Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
We won this ebook from Goodreads!
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I liked this book for none of the reasons I was expecting to. Coming into this premise I was looking forward to hot banter and hotter sex and neither were really the things that stood out to me. Naomi’s internal poet did, her brain weaved gorgeous prose. The exploration and deep dive on the Kaddish, the nature of grief, and what it’s like to be a Reformed Jew in the current moment, did too.
This book made me think in the spots I thought were world-building and made me wander off in the bits about our lead characters. I couldn’t quite get a handle on how much traditional expectation Ethan placed on himself. At the beginning of the book, it seems like a lot. His mom saying all of the Shabbat prayers, as he cringes. (He could have guided more gently at this moment). Later in the book, he is far less traditional, though there are mentions of his morning prayers. I couldn’t quite love him as much as Naomi did.
Naomi was a fantastic character in the first book. This book tore that version away and build a more complex one. I loved her barb and stoicism in the first book, and though the point of this story, is her softening and blossoming. I missed her wit, in her evolution something got lost to me about her original energy.
Lastly, I missed the sex. For a scandalous story about a company that sells sexual self-discovery and a seminar on how to reach deeper intimacy, the bulk of the book focuses on emotional rather than carnal connection. There is nothing wrong, in fact, there is a lot of loveliness, about the bond Ethan and Naomi form before they take their relationship further. But I came into this book with a hope of more romp and was left a bit blue-balled. - Sky
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I don’t know what to say about this book. It’s there. It had some sexy moments. It had some mold-breaking moments. It was also extremely not steamy. I think, once again, I had a high sex-pectation on steam that wasn’t delivered. If you read The Roommate, Rosie Danan’s first book, I felt similar.
Intimacy Experiment follows Naomi Grant, a character from The Roommate who is also was a sex worker, and Rabbi Ethan Cohen as they host a Modern Intimacy seminar at his synagogue in order to boost attendance and appeal to younger Jews. Naomi is looking for more teaching opportunities and most traditional teaching positions have snubbed her for her previous work in porn and/or lack of teaching credentials (the catch 22 of “you need to have teaching creds to get teaching jobs” is an infuriating glass ceiling). Ethan is a new rabbi and the board of the synagogue is breathing down his neck for results but results in the way they expect, not in the way he delivers them.
I like that Ethan never had expectations or hang-ups about Naomi’s past as a sex worker in the porn industry. There was also a good balance of internal and external struggle, but it all never landed for me. Ethan never displayed internal struggles, just being affected by his external ones and his awkwardness at having the hots for Naomi. Naomi carried all the internal struggle as well as having to deal with the external drama too. So even though this was a dual POV story, it felt more Naomi’s than Ethan’s. -Ford
