Title: Problematic Summer Romance
Author: Ali Hazelwood, narrated by Elizabeth Lamont and Eric Nolan.
Length: 11 hours, 34 mins
Genre: romance, friends to lovers, forced proximity.
Is this part of a series? Yes, this is book two in the Not In Love series.
I discovered this book via… Fresh Fiction ( I also follow the author on Instagram)
Published: May 27th, 2025
Summary (courtesy of Goodreads)
Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life.
Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him.
It’s such a cliché, it almost makes her heart implode: older man and younger woman; successful biotech guy and struggling grad student; brother’s best friend and the girl he never even knew existed. As Conor loves to remind her, the power dynamic is too imbalanced. Any relationship between them would be problematic in too many ways to count, and Maya should just get over him. After all, he has made it clear that he wants her gone from his life.
But not everything is as it seems—and clichés sometimes become plot twists.
When Maya’s brother decides to get married in Taormina, she and Conor end up stuck together in a romantic Sicilian villa for over a week. There, on the beautiful Ionian coast, between ancient ruins, delicious foods, and natural caves, Maya realizes that Conor might be hiding something from her. And as the destination wedding begins to erupt out of control, she decides that a summer fling might be just what she needs—even if it’s a problematic one.
My Thoughts:
Full disclosure, I finished this book weeks ago and have been trying to decide how to feel. If it weren’t Hazelwood- if she didn’t create some of my favorite characters- I feel like I would have liked this one more. I also feel like the choice of narrator did a lot to sour my opinion. This is going to be opinionated. Just understand that if I had read this instead of listening to it, and if it had been anyone other than Hazelwood, it would have gone up a star at the very least. But this author is capable of so much better…. Let’s just start the review.
There will be spoilers, both for this book and book one (Not In Love).
I first met Maya reading Not In Love. Centering on her brother Eli and his love interest Rue, we didn’t see much of her; but I got a good feel for her. Connor was introduced in that book too, but he was portrayed as someone I couldn’t like. I was interested to see more of him, to see if understanding his story would allow me to see the events of book one differently- it did, but not enough.
Problematic Summer Romance skips between the present day and the wedding week in Italy, and the moment when the two really entered one another’s orbits (and everything in between). Maya is navagating her first broken heart (and the added drama of living with the other woman, plus being fairly sure that the relationship started well before hers ended). Not knowing what to do, she tries to call her brother, and gets in touch with Connor instead. They knew of eachother, but had never really interacted before now. Between fake dates and flirty texts, they make sure the ex knows she isn’t pining- maybe doing too well. Now Maya has an issue- a very big, highly inappropriate crush on her brother’s emotionally unavailable business partner.
Trying to keep things friendly, Maya really feels like she’s found a good friend… until he calls to let her know she’s being cut off. Connor’s going to start dating and he doesn’t want his partner to misunderstand their relationship. This is all three years before present day. Maya’s still got her stupid crush… and a meteor sized chip on her shoulder. Connor, on the other hand doesn’t know how to act… he just wants to get through the week without going insane. Heated arguments, incriminations, and low level theatrics abound until finally Connor snaps. The two find themselves in the middle of a fling that could break them both. But, it’ll be fine. What happens in Italy stays in Italy… right?
I feel like this part of the plot was fairly well done, believable if infuriating. Hazelwood could maybe have done the age gap better, but it wasn’t terrible. Besides, in all honesty the age difference seemed like the least of their issues. The two supposedly talked about everything before the phone call that ended all, but Maya still doesn’t completely understand Connor’s feelings for his ex? I can see everyone else thinking he was still hung up on her… but if they were best friends shouldn’t she have known. It didn’t help that Connor seemed to have ambiguous relationships with two women there, and one was the girl Connor had cut ties with Maya for. It was a lot of drama. Add the fake hookup on Maya’s end and, well, it was a bit draining just listening to it. Honestly, Connor’s a smart man, but he’s not as smart as the other male leads from Hazelwoods- in comparison he’s not very bright. Nor do I get to watch him pine. Everything seems to be on her side, even though I know it isn’t- I mean, we have whole chapters in his narrative but we can’t see where his head is. I don’t like him, and Maya deserves better. She is a little immature, sure, but she’s sweet, hilarious, gorgeous and loyal. When the two start physical aspects of the relationship, I can see some chemistry; and I can see it in the beginning when they were fake dating. It was just…. a lot of drama.
I chose to listen to the audiobook for this one (I actually started it right after listening to Not In Love again to have a fresh feel for the characters). Maya’s voice actor was perfection. Connor’s…. was a bit problematic. He was fine, for Connor’s voice and accent- not the best, mind you, but not bad. The issue is that they didn’t hire other voice actors for other characters- and you don’t always. A good voice actor can make it work for several characters. But the other male characters were American and Eric Nolan’s accent was horrendous. I mean, is-this-AI-horrible. It didn’t help that Not in Love chose an amazing voice actor for Eli who was able to do Connor’s parts just fine. Honestly, I don’t know why we didn’t just rehire Jason Clarke (unfair, I know… but this was bad). Due to all my issues with Connor (character and voice actor) I have to give this one a three star rating; which may be the lowest I have ever given one of Hazelwood’s books and yet I still feel like I am being extremely generous.
As far as adult content, there’s drinking, edibles, language, and sexual content. While there weren’t too many scenes, they were spicy. It is geared towards adults.
The book is out- have you read it?
Happy reading!
Gwen
