I really enjoyed the writing style of The Sizzle Paradox! Conversation flowed well and the characters were charming. Would definitely read more from Lily Menon!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the review copy of this book!

Note: in the author's note at the end of this book, I learned that Lily Menon also writes under the name Sandhya Menon, who you may be familiar with from her popular YA novels such as When Dimple Met Rishi. If you liked those books, you may be interested in seeing how Menon's writing translates to the adult romance realm!

Since I've been devouring cartoon cover romances this year, especially those set in academia (since I spent a lot of time in PhD school and all), wanted to pick this up for the fun academic-y premise. This was exactly what I was expecting based on the book summary: a friends-to-lovers romance set in academia with spicy content. The story is about Lyric, a psychology PhD student studying the relationship between sexual and emotional attraction in partners. Lyric herself has never been able to find a partner that she feels both with, so her roommate and bestie, Kian, offers to help tutor her in dating so she can become less awkward and maybe, just maybe, figure out the secret to this chemistry so she can put the final, personal touches on her thesis project.

Let's just cut to the chase: I gave this book three stars, which means I would recommend it to some people but it was very average in terms of my personal reading experience. On one level, I am ALWAYS here for the warm fuzzies of a romance exploding in the second half of a spicy book. This book had the build up, the chemistry, kissing, and all the fun bits that just helped me escape the real world for a bit to get caught up in the intensity of these characters falling in love.

However, two main issues kept this book from being spectacular for me.

First, as a (former) academic, some of the academic-y stuff felt a bit off to me. A small example would be when Kian defended his dissertation and then walked across the stage to graduate the next week. I don't know about other academics, but I had to defend several weeks before graduation so that I had time to complete any edits and formatting before final submission of all of my documents to the graduate school!

There were other nitpicky details like that that I could forgive, overall, but it was Lyrics journey with her Sizzle Paradox research that took me out of the story. The overall concept of it felt forced, especially Lyric's insistence that she had to personally feel/experience the Sizzle Paradox herself in order to make her research stronger. I'm sorry, but that just felt unnecessary and unrealistic for a PhD student whose project is "basically funding the whole lab." She clearly had all of her data and could have published her paper and graduated, but she couldn't because she needed to feel a tingle-in-her-down-there? That doesn't quite jive with the type of rigorous, scientific, quantitative psychological research she was portrayed as working on.

Second, the love story here felt forced for the plot. Lyric and Kian are besties who claim they would be a "disaster" romantically -- fine. But then they concoct a really strange fake-dating plot where Kian "tutors" Lyric to be less awkward so she can better find her sizzle paradox, and Lyric is to help give Kian advice to better his dating life as well. This would all be fine, except they don't ever do much actual tutoring or advice giving on these "dates." Despite that, they keep going on them and even escalate to a very random "Weekend Getaway" fake date. Could they not just go to the destination wedding as friends? Why did it have to involve tutoring...that never even actually happened on the date? It was all a little strange.

The final kicker was a fake date at the treehouse restaurant where Kian and Lyric somehow end up ignoring their dinners and getting naked at the table, then going outside to have sex in the grass. I was a bit confused about where all of the people working there would have been during this encounter and how Kian and Lyric managed this feat! But I guess that's the kind of belief you suspend in the name of romance?

Throw in some heavy miscommunication/lack of clear communication to complicate matters at the end and I was definitely a little "meh" by the time the story was over. The romance reader in me was happy for the Happily Ever After, but the skeptical, critical, curmudgeonly old lady in me was not overly impressed with how the pieces of this were forced together to make the plot work.

Overall, I would recommend this book to folks who love to read romance without thinking too much about the details. I know those folks are out there, and there are probably more of those folks than there are folks like me!

Thank you for an advanced copy of this book!

Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Pub Date: June 28, 2022

I was super excited for this book, and there were many elements of it I enjoyed. First, I love anytime graduate students are given representation. It is so hard being a grad student and both rewarding and frustrating, and I think it helps when you see yourself in a story. Second, I also love a good friends to lovers story. Third, I thought the topic was super interesting. You don't read about a lot of experts in sexual chemistry, and Lyric was definitely an expert in theory, if not practice. These three elements made the book pretty interesting.

Unfortunately, the characters fell really flat for me. Lyric was just boring and Kian just didn't do it for me either. I wasn't invested at all in their love story, and I didn't really care if they ended together or not...which is not a good sign for a romance book!

While I found this one full of potential, it ended up falling flat for me. I was really torn between a two and a three star rating for it, but I ultimately went with three because of the positives I listed on the front end of the review.

The Sizzle Paradox is a cute read but in all honesty, it fell a little short of sizzling for me. Lyric is writing up her thesis on what she is calling the Sizzle Paradox - a combination of things that when put together with a scan of the brain can affirm or deny if what a couple has is truly a life long true love situation.

Lyric lives with her best friend Kian. From the get go, the reader can feel that these two main characters are emotionally committed to each other stunting any other romantic relationships that they have. However, they can't see it. Kian commits to tutoring Lyric in how to date and voila! a series of dates leads to the discovery of the feelings they were afraid to admit to themselves.

