It’s no secret to you all by now that I’m an Ali Hazelwood fan. It’s also not a secret that Deep End gave me the ickiest of icks with its main plotline and off-key tone, so the Ali Hazelwood shrine in my house had some cracks. However, after reading Not in Love in preparation for Problematic Summer Romance this past week, my faith started to be restored. But now? After Problematic Summer Romance? I’m back to being the unofficial president of the Men of the Aliverse Fan Club. (Does such a thing exist? We should start one if it doesn’t.)
Problematic Summer Romance is light but tense, deliciously messy as promised, and takes a front seat in the yearniest of yearning books. Conor Harkness is one of my favorite MMCs of the year. His selfless devotion, constant acts of service for Maya, and the self-loathing that made me mutter “I can fix him” every five pages (yes, I should absolutely be talking to a therapist about this) had me completely hooked. Apparently, I am a goner for age gap romances. I couldn’t put this book down, mostly because I was deeply invested in the two standout men of the novel, Conor (duh) and Tiny (Eli’s dog… also duh).
Read on for my full recap, summary, and review of Problematic Summer Romance. TLDR: Aliverse stans, we’re so back.
Problematic Summer Romance
Description
What is wrong meets what feels right in this romance set in Italy by the New York Times bestselling author of Deep End.
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.
Synopsis
One of my favorite literary devices is multiple timelines, especially when flashbacks are layered throughout a current timeline to show us glimpses of how main characters got to where they are today. Problematic Summer Romance does this very, very well.
We are dropped into Rue and Eli’s wedding at the beginning of the book with Maya Killgore (Eli’s sister, whom you met in Not in Love. If you haven’t, you should totally read it. If you don’t have the time, go read our full synopsis and review of Not in Love here.) arrives at Eli and Rue’s destination wedding, and she’s very apprehensive about Conor Harkness, Eli’s partner at their company. Maya and Conor are not on good terms, and we’re slowly drip fed just how much history they have and why they fell apart.
As always with multi-timeline books, I’m going to linearize the timelines for easier digestion, however you should absolutely go read Not in Love and Problematic Summer Romance as they’re peak example of romcoms and a simple summary like this cannot do them justice. (However, thanks for hanging out with me either way!)
Then: Maya and Conor Meet in Edinburgh, Three Years Ago 💌
Eli and Maya’s relationship from their formative years has been rocky. Eli, a twenty-five-year-old, who found himself parenting a ten-year-old, was pretty strict, mostly because he was terrified of something happening to her. Maya, having never recovered from losing her parents, is full of anger issues (a condition they name Mayageddon) and moves to Scotland for college, running away from the tragedy of her life and Eli the first chance she gets.
Maya then meets Rose and her cousin Georgie. Maya and Rose become quick best friends, and she eventually becomes roommates with Georgie. She begins dating a guy named Alfie, another college student. Maya’s life is pretty good here, although she barely gives Eli updates on her life, and the two become kind of estranged.
One day, Alfie leaves Maya for Georgie. It appears when Maya, Rose, Alfie, and Georgie spent time together in the library, the constant smoke breaks Alfie and Georgie took together had turned into something more, and the two began an affair behind Maya’s back. Georgie has no intention of moving out or being courteous enough to have her relationship behind closed doors. Maya’s “best friend” Rose has also been clearly aware of the situation going on behind Maya’s back, although she swears she wasn’t. Maya, feeling alone and devastated, realizing her “found family” might not be family after all, finds herself at the brink of a breakdown (who can blame her).
Wanting to have just someone to talk to, she dials Eli’s phone after years of estrangement. However, the number on her phone turns out to be the company’s phone number, and she gets Conor instead. Conor informs Maya that Eli’s on a flight to Australia for a deal and isn’t available. He then reveals that he didn’t realize Maya was old enough to be going to college, and being Eli’s best friend, he’s worried about her well-being. The two talk on the phone for an extended period of time, Maya telling Conor what’s going on with her, and Conor listening and offering sardonic, practical advice.
After Maya hangs up with Conor, she spends quite a bit of time at the library to avoid Georgie and Alfie. When she arrives at her house, she finds a familiar, older man in her kitchen talking to Georgie and Alfie—Conor. Conor, who was in Ireland to see his sick father, showed up unannounced in Edinburgh to help Maya out of her trouble. He fakes having met Maya about a year ago, not revealing their history (not that they have any, really), and says that he showed up because the two had met a year ago and Conor told her to call him if she’s ever single, and he showed up. They fake hooking up, clearly making Alfie jealous. Eventually, Conor fakes sneaking out of her house, making a show of looking “disheveled”.
