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jonezzzing's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Grief
ashleycmms's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Cancer, Violence, and Religious bigotry
jholt2899's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
[TL;DR]
Ethan wants Naomi to lecture about modern intimacy to gain more members at his synagogue. Naomi wants Ethan in bed, and maybe Ethan wants that too. While the two of them navigate a relationship of intense feelings and miscommunication, love might start to peek through after all.
The Roommate was light, fluffy, and certainly steamy. Danan flips that entire premise on its head for The Intimacy Experiment. This book was everything The Roommate was and more. I loved the vulnerability and grappling with real feelings. Everything in this book felt so raw and emotional in the best way possible. I think Danan's ability to write a funny and sexy romance is admirable, but the way she engages intimate conversations alongside the fun and the sexy is breathtaking.
There were moment when I wanted to cry because of this book. It hit in a deep place, and I'm not sure that I've ever read a romance that has really met my soul in that way. Sure, there have been plenty of good and touching books in this genre (some that I've even rated five stars), but none that have gotten so deeply in tune with emotions in a way that didn't feel entirely scripted. This was excellent writing to put it plainly. Well done, Danan, and I look forward to reading anything else that she puts out in the future.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
TW/CW: sexually explicit scenes, sexual harassment, discussions of sex work/the porn industry, relationship trauma, loss of a parent
Ethan wants Naomi to lecture about modern intimacy to gain more members at his synagogue. Naomi wants Ethan in bed, and maybe Ethan wants that too. While the two of them navigate a relationship of intense feelings and miscommunication, love might start to peek through after all.
The Roommate was light, fluffy, and certainly steamy. Danan flips that entire premise on its head for The Intimacy Experiment. This book was everything The Roommate was and more. I loved the vulnerability and grappling with real feelings. Everything in this book felt so raw and emotional in the best way possible. I think Danan's ability to write a funny and sexy romance is admirable, but the way she engages intimate conversations alongside the fun and the sexy is breathtaking.
There were moment when I wanted to cry because of this book. It hit in a deep place, and I'm not sure that I've ever read a romance that has really met my soul in that way. Sure, there have been plenty of good and touching books in this genre (some that I've even rated five stars), but none that have gotten so deeply in tune with emotions in a way that didn't feel entirely scripted. This was excellent writing to put it plainly. Well done, Danan, and I look forward to reading anything else that she puts out in the future.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
TW/CW: sexually explicit scenes, sexual harassment, discussions of sex work/the porn industry, relationship trauma, loss of a parent
Graphic: Sexual content and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Grief
ecobookworm's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Antisemitism and Grief
Minor: Death of parent
Also contains mention of previous revenge porn and trauma from itkaseybereading's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, and Grief
emfass's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Hovering between a 2 and a 2.5.
There was a brief shining moment somewhere in the middle of this book, maybe right around the part where Naomi and Ethan decide to take the plunge and admit their feelings and give their relationship a try, that I thought, "Holy shit, is this gonna be a 4-star read for me??" The beginning had been choppy and it was difficult for me to find the rhythm of the storytelling, but when we got to that point of the story, there was something about these two characters drawing together and leaping into vulnerability and intensity of feelings that I found so compelling and wonderful.
And then...oh, it all just went so terribly wrong.
I can't even speak to specific examples right now, I'm so spitting mad at how wildly inconsistent and messy everything became/continued to be: the characterization, the scene writing, the plotting. It seemed like multiple people had written various parts of this book and then barely bothered to Franken-stitch them together. And let's be clear: I am mad because I was falling SO HARD for Naomi and the way she was learning to soften, and I ESPECIALLY fell for Ethan fucking Cohen. What a perfect cinnamon roll mensch. But everything fell completely apart for me in the final quarter of the book. I desperately read on hoping things would be salvaged, but alas, my heart kept breaking with every page turn.
I agree with much of JenReadsRomance's review, and she articulates some of the structural downfalls way more intelligently than I can, especially the trap of Ethan and Naomi's relationship following the path set down for them by the syllabus they created for their lecture series, and how this forced the characters into a plot structure instead of letting them drive the story. Also, for a book called The Intimacy Experiment, these characters generally do a horrible job of actually talking to each other about their feelings.
Lastly, I want to say I'm kind of let down by both The Roommate and The Intimacy Experiment in that both of the sex worker main characters in these books are allowed to be the focus of the love story only because they're no longer engaged in the having-sex-with-other-people part of their sex work. Maybe the genre just isn't there yet, but it sure would've been cool to see them still actively working that way and being deemed worth of love/a love story.
There was a brief shining moment somewhere in the middle of this book, maybe right around the part where Naomi and Ethan decide to take the plunge and admit their feelings and give their relationship a try, that I thought, "Holy shit, is this gonna be a 4-star read for me??" The beginning had been choppy and it was difficult for me to find the rhythm of the storytelling, but when we got to that point of the story, there was something about these two characters drawing together and leaping into vulnerability and intensity of feelings that I found so compelling and wonderful.
And then...oh, it all just went so terribly wrong.
I can't even speak to specific examples right now, I'm so spitting mad at how wildly inconsistent and messy everything became/continued to be: the characterization, the scene writing, the plotting. It seemed like multiple people had written various parts of this book and then barely bothered to Franken-stitch them together. And let's be clear: I am mad because I was falling SO HARD for Naomi and the way she was learning to soften, and I ESPECIALLY fell for Ethan fucking Cohen. What a perfect cinnamon roll mensch. But everything fell completely apart for me in the final quarter of the book. I desperately read on hoping things would be salvaged, but alas, my heart kept breaking with every page turn.
I agree with much of JenReadsRomance's review, and she articulates some of the structural downfalls way more intelligently than I can, especially the trap of Ethan and Naomi's relationship following the path set down for them by the syllabus they created for their lecture series, and how this forced the characters into a plot structure instead of letting them drive the story. Also, for a book called The Intimacy Experiment, these characters generally do a horrible job of actually talking to each other about their feelings.
Lastly, I want to say I'm kind of let down by both The Roommate and The Intimacy Experiment in that both of the sex worker main characters in these books are allowed to be the focus of the love story only because they're no longer engaged in the having-sex-with-other-people part of their sex work. Maybe the genre just isn't there yet, but it sure would've been cool to see them still actively working that way and being deemed worth of love/a love story.
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Misogyny
Minor: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Blood, Cancer, and Violence
Main character had naked photos of herself shared around school by her high school boyfriend.
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