Lyric. What a mess! I really don’t understand her character at all. She’s supposed to be gifted/brilliant and thus graduated high school and undergrad early, making her only 24, compared to her grad-school peers who would be 27/28 (according to a brief explanation in the book). Kian is about to graduate, though maybe from a different program?! I can’t remember- and don’t care. He’s older than her. YET- both absolutely do not act like educated mid-late twenty-somethings. It’s like a frat boy and a middle schooler live together and immaturely work their way through the dating pool. Lyric acts like no adult I have ever met. I think the attempt was to make her seem neurotic, and nerdy cool, maybe neuro-divergent?! But with no explanation or hints towards that, I just struggled to like her, or find common ground. I enjoy dual-perspective stories, but since the plot moves at a snails pace and literally nothing happens until the last third, I found myself switching to other books and slugging through this when I felt like I had to for the sake of finishing this review. I’m really bummed because I enjoy the niche of romance with STEAM heroines and/or post-grad settings. I love the friends to lovers trope as well, so I feel frustrated that Kian fell flat, Lyric was unlikeable and moments that could have really held some angst and heat, well, didn’t.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

Format - ARC Ebook

Rating- ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Spice- 🌶 🌶🌶

Series- N/A

Troupes- Best Friends to lovers, dating lessons, STEM Rep, South Asian Rep, Forced Proximity

CW- Perental Trama,

This is my first book from Menon, and I have Ali Hazelwood to thank for having a new author to follow. This was such a fun and different book.

Lyric and Kian have been friends for 7 years and both will tell you that that is all they will ever be. Lyric our adorkable lovable heroine is dating furiously trying to prove her thesis theory but she’s gotten no where. She needs to find that special Sizzle that makes for a long lasting well rounded relationship, and Kian is the perfect person to guide her. Kian our smexy sweet hero has no problem with the ladies but he also doesn’t really do long term. Tutoring Lyric in the ways of non-awkward dates starts to make him see her in a different light, throw in a romantic trip to paradise and thing start to heat up.

These two dummies spent a good 60% of this book insisting that they are just friends, when it is obvious to everyone including the their own subconsciousnesses, so the burn is slooow and the chemistry is sizzling and when we finally do get there it’s hot and sweet and just what I wanted.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but it didn’t leave me wanting more, things wrapped up nicely and I was happy with these characters and their story but didn’t feel the need to know more, if that makes sense? I am however looking forward to more books from Menon!

Thank you Netgalley and St Martian Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Sizzle Paradox
Lily Menon
Romance
304 pages

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Fake dating! For science! I loved this quirky, cute romcom. The STEM storyline was a fresh take on the fake dating trope, and I completely bought in to Lyric and Kian’s chemistry. I liked that the story gave us background on their families, it made the characters feel more real. The treehouse restaurant scene was everything. Adored the epilogue! I will say that these people were licking their lips A LOT, so be prepared for that. This one’s out June 14th, so add it to your TBR!

🧬 Dual POV
🧬 Friends-to-lovers
🧬 Fake dating (with rules!)
🧬 Open door romance
🧬 Forced proximity
🧬 Slow burn
🧬 STEM storyline
🧬 LGBTQ+ rep
🧬 Epilogue

#caitsquietplacereviews #caitsquietplace #cqpromances #thesizzleparadox #lilymenon #stmartinspress

such a cute romcom !!! i haven’t read one in a while so this was the perfect thing to get me out of my slump! and i definitely loved it more because it had the best friends to lovers & fake dating tropes, which are both some of my faves!

This was such a fun read! I was captivated by the characters - they are endearing and real and the author did an excellent job making you feel like you know them. There was humor and suspense and a great plotline. I couldn't put this one down!

Lyric and Kian have been friends for years, and both have big life and career changes on the horizon. When he offers to tutor Lyric on dating to help with her thesis, it's only a matter of time before everything changes between them as well.

I really liked that Lyric and Kian both had fields of study/work they were passionate about. It added a lot to the story and was interesting to learn about. I also could tell from the very beginning that they shared a strong friendship. As the story progressed, though, I honestly didn't feel the romantic chemistry between them like I had hoped. I could understand why they fell for one another but it felt a bit flat to me.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this book and definitely want to try another from the author.

<b><i> Come for the feels, ignore the science! </b></i>

<b>Overall Rating: </b>3/5
- Best friends to lovers
- Roommates
- Woman in STEM
- Dual PoV
- Mutual pining

<i>Characterization:</i> 3/5
<i>Dialogue:</i> 4/5
<i>Chemistry:</i> 3/5
<i>Secondary characters:</i> 2.5/5
<i>Unique quotient:</i> 2/5
<i>Steam quotient:</i> 3/5

<b> What worked for me:</b>
- <i>Grad school feels:</i> Being a woman in STEM, I'm always looking for a good book that deals with STEM women in grad school. The setting did not disappoint. Lyric's issues with motivation and feeling stuck in her research is such a common grad school phenomenon, and I enjoyed seeing that on paper.