The non-communication trope in books drives me absolutely bonkers and this book was filled with it. I'm guessing that's why I found myself not connecting as well with this story as I wanted to. I did however enjoy the adorable moments between Lyric and Kian.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this Advanced Reader Copy for my honest review. This book has a publish date of June 28th so if you enjoy a fake-dating romance with women in STEM and a happy ending, pre-order today!

Lyric and Kian are best friends and have been roommates for years. They've always told everyone they're great friends, but would be a disaster of a relationship. When Lyric's research on sexual attraction has stalled due to her own lack of chemistry with various dates, Kian offers to take her on fake dates to help her figure out what's going wrong. Of course, they begin to see each other in a new light.

For a graduate student studying relationships and sexual attraction, Lyric was painfully naive about relationships, and I got strong Emma vibes from how cluelessly Lyric kept trying to pair up Kian and her friend Zoey when it was very, very obvious that neither of them was interested in the other.

This was a super cute and easy read that will be perfect for this upcoming summertime season. It has women-in-stem representation, faking dating, friends-to-lovers (who are also roommates), and decent spice! The only negatives is that the plot is a little predictable and the MC Lyric comes off a lil too quirky at times. But overall an enjoyable read.

I give it 4/5 overall and 2/5 on a spice scale.

Thank you St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

thank you smp for this e-arc!

i adore lily/sandya’s ya novels, and the fact that she’s writing adult novels now?? sign me up!!

the sizzle paradox has both friends to lovers AND fake dating!! my two favorite tropes!! i liked how this book had a different take on fake dating.

the sexual tension was intense; kian and lyric were truly something

the friendships >>

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.

Overall, I liked this story, but I truly never felt invested in it, and was bored at times while reading. Lyric and Kian were cute, but even as friends I did not feel their chemistry. It didn't feel like a best friends to lovers story while I was reading.

The science piece of the book was pretty interesting, but I wanted more. I think the book felt a bit surface level for me, which is fine sometimes, but I was just left feeling unsatisfied. I also felt like the characters were talking to me, which just felt weird to me and I didn't love it.

All in all, I liked it, but I didn't love it.

An adorable story of best friends turned lovers, I adored this story of Lyric and Kian. Although I was frustrated by their lack of communication at times even though they were best friends and could read each other by only their body languages, the romance between made my heart sing. Loved this book and would highly recommend this friends to lovers story.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review*

I love Sandhya/Lily Menon and her writing. This book was a tad predictable yet had interesting discussions of what a person may want in their life. The adventure to find parts of yourself and what you want in life was done nicely for both characters even if a little predictable. I did enjoy the fake dating aspects, Kian is confident within the dating sphere whereas Lyric is awkward. I liked the friends to lovers trope once they figured out their issues.

I felt the miscommunication between Lyric and Kian a little bit annoying considering they live together and have been best friends for a while. I am not sure how they misinterpreted one another so wrongly but that can also signify that just because you think you know someone well, there is always a different side to them. This book felt a little slow in the middle and I wish that was not the case because the beginning of the book had me hooked. Overall I enjoyed that the book had dual POV allowing for a switch in perspectives with Lyric and Kian and I appreciated the sweet moments between the two of them.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC.

This story follows a classic case of two friends who are - perfect - for each other but won’t admit it to themselves or each other. A total Gordie and Lizzie situation (yes I referenced Lizzie McGuire…I mean it was really the best friends to lovers story). Throw in a fake dating scenario, some miscommunication and you’ve got yourself a page turner!

The inner dialogue for Lyric was so well written and very relatable. She is awkward and dorky while also being confident and brave. I found her character very relatable and enjoyed reading from her point of view. She is also a woman in STEM which was SO refreshing to read about. Her intelligence was noted clearly throughout the book and her doctorate thesis is actually a main point of the plot.

Highly recommend if you like:
➖ fake dating
➖ women in STEM
➖ friends to lovers
➖hilarious and relatable inner dialogue

I would like to thank Lily Menon, Net Galley and St Martins Press for the digital ARC. Publication date is June 28th - mark your calendars!

This book is about two best friends who have been roommates forever but there is a spark between them that makes everything complicated. Menon just started writing in the adult section and so far she is killing it. I'm loving her romance books because there is so much meaning behind the relationship and the chemistry is amazing. The writing in this book is amazing when it came to the plot, setting, conflicts and pacing. I was instantly hooked from the first page and couldn't get over how amazing the characters were in this book with their relationship. I was also really surprised how much humor was in this book because I laughed so many times along with their being so many memorable scenes that I will never forget about.

This book is written in Lyric and Kian's pov. Lyric studies sexual chemistry and needs Kian's help to find the guy. Kian is her best friend who's hot and can get any girl so he helps Lyric with her project. I loved both of these characters and they were so easy to relate to especially Lyric. I do have to say that I was a tad disappointed with the lack of diversity with the MCs. In Menon's YA books, the MC's are full on Indians but I noticed that in the Adult series they are half Indian or kind of washed off. The side characters are okay but there wasn't a main SC in this book that I remember. The romance was the best part especially with this book having the best friends/roommate trope which has some spice to it.

