Problematic Summer Romance Book Review

Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today, I am back with another book review. One of my most anticipated reads of 2025, and by one of my favorite authors, Ali Hazzelwood! This year, Ali Hazelwood has been feeding her readers. We just got Deep End this February! I was beyond excited when I heard we were getting an age-gap summer romance from her, so let's get into it!

For those that don't know, this is a companion novel to Not in Love where we got Rue and Eli. In Problematic Summer Romance, we are following Eli's sister, Maya. Maya has a huge crush on her brother's best friend, Conor Harkness. Conor and Eli built their business together and have been close friends for a long time.

From Goodreads, "Conor loves to remind Maya, 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."

I love Ali Hazelwood's writing. I love the characters she creates, and the down bad male main characters she gives us. She delivered as usual in this book.

I feel like the age-gap trope is not used often (at least in what I read). It was interesting to see Conor trying to stay away from Maya but being unable to especially in such close quarters in a foreign country. They both really care about each other.

I will say this is not my favorite Ali Hazelwood novel, and I don't really have a specific reason why. I fear that nothing will ever top Deep End for me. I think I just wanted more of Conor and Maya alone or together in different situations. It felt like the other characters were constantly getting in the way to the point where it was a little annoying. There also could've been more spice to really make it seem like it was a forbidden romance type vibe instead. Which I guess is what I was more-so hoping for.

But I still loved the chemistry between the characters, I loved seeing the relationship between Eli and Maya grow, I loved getting to know more about Maya, and of course I loved seeing Conor down bad for Maya.

With how many books Hazelwood puts out though, I don't believe quality has been compromised. I will always read anything this woman writes.

Overall, I still really liked Problematic Summer Romance because I love Hazelwood's writing style and she just has such a unique way of writing. She has a way of making every description exciting to read. I did give this 4/5 stars. I know this might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I recommend checking it out!

Alright folks, that is all I have for this week! Come back next Wednesday for another blog post. As always, thank you for reading :)