Problematic Summer Romance (Not in Love, #2) PDF - Ali Hazelwood

Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood is a bold, sun-soaked, and emotionally charged contemporary romance about desire, timing, age-gap tension, and the complicated difference between what looks wrong from the outside and what feels impossible to deny from within. Set in Taormina, Sicily, the novel follows Maya Killgore, a twenty-three-year-old graduate student still trying to understand the shape of her adult life, and Conor Harkness, a thirty-eight-year-old successful biotech figure who has every reason to stay away from her. Officially described as a romance where “what is wrong meets what feels right,” the book places its central couple inside a romantic Italian wedding setting filled with ancient ruins, delicious food, natural caves, Ionian coast beauty, and the kind of forced proximity that turns hidden feelings into something impossible to ignore.

Published by Berkley on May 27, 2025, Problematic Summer Romance is listed by Penguin Random House as an Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller and a 416-page contemporary romance by the bestselling author of Deep End, Not in Love, and The Love Hypothesis. It is closely connected to Not in Love, with Maya appearing as Eli Killgore’s younger sister and Conor Harkness connected to Eli as both best friend and business partner, making this novel a companion follow-up for readers already invested in Ali Hazelwood’s contemporary romance world.

A Brother’s-Best-Friend Romance With a Deliberately Complicated Heart

At the center of Problematic Summer Romance is one of romance fiction’s most tension-filled dynamics: the brother’s best friend. Maya cannot stop thinking about Conor, but Conor is not simply an attractive older man she happens to meet in a beautiful place. He is connected to her family, tied to her brother, and positioned in a life stage that makes every possibility between them feel loaded with consequence. The novel does not pretend the situation is simple. Instead, it builds its emotional engine around the very reasons the relationship seems impossible: the fifteen-year age gap, the power imbalance Conor worries about, Maya’s uncertainty about her future, and the long history of attraction, distance, and restraint between them.

This makes the book especially appealing for readers searching for age-gap romance, brother’s-best-friend romance, forbidden romance, forced proximity romance, and steamy summer romance books with emotional conflict beneath the heat. Ali Hazelwood uses the word “problematic” not as a throwaway hook, but as part of the story’s central question. What makes a romance complicated? Who gets to decide when desire is dangerous, unfair, or worth the risk? And what happens when two adults are fully aware of every reason they should not cross the line, yet still find themselves drawn back to each other?

Maya Killgore: Young, Sharp, Restless, and Still Becoming Herself

Maya Killgore is a heroine in transition. At twenty-three, she is not written as someone who has everything solved, and that uncertainty is essential to the novel’s emotional texture. She is still figuring out her future, still forming her adult identity, and still carrying feelings for a man who keeps insisting that the two of them are a bad idea. Her attraction to Conor is intense, but the book gives her more than longing. Maya is funny, emotionally direct, stubborn, vulnerable, and determined to understand whether what exists between them is one-sided fantasy, mutual desire, or something deeper that Conor is refusing to admit.

Her youth is not ignored; it is part of the conflict. Yet the novel also gives Maya agency, voice, and self-awareness. She is not simply swept along by Conor’s power or age. She questions, pushes, observes, and chooses. Her emotional arc is about more than convincing Conor to want her. It is about deciding what she wants from her own life, how she wants to be seen, and whether she is willing to risk rejection in order to stop living inside uncertainty. For readers who enjoy heroines who are messy, intelligent, intense, and still growing into themselves, Maya offers a compelling and memorable point of view.

Conor Harkness: Restraint, Distance, and the Secrets Beneath Control

Conor Harkness is the kind of romantic lead whose restraint becomes part of his appeal. He is older, more established, and intensely aware of the reasons a relationship with Maya could be judged from the outside. He repeatedly frames the dynamic as too imbalanced and too complicated, which makes his distance feel less like indifference and more like a form of self-control. But restraint can also hide fear, longing, and secrets, and Problematic Summer Romance builds much of its tension around the possibility that Conor’s rejection of Maya is not the whole truth.

The official premise hints that Conor may be hiding something, and that suggestion gives the romance a deeper layer than simple attraction. In Taormina, surrounded by wedding chaos and isolated in a romantic Sicilian villa, his ability to keep Maya at arm’s length begins to weaken. Their dynamic works because both characters understand the stakes, yet neither can fully dismiss the pull between them. Conor’s appeal lies in that contradiction: he is careful, controlled, and convinced he is doing the right thing, but his feelings for Maya make his self-denial increasingly fragile.

