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Title: The Intimacy Experiment
Author: Rosie Danan
Sub-genre: Contemporary
Publication Date: April 6, 2021
You know when you read those books (as a writer) and think to yourself, welp, I’m never going to be able to write anything this good. It’s one of the highest compliments I can think of and Rosie Danan has done it to me twice. Her debut romance, The Roommate, was one of my favorite reads of 2020, and even though it’s only January, I know The Intimacy Experiment is going to be on my list for 2021.
Naomi, who we met in the first book, is a force to be reckoned with, to say the least. After turning her successful career in porn into an empire built on sex education with her website Shameless, she has conquered it all and taken no prisoners on her rise to the top. But Naomi still feels like she is missing something. She loves the work she does online through her website, but she wants to feel that in person connection as an educator. Unfortunately, people suck, and no one wants to hire a former porn star to come teach at their school. Enter Ethan Cohen. He’s a young rabbi at a failing synagogue who needs to attract new blood, and wants to target a younger audience. When he and Naomi meet at a teaching conference, he asks her to host a seminar on modern intimacy. Naomi and Ethan embark on a journey (ugh, can’t believe I used that phrase, but it’s true!) together that forces them to question everything they know about faith, religion, sex, love, and relationships.
First of all, I went into this book expecting to fall for Naomi, and I did. But the wholesome pure cinnamon rollness of Ethan caught me by surprise and I fell for this guy hard. Like I would die to protect him hard. He is everything I want in a hero in 2021, feminist, good, willing to admit when he’s wrong, open to new experiences, the man is just about perfect. I am not religious at all in the slightest and I didn’t know if that would make me feel disconnected from him, but it mostly definitely did not. And Naomi carries over all of her badassness from the first book, while also bringing in a beautiful amount of vulnerability. Let’s just say my heart was punched repeatedly and I willingly took it and will go back for more.
In addition to two characters who are each in their own way so incredibly endearing, Rosie continues to bring it with plot points that are relevant and important, and writing that is so gorgeous I often found myself pausing to reread a sentence, marveling at her mastery of prose. Like the kind of writing I can only ever dream of achieving, and I don’t mean that as a put down to myself, Rosie is just that good. I honestly can’t wait for everyone to read this book so we can gush about how absolutely perfect it is.
Overall Rating: 5 stars
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