source: purchased
rating:★★★★✩
from 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 review:
okay well i’m screaming, kicking, crying, laughing. i’m actually so sad this book ended. i really, really loved problematic summer romance, ali hazelwood never disappoints. i was hovering between 4 and 5 stars, but a few little things made me settle at 4.
maya was your typical smart, strong fmc. she had me laughing the whole time with her quick comebacks. honestly, she kind of put the problematic in the title. she wanted what she couldn’t have, and she kept pushing anyway. it was a little toxic, but it made the story what it was.
conor, on the other hand, was your classic rich (nepo? not exactly, but kinda) baby. he’s the asshole boss type; tough exterior, soft interior, cares deeply for his people. he always gets what he wants, one way or another.
their relationship was inevitable. it was a true slow burn, and i enjoyed every second. i especially liked the flashbacks, they came in at just the right moments and tied beautifully into what was happening in italy. the only thing i really wanted more of? a pov from conor. but even without it, i was hooked. the ending caught me off guard, and i wasn’t expecting their relationship to unravel the way it did, but it worked.
like always (and like i’ve said before), ali hazelwood never lets me down. this book was the perfect refresher after a reading slump. the book i had picked up before this one dragged so much that it made me not even want to read, but this pulled me straight out of it.
favorite quotes:
"you built a nice adulthood over the ruins of a shitty adolescence"