With a name like Sizzle Paradox you are going to get some steam. Lots of great troupes in this story leaving something for everyone. I enjoyed the alternating perspectives between Lyric and Kian. It was engaging and entertaining.

I adored this book from beginning to end. It is best friend to lovers which I am such a sucker for. Lyric and Kian's friendship is a thing of beauty. They understand each other and are so supportive of each other. I thoroughly enjoyed their banter the entire book. The little moments where you see this routine they've built, like cuddling on the couch and debriefs after dates...it was so cute.

Smut in this book was a little less intense compared to some other books I've read this year, but I think the handful of scenes were done very well.

Some will say that this plot is predictable. I say, yes, it is. But you know what's NOT predictable, the fact that these two PhD students are so dumb when it comes to this budding relationship. They are so oblivious that I spent good twenty minutes yelling at the pages.

If you enjoyed The Love Hypothesis, then you will enjoy this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

wow! this book truly blew me away! i mean, i could not even stay in my seat! it was so much fun to read and i'm so entirely glad that i got to read this one early. thank you so much, netgalley!!!!

For fans of The Love Hypothesis, this one is for you!! There is something about the academia setting that just sets up a romance perfectly. Also, who doesn't love a friend to lover's romance. I did however find myself struggling to connect with the characters. I don't mind the miscommunication trope most of the time, but this just didn't work for me. I think at surface level its very cute but lacks the depth to make it amazing

💫 Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this ePub with me in exchange for my honest feedback!

🐶 Although this is my first time reading a book by this author, I knew we were kindred spirits from the get go when I read the dedication was to her golden retriever Ollie. I feel that on a spiritual level.

👩🏼‍🔬 Lyric Bishop is a psych grad student that’s on a mission to crack the “Sizzle Paradox” which is her theory that the more she is into a guy, the less chance they have at forming a healthy committed relationship. Over the past 5 years in her program she has studied thousands of couples and in that time she’s only been in a few relationships that never worked out. She feels like a fraud trying to defend her thesis without any actual real dating expertise, and decides to take her dating life in her own hands and come to a solution.

🌏 She enlists the help of her tall dark and handsome roommate and best friend, Kian Montgomery, who is also a grad student for environmental chemistry. This dreamboat enjoys long walks through Target, his favorite movie is Casablanca, loves the environment and spending time outdoors, and has the best (and worst) dad jokes. He’s the exact opposite of Lyric when it comes to dating. He goes through women at an alarming rate and is terrified of long term commitment.

💟 They decide to work together to help Lyric become more comfortable in the dating scene and a little less awkward. And you guessed it, the solution to her dating life AND the sizzle paradox is none other than her best friend Kian.

📖 This was such a fun quick read that made me laugh out loud multiple times. I would definitely recommend it to a friend to read. Some of my favorite tropes showed up in this one that made me so happy: friends to lovers, forced proximity, a little bit of fake dating, and it had the best alternating POVs from the two main characters.

💍 Moral of the story: Marry your best friend people!!!!!

📅 Be sure to pick up your copy of The Sizzle Paradox when it comes out on June 14th!

This friends to lovers romance was really fun! It started off slow, but it did get better in time. I loved all the female STEM reps in this book. I liked Kian and Lyric together, but the miscommunication trope just wasn’t it for me. Some of the choices they made seemed a bit immature. However, the ending did make for that. Overall, this was a very slow burn, but a great light read! 3/5 stars for me.
Read if you like:
- Women in STEM
- Friends to lovers
- Fake dating
- Grad school setting
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Lyric and Kian have been best friends for seven years and live together while finishing their post-graduate doctoral programs. They have never considered being more than best friends. When Lyric needs help with her thesis on the Sizzle Paradox, she enlists Kian's help to help her breakthrough her mental wall.

I liked this book, but I do feel that all the technicals in their doctorate programs ended up taking away from the story. There was also a lot of miscommunication that I didn't feel was super believable when they had been friends for seven years. The ending made up for that, as it was emotional, heartfelt, and heartwarming. This is a very slow burn, but a sweet read—a pretty good Romcom.

