The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan Review

The Intimacy Experiment

by Rosie Danan

Rating: 5/5 
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Steam: Explicit
Publisher: Berkley
Pub Date: April 6, 2021
Available: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop

The Intimacy Experiment Synopsis: Naomi Grant has built a sex positive empire, but wants more. She wants to teach, but academic settings aren’t welcoming her in no matter what kind of education and experience she has. Ethan Cohen has become the rabbi of a synagogue… a failing synagogue and without an increase in numbers he’ll be out of a job in 3 months. When Ethan bumps into Naomi at a conference he offers her a lecture series. A mutually beneficial agreement, she gets to teach Modern Intimacy and he hopefully will get more members. She cautiously agrees. Nothing can go wrong, right? A rabbi and former adult star? Perhaps they can both take some pointers from the lecture.

The Intimacy Experiment Review:

This book I just can’t. I preordered it, I got it within days of release, and then it sat there, mocking me. I was scared to pick it up because I KNEW it was good and I wasn’t wrong. Now it’s over and I’m still reeling. This book went above and beyond anything I could’ve thought😭.

This book is the perfect compliment to The Roommate. Witnessing Naomi tear down her walls and rebuild her vulnerability was beautiful. The discussions of Judaism were insightful and touching. This book is absolutely beautiful.

Loves:

Ethan: You know when you read a character that is just so perfect that you wish they were real? This man was a physics teacher who became a rabbi. He has the right amount of hot nerd and emotional baggage. I mean, he has cardigans with elbow pads!!! And horrendously plays baseball! (also his sister is amazing and written like an ACTUAL sibling)

Naomi: her transformation in this book is perfection. She’s still a badass woman, but she has an additional layer to her. I found her small steps into herself to be incredibly endearing and completely reasonable. To have her take the kind of steps she did and go through her process of self reflection felt so real.

Judaism: this is such an important part of this novel that it would be hard to separate the celebration of Judaism with any part of this book. I think that’s what makes it so impressive. The details that bleed into all aspects just makes Ethan more amazing and Naomi’s change even better.

Plot: it was so freaking unique with just the right amount of tropes in it to make it sing. Plus there’s some forbidden romance that makes me so happy!!! It’s so compelling that you don’t want to put the book down at all.

Supporting characters: I want to hug each and every person who went to the lecture and all of Ethan’s activities. Clara! You’re back and just as amazing.

Meh:

It ended. No thank you. I need more. I’m sorry but I refuse to believe that was the end. Like another book of just Naomi and Ethan kicking ass and taking names. That would be a dream come true.

In all honesty a more drawn out ending would have put this book in the realm of perfection. I wanted to see Ethan and Naomi’s jobs in action together in an everyday sense. It was touched on but for it being a decent part of the conflict, it was skimmed over in the end. I wanted just a glimpse of what their life would be like in practicality. Just something!

Long Story Short

All this being said, I think that you need to do the right thing and read this book if you haven’t yet. I hope you get to because it’s a lovely blend of sexuality and figuring out who you are. I mean it is a book about a rabbi and former adult star. Come on, you know it’s going to be good.

FYI this is not a heavy steam book. It’s definitely more emotional than sexy!

If You Liked This One…

Obviously go check out The Roommate by Rosie Danan as well! It’s the first in the series and you can read my review here. Such a great novel as well and feels like a the other side of the coin, which makes this such an impressive duology!