- <i>Lyric's relationship to her family:</i> I liked the whole family - was unique and quirky. I enjoyed seeing her relate with her sister. One thing I loved was how Lyric reached out to her sister for a tarot card reading - something you hardly ever read of scientists doing - but being a science person with an artsy side myself found it relatable!

-<i>Awkward dating:</i> Lyric's awkwardness with dating and her inability to connect with her dates was in sync with a PhD candidate working 80hr weeks!

-<i>The slow build:</i> The pining, jealousy, confusion, and attraction were all well done. It managed to keep my attention.

<b> What did not work for me:</b>
- <i> The science:</i> This was really the biggest thorn on my side. I am aware that this is an area I might be overcritical in, but this really fed into the believability factor for me. I'm not a neurobiologist, but I was unclear on how oxytocin or dopamine 'levels' are seen in an fMRI. fMRI measures neural activity while oxytocin is a hormone. That inaccuracy really bothered me.

- <i>Research motivation, or lack thereof:</i> The female protagonist's lack of motivation is understandable, every grad student goes through a phase where they feel a bit lost, bit unmotivated, even want to quit. But the insistence that she needs to feel something in order to 'connect' with her research feels like the author has not captured the scientist. Scientists tend to be very data focused, and not experience focused.

- <i>Who is Kian Montogomery:</i> Being a dual PoV book, I expected to know more of Kian's personality but somehow that wasn't the case. Apart from that little run in with his family, his motivation for grad school or his ambition was 'told' rather than 'shown', and I felt that made his character fall flat.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the ARC of The Sizzle Paradox and the chance to share a honest review.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book but I was unable to get into it. The characters seemed immature to me, almost immediately and The story did not hold my attention.

This was a cute and adorable book. I love a good fake dating/friends to lovers story. I left it was a little slow in the first half but picked up in the second. Some details were a little strange mainly how the two characters could afford to go to London on a whim and then later on comment on how broke or strapped for cash they were. Overall was a enjoyable read.

This story was okay. I think I had higher expectations since the blurb compares it to The Kiss Quotient, which I absolutely loved.
This friends-to-lovers rom-com follows doctoral students Lyric and Kian, who have been best friends for years, as well as roommates. I usually love a good friends-to-lovers story, but this heroine really frustrated me. Lyric was annoying and over-the-top superstitious. I found her self-centered and childish, and I honestly thought Kian deserved better. The romance also fell flat for me as it felt forced and they lacked a natural romantic connection.
I liked the premise of the story, I just think it was poorly executed. I would have liked to see these protagonists developed further (more backstory) and more growth from Lyric.

Things I liked:
Dual POV
Kian's characterization
Protagonists in STEM (reminded me of The Love Hypothesis)

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

The slow burn and build up was just what I needed. From the beginning you are rooting for Lyric and her sizzle paradox. After a quarter way through the story I was invested and could not put the book down.

I really enjoyed this friends-to-lovers romcom. It has to be my favorite trope! I loved their close friendship and how it grew into more, even while making me cry a bit in the end. Had kind of a “Josh and Hazel” feel to it for any Christina Lauren fans out there.

I feel terrible saying it, but this book is like…. A 1.5 out of 5. I’m not sure if this book will be further edited since there are still a few months until its pub date but I’m hoping it will be. It reminded me of The Love Hypothesis (which I hated) and The Kiss Quotient (which I loved, but was done way better). Here are my disjointed thoughts, from my notes app:

-siblings vibes
-tenuous premise at best
-they already cuddle constantly where’s the tension??
-Lyric’s preoccupation with experiencing what she’s studying doesn’t make sense; psychologists often don’t experience what they are studying. Just collect your data and go??
-Lyric complains about having either emotional romance or sexual romance but… can’t you cultivate both with someone?
-Lyric is weirdly super pushy about trying to get Kian to date this girl he’s not really into
-“but… why?” (A thought I had a lot)
-the miscommunication trope is way too much. Absolutely infuriating
-there were some big pacing issues
-the book has wattpad vibes. Lacking subtlety and nuance, it was very surface level
-on one hand, I’m glad it’s short because I didn’t enjoy it but on the other hand I think part of the problem is that it wasn’t as fleshed out as it needed to be and would maybe have been better if it were longer
-I am not in grad school…. But I don’t think grad school is like this
-holy shit talk to each other what the hell y’all are supposed to be best friends??? And can’t?? Communicate????

I really wanted to love this book. However, the friends-to-lovers plotline was, in my opinion, almost too cliche. While most books have the cringe factor of the main characters being oblivious this book went even further to the main characters being painfully oblivious. I suffer from second-hand embarrassment in many areas of my life but this book brought out the worst case I have had in a long time. There were great parts of this book, the plotlines were fun and easy but I couldn't even get through the entire novel to see if, in the end, the good won over the bad.

