Review: The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan

Title: The Intimacy Experiment (The Roommate, #2)

Author: Rosie Danan

Publisher: Berkley Books
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Paperback, 336 Pages
Published April 2021

Summary: 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.

I've been a huge fan of Rosie Danan's writing ever since some of our friends encouraged me to read THE ROOMMATE last year, and I was instantly hooked. Not only was the premise of the book intriguing -- a girl who ends up living with one of the world's most famous porn stars -- but Rosie Danan is also an excellent writer who really knows how to craft a steamy, hilarious, swoon-worthy romance. So when I found out that there was going to be a spinoff novel about world-famous porn star Naomi Grant turned aspiring teacher, I couldn't wait to preorder my copy. I even made sure I cleared my schedule so I would be free to dive into it on the very day it arrived. So without further ado, here's my review:

As the summary explains, Naomi Grant isn't just a world-famous porn star, but after launching her sex-positive startup with her best friend, Clara, she's looking into possibly teaching seminars on modern intimacy. But she constantly runs into dead ends at higher education institutions, since they're all weary to higher someone with her "trivial" background -- until she runs into Ethan Cohen, a rabbi at a synagogue that is currently bleeding both money and members. So when they agree to pair up to run a seminar on modern intimacy as a way for Naomi to get some teaching credits while Ethan helps attract younger members to his congregation. Naturally, there are a lot of people who aren't happy about this, but they decide to go forward with it anyway...and then, in addition to attracting attention from curious seminar-attendees, they also develop a new attraction...for each other. 

I absolutely adored this book just as much as I loved THE ROOMMATE! Rosie Danan is truly a master of writing romances. I flew through this book, reading almost 100 pages each sitting just because I was so addicted to the story and really wanted to know what Naomi and Ethan were going to do next. Watching them battle their attraction for each other while each of them trying to keep their goals in mind was hilarious, and when sparks finally flew...whew. All I'm going to say about that is that this definitely isn't the kind of book that you want to read in public, if you're a serial swooner/blusher the way I am. Not only were the steamy parts definitely steamy, but the sweet, heartwarming parts also gave me the warm, fuzzy, happy tingles. There were parts of this book where I even happily sighed, swooned, and squealed out loud, frantically texting our group chat. If you want a book that makes you feel all the feels, then THE INTIMACY EXPERIMENT definitely needs to be on your TBR.

Something else that was a really important facet of this book was the way that Naomi explores her faith and the past experiences she's had that caused her to shy away from it for so much time. Not only is this book about Naomi and Ethan learning to foster a strong relationship between the two of them while each balancing their individual demanding commitments, but being around Ethan also encourages Naomi to explore her past and the struggles she faced while growing up Jewish and the tension she felt in high school. But not only that -- being with Ethan and seeing how passionate he is about his faith encourages her to dig deeper and confront exactly what it was that caused her to turn her back on religion. And it even encourages her to start exploring it further. So in addition to this being a story of true love and learning to give up the demons that haunt your past, it's also a story about finding yourself and your faith while falling in love.

My favorite character in this book was definitely Naomi, although I did love seeing mentions of Josh and Clara again! I very much resonated with the way she views the world, as living truly and authentically as herself no matter what anyone has to say about it, while still battling that insecurity and vulnerability that is just part of the human condition. It was tough to see her self-sabotage good situations sometimes, but watching her learn from those mistakes and learn how to let Ethan in and accept love as something permanent rather than something fleeting was really sweet and heartwarming, and I really enjoyed it.

(Spoilers in this paragraph, so skip to the next one to avoid them!) The *one* thing that I wish I had been able to see was Ethan's proposal. Naomi mentions the fact that they're already engaged, and I wasn't surprised that they ended up together, but I really would've loved for that to be the epilogue scene instead of them just briefly mentioning it! But that's just my own opinion, and I still think that the book was excellent regardless. :-) 

Overall, I absolutely adored THE INTIMACY EXPERIMENT, and I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone who read and loved THE ROOMMATE. Even if you didn't read the first book, you could definitely still read this one since it focuses on different characters, but if you really want the backstory about Naomi's company and her friendship with Clara, then I'd absolutely suggest picking that book up first. Plus, it's another wonderful Rosie Danan read that you just don't want to miss! 

And don't forget, you can check out my review of THE ROOMMATE here!