"Since the first day I met you, you have been the best thing in my life. And you weren’t even in it."
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes: Age- gap, forced proximity, second-chance-ish, grumpy x sassy, hidden trauma, emotionally messy love
Rating: ★★★★☆
🏖️ The Premise
Ali Hazelwood’s Problematic Summer Romance is exactly what the title promises – a chaotic, charged, emotionally tangled love story set against the hazy warmth of a Italy’s scenic summer.
💥 What Hit Hard
🔥 The Tension
Ali Hazelwood never misses when it comes to slow-burn tension, but this one feels messier — in a good way.
🧠 The Characters
We follow Maya Killgore in this book. Maya is sassy, troubled to some extent, learning to grow up, but mostly she seems real because she’s messy.
Conor (who we’re briefly met in Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood) is Maya’s older brother’s (Eli’s) business partner and best friend. And to be honest, he seems exactly how a workaholic would. He is in control of himself, stoic expression always, straight to the point and never beats around the bush and sometimes maybe even unapproachable.
The two of them are as opposite as two characters can be.
But I guess that’s what makes it fun to read about them right?
🏖️The Setting
Now, our story keeps switching between a present and a past timeline. The past starts off with our messy Maya going through a breakup and somehow Conor seems to swoop in. While this hero move was merely out of respect for Eli, this move also marks the start of something new.
With minimal to no spoilers, let’s just say, Conor had developed walls around himself and I guess Maya managed to break them down. There are late night phone calls, general phone calls, sharing of all thoughts going on in their heads and basically what is a long distance friendship (?) between the two of them.
🧪 The “Problematic” Part
The problematic part begins when Maya attends her brother’s wedding in Italy. Of course the person she got attached to over the past year or so would be there. Of course he would ignore here. Of course things would get awkward.
There some jealousy thrown it. There’s anger encapsuled and more than anything there’s yearning on both ends.
🧡 Final Thoughts
This is definitely one summer beach read. While I personally did not find it as intense as Deep End or enjoyed it as much as Not in Love, this book exactly how it was supposed to make a reader feel- like they themselves went for a vacation to Italy and enjoyed a summer romance.
💌 Recommended If You Love:
Age- gap + brother’s best friend trop
Travel vibes
Messy internal thoughts
Forced proximity with actual tension
Have you read Problematic Summer Romance yet?
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