The Sizzle Paradox by Lily Menon (Sandhya Menon)

Hey book lovers! I’m here with a book review for a Netgalley arc of The Sizzle Paradox by Lily Menon (a pen name for Sandhya Menon). I requested this arc after liking Sandhya’s book From Twinkle, With Love and LOVING 10 Things I Hate About Pinky. On her website blog, she said she’s using Sandhya for her YA books and Lily for her adult books so that parents and librarians can easily tell which books are appropriate for younger readers. The Sizzle Paradox will be published soon and is an easy and fun read for the beach or summer vacation.

About The Book 📚

Title: The Sizzle Paradox

Author: Lily Menon

Publication Date: June 28, 2022

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Suggested Reader Age: Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance

About The Author

“Sandhya Menon is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels with lots of kissing, girl power, and swoony boys. Her books have been featured in many cool places, including on The Today Show, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, NPR, Seventeen, Entertainment Weekly, and Buzzfeed. Three of her books have won the Colorado Book Award, and her Dimpleverse series was turned into a hit TV show with Netflix India. A full-time dog servant, Sandhya makes her home in the foggy mountains of Colorado. With a glass of wine at her elbow, she also pens adult romances under the name Lily Menon.” http://www.sandhyamenon.com/bio/

My Review

› Lyric and Kian are best friends and roommates. Kian is a big guy with curly dark brown hair, half-Indian heritage and is an environmental chemistry grad student. Lyric is a short, blonde hair blue eyed psychology doctoral student. The Sizzle Paradox is a scale she developed for her psychology thesis. She is studying romantic partners in successful relationships to figure out how they keep the romantic and sexual chemistry alive. Biotech students helped her develop software that can analyze romantic and sexual activity in the brain. She plans to interview couples with high scores to determine what they are doing “right” in their relationship and once she’s gathered enough data she will know what makes a successful relationship.

You might think Lyric has first-hand knowledge about long-term relationships, but no. She has struggled to have both a romantic and sexual chemistry with anyone. When she meets a guy who seems like good fit, she somehow messes it up. Kian suggests they can go on “fake” dates so he can try and help her figure out where she’s going wrong because he knows she’s amazing and doesn’t understand why she’s not in a relationship. Kian just broke up with his girlfriend due to his fear of commitment. Hmmm…I wonder what will happen?

› I use the CAWPILE method to rate books.
0-3 Really bad
4-6 Mediocre
7-9 Really good
10 Outstanding

› Characters: 4
› Atmosphere: 4
› Writing Style: 5
› Plot: 5
› Intrigue: 5
› Logic: 8
› Enjoyment: 6

Average 5.3

1.1-2.2 = ★
2.3-4.5 = ★★
4.6-6.9 = ★★★
7-8.9 = ★★★★
9-10 = ★★★★★

My Rating ★★★

› Final Thoughts
• The Sizzle Paradox isn’t one of my favourite rom-com reads, but I did have a good time reading it. I’ll definitely be checking out more from Lily Menon!