![Cover image for The Hot Henry Effect by Lucy Chalice. A busy lab scene, in the foreground a woman with strawberry blonde hair, in a pink-red shirt and lab coat, types on a laptop and holds a clipboard. She is pretty, and is pointedly not looking at the man in the image. A few feet down the lab bench, a tall, dark haired man, in a blue shirt and lab coat, gazes at the woman. He wears a slight smirk, and is leaning casually against the bench. The lab around them looks busy with things, but no other people are in the frame. Above the man's head, over a window though which only the tips of trees are visible, the title of the book [The Hot Henry Effect] is written in a hot pink-red, the same colour as the woman's shirt, handwriting font. Above that, right at the top of the image, the author's name [Lucy Chalice] is written in a simple, black, sans serif font.](https://eebonnerauthor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/image-4.png?w=255)
Thank you to HarperCollins, NetGalley and Lucy Chalice for an opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Spoilers ahead!
Let’s start with the nice stuff: I think there was a genuinely delightful banter between Clara and Henry. The two seemed to like each other as much as love each other, which I think is a refreshing change. This friends-to-lovers where you get the sense that the two parties really are friends. I liked the side characters, and I felt that there was a well-considered emotional arc, and sense of internal development between where Clara started, and where the two ended up. Similarly, I think there were some lovely rom-com moments that helped us see Henry not just as ‘a man who says he is in love with Clara,’ but as, ‘a man who is actively in love with Clara,’ which I also found very refreshing. I loved their inside jokes, the repetition of phrases, things friends say to one another. ‘Do I have something on my face?’ is, and remains, such a perfect line. They both know they’re gazing lovingly at each other, it is at once a get out of jail free card, and acknowledgement that they noticed the other noticing them. Lastly, I don’t like miscommunication as a trope, but I think Chalice pulled it off by going 0 to 100 on the communication front, and packing the resolution with good, honest, talking about feelings. Overall, a fun and funny romance.
Now onto the slightly less good. The Hot Henry Effect was an unusual read for me. This reminded me of books being published about 10 years ago, a very quirky narrator, a slightly sexist way of looking at other women, and a tendency for the MMC to be casually jealous and dominant. I did find Clara’s repeated concern that she looked ‘like a slut’ / ‘slutty’ and the scary woman being heavily made-up with cosmetic surgery left a bad taste in my mouth, especially when Clara repeatedly expounded her own feminism. Similarly, I thought it was odd that she framed ‘being in love with Henry / wanting to be around Henry / feeling things for Henry’ as diametrically opposed to ‘being independent.’ On the casual jealousy and dominance front, Henry repeatedly threatened to enact physical violence on men who upset Clara, or men who seemed to want her attention. This isn’t something I’m necessarily against, I mean we all say things, and a protective man can definitely be the vibe some people want, it just seemed so totally opposite to all of Henry’s other personality traits that every time it came up it was jarring.
Another thing I found a little odd, and this was not actually anything to do with the book, but the marketing. Twice on the blurb page for this is it described as ‘spicy,’ to be blunt, it is not. This is not spicy, in the same way Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter books are not spicy. By which I mean, there is a sense of sex taking place, and there are some details, and there is even some well-described pre-sex shenanigans, but during the deed, there is no real description. You don’t need to worry about what words she’s using to describe which parts, because the answer is none. There is a general sense of the mechanics of things, nothing much more. This is not a deal-breaker for me, I didn’t request this because it claimed to have spice, and I have read and thoroughly enjoyed many a closed door romance, but this is purporting to be something it is not. Flagging this now, because I think some readers might be a little disappointed because to me ‘🌶️🌶️🌶️’ in the themes section suggests quite a lot of on-page intimacy.
That being said! I really enjoyed that intimacy was on the page. There were a few details that threw me off, but largely I think there was a sense of emotional closeness, and of two people who truly found each other beautiful, and desirable, and utterly captivating.
As a side note, and something I just found a little odd, how, after knowing each other 7 years during which time they were twice very close friends, did Henry never mention his twin brother? I appreciate that this was a set up to the next book in this loose series, about said twin, but this is baffling to me! Like, Clara knows his mum is French, but is not aware that he shared a womb with someone? Possibly the most egregious, unlikely, rom-com-silly detail in the whole book.
In conclusion… the thing is…I liked it. Is it good? That’s for you to decide, but I read it, and for the most part, I had fun.
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