The ending was well done and was happy with the book. I just wish it was more diverse then it was because that is what Menon's writing is usually known more and I love to see more Indian rep in books. I'm still happy with the love story I have read and totally recommend it. This book is perfect for fans of The Kiss Quotient and The Cheat Sheet.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this!

It was absolutely delightful - I love friends to lovers and fake dating, and the added academic approach to love with a perfect bonus. I really liked the pacing, and felt like the misunderstandings made sense given what the characters had been telling each other. Definitely recommend if you’re feeling a rom-com!

Thank you to St Martin Press for the review copy.

I was ecstatic when I was gifted a copy of the Sizzle Paradox as I am a long time fan of this author. The pros of this book are STEM representation, dual POV, comedy, and steamy scenes. Unfortunately, the friends-to-lovers trope is one I struggle with (I find it sorta squicky?) and the “everyone thinks me and my bff would be the perfect couple but they’re wrong aren’t they?” narrative fell a bit flat for me. I also didn’t love one half of the protagonist and found her chapters rather tiresome. It’s a cute story that would do very well as a rom-com on the screen and I hope we keep seeing more from this author! I would still recommend it for anyone looking for a fluffy summer read.

Longtime best friends and roommates, Kian and Lyric are nearing the end of their doctoral studies. He will be graduating soon, and Lyric has just one more year to go. She seems to be stuck with her dissertation. She has the research, but she lacks the personal experience that connects her to the theory behind her Sizzle Paradox. Kian, wanting to help out his best friend, offers to tutor her on how to date, so she can become better at making connections.

This one has some tropes that I adore in romance books–STEM representation, roommates, fake dating (sort of), and he falls first. It has alternating, dual points-of-view, so we see both Lyric’s and Kian’s perspectives. It has LGBTQ representation.

This one is definitely a slow-burn, with some bursts of passion. It is a friends-to-lovers romance, where neither of them realizes that they are in love until much later in the storyline.

I was excited about this book, and the first half was a page-turner for me. It kept me laughing out loud in the beginning. Somewhere along the way, though, it fell flat for me.

3.5 stars

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an eARC of the book. All opinions are my own.

The book was fair but fell a little flat for me. In general I like the friends to lovers trope but just couldn’t get into this book. Nice cover 🙂

I usually love friends to lovers trope and its a bonus if there is fake dating involved. Lyric Bishop and her roommate Kian Montgomery are both working on their PHDs. (Yay STEM!) Lyric is studying sexual chemistry in dating and dutifully rates her dates and kissing and more encounters. She is a little lost and confused as to what her data is telling her and she needs to start working on her dissertation. Kian is more of a casual player never in relationships that last. But he doesn’t want to become like his philandering father. Kian offers to tutor Lyric on some of his dating moves so she can move forward in her research. This sets up the fake dating. But of course as the title suggests together they sizzle.

This is a cute basic story. Family’s and friends add some depth. But the story falls a little short as the characters fall into miscommunication drama. These two have been roomies and best friends for years but suddenly after they kiss it is like their brains shut off and they don’t know each other. Of course everything is going to work out. The story is good and readable but it had the potential to be more. I would absolutely read the author again but I wont remember these characters very long. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. (3.5 stars)

Lyric and Kian are BFFs and even tho some people say that they would be great together, they both believe it would be a disaster. When Lyric has trouble working on her thesis, she turns to Kian for help who happens to be great at dating.

This was your classic friends to lovers trope which I love but I unfortunately did not connect to the characters. The beginning for me was really hard to get into. It took me 3 days to get to a third of the book, but once they start their lessons, it started picking up a bit.

It was cute and I think I wouldve liked it a lot more if I simply connected with some of the characters.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC.

I really wanted to love this book. I mean the cover is adorable and the synopsis made it sound like so much fun! Yay academia romance! Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, friends-to-lovers is just never going to be the trope for me. That, combined with the immature heroine, lack of communication, and the slow progression of the storyline, caused this one to fall flat. It was cute and lighthearted, but I just couldn't into it and didn't really care how things turned out.

I was a bit wary of this one when I realized it was the same author of Make Up Break Up. I DNF that book. But I liked the tropes in this one. Friends to lovers, fake relationship, women in STEM. So I gave it a try.

I loved the dual narration. You could see the mutual pining. I did think this sort of read like a young adult. Aside from the steamy scenes. Both characters were immature and dealt with their evolving feelings in a bad way.

I thought Lyric's research was funny/cute/interesting. Sort of reminds me of the TV show Masters of Sex. You don't hear a lot about sexual research. I think Lyric got too obsessed with her "Sizzle Paradox."

I think friends to lovers can be tricky because it seems like one day they wake up and are in love. For this story both seemed to deny their feelings pretty intensely from the beginning and then all of the sudden they are kissing and having sex. Like what exactly happened? Did they suddenly just decide not to fight their feelings. I think maybe there should have been more development through the story.

The spice was on point. If you like a tasteful open door scene then this is one you want to look for.

This is out in June! Check it out!