Book Review: Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood

 


My thoughts: 
I have a very odd relationship with Ali Hazelwood. Back when Love Hypothesis came out, I disliked it so much that I couldn't even finish it. When Deep End came out, I was seeing so much about how dirty it was that I HAD to read it and I actually ended up LOVING it. Since then, I have read the STEMinist novellas which were a let down from Deep End but an improvement from Love Hypothesis. I thought that I would love Problematic Summer Romance, I love an age gap, and this isn't even the first one I have read this month but damn, this way a disappointment. 

This book does more telling than it does showing, and I just never connected with why Maya had feelings for Conor or why she felt the need to keep pushing when he was making it clear that their age gap was a deal breaker for him. I wish there had been less of Maya chasing after Conor and more of Conor going after her - I understood his reservations but she is constantly the one making moves and he either caves or pushes her away. I liked near the end when she finally reaches a point where she's done and it ends up being on him to fix it but I still felt like he didn't grovel enough or put in enough effort to make her seem wanted. I will say he did do some small things over time but overall their relationship just continued to feel unbalanced. 

I will continue to give new Ali Hazelwood releases a shot but I am afraid that Deep End might have been a one off for me. 

The Synopsis:

What is wrong meets what feels right in this romance set in Italy by the New York Times bestselling author of Deep End.

Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life.

Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him.

It’s such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother’s best friend and the girl he never even knew existed. As Conor loves to remind her, the power dynamic is too imbalanced. Any relationship between them would be problematic in too many ways to count, and Maya should just get over him. After all, he has made it clear that he wants her gone from his life.

But not everything is as it seems—and clichés sometimes become plot twists.

When Maya’s brother decides to get married in Taormina, she and Conor end up stuck together in a romantic Sicilian villa for over a week. There, on the beautiful Ionian coast, between ancient ruins, delicious foods, and natural caves, Maya realizes that Conor might be hiding something from her. And as the destination wedding begins to erupt out of control, she decides that a summer fling might be just what she needs—even if it’s a problematic one.

Check it out on GoodReads

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