We have a friends to lovers trope here people! It was definitely a sweet story that I enjoyed. I didn't want to go anywhere until I finished certain parts of this book for sure. I would rec. this book for friends and a book club
I gave it 3.5 stars

What a wonderful story! I love friends to lovers so much, and this really blew me away. The academic setting reminded me a lot of "The Love Hypothesis" in that way. I would really recommend this book.

The Sizzle Paradox by Lily Menon was great! After reading Make Up Break Up by this author, I knew I would love the Sizzle Paradox and I actually liked it more! The writing captures you from start to finish. The characters are smart, cute, and funny. Highly recommend!

This book was SO CUTE! I loved the relationship and the friends to lovers trope is one of my faves! The way it was written was so well done. I felt the tension and it really made me wanna speed through reading this book so I could get to the HEA.

I also really enjoyed the various rep (gay, bi, multi-racial, and even Jewish). It didn’t feel forced. It felt natural to the story and the setting (grad schools tend to be a hodgepodge of everyone you can imagine!)

not my favorite friends-to-lovers, but good. you could tell lyric and kian had a strong base to build upon. i didn’t care for lyric’s whole research roadblock, though. the tutoring was a little disappointing; i’m used to fake dating being played up a bit more and i think i prefer that.

#netgalley

If you enjoyed the representation of STEM and academia from The Love Hypothesis, I do recommend this book. But at the same time, this book fell flat. I wanted more reference to science, more development of the relationship, overall just more! The writing was quick and witty but lots lacking in the actual plot of the story.

I wish I could say that I liked this book more than I did. The blurb had me super excited for it but I found it lacking in a lot of different ways. It felt like every other page we had to be reminded that the main and supporting characters were doc students. It was a little excessive. Then they were constantly talking about not having money and needing to live off ramen at points but they were able to pick up randomly (without saving) for a trip to London. Credit cards or not, that’s still a big expense and wasn’t even thought over really.

Lyric was all about science and firm in that (she constantly talked about it) but then was crazy into her crystals—I’m not knocking it by any means, it just didn’t make sense. Her personality was all over the place and she was so wish washy about things (her major, what????).

I also felt that there was no connection between Lyric and Kian. It felt forced, especially in the beginning. And the issues with the sizzle paradox were just amusing to me to the point of absurd.

Either way, the book itself wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t for me. I’m sure other would really enjoy it, which is why I didn’t rate it lower.

ARC received from NetGalley and the author for an honest review.

Lily Menon does it again! I absolutely adored this book! It was so much fun to read and I found myself smiling the entire time! The characters have so much chemistry and honestly, I couldn't put it down! I can't recommend this book enough!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
I was looking forward to reading this friends-to-lovers romance book set in grad school (hello fellow nerds!). The first half of the book did an exceptional job of building the friendship connection between the two main characters but there really wasn’t anything in the way of a spark that might hint at a desire for a relationship. The second half of the book was full of longing and steam but mostly miscommunication. I actually found the miscommunication to be really annoying here because the characters were supposed to have such a strong friendship that it wasn’t believable.
If I could give half stars I would rate this book a 2.5 star.

It started a bit slow in my opinion and up until more or less half of the book there’s not a LOT going on between H and h. Basically they’re best friends, and she’s investigating sexual chemistry for her thesis without much success so Kian offers to tutor her in dating.
It was an entertaining read but quite predictable.

This was a cute read! I liked the roommates to lovers story. The fake dating scenes were fun to read. I loved the chemistry between Lyric and Kian. The pining in this story is everything! I was happy to see that this book had an open door scene. The steamy parts were amazing! I also really liked Lyric’s family. They were quirky and fun!
My only complaint was that the book was a little slow paste. I felt that there were scenes that didn’t have to be there.

Read if you like:
Dual POVs
Slow burn romance
Friends to lovers
Roommates to lovers

Wow, this story really made me smile. I love a friends to lovers romance, and the chemistry between Kian and Lyric was electric. The dialogue flowed easily, and it was fun watching the plot unfold around Lyric's 'Sizzle Paradox' theory. Right from the start, I was cheering them on to their happily ever after. I gladly recommend this book.
I want to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin Press, and Lily Menon for the advance copy of this book.

Another ARC from NetGalley. I liked this slow-burn romance book! I enjoyed the academia aspect of this book and thought that the main characters already living together was a unique twist to the romance trope. This book was quick, func and light read. I enjoyed the quirky main character and the banter between her and her best friend/love interest.

Book tropes: slow burn romance, friends-to-lovers, fake dating, academia romance, forced proximity, roommates.

Lyric, a grad student working on her thesis, is struggling to connect with her project. Her Ph.D. research is based on sexual chemistry in humans and what makes a relationship function long term. Her problem is that she is having a tough time telling other people how to have a successful and loving relationship when she can’t connect with anyone herself. With her deadlines fast approaching, her best friend Kian offers to tutor her in the art of successful dating through fake dates.

I really enjoyed this book but I thought almost all of the issues between Lyric and Kian could have been solved with effective communication. For most of the book, the main characters burrowed their feelings for one another and set themselves up for failure. Overall, I would recommend this book!

Review on my blog, The Reading Fairy, available on Feb 11th, 2022

Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars

Trigger/Content Warning: cheating, miscommunication, sex, consumption of alcohol
Rep: POC side cast, Desi MC (Kian)

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publicist via Netgalley, in exchange for my honest review. This does not affect my opinion. Any quotes taken may not match the final copy. 


Perhaps we are all born alone an will die alone; however, if we are lucky, there are many years between one and the other. What better way to fill those years than with an enduring love?" 

