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!

2.5 rounded to 3.

Read this if you like: Dual POV, fake dating, best friends to lovers, STEM representation, LGBTQ representation

The plot of this read like it would be similar to The Kiss Quotient but it fell short of that book for me. I'm going to let you know right now this one was not for me. I liked it okay.

Lyric Bishop feels like a fraud. She’s studying sexual chemistry in romantic partners and what makes for a successful long-term relationship, only she can’t seem to figure it out in her own dating life. In order to complete her doctoral thesis, she must crack the Sizzle Paradox.

Kian Montgomery, her best friend, roommate, and fellow grad student, has no trouble bringing both romance and sizzle to his own relationships. He offers to tutor Lyric on dating tactics to find a good match, she’s certain it will solve her problems. This leads to a fake dating situation. Their "tutoring sessions" start to feel less like the academic exercise they were supposed to be as real feelings develop.

Starting with what I liked, I liked the representation in this book. The sex scenes were good. This book had a lot of tropes I usually love. Onto the not so good, there was a lot in this book that was not properly researched as far as their schooling goes. The 2 main characters despite being best friends did not feel like they had any chemistry to me. They definitely didn't seem to know each other well enough. The miscommunication trope shouldn't be in a friends to lovers in my opinion because they should be able to talk. Lyric was VERY immature for her age. I really struggled with her. This book had the potential to be great but it needed work. There's a good chance you won't agree with me and will love it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lily Menon, and St. Martin's Press for the gifted copy. ❤️

Cute, fairly standard, run-of-the-mill contemporary romance. The writing is a little cheesy and so is the basic premise but it’s also charming and the love story is sweet. I liked the academic setting and I loved Lyric & Kian’s friendship. I was definitely rooting for them! I thought how the story came to a head in the final parts of the third act was well done and compelling. The grand gesture was sweet and the epilogue was so great.

Very cute and enjoyable!

3.5 stars out of 5

I was provided an ARC by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and words are my own. I have mixed feelings about this book, while I love a good dual POV, I was sad when I figured out that the book really wasn't as long as I was expecting. I think it could have benefited from being longer as it would have given the opportunity to show more character growth and let the reader learn to love the couple more. I will admit I had high high expectations because I wanted this to hit like The Love Hypothesis did but in this case it just didn't. I didn't get the sexual tension between Lyric and Kian that I wanted, which again is why I am so frustrated with the length because there was a ton of opportunity to add more. It was a general vanilla romcom that's another one to read but not stand out.

This was surprisingly very sizzley. Honestly I loved the awkward dating, the fake dating your best friend/roommate. Though for people who claim to know each other so well, I am not so sure they did. I loved the dual POV and really getting to know them both so well. I do think this was a huge miscommunication/not fully communicating trope and that's not usually my favorite. I loved that they really learned what they wanted, and the third act break up seemed rather extreme to me, but they did finally get it together in the end. This was a quick, fun read, with STEM representation and I really enjoyed reading it!

Lyric is trying to finish her doctorate, studying how couples can have both romantic and sexual compatibility. There’s only one problem, she has never had both at once. So her best friend and roommate, Kian, offers to give her dating lessons so she can find a boyfriend who ticks all her boxes.

I enjoyed this one a lot, a lot. I should’ve be surprised, as I adore her YA books. It wasn’t ground breaking, but it was fun, and swoony, and gave me feels.

Highlights:
I don’t usually love best friends to lovers, but I really liked how this one didn’t start with one of them being in love with the other the whole time. They were genuinely best friends and it was never romantic. Until it was. A dream kickstarts Lyric’s attraction to Kian, and it’s all downhill from there for her peace of mind.

I adore romance lessons, and this one was wrapped up in several other tropes, like let’s bang it out of our system. It was sufficiently angsty when the facade inevitably fell apart. And there is some classic romance miscommunication, but it feels realistic. It’s hard to be vulnerable when everything you want is slipping through your fingers.

