Review: The Roommate by Rosie Danan
SYNOPSIS:
House Rules:
Do your own dishes.
Knock before entering the bathroom.
Never look up your roommate online.
The Wheatons are infamous among the east coast elite for their lack of impulse control, except for their daughter Clara. She’s the consummate socialite: over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable. But every Wheaton has their weakness. When Clara’s childhood crush invites her to move cross-country, the offer is too much to resist. Unfortunately, it’s also too good to be true.
After a bait-and-switch, Clara finds herself sharing a lease with a charming stranger. Josh might be a bit too perceptive—not to mention handsome—for comfort, but there’s a good chance he and Clara could have survived sharing a summer sublet if she hadn’t looked him up on the Internet...
Once she learns how Josh has made a name for himself, Clara realizes living with him might make her the Wheaton’s most scandalous story yet. His professional prowess inspires her to take tackling the stigma against female desire into her own hands. They may not agree on much, but Josh and Clara both believe women deserve better sex. What they decide to do about it will change both of their lives, and if they’re lucky, they’ll help everyone else get lucky too.
Review:
I’ve been sitting on this book for about a month now & finally feeling like I can write a worthy review for it. It’s currently 1 am & I can’t sleep, so perfect time right? This book was definitely 5 stars for me but for not your normal romance read reasons.
There was definite swoon, an epic love story, forced proximity, all that good good we like from romance. But what really made me love this book was the focus on the learning & trust that intimacy requires. Sex education is so important not just to learn safe sex, STI & pregnancy prevention, but also to learn about your own body, what you like & dislike. If you're having sex with a partner, learning what they want & having mutual trust & respect - a pleasure partnership! Clara is so relatable as a woman learning about her sexuality and Josh is the sex-positive answer to male toxicity. I loved the evolution both Josh and Clara go through in this story. They each had to come to terms with who they were, what they wanted, & go for it.
Rosie Danan knocked this one out of the park & I can’t wait to read Naomi’s book!
Note on the steam: I’ll admit, I expected this book to be far steamier based on early reviews but I think that got skewed by the sex-driven plot, not the sex between characters. Sticking with average steam as the actual intimacy between characters was hot & the chemistry was amazing. It was open door but not OTT erotica.
