Book 35/30.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Intimacy Experiment is a tender, thoughtful, sexy and often intellectually stimulating story whose MCs are a former porn actress and a rabbi. Yes, you read that correctly 😅
Ethan Cohen is a young ambitious rabbi, but his synagogue is in trouble. If he cannot turn things around and grow his congregations’ numbers, his shul will have to close for good. So he teams up with Naomi Grant, whose sex and relationship seminars could possibly attract a younger demographic.
There is a lot said about sex, consent, respect, dating and breaking up in this book, and I was here for all of it. I loved this book’s sex positive message and the author’s bold way of approaching sensitive subjects such as religion, grief, queerness, sexual awakening, slut shaming, among others. This is one of the smartest romance books I have ever read and Rosie Danan did a great job of developing Naomi and Ethan’s relationship. Naomi is fiery, tough, sexy and jaded. Ethan is empathetic, kind and adorable and I swooned over the many similarities he has with my fiancé 🥰 Half of this novel is Naomi and Ethan circling each other, ogling and growing respect for one another, until the halfway point when sexy things start to happen 😈
This was almost a 5 star read, but Naomi’s “seminar” in the final third of the book did not resonate with me at all and was enough to dock a star from my rating. That said, I liked The Intimacy Experiment wayyy more than I thought I would and now I cannot wait to read Josh and Clara’s story in The Roommate which is book one of The Shameless Series.
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 