The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan

e-Audio, 11:11:53
Narrated by: Reena Dutt
Release Date: April 6, 2021
Published by: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read from: September 14-17, 2021
The Roommate, #2
Source: Library (Libby)
TW: Public S*ut Shaming. Loss of a parent
For Readers Interested In: Realistic Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Religious diversity, Dual POV, Adult

       Naomi and Ethan will test the boundaries of love in this provocative romance from the author of the ground-breaking debut, The Roommate.

     Naomi Grant has built her life around going against the grain. After the sex-positive start-up she cofounded becomes an international sensation, she wants to extend her educational platform to live lecturing. Unfortunately, despite her long list of qualifications, higher ed won’t hire her.
     Ethan Cohen has recently received two honors: LA Mag named him one of the city’s hottest bachelors and he became rabbi of his own synagogue. Taking a gamble in an effort to attract more millennials to the faith, the executive board hired Ethan because of his nontraditional background. Unfortunately, his shul is low on both funds and congregants. The board gives him three months to turn things around or else they’ll close the doors of his synagogue for good.
     Naomi and Ethan join forces to host a buzzy seminar series on Modern Intimacy, the perfect solution to their problems–until they discover a new one–their growing attraction to each other. They’ve built the syllabus for love’s latest experiment, but neither of them expected they’d be the ones putting it to the test.

 

*MY THOUGHTS*

After finishing The Roommate I knew I needed there to be a book about Naomi…. And when I heard she was getting one I was so excited! And finding out it was going to be about her and a Rabbi just sealed the deal. It just seemed like a really interesting match up and I knew it was going to be good. Unfortunately, now I just think Naomi deserved better.

Naomi has left behind her old life as an adult performer and now wants to help educate the masses on sexual education. She meets Rabbi Ethan who isn’t your typical Rabbi. He has a background one wouldn’t expect, so he was hired to think outside the box for them. (Especially since he’s also low on funds and the board is not thinking of helping.) And one of those things is hosting a Modern Intimacy course hoping to draw more people in to the synagogue. But in putting together the syllabus they seen that it works better than they thought.

In The Roommate Naomi was this bad ass character who had no feelings and told it like it was. I remember thinking she was a bitch for a period of time. But there was none of that in this book. I get it, the Rabbi sort of wore her down or something, but that doesn’t work when it was from the very beginning of the story. I think the first book put an image of her in my head that I couldn’t get rid of. And because of that, the Naomi in this one just didn’t work for me. She was too “Yes ma’am” and not enough spunk.

I also didn’t care for Rabbi Ethan. Like I get that it was supposed to be like a squeaky clean image of someone, but….. Ok I’m just going to go ahead and say it…. It was TOO clean. For this to be a book about a former adult star, the slow burn shouldn’t have lasted until about 68%. They should have done SOMETHING before then. I guess since The Roommate had dirty thoughts and the romance was actually hot, it was fine. But this one was actually kind of boring.

The ending was sooooo fast. I can’t even tell you if it was good or not. Like they were together and fine, then they weren’t, and then they were and then 9 months later. It was kinda weird. I just think that Naomi deserved more. Maybe I’m reading too much in to it, but that’s just my opinion.

This book was just ok. I liked the easy readability of the writing style. I liked the premises and the idea of this book. But the execution wasn’t great. I guess I just wanted more. This was the embodiment of “keep that same energy” from the first book. I just wanted the same humor and hotness from the first one.

Overall, I give this