3.5/5-

Gotta love a good friends to lovers 🥰 Lyric is such an adorable quirky FMC & Kian is the sweet, hot cinnamon roll best friend. We get one spicy scene from this book, which wasn’t enough and def could have added more chemistry and tension for the book. Otherwise, it was a nice short-er read!

Lyric is a Doctorate student studying the science or emotional and sexual attraction, but has been failing at finding it in her real life until her best friend and roommate Kian Montgomery offers to take her out of “dates” to learn how to find that chemistry in real life. Until the pretend scenarios start getting more and more real for the both of them

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an eARC copy of The Sizzle Paradox, in exchange for my honest review!

If you liked the love hypothesis, you will most likely like this book as well. While set in the STEM graduate school field, like the love hypothesis, it tells a different story. Two people who have been best friends for years, trying to find love, just not with each other. The book was a cute and fun read. It kept a good storytelling pace so I never got bored with the book. A few details, as someone who has been in grad school, bothered me, but overall, a very good read.
Things to fix: they are PhD students; not doc students - no one says that
Kian has a pretty busy social life for someone defending their PhD in two months

The Sizzle Paradox is about two roommates, Lyric and Kian, that are pursuing higher education while trying to navigate adulthood and relationships. I enjoyed the beginning scenes between the two main characters and thought this was a quick and cute read. As the reader delves into the story, the two main characters’ friendship begins to change and miscommunication occurs.

I did not enjoy the decisions being made towards the ending as they seemed rushed. Lyric’s decision seemed like something a different character would do and frankly seemed childish.

Overall, this was a charming read.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for allowing me to read this ARC!

I was drawn in by the synopsis and cover. I thought this was a light, fast-paced, and cute read. I enjoyed Lyrics zany family along with the friendship between her and Kian. Also, I liked the university setting but there were some inconsistencies with that. I surprisingly didn’t mind the dual POV’s either. However, I didn’t feel the connection between Lyric and Kian once they were “fake dating” and got together. I’m not sure if it’s because it kept being said how “things changed” between them and then all communication was lost which was super frustrating. Lyric was a hard character for me to like, she just came off selfish (which is fine because it’s realistic) but for reasons I don’t understand. For example, her brother getting engaged and she’s upset because she’s alone and having trouble finding someone? Ehhh yeah, 🚩. Overall, it’s a cute book that I think a lot of people will like and I’d recommend it for anyone who just wants a quick read. It’s well written but there are just things about it that could make it better.

it was well written but not quite what i was looking for in a friends to lovers book. it felt very cookie cutter friends to lovers, like it was cliche and didn't have anything to make it stand out from all of the other friends to lovers. i did like the aspect of science in it, but overall it was not one of my favorites but i might still recommend it to some people when it comes out.

The Sizzle Paradox can best be regarded as a kissing cousin to the 2018 release The Kissing Quotient. In many ways it was hard to shake the ghost of The Kissing Quotient in the back of ones mind while reading. The Sizzle Paradox is a charming plot on the surface two young academics who are the best of friends look to each other to improve their love lives and crack "The Sizzle Paradox" a vague scientific theory that doesn't actually get described beyond the idea that romantic compatibility can be somehow determined by imaging the chemicals in the brain (no further elucidation on what the paradox of the theory was exactly, leading me to believe this word was chosen solely to sound scientific without actually being accurate).
Lyric is often a frustrating protagonist. Supposedly a brilliant scientist who is an expert on romantic compatibility (despite her constant protests to the contrary) so often struggles so completely to engage with the people around her or discern the interest or intentions of others thats one if left wondering like the protagonist in TKQ if Lyric is meant to be on the spectrum although this is never specifically addressed. Despite this she is also some how the "hetero" fantasy woman seemingly based on nothing more than her physical appearance.
Honestly, the plot is a slow build and grinding through that build can feel a bit like slogging through mud. There are a few mildly spicy scenes which are given as the payoff for the trudge and yet once it's all over and done with you find yourself wondering if there were truly any stakes at all. Perhaps, this is the trouble with the friends to lovers and miscommunication tropes despite the character constantly going on about why they could never date their best friend we all of course know that there is simply little reality to that statement. In fact, a firm friendship is only going to build a firmer relationship (which any scientist studying sexual chemistry should probably know). The plot relies heavily on miscommunication to create stakes and keep the main characters apart as long as possible and yet given their supposed level of academic brilliance its a little hard to accept and get behind.
That is not to say this book doesn't have its moments. There are many funny and charming moments peppered throughout the book and the supportive friendship between Lyric and Kian through out it wonderful. The book is a nice romance between nice characters, and I think there will be many who enjoy the plights of Lyric and Kian. For myself personally this wasn't quite a book for me.