Taormina, Sicily: A Destination Wedding Setting Made for Romantic Chaos

The Italian setting is one of the strongest pleasures of Problematic Summer Romance. Taormina gives the novel a vivid, escapist atmosphere: the Ionian coast, ancient ruins, natural caves, warm air, beautiful food, and the heightened emotional pressure of a destination wedding. This is not a quiet everyday romance; it is a story where characters are removed from routine and placed somewhere beautiful, intimate, and difficult to escape. The villa becomes a pressure cooker for old feelings, new revelations, family tension, and romantic temptation.

For readers searching for romance novels set in Italy, Sicily romance books, destination wedding romance, summer beach reads, or vacation romance novels, this setting adds immediate appeal. Ali Hazelwood uses the location to amplify the emotional stakes. Italy becomes more than a scenic backdrop; it becomes the place where Maya can no longer pretend she has moved on, Conor can no longer rely on distance, and a wedding meant to celebrate one couple forces another pair to face everything they have avoided.

Desire, Power, and the Question of What Makes a Romance “Problematic”

The title Problematic Summer Romance invites readers to think about the ethics and emotional tension of the relationship before the story even begins. Maya and Conor’s romance includes an age gap, a brother’s-best-friend connection, professional and personal differences, and a history of imbalance that Conor himself cannot ignore. Rather than smoothing over these concerns, the novel makes them part of the conflict. Hazelwood’s official content notes state that the fifteen-year age gap is a central issue in the book, especially because the characters themselves discuss and struggle with it.

This gives the novel its sharper adult edge. The romance is steamy and escapist, but it is also self-aware. It understands that attraction does not erase complexity, and that wanting someone is not the same thing as knowing how to build something healthy with them. Maya and Conor’s story asks whether two people can confront an uncomfortable dynamic honestly enough to move beyond fear, judgment, and avoidance. That makes the book especially suited to readers who like romances that lean into emotional messiness rather than pretending every obstacle is easy to solve.

A Steamy Companion to Not in Love

Readers who enjoyed Not in Love will find extra satisfaction in returning to the world of the Killgores and their circle. Problematic Summer Romance brings Maya into the spotlight and places her story during a wedding connected to characters from the earlier book. This companion structure gives returning readers a sense of continuity while still allowing the novel to focus on its own central romance. It carries forward Ali Hazelwood’s interest in ambitious, intelligent, emotionally guarded characters, but shifts the mood into something warmer, more vacation-driven, and openly summer-soaked.

At the same time, the book can also appeal to new readers because its core setup is immediately clear: a young graduate student, an older man determined to resist her, a brother’s wedding in Sicily, and a week in a villa where secrets and attraction become impossible to contain. Fans of Ali Hazelwood books, contemporary romance with spice, adult romance novels, and romantic comedies with emotional tension will find many of the author’s familiar strengths here: sharp chemistry, witty internal conflict, intense longing, and characters who are much more vulnerable than they first appear.

Why Readers Will Love Problematic Summer Romance

Problematic Summer Romance is ideal for readers who want a romance that feels hot, dramatic, funny, and emotionally tangled. It includes several beloved romance tropes: age gap, brother’s best friend, forced proximity, destination wedding, secret longing, summer fling, and off-limits attraction. The novel’s appeal lies not only in whether Maya and Conor will give in to desire, but in how they will address the real reasons they have resisted each other for so long.

The book also works as a strong summer read because it offers atmosphere and momentum. The Sicilian setting gives it brightness and sensuality, while the central relationship gives it depth and friction. The result is a romance that feels indulgent without being empty, playful without being careless, and provocative without losing emotional sincerity. Readers who like their love stories complicated, character-driven, and full of unresolved tension will find Maya and Conor’s dynamic especially engaging.

A Sunlit, Messy, and Irresistible Romance About Choosing What Feels Real

Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood is a seductive contemporary romance about two people caught between caution and desire, appearance and truth, restraint and risk. Through Maya Killgore and Conor Harkness, the novel explores what happens when attraction refuses to stay theoretical, when an off-limits connection becomes impossible to dismiss, and when the most inconvenient feelings may also be the most honest ones.

For readers searching for a steamy summer romance, an age-gap contemporary romance, a brother’s-best-friend love story, or an Ali Hazelwood book set in Italy, Problematic Summer Romance offers a memorable and emotionally charged reading experience. It is a story about a wedding week that spirals out of control, a Sicilian villa full of temptation, and the dangerous possibility that a romance everyone can label as problematic might still reveal something deeply true.