This book had my emotions all over the place!

"We are introduced to Lyric and Kian, best friends and roommates finishing up their phds. Expect Lyric is stuck. She is having a hard time relating to her research and therefore cannot defend her thesis. She's never had a relationship where she didn't friend zone her partner. Why has she never romantically connected to someone?

Kian jumps in to help and one things leads to another. This in turn makes Lyric and Kian's friendship complicated."

And that is all I will share! Read it yourself.

Overall I loved the book, it really keeps moving and doesn't give you a chance to get bored. I like that the author dropped us in the middle a friendship instead of building up to friendship. It just gave a different perspective than we normally get in romance.

Did you like The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams, but found yourself wishing it was chock full of millennial cringe? Then have I got the book for you!

I counted FOUR times that the female main character referred to herself as an “awkward potato”, two mentions of loving The Office, two of three mentions of a Friends obsession, and talk of “adulting”. And these are just the things I can easily recall. As an almost millennial (‘97 baby— what am I??), I found this book to be absolutely insufferable and cheugy.

On top of all of that, the story and characters were just not good. They felt very immature and stupid. Friends to lovers can be done so well, but this is just not an example of that. These two sucked so bad at communicating and will definitely be breaking up in the future.

I considered DNFing, but stuck it out since it was so short. I honestly wish it was shorter.

thank you for the review copy; i wish i had liked it

I love a little stem, mixed in with my romance. I liked that the heroine was smart, and I enjoyed the banter between both the heroine and hero. It’s a cute book that was entertaining from start to finish.

This book was so ridiculously adorable! I loved every second of it! It was my first time reading this author, and I can't wait to see what they come out with next!

This was a cute romcom. i read it with a handful of other romcoms and loved them all. So although I cant remember all the details, I know i enjoyed this!
Thank you!

I liked this one conceptually more than in execution I think. There’s nothing overtly wrong with it, it was a cute and quick read. The academic setting is one of my favorites (although these characters felt so very young).

I wasn’t really connecting with either of the two MCs and I’m not sure if I could pin point why aside from there being a few of my not favorite tropes lined up one after the other. Friends-to-lovers (with an “instant” revelation that all of the sudden they’re in love), sex to “get it out of their system” and then miscommunication at the end that sends the two apart.

Overall, the story was decent and had some fun side characters to keep things interesting. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy to read and review.

I enjoyed this 2nd adult story by Lily Menon. Told from the alternating perspectives of Lyric and her best friend/room mate Kian, it has a couple of my favorite tropes: friends to lovers and fake dating. And Lyric’s extended family-mother, father and 4-5 siblings were great characters, too!

I particularly liked the final life scenes and the love and support these two have for each other. The only thing I didn’t care for was that these best friends didn’t communicate with each other well.

Thank you to #netgalley and #stmartinsgriffin for the advanced e-copy of #thesizzleparadox.

I have loved everyone of Sandhya Menon's YA novels! To be completely honestly, I did not enjoy her debut adult novel as Lily Menon, "Make up Break up" as much. I felt similarly about the Sizzle Paradox. I definitely think I'm more inclined to stick to her YA books.
A sincere thank you to NetGallery for this book.

The MCs were so immature and just didn’t have that much personality. The book kept telling me they were best friends but there was very little backstory to the being best friends. And why was Lyric just dying to set Kian up with someone she wasn’t even really friends with. Also the chemistry between them was really lacking. There was so much tell and very little show in this book, and it just didn’t work for me.

Thought this would be a "Love Hypothesis" type novel, but unfortunately it didn't give the same feels. Disappointing for me.

*Thank you @stmartinspress for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Review not posted to Amazon/Goodreads because less than 4 stars or DNF.*

4.5 stars - Kian and Lyric make a delicious pairing for this friends-to-lovers romance. I love this particular trope and for the first troupe. I’ve read 100s of them. Yet, only with this one, for the first time, I found myself picturing how terrifying, awkward, and tenuous moving a relationship out of the friend zone must feel. This is a testament to how well Lily Menon crafted this story and these characters. Reading it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lyric is in her grad program studying the effects that love has on a neurological way. However, Lyric hasn’t felt any of these feelings before and feels like she’s failing in her research. Lyrics roommate Kian offers to tutor her in the ways of romance to show her the way. However, they both might have agreed to something they shouldn’t have.

I really enjoyed this cute read and wanted to know what was going to happen between the two of them. Are they going to stay friends or will it be something more?

Thank you #NetGalley for the advance copy

love a roommates/friends to lovers and add in some science and love "tutoring" and it was enjoyable mostly!

This was an okay read. 🫤

✔️Woman in STEM
✔️ Fake dating
✔️ Dual POV (every book needs this)
✔️ Nerdy characters
📉 Miscommunication (one of the worst tropes)
📉 Poor character development
📉 Immature characters

Lyric Bishop and Kian Montgomery are grad students, roommates, and best friends. Lyric’s thesis is on physical and emotional intimacy and how they affect the body. Lyric does the research herself and struggles to find high levels of both in a single person. Cue Kian. She decides to get daring help from her best friend, Kian. As they start fake dating, they start to see each other in a different light.

Predictable but as cute at times. It was rough when Lyric would constantly ping pong back and forth between liking Kian and not. A bit of a headache. You’re mid to late 20s. I’m hoping they would understand what it would feel like to actually have feelings for someone.

The ending also seemed very rushed. All of a sudden 0 to 100. Minimal build up.

Overall, an okay romance. Not a need-to-read book.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Enjoyed this but didn’t love it. Sometimes these cartoon covers are hot or miss for me. Overall okay

It took me over 3 months to read this book. I tried and tried and tried, but it just fizzled out for me. Actually, it never real got started. I just did not like the main characters at all.

oof this one was,,,, not good. super weird dialogue and vocabulary choices, seemed like a wannabe love hypothesis.

I wasn't able to read this one before publication day and then the reviews weren't the best so I put off reading this one but I actually really liked it a lot and I'm sad I waited so long to read it! This was probably one of the best friends to lovers books I've read. I did think the Sizzle Paradox thesis was a little silly but I just loved how this book really showcased their friendship and the obstacles they went through to become lovers. There was chemistry and tension and I really loved their relationship. I though the side characters were entertaining as well. It felt like the female main character might be neurodivergent but I wasn't 100% sure if that is what the author was going for but I really enjoyed her as she was trying to figure things out. I was also happy to see more women in STEM! I also enjoyed the different POVs. This was a fun read close to Valentine's Day. I'm just so shocked the reviews aren't higher.

*Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

Friends to lovers is probably my least favorite trope, coupled with the himbo MMC and dorky, awkward FMC - yeah this was very much not for me. I enjoyed the science and school aspect as I have an interest in research and academic love stories (my personal love story is through schooling), but overall I was bored and put off by both characters. Also, "teaching dating" to your inexperienced friend is such a weird story line for me, especially as internally both are cringey about it.

Overall yikes kind of book for me *personally*. This could be your next favorite book simply because the aforementioned tropes are your favorites. This does has a lot of positives, there is some good racial representation and friendships.

That's about all I can say about this one honestly. It's not for me. But that's okay.

**Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review**

This was a cute slow burn friends to lovers romance. My one gripe is that maybe the slow burn was a little too slow. I just wanted them to kiss already, because I loved their relationship. lol