First off, Thank you to St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for allow me to read the digital ARC of The Sizzle Paradox

The cover caught my attention and who doesn't love a good Rom-Com -it was colorful, comic-y and cute. Plus the description also peaked my interest! I do like books that are superficial (sometimes you just need a no brainer type read). I loved the premise behind the MC, Lyric's, study - and I Mean who wouldn't want to fall in love with their bestie. Sure was it predictable, but it didn't take away from being a cute story. Fun and fast read!

I was a bit disappointed in this book and DNF. I didn’t think a doctoral student should act so immature. The relationship between the MC and her best friend seem more like a long term relationship that shouldn’t have resolved to romance

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC and to review.
Unfortunately, I DNF'd this at 52%, as I lost interest, but this book still has enjoyable moments.

Firstly, the cover and title are intriguing. I love how colorful, comic-y and cute the cover is; super typical for a rom-com! The title is super fun for a rom-com as well.

I was recommended to read this friends-to-lovers rom-com by a friend that works for Kirkus Reviews; as she is the queen of rom-coms in our group, I was excited to find this on NetGalley and even more excited to be approved to read. Lyric and Kian are PhD students, both in the final stages of completing their degrees, with Kian graduating first; this proves a problem for the friends as they have roomed together for the duration of their PhDs and are extremely fond of one another. Both are having problems in the relationship department; Lyric's PhD thesis revolves around finding equal sexual and romantic attraction to one's partner (which she is having no luck with) and Kian has commitment issues, but is committed to sticking with no commitment. The two strike up a deal to help each other solve their problems by fake dating, of course promising to not fall for each other.

In theory, this is a cute novel. Menon has enjoyable characters, dialogue and plot, but I found myself bored despite this. Not to mention, it took about 40% of the book to get to the actual plot wherein Lyric and Kian finally decide to pretend to date and go on a very awkward first date. Also - Lyric must mention Kian's height difference every other sentence; we understand he's bigger than you, but there's no need to describe his hands, legs, etc. every chance you get.

Overall, this book is three stars for me because I liked the idea, but just found it poorly executed. I know others will enjoy this book and I hope they do.

Lyric Bishop is studying how to find love and tries to get her best friend to help her figure it out. Problem is her friend is a guy and along the way they start having feelings for each other. She doesn't want to have these feelings because she doesn't want to mess up the results for her study. I enjoyed this book and thought it was a very fun read.

As a major (and I mean major, full scale, triple octave) contemporary romance book lover, The Sizzle Paradox was everything I could’ve asked for — and more! The story follows Lyric (which, side note, has me thinking how boring my name is) and her best friend, Kian, in the completion of Lyrics’s thesis on sexual chemistry and a lacking emotional connection, all based on levels of attraction. When Lyric finds that the hotter she finds a man, the less emotionally connected she feels to him, she enlists the help of Kian to tutor (in the purely academic sense of course *cough* not *cough*) her on bringing the ~sizzle~ into a relationship. This in theory should be easy for them, as they’re totally and completely nothing more than Just Best Friends. Right? Lily Menon’s The Sizzle Paradox is a must read for any friends to lovers fan, and is the perfect edition to your summer TBR! Thank you to NetGalley for the wonderful opportunity to meet my new favourite gal Lyric a few months early!

Review: This might be the first book of Menon's that I haven't enjoyed. I found the premise of Lyric's area of study both kinda out there, unbelievable, and it felt super familiar to me. As I read, I felt like I knew this story and there weren't any parts that I was suprised by. I felt like the stakes and conflict in this story weren't very compelling. Overall, I was just kinda bored with this plot. I liked Lyric and Kian but I also felt like there were aspects of their character and relationships that weren't totally believable.

Synopsis:
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. The science is sound, but how can she give her expert opinion with no real-world experience? In order to complete her doctoral thesis, she must crack the Sizzle Paradox – it seems the more sexually attractive she finds a guy, the less likely it is to come with an emotional connection; but why? – and to do that she must get the help she desperately needs.

Kian Montgomery, her best friend, roommate, and fellow grad student, has no trouble bringing both romance and sizzle to his own relationships. When he offers to tutor Lyric on dating tactics to find a good match, she’s certain it will solve her problems, and in exchange she agrees to set long-term-commitment-averse Kian up with someone different to give his romantic life a much-needed shakeup.

But once the two progress with their "tutoring sessions," they start to feel less like the academic exercise they were supposed to be as real feelings develop. Which is a problem, because Lyric and Kian are best friends and absolutely, irrefutably nothing else... Right?