The next day, Maya offers to buy breakfast for Conor to show her thanks. The two of them spend the entire day together, Maya developing a crush on Conor and Conor acting like a perfect older gentleman. Maya realizes she’s going to a friend’s birthday that night where Alfie and Georgie will also be, and Conor volunteers to go with her. The two arrive at the party, the college kids being obsessed with Conor and asking for financial advice. Conor offers that she can stay in his suite, and there’s a spare bed, constantly reassuring the boundaries between the two of them.
Maya, however, has a different idea. When they get to the hotel room, she makes a move on Conor, who rebuffs her advance. He admits to finding Maya very attractive. However, he’s very aware of the power imbalance between the two of them, him having money and power and Maya being young and inexperienced. Maya, however, wears down his walls, claiming her agency, and they hook up. Maya falls asleep in Conor’s arms, and when she wakes up, Conor’s gone with a note saying that she can call him whenever she needs him.
Maya feels rejected. However, Conor begins sending her gifts with varying magnitudes. Eventually, Alfie apologizes for what a shithead he was for doing what he did to Maya, but Maya doesn’t even care.
Maya eventually calls Conor, who’s worried about taking advantage of her, whatever parameters their relationship might be. Although he’s adamant that he might have a reluctant friendship with her, it could never be more. Maya claims she’s over whatever has happened between the two of them, just so she can have a friendship with Conor.
The two of them talk on the phone for hours, multiple times a week, becoming an intimate part of each other’s lives. Maya learns about Conor’s life, how much he hates his father, and how much he adores his stepmother, about how he’s a driven businessman. In response, Maya tells Conor about growing up, her career in physics, and what she wants to do with her life. It becomes intimate as the two become best friends, although they never meet up in person.
This goes on for three years.
One night, during their phone call, Conor tells Maya that their friendship cannot continue. Having heard from Eli that Maya hasn’t been seeing anybody, he’s desperately worried that although Maya is everything he’s looking for and is the best thing that has happened to him, he feels that he’s not right for her and he’s taking advantage of their friendship by robbing her of experiences Maya should be having in her age. However, he doesn’t tell any of this to Maya. Instead, he tells her he met an age-appropriate woman, and if his relationship with her progresses, his relationship with Maya could be construed as inappropriate.
Maya confesses she’s in love with Conor. Conor rebuffs her and tells her it will pass. Maya doesn’t know Conor’s trying to push her away for his self-perceived wrongness for her, and the two do not speak again for ten months, until Rue and Eli’s wedding in Sicily.
What kind of content would you like to see more of?
What kind of content would you like to see more of?
Maya and Conor at Italy During Rue and Eli’s Wedding Week 💍
Maya arrives at Rue and Eli’s wedding in Sicily with Tiny, Eli’s dog. She’s apprehensive about seeing Conor. At the airport, she meets Avery, someone working at Conor’s firm, who she deduces is the reason Conor stopped being friends with her so he could date someone more “age-appropriate.” She likes Avery from the get-go, which makes it hard for her to hate her.
At the villa overlooking Mount Etna, where Rue and Eli are getting married, Maya and Conor’s first encounter is rough. Maya, clearly hurt from their last interaction, lashes out at Conor, while Conor tries to push her away by calling her a childish brat. It doesn’t work.
Over the years, Maya has cultivated a friendship with Nyota, a successful bankruptcy lawyer who is Rue’s best friend’s sister. When Nyota mentions eligible bachelors at the wedding and puts Conor at the top, Maya admits their history to her.
On their first night at the villa, one of the wedding guests brings local booze that’s way too old, giving everyone food poisoning—except Maya, Conor, and Avery. The next day, the three of them go sightseeing, being the only healthy people around. Avery mentions she wants to get back together with Conor, which hurts Maya deeply. She disappears into the city alone to avoid confronting him.
The week continues tensely. Maya keeps confronting Conor. She knows he has feelings for her but is fighting it, hiding behind excuses about age, experience, and uneven dynamics. When Avery later tells Maya that Conor turned her down because he’s in love with someone else, Maya’s suspicions are confirmed. But instead of sadness, she feels furious. Conor keeps throwing away what they could have. Minami—Eli and Conor’s best friend and Conor’s ex who broke up with him after turning down his marriage proposal—is devastated, thinking it’s because of her. She tells Maya she could never really get to know Conor, that he was too emotionally unavailable. Maya realizes she’s the only one who ever has.
