The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan

April 9, 2021

The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
Published by Berkley Books on April 6, 2021
Pages: 336
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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.

Damn Danan, back at it again with the sophomore hit. (This is what’s going through my crazy head.) The Intimacy Experiment is so steamy, so sweet, and SO feminist it makes me borderline giddy – zero signs of slump in this follow up to The Roommate. The writing is as easy breezy, yet emotional and thoughtful for the content it covers. We are treated to the same impossibly relatable characters (a former porn star and a rabbi) with chemistry so hot that I was convinced was going to short out my Kindle. And what I’ve come to consider Danan’s signature, it unapologetically embraces women’s sexuality without the slightest tolerance for slut-shaming. I am such a fan.

I’ll leave you with my favorite passage – the turning point from when I went from like to love.

*****

She nodded decisively. “So, why do you get out of bed in the morning?”

Something about the intensity of her voice when she asked pulled the truth out of him.

“There’s a moment, when you’re speaking to someone, and you’re listening to something they said, or actually” –it didn’t even require conversation–“maybe not, maybe you’re just giving them your attention, holding the door open at the deli, and something shifts behind their eyes and you know that they feel seen.” He lowered his chin, feeling goofy. “Not just seen but acknowledged in some way. They know they matter. That they’re not alone. And when that happens, I think about all the times someone has done that for me. The way that interaction saved me, shored me up against a thousand invisible aches I didn’t realize I was carrying.” […] “I guess I get out of bed because I think about the connection that we all have, this fragile humanity, each of us insignificant and at the same time precious. A continuation of a species that is recklessly unique. I remember that life is a finite gift, and I’d be an asshole to waste it.”

*****

XOXO

Review / Short and Sweet

Short and Sweet: The Roommate & Normal People

September 29, 2020

The Roommate by Rosie Danan
Published by Berkley on September 15, 2020
Pages: 336
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House Rules: Do your own dishes
Knock before entering the bathroom
Never look up your roommate online

The Wheatons are infamous among the east coast elite for their lack of impulse control, except for their daughter Clara. She’s the consummate socialite: over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable. But every Wheaton has their weakness. When Clara’s childhood crush invites her to move cross-country, the offer is too much to resist. Unfortunately, it’s also too good to be true.

After a bait-and-switch, Clara finds herself sharing a lease with a charming stranger. Josh might be a bit too perceptive—not to mention handsome—for comfort, but there’s a good chance he and Clara could have survived sharing a summer sublet if she hadn’t looked him up on the Internet...

Once she learns how Josh has made a name for himself, Clara realizes living with him might make her the Wheaton’s most scandalous story yet. His professional prowess inspires her to take tackling the stigma against female desire into her own hands. They may not agree on much, but Josh and Clara both believe women deserve better sex. What they decide to do about it will change both of their lives, and if they’re lucky, they’ll help everyone else get lucky too.

I’m going to level with you. When I snatched up this book, all I knew was the cover was pink and there was buzz everywhere about what a feminist delight it was – enough said. The blurb is also so polite that I couldn’t have realize what I was getting into: a socialite moves in with a porn star (unbeknownst to her) after her forever-crush ghosts her because his band might get its big break. She goes on to have the best sex of her life while trying to overhaul the industry of her new flame. Is it realistic? Nope. Am I here for it? Yass gurl.

*****

Normal People by Sally Rooney
on August 28, 2018
Pages: 273
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Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal.
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.

Very rarely do I read such a deeply depressing yet honest love story. This is not a romance with an HEA. At every turn, Rooney seems to twist the knife a bit more into the already bloody hearts of her MCs bringing them to new lows – while still leaving them grasping for each others love. It’s raw, emotional and I couldn’t put it down. (And then promptly gobbled up the entire first season of the Hulu show, which was simply brilliant.)

XOXO