bringing in a beautiful amount of vulnerability. Let's just say my heart was punched repeatedly and I willingly took it and will go back for more.

In addition to two characters who are each in their own way so incredibly endearing, Rosie continues to bring it with plot points that are relevant and important, and writing that is so gorgeous I often found myself pausing to reread a sentence, marveling at her mastery of prose. Like the kind of writing I can only ever dream of achieving, and I don't mean that as a put down to myself, Rosie is just that good. I honestly can't wait for everyone to read this book so we can gush about how absolutely perfect it is.

The Intimacy Experiment is my first truly excellent romcom read of 2021, and I know it will remain a favorite for the rest of the year. While The Roommate was a stellar debut, with its sweet romance wrapped in edgy packaging, The Intimacy Experiment was even better. I think part of the reason I enjoyed this one more is, having already read The Roommate, I wasn't it expecting it to be as "raunchy" as some people may think upon hearing the main character is an adult entertainment star. Instead, I went in expecting Danan's wonderful storytelling about characters with heart AND desire.

In The Intimacy Experiment, Naomi Grant, retired from the adult entertainment industry and co-CEO of Shameless (from the first book, which I would highly recommend reading first), is now looking for a teaching gig. She's gotten her master's and is likely more qualified than most to teach sex ed, but no one wants to hire her. Except for a sexy rabbi, that is...

This book brought us just truly wonderful characters and I loved getting to see much more background on Naomi, who was very much an enigma in the first book. Ethan was a delight and would be good reason to convert lol. I'm not Jewish, but I also appreciated the Jewish representation in this book. Such an extensive discussion of religion isn't something we see a lot of in romcoms, especially open door ones, and I thought it was done in extremely well here and I learned a lot.

I have no idea what character could get a third book (Leah? Ethan's sister?) but I would die for one. Please. Actually, Rosie, if you're listening, I would love to see a book centered on a 40+ heroine/hero, perhaps retired from the industry.

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for my eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars - 10/10

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I adored The Roommate, so thrilled to hear Naomi was getting her very own book and it did not disappoint.

I would highly recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f friends to lovers
-close proximity
-grump/sunshine
-forbidden romance elements
- glimpses of Clara and Josh
-wonderful female friendship
-sloooow burn that pays off
-a sexually charged baseball game

Rosie Danan has done it again, another amazing inclusive book about two opposites you wouldn't expect finding love, but being perfect for each other. This book was so warm and tender, I only put it down to sleep. A book about modern intimacy, but also community. It was so beautiful how Naomi and Ethan related on building communities and the importance of it in their lives. The small details are where this book wins you over, the sexual tension always simmering, but it's the small details that truly show the emotion, who they are falling for each other, seeing the other person, accepting.

Naomi is just a rockstar, not taking shit from everyone, allowing herself to be vulnerable. I loved seeing her friendship with Clara, what we saw glimpsed at in the first book. Two women supporting each other. Honestly, I could read a book of their adventures together. Being with Ethan doesn't change her, but she grows, not letting the past trauma in her life define her.

Ethan, a cinnamon roll of goodness. How he just fell for Naomi, loving her, all of her. It's enough to make a girl swoon. I love me a bearded hero and Ethan is book boyfriend worthy. I just want to wrap him up in a blanket and protect him from the world that clearly does not deserve him.

Rating: Rave
Steam: 3/5


CW: past revenge porn, anti-semitism, slut-shaming

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've always loved the unconventional romance trope. People who are so incredibly different, yet balance each other out perfectly. A rabbi and a former porn star? Sign me up.

I loved the characters. Naomi is unapologetically herself. Fierce, blunt, wild. I love it. Her love interest, Ethan, is so sweet, tender and honest. The fact that he's a rabbi really added a unique twist to the story for me, since I haven't seen much of that in fiction. I'm here for the Jewish rep!

If you're looking for a witty, heartfelt, entertaining story that is super sex positive and has a couple of steamy scenes that will leave your heart pounding--then this is for you.

I was a bit skeptical about reading this book as I don't typically like to read anything with religion mixed in, but this was a surprise. Who knew a Rabbi could be so sexy and desirable? I really enjoyed the opposites attract theme throughout the book. And it was still spicy enough. Really enjoyed their story and loved to have characters from "The Roommate" woven into the story. Overall, great, easy, fast, and sexy read.

I liked The Roommate - but I LOVED The Intimacy Experiment. It was cute, sweet, and so UNIQUE. I am not sure I've ever read a romance with two lead characters who identify as Jewish. That is, frankly, absurd. I applaud this book for being steamy, full of heart, and just everything you hope for in a romance novel.

The first few chapters were enticing, setting the scene. The following couple chapters were a bit redundant but then it picked up about after 45% and then I couldn’t put it down until I finished. The build of their sexual tension was perfectly done. Naomi’s character growth was inspirational and so is the sex positive and whole mindset of this book and their modern intimacy seminar idea. Both of the characters were well written and strong willed, you can’t help but cheer them on. I highly recommend this friends to lovers RomCom.