Conor never closes the emotional distance between them. Physically, they’re close. Emotionally, he stays at arm’s length. He shows his feelings quietly through acts of service, like swapping his pasta dish with Maya’s when hers isn’t tasty or always leaving towels by the pool because she loves swimming. But he never takes the next step.
Maya meets a guy she thinks is German. Although he isn’t flirting with her, Conor watches them like a hawk. Maya, irritated by Conor’s jealousy, asks the guy to flirt with her. He’s clearly there with his girlfriend but agrees to help when he finds out why. He even puts his girlfriend’s number in Maya’s phone because he says she’ll want to hear about it. It turns out the guy is Lukas and his girlfriend is Scarlett, from Deep End. (Fun fact: this isn’t the only Aliverse crossover. Maya also interned for Jack from Love, Theoretically a few summers ago.)
Conor is very jealous of Maya’s “new friend.” When he finds her on the porch texting “the guy” (she’s actually texting Scarlett), his control finally starts slipping. They sneak away to Maya’s room and hook up, but Conor still won’t go all the way.
The next day, Mount Etna starts erupting, throwing the wedding plans into chaos. Eli asks Maya to watch Tiny, but Tiny has run away. Conor and Maya spend the day looking for him and eventually find him on a remote island off the coast. Tiny leads them into a cave, where he’s found another dog. Maya and Conor, waiting for the tide to go down so they can return, take shelter in a nearby room and hook up again. Conor still holds back.
Later that night, Maya and Conor finally sleep together. But even then, Conor is emotionally guarded. Maya realizes he’s never going to let her in. She finally calls it—she walks away, realizing that until Conor believes he’s good enough for her, they’ll never truly be together.
Eli finds out about them. Surprisingly, he isn’t worried about Conor taking advantage of Maya. He’s worried that Maya might break Conor’s heart. Eli has known for years how protective Conor is over her. Conor built her bookshelves, tracked down the exact laptop Maya needed for school, and even donated to her university’s natural sciences program just in case she ever needed help. Maya tells Eli everything, including the love confession and how Conor rejected her and won’t let her in.
The next morning, with the wedding still in disarray from the eruption, Rue and Eli quietly marry with only Maya and Conor as witnesses. Afterward, Maya wants to explore the city alone, but Conor wants to go with her because he’s worried about her safety. Maya, exhausted and defeated, pushes him away.
But Conor finally kisses her. For the first time. He doesn’t want to lose her and is finally ready to be all in.
They finally get together. They spend the day and then the night together. Conor confesses everything. He’s loved her since that first night in Edinburgh and hasn’t been with anyone else. He didn’t want to take advantage of her. He wants marriage, kids, a life with Maya. Maya, firm and self-assured, tells him she just wants him.
The two of them, finally honest and in love, begin their relationship.
When they return to the States, things are better than ever. Eventually, they have one awkward dinner with Eli, Rue, Minami, and the rest of the inner circle, where they reveal the truth. Everyone eventually gets on board. Later that night, Conor proposes. Maya says yes, ready to start their life together.
Review
What's your favorite Ali Hazelwood book?
What's your favorite Ali Hazelwood book?
Overall Impressions 😊
If you’re into forbidden pining, quiet acts of love, and a hero who thinks he’s too broken for the sunshine girl he’s clearly obsessed with, this is your book.
Friends, I ate this up. At this point, with so many romance books under my belt, I am absolutely here for some top-tier yearning, and this book delivered on every level. Was it messy? Yes, gloriously so. Was it problematic? Oooh yes. Do I have a problem with it though? Not even a little. I also discovered I’m super into age-gap romances, so you can thank Ali Hazelwood for the flood of future age-gap romance reviews you’re about to see on this blog.
I was nervous going in. Deep End left me with a sour taste, and even though I really liked Not in Love, I was worried. Since Problematic Summer Romance was written before Deep End, I feared the quality might be dipping. And listen, if you loved Deep End like the rest of the population apparently did, you shouldn’t be worried at all.
This book exceeded all of my expectations. The yearning. The pining. The “slipping of control” (my favorite microtrope). The small acts of service Conor kept doing without ever asking for anything in return. I was heavy breathing through most of this book. It was so, so good and lands near the top of my personal Ali Hazelwood rankings. It’s not going to beat Bride—nothing ever will, unfortunately. (Maybe Mate? I guess we’ll see in a couple of months.)
