Problematic Summer Romance

Problematic Summer Romance is a contemporary romance by Ali Hazelwood, published in 2025 by Little, Brown. It is set in Italy and built on the contrast its title states: a relationship both people know will look wrong to everyone else, written as a single summer in which both of them are working.

Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still working out what she wants, while Conor Harkness is thirty-eight and certain about most things, which is exactly what irritates her. The two of them are thrown together over the summer, and the book spends its time on the argument between them, on what each of them is prepared to give up in order to keep it going, and on the opinions of the people around them.

Hazelwood writes romantic comedy with a strong interest in the working lives of her characters, and this novel keeps the two of them arguing in the same room rather than misunderstanding each other at a distance, which suits the age difference at the centre of it.