In this friends/roommates-to-lovers contemporary romance, Lyric and Kian face the music about their relationship's potential and fall in love. Fyi it's a romance novel, so that's not a spoiler. Against a grad school backdrop, Kian tutors Lyric in how to date better for her academic research. Yes, that is a sentence I wrote. Backdrop is the keyword here because aside from a few jokes about stats and being poor and/or nerdy, the characters basically act like normal humans, which is highly inaccurate based on my experience. Grad school is its own hellscape, and that culture isn't portrayed much in the book. Furthermore, you can throw around words like "abstract" and "ANOVA" to your heart's content, but if you think someone's cognitive psychology research is going to pass peer review with personal musings on finding love, you've never sat down and read a journal in all its dry, passive voice glory.

Let's talk about the romance, though. One person teaching the other to flirt/date is a hard sell for me because it implies there's a right way to do everything, which I have found to be a damaging mindset. But I also understand/respect being anxious or uncomfortable and seeking a friend for advice, so that leaves me with a mix of feelings. In trade for setting Kian up with someone he's not excited about, though? I think by trying to make it quid pro quo, the author actually emphasizes the imbalance of services they're offering to each other. It's especially weird given that Kian said he was happy to help without anything in return (as we would hope a friend would), indicating this is about creating drama down the road rather than any kind of logic. Beyond my issues with the premise, I found the romance to be abrupt and generic, which prevented me from summoning any enthusiasm. The final act fight is not exactly miscommunication drama but honestly something worse- non-communication drama based on assumptions and passive aggression and morose, childlike behavior worthy of one of my 6th graders with their undeveloped brains.

Another big issue for me is that the writing is eh *shrug* level. The use of first person narration only further drove home how irritating I found both leads. Being that up close and personal with Lyric's raging insecurities and Kian thinking possessive "caveman" thoughts (his words) really ruined everything else they might want to transmit to me in an all-caps stream-of-consciousness freakout that already wasn't fun to begin with. The book reads as New Adult even though it's about grad students due to the maturity levels on display (negligible). And there's a reason I say college-age humans are at their worst stage of life. I intend to use this book as further evidence in my campaign against people in that phase of life being in contact with me in any way.

I will finish up with a random pro and con to even things out. Pro: Lyric's lesbian best friend frequently bemoans how stupid straight people are, and that's fun. Con: the book features a throwaway comment about a photo of Lyric and Kian (neither of whom are Latinx) wearing sombreros and eating tacos together and WHY. Has the recent Great British Bake-Off Fiasco taught us nothing??? (to be fair, this book was published before that, but STILL.)

So, yeah. End rant, mic drop, etc.

I wanted to like this book, but there’s nothing really different from any other recent romcom. There was nothing surprising or unique to this story.

How do two broke PHD students afford this 5 star hotel trip to London? It just made no sense.

I won’t be posting about this on my Instagram, but I will review on goodreads.

Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted ebook.

This was fun and I generally really enjoy this author’s writing. This book was not my favorite of hers but the characters were sweet!

The Sizzle Paradox is a friends-to-lovers romance. Lyric and Kian are best friends, roommates, and both doctoral students working on their thesis. Lyric hasn't had good luck with relationships so Kian agrees to "train" her. What ensues is a lot of miscommunication.

The book is written with alternate points of view for each chapter - so you get both his and hers. There are some laughs and romance, I didn't really connect with the characters that much. The first bit of the book was a bit slow for me but I did get into it more towards that latter part. I also felt like there was more potential for some more heat in the romance department - it was a bit lukewarm at times.

Stopped reading at the 33% mark. I could not get into this one. I really honestly didn’t like or relate to either of the main characters - you’re telling me Lyric studies sexual chemistry but thinks it’s a good idea to bring up duck penises on a date? And Kian was so cocky that it turned me off. I couldn’t bring myself to root for either of them.

I wanted to like this book. I love friends-to-lovers and women in stem. When you read a lot of romance, certain tropes pop up a lot and that's okay, but THE SIZZLE PARADOX just felt uninspired and over done.

There is nothing new about a smart woman with poor social skills who spouts scientific facts when nervous. This has been done over and over and over again. And THE SIZZLE PARADOX just rehashes the same characters and the same plot lines I have read so many times before.

I skimmed and them finally gave up.

Cute and predictable read. But nonetheless I enjoyed this friends to lovers romance. Perfect Summer read.

This was cute! I liked their friendship a lot & their loooove. I enjoyed it! There was something keeping it from being a 5 star read for me, but I can’t pinpoint it.

Lily Menon is one of my favorite authors, as she writes some of the sweetest novels with the most relatable characters.

The Sizzle Paradox is a fake dating trope, set in the STEM world (similar to The Love Hypothesis) except we have Lyric, a brilliant scientist who is struggling to finish her research, who recruits her best friend Kian, the soon-to-be doctor, and beloved campus hottie to help her out, no-strings-attached. Of course, the fake dating idea backfires, Lyric and Kian realize that maybe their relationship probably needs to change and how to navigate it all. There are so many tropes (friends to lovers, forced proximity, fake dating) in here that somehow work and I especially loved how much representation there is throughout the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book sizzled just as much as the title would indicate! Gave me Love Hypothesis vibes in the best way,

DNF. Felt like a Love Hypothesis copycat but less engaging. I was quickly bored and set it aside and forgot about it.

This was just the friends to lovers adult romance I was in the mood for! I loved Lyric's love of crystals and that her roommate Kian appreciates them too. I thought her thesis on sexual chemistry was the perfect lead into their romance going from friendship to possible romance. The fact that he recruits himself to give her dating advice through fake dating made for a fun plotline.

It was a fast paced read and had the perfect amount of spice for my current mood. I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for a little romance in their reading life!

I was hoping to love this book but sadly it wasn’t for me. I found the main character to be very immature for her age, the romance to be to Insta love and too much going on in the background of the story (family, friends ). Some of it distracted from the main purpose of the story and I didn’t feel like it really added to the characters growth in anyway.

There is a little bit of spice and I found it a little enjoyable but it didn’t get me excited as some romances do. Considering the two characters are friends who become lovers, I expected a little more difficulty when making the choice to be together.

I really thought I would enjoy this one, but I struggled with it from the start! It didn't grab me the way I hoped it would, but that's probably a me problem more than anything else.

I needed more!! It was slightly cringe and I wasn't a fan of the characters. I had high hopes for this one.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

I enjoyed this light, swoony stem romance. The dual perspective and friends to lovers are two of my favorite things and they worked well here. It felt more realistic that neither main character was pining over the other and as they slowly realized they had feelings for each other it came together in a swoony, believable way.

I loved this cute little friends to lovers story. It was relatively predictable but a fun adventure to get there. I do love when characters won't really admit to themselves that their feelings are real. It was a cute rom-com I'd definitely recommend. I was lucky enough to read the eARC alongside listening to the audiobook and it really helped set a tone.

** Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. **

A cute, quick read that I absolutely adored! While the characters felt a little flat, the chemistry between them didn't suffer. This is a nice, cozy, friends to lovers romance with a moderate steam level.

If you loved any of the fiction that has come out lately featuring women and men in STEM, then you will enjoy this. Very reminiscent of The Love Hypothesis and The Kiss Quotient, this book made me root for the main characters. While it wasn't my favorite story ever, it filled the space for wanting to read more books about academically-minded, maybe a little less common-sense minded people. It is a fun and cute romance.

This book was weird. I did not like Lyric’s immaturity and I did not vibe with this book at all.

A huge thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for providing me a copy of the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.