Both our protagonists are doctoral students, and I just love a nerd. I love how smart, interested, and passionate they are. They are in different programs, so we get some social psychology and environmental biology, and I want to see Kian’s greenhouse design so bad I’m salivating.

Overall, I enjoyed every second of this journey.

I was so excited for this book! Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations. I had trouble connecting with the characters and rooting for them.

Ever since reading The Love Hypothesis, I’ve been wanting to read more about higher education/women in STEM. This book had some of those elements, but ultimately fell short for me. I do think many will enjoy it though!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

i really struggled with this, I wanted to like it but unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. I couldn’t connect with the characters at all mainly because the main character, lyric, doesn’t act the same age she is. I also didn’t really like this book as it’s super slow, by page like 150 there was still nothing of significance happening yet. I really struggled not to dnf this book.

On the other hand I did think the romance was cute. But overall very disappointed in this book.

Disclaimer: I received an advanced reader copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a fairly quick read. I liked the characters but I felt like they were not filled with as much depth as they could have been. Most of the smaller conflicts were solved quickly and also didn't have quite the same emotional depth that I require in order for the book to receive a higher star rating from me.

The Sizzle Paradox is my first book from Lily Menon and it was a fun and easy read!
The best friends and roommates Lyric and kian are opposite when it comes to relationships. Kian can bring the romance and passion to his short but sweet relationships. Lyric keeps finding that more she’s attracted to a guy the less of an emotional connection she has and the problem with that is her thesis! She’s studying sexual chemistry in romantic partners and her lack of a steady relationship makes her feel like a fraud. So when Kian offers to help her in the dating department…their status as friends starts to blur into something more.
It was a cute story. I could tell from the very start that Lyric put Kian on a pedestal but she felt very immature for a grad student. Besides that I loved the stem story and it made me laugh which is always the way to my heart for a great rom com.

4.5 stars! I love Lily/Sandhya Menon's writing and this book did not disappoint. It was hilarious. I laughed out loud so many times. Friends to lovers is a difficult trope and Menon did it beautifully. At times, it felt like Lyric was just refusing to see the truth of her feelings for Kian, it seemed so obvious, and yet, that's how it goes in reality sometimes too. I definitely recommend.

3 stars = I liked it, but...

There are things that I liked about The Sizzle Paradox and things I didn't. What I liked: I am a fan of friends to lovers and STEM romances and I liked the dual POVs. I really liked the initial view into Lyric's and Kian's seven year friendship and roommate dynamics. Their relationship was really cute and they had pretty great communication. What worked less well for me: It was hard to watch all the miscommunication when they cross the friendship line (and all the 'angsty' inner dialog that accompanied that bogged the story down). Also, I didn't think the setup for pushing the pair over the line to lovers was very well done either - it was sort of weird actually.

Despite my issues, I just went with it because I really liked Lyric and Kian together and really wanted their HEA.

ARC courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley - release date 6/22/2022

As someone who is also a Ph.D. student in a STEM lab, I was thrilled to start this book. Unfortunately, the plot/characters came up short, in my opinion. The two main characters don't have any personality other than suffering from extreme miscommunication. Which is an okay trope if they aren't written as best friends who can read each other's minds... I wish the main character (Lyric) acted more her age rather than a nervous 14-year-old in high school scared to ask out her crush. This book could be transformed slightly and make an excellent book for kids 13-16 years old. Easy/light read but seriously lacking in the romance section.


Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

This was a super cute friends-to-lovers romance!

Lyric and Kian have been friends since the beginning of their university career together. They are both PhD students - therefore are broke and are roommates. Both of them could never imagine dating each other because it would be a complete “disaster”.

From the beginning you could see how perfect they were together and so could everyone else in the story. A kiss changes everything though.

Although this book is really heavy with the miscommunication trope I still really enjoyed it! Lyric and Kian have lots of chemistry together and I enjoyed their banter. The spice was really good as well!