The fact that I was so excited to read this book, and started reading it in December, thinking OMG, one of the releases I've been dying to read and it'll turn out my favorite book. I got so disappointed in reading it, but I honestly think I prefer Lily Menon's debut, rather than this book, if I want to be technical. Though, I will never say no to a romance, or even a friends-to-lovers romance. 

Before I dive into this review, I want to bring up some aspects I found problematic, especially when the author described it to the one of the brown men in the book (Kian). Phrases like "curly brown hair the color of wet dirt." and "I put the pad and pen away and take his big, warm paw in mine." was really offputting. I think it's weird that Lyric described Kian like that and makes it seem like its dehumanizing brown people. If any other ownvoices reviewers wants to bring an important piece to that, let me know. 

Also, Grad School. I may only be half a college student who has no plans in going to grad school at all. I saw so many reviews that said the grad school is inaccurate, and honestly I kind of have to agree with it. Both Kian and Lyric lives in an apartment, both grad students, Lyric didn't came from a rich background, and there was a part of a novel that goes to London in a 5 star hotel??? I was so confused on how. 

Also some minor things about dissertation and thesis being interchangeable, when it isn't. It kinda seemed like Menon didn't do a lot of research about grad school. I don't mind books being set in grad school, it's just at least do research. 

I honestly think Menon forgot to switch POVs because there were so many things that didn't line up. It hindered my enjoyment quite a bit. If yo look through the beginning of the novel and tells you something, but later on is complete opposite- which is really weird. I think they're was one section of the book where I thought I was reading Lyric's POV, but it was actually Kian's POV, by the way of the behavior and personality lined up. 

Talk about the characters for a second. Honestly, I wasn't too much of a fan of either of them at all too much. I liked Lyric, especially because she was struggling with her thesis, the fact that she couldn't relate to her project which is weird in general, but the fact that she could tell when the sexual and romantic chemistry wasn't there. Honestly, it was a relief that here's a protagonist who is struggling with her project about sexual and romance chemistry in the brain, wants to do it and somehow my aspec self, just loved every aspect of that. She even brings up Ootzi the Iceman as a distraction, and that moment sealed the deal for me!

I honestly just like Kian, struggling with girls, practically a womanizer, but I loved his kind, caring side and the fact that he wants to help out with nature. It was such a cool aspect that I don't see much in books. 

I know this is described as a friend-to-lovers type of book, but there's so MANY TROPES I LOVE. They were roommates, friend-to-lovers, fake dating, and sadly miscommunication. Just a lot, but honestly, I like the friends to lover and the fake dating aspect so much and it was really brought out a lot in this book. I was here, practically yelling 'Just Kiss' already, because I could feel the tension between Lyric and Kian. 

The only thing I didn't like is the fact that the ending was rushed. There needed to be like thirty more pages because I just didn't feel like the story was quite done, and next thing I know- everything is happily ever after as if nothing happened. What?

This was a fun book, if a little predictable. I liked the main characters individually, as well as the supporting characters. The premise of the book was humorous, and I liked the university setting. Would definitely recommend.

This was a fun read. I especially liked the academia portion of it and I love a good friends to lovers romance. I do typically like my friends to lover to be a bit more slow burn (I felt they went from adamantly not seeing each other in that light to being incredibly attracted to each other rather quickly) despite that, I did still enjoy.

Lily Menon does not disappoint! The Sizzle Paradox was an excellent, spicy novel from Menon. While it started a little slow in the beginning, it quickly moved to a well-paced romance, with the ups and downs that can come from a friendship turned romance. I appreciated that it felt like the novel truly let the characters move at a realistic pace, which made the characters feel all the more real.

The Sizzle Paradox reminded me how much I love the best friends to lovers trope and reading the perspective of both protagonists. Lyric and Kian are opposites in so many ways - she has a large, close family, his is small and dysfunctional, she struggles in the dating realm, he definitely does not. But, what they do have in common is an unabashed love for each other as friends, and soon, much more. A great weekend read!

Menon's 2nd adult title tackles my personal favourite trope: friends to lovers, a trope I love because the risk is so high if things don't work out. I suspect reader enjoyment of this particular title will be somewhat dependent on each individual reader's ability to suspend disbelief. The central premise involves a brilliant scientist who decides 5 years of data collection and analysis about brain chemistry are irrelevant if she doesn't have a successful and fulfilling romance of her own, so she tosses aside all that research for the duration of the book, and takes a profoundly un-scientific approach to understanding sexual and romantic attraction instead. This polarity might have made more sense if Menon separated the heroine's work life and the personal life. A brilliant scientist has all the data in the world and writes her dissertation based on that data, but it still doesn't solve her messy personal life. Instead, Menon integrates the two threads, so our heroine uses her messy personal life to PROVE her science, graduating summa cum laude and to the accolades of her faculty with the least scientific dissertation I've ever heard, and one no faculty member I know would ever approve within a scientific context. It's a peculiar choice in today's political climate--to posit that science is best understood by eschewing actual scientific research. And those who understand the scientific method might wonder why our heroine never once applies it to the choices she makes. But the book isn't meant to be political, and for those who can run with the central premise, you'll find lots of flirty banter, plenty of close-proximity set-ups ripe for sexual tension, and two characters who are so clearly crazy about each other from page one, it's easy to root for their blossoming romance.

I liked it, but I didn't love this read. It was definitely a slow burn. I liked the friends to lovers. I definitely liked the fake dating. I liked the side characters (can Charlie and Zoey have their own book?) everything else seemed wonky for me and just didn't hit the right way.