This was a great light read. Very reminiscent of Love Hypothesis, one of my fave summer reads of 2021. I loved the female STEM rep in this book and that there was more than one character repping. The chemistry and spice between the two main characters was straight fire. I thought that they were well written without being cheesy which is not always the case in this category of books. If I could change anything I would have wanted to see the discussion of the arrangement between the characters was a little better developed to really get the reader’s buy-in to support the notion of the “lessons”. Overall this was a delightful read, solid 4 stars, and I’d definitely read more form this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

This book was a STEM, friends-to-lovers, not quite fake dating but rather let-me-teach-you dating trope, LGBTQIA+ rep book that was quite cute. It is slated as being a combo of The Kiss Quotient and Love Potion No. 9, but since I haven't read either of those, I can say it gives me Love Hypothesis feels at times.

It follows Lyric, an experimental psychologist doc student and Kian, an environmental chemist (? I honestly don't remember, it isn't as important what he does) doc student, best friends and roommates at Columbia University, who have been best friends since Lyric started at Columbia as a 16 year old undergrad. Lyric studies sexual chemistry and is struggling to find her own sexual chemistry with partners, and Kian is in a rut with his dating life. Hijinks ensue.

My biggest issues with this book were non-issues for most people probably - and it really comes down to the actual psychological rigor/study aspects. As a psychology graduate student as well, there were just parts of it that made me confused and I found myself arguing with the book about realism, which is not really an issue in a romance book. Plus, I don't actually know how experimental psychology works - as I am in a clinical field - so it could completely be right, I don't actually know for sure! So this is a dumb thing for me to be annoyed with. The only other thing that really bugged me is a common trope with this kind of romance books, which is the miscommunication trope. I personally don't like that trope, but I know a lot of people like it. So take that for what you will.

This book has some spice, it shows positive family relations and toxic family relations, and really healthy friendships. It is a definitely cute book overall, and I was able to read it in less than 24 hours. 3.5/5

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun friends to lovers romance. I loved the comfortable friendship between Lyric and Kian, but even from the first few pages you could feel the chemistry between them. The book got better in time…after an awkward start (in my opinion) with a random trip to Target with both MCs picking up a random stranger. The side characters were also interesting and done well.
Although this was a short book, I felt like it was done well, leaving no loose ends.

3.5 stars

Lyric and Kian are graduate students, roommates, and best friends. Lyric’s research is studying the Sizzle Paradox, gauging the connection between couples. She’s struggling to crack it for herself, and when Kian decides to help her, it starts our longtime friends-to-lovers storyline.

These two are clearly meant to be together and obviously resist it for the majority of the book. When they do finally get together, the circumstances are really well-written to make very cute scenes. I’m not quite sure why Lyric was struggling so much to finish her thesis and why she made some decisions that she did toward the end of the book. These parts were a little frustrating. Lyric and Kian’s lack of communication was also a little much because they were friends for so long and could read each other really well, until they became attracted to each other. This was a quick and cute read!

Read if you like:
- Going to Target with your besties
- Fake dating and friends-to-lovers tropes
- The graduate school setting

Thanks to St. Martin’s Griffin for the copy of this book.

Lily Menon knows how to bring the laughs and the romantic tension. This friends to lovers romance was a lot of fun. I like Menon's dialogue and humor so I found this book to be a lot fun, especially as this is one of my favorite tropes.

I liked this book! It was slow to start and I had some trouble buying into the world of the story - I go to Columbia, so every time something super specific was said about the area or the campus it threw me off a little. I thought the characters were well written and filled with depth, even the side characters. I did think the ending was a little rushed. What I liked most though was the way the two characters realized almost at the same time that they'd been in love the whole time. The miscommunication trope was done VERY well here, in a way that literally made me roll my eyes (this is good, I was super invested and wanted to shake them both by the shoulders).

Overall, I liked it and would recommend it to my friends.

I was provided an ARC of this book, courtesy of the publisher, thank you! I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I read it in a single sitting! Although the romance seemed a little spontaneous, I thought that was part of the fun of the story. Lyric is hilariously awkward at times and I found myself laughing out loud at her multiple times! Would highly recommend to anyone who wants a fun, romantic read!