Characters 👥
If Conor Harkness has no fans left in the world, it’s because I’m dead. If being a Conor Harkness fan is problematic, welp, I guess we’re about to have a bunch of problematic people on our hands. He’s such a wonderfully flawed character who’s trying his best to do the right thing while still being himself. I love a “mean” man who isn’t actually mean—he’s just sardonically practical and says things how they are, even to the woman he loves. It’s so refreshing to see a male main character not lose his agency the second he catches feelings.
And the self-control? The way he puts Maya above himself at all times? Yes, it’s driven by self-hatred, but he still goes above and beyond to consider the imbalance in their relationship—the age gap, the money gap, the experience gap. Did he unintentionally take agency away from Maya by doing that? Also yes. Like I said, wonderfully flawed.
Then there’s Maya. The loud physicist girl who’s sunshine and chaos and knows what she wants. Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I loved that she was manipulative toward the end. She’s flawed, and it shows she’s willing to do what it takes to get her man. We would absolutely applaud the MMC for doing that, so it was so satisfying to see the FMC do it too. I also loved her exit from academia in favor of what she really wants. STEM girlies, I see you. Sometimes we don’t want to dig our heels in just because of expectations. Also, I loved that Maya had anger issues. She wasn’t some perfectly soft, quirky girl. She was angry, flawed, and still worthy of love.
@ALI, WHEN ARE WE GETTING A NYOTA BOOK, I BEG OF YOU. What a sassy queen. She’s unapologetically direct, honest, and ✨successful✨. Can STEM romance not extend to law? Just saying.
I also loved seeing Eli and Rue again. Eli continues to be disgustingly in love with Rue, and I love that for my girl Rue. And despite being side characters, it was so sweet to see Rue and Maya’s friendship grow. Maya finally found her “found family” with her actual family, and that hits harder than I expected.
Plot 🗺️
I mentioned this above the synopsis, but I love a dual timeline romance. I loved the Edinburgh plot (even though it featured a parade of Maya’s truly terrible friends) and the Sicily plot. The wedding-week chaos was peak romcom energy. The volcano erupting, Nyota dropping sassy commentary at all times—I loved it. The “a-follow-as-a-wedding-gift” moment? Perfect. More of that in every book, please.
I also really liked how much of a role Tiny plays in this series. But I’m a dog girl, you know? Easy to please.
The reveal of how deeply devoted Conor has been this whole time was just lovely. This is an age-gap romance, yes, but it’s also very much friends-to-lovers. In fact, it should be at the top of any good friends-to-lovers list. The way their best friendship slowly morphed into this unhinged, electric chemistry was magical to experience.
Writing Style and Narration ✍️
This book was funny. Anything Conor said? I ate it up. Conor and Maya’s banter? Devoured. Anything Nyota said? No crumbs left. I cackled so much reading this, I kept reading jokes aloud to my partner. He ate it up too. The line about Alfie and his friends immediately asking Conor how to get into the crypto space? Hilarious. So very funny. If you’re looking for a giggly, romantic comedy with sharp banter, this is your book.
The heartfelt moments landed too. The third-act love confession was so profound, I highlighted like three entire pages. It’s emotional, beautifully written, and perfectly timed. If you’re into stories that balance funny age-gap romance energy with real emotional payoffs, this one nails it.
Closing Thoughts 🧃
Problematic Summer Romance absolutely deserves the time and money you throw at it. It does exactly what it promises, an age-gap, friends-to-lovers story that is messy, problematic, and unhingedly irresistible. Conor and Maya’s story is one I’m so glad I read, and one I could not stop reading once I started.
Now, what you really came here for. Or at least, I hope you did. Where does this fall in my Ali Hazelwood rankings? I think it lands in fourth place, right after Bride, Love, Theoretically, and Not in Love. That is as high of a praise as you’re going to get from me.
I hope you enjoy Problematic Summer Romance as much as I did. Let me know in the comments what you think, and I’ll also take any and all age-gap romance recs you’ve got. My DMs are open. My TBR is ready.
Spicy Chapters 🌶️
It’s not like we can get enough of Conor and Maya but there are still plenty of romance to go around! Whether you’re looking for the spicy chapters or closed door modifications, the list of the important chapters are below!
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 27
- Chapter 30
- Chapter 36
- Chapter 40
- Chapter 42
If loving Conor Harkness is problematic we’re about to have a lot of problematic readers in our hands!🥵
Leave a Comment