Bad in Bed

by Ali Hazelwood

An experiment in self-discovery yields intoxicating chemistry in this sizzling new audio-first romance by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood!

Billie van Buren’s orderly world comes unraveled when her years-long engagement ends in humiliation. It’s bad enough that the messy break-up disappoints her family and threatens to tear apart her friend group. What Billie—a brilliant but sheltered doctoral student—really didn’t need was for her ex-fiancé to publicly disparage her bedroom skills, leaving her confidence shattered.

Dr. Maxwell Austin, a medical fellow, is reckless, charming, and self-assured—everything Billie isn’t. Opposites should attract, but barring the occasional bickering and teasing session, Billie and Max prefer to steer clear of each other. That is, until Billie’s statistics skills bring them together.

There’s nothing wrong with professionally collaborating with one’s longtime frenemy. Enlisting his help to become more confident in bed through hands-on practice, though… That’s a whole different matter. As Max helps Billie embrace her own pleasure and challenge her insecurities, their no-strings relationship evolves into something deeper, propelling Billie and Max into uncharted territory. And Billie just might discover that love is her most significant finding yet…

Genres: Romance, Audiobook, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Adult, Enemies To Lovers, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 22, 2026

About the author

I'm Ali, and I write contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia. I love cats, Nutella, and side ponytails. I'm also currently learning to crochet, so as you can tell I'm a super busy gal with an intense and exciting life!

I only use Goodreads as a reader, to review and hype books that I've loved (many of these book are ARCs received from fellow authors).

Reviews

[Katherine]

someone rescue Ali from whichever basement Amazon has her tied up in

[bookluvr (s-ia)]

ali, wdym this is only coming out on audio at first? don’t tell me the eyeball girls have to wait a year plus for the print version — when, i beg?? 😭

[Alya | short TBR clearance era · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughts
Everyone and their mother knows my love for Ali's writing so I may be biased when it comes to her but honestly this book was everything my heavy heart needed ❤️‍🩹 I loved everything about it from start to end ( well a part from the drama towards the end ) but it needed to happen it's a book after all lol

I loved the FMC; as usual Ali always makes her FMCs feel relatable whether it's personality, inner conflicts or family drama. I loved the MMC just as much; in fact where can I find my real life Max --- she'd be dissing herself and he'd be doing the complete opposite -- I need to find my person ASAP lol 🥲

Oh and I should mention I loved the full cast audiobook, I know I'm a consumer of Kindle and audio but it's audiobooks like these that enhance the experience. Also once a Teddy Hamilton listener; always a Teddy Hamilton listener 🙌🏻

I'm back in Hazelwood drought until the next release 💔

Plot Summary
After a humiliating breakup leaves Billie questioning her confidence, the last person she expects to turn to is Max, a charming and reckless doctor she’s spent years bickering with. When their professional collaboration leads to an unexpected arrangement to help Billie explore her confidence and intimacy, their casual relationship soon becomes more complicated. As feelings develop, they must decide whether to risk their friendship for something deeper.

My Bookstagram

[Soft Nectarine ~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

We’ve been BLESSED by another impeccable Ali romance full of yearning, witty banter & dripping smuttiness!! SIZE DIFFERENCE is what we need. SIZE DIFFERENCE is what we crave.

💦 🩺💛 🛌 💛 🩺 💦

After dumping her fiancé Billie is ready to shed her prudishly conservative upbringing & EXPAND her bedroom horizons 🛌 who better to show her that sex can be fun than the playfully teasing frenemy! Of course, he’s been in-love with her for a decade so the YEARNING is dripping…but so is she during her lessons!

IN LOVE WITH THIS DYNAMIC! Billie’s upbringing has made her feel shame about sex and here comes a dirty-talking doctor who eagerly tells her he had to 💦 in the car because she got him too hyped up! SHE IS SHOOK! The opposite attract has never been more true with her methodical overthinking vs his carefree puppy dog attitude!

🩺 sex lessons with a HUGE problem…of making him actually fit!

🩺 the banter. the chemistry. the yearning.

🩺 HE TALKS HER THROUGH IT! This man’s dirty talk is insane!

NEVER met an mmc written by Ali that I didn’t like BUT Max might be my favorite! He is chaotically witty & infinitely charismatic. HE IS SO INTO HER!! He is down bad for her brain & her body and can’t believe his luck when she casually chooses him to solve her predicament.

The narration was perfection. I WISH IT WAS LONGER. I NEED MORE OF THESE TWO. PLEASE.

[Jillian 🌷 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Ali actually spent her neuroscience days figuring out how to mimic drugs in her books

[megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

FERAL over them

[Adriana]

She's always writing girls in distress 🫩🙄 while the male leads have perfect professional and personal lives

[Jen · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

“What if, in addition to being in love with her for forever, he has an absolutely massive 🍆?”

—Ali Hazelwood, probably



(this was textbook Ali: sweet, steminist, a little silly & spicy. I never like dating/sex practice… unless it’s AH, apparently. love how Boston this one was and some of the jokes had me snort laughing. cute and fun, need it in print!)

[shaelinslibrary · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

Ali Hazelwood does it again, folks. Illicit substances are in her writing, i swear.

This was heartwarming, sexy, and an epically casted narration. Max is such a great mmc, the yearning and pining are off the charts. LOVE a man who’s been down bad for a hot minute. Also love Billie, she was such a mature, level headed fmc!

The vibes were immaculate, and it was a short, sweet read. I needed this after all my big reads. God bless you, Ali, for doing the lord’s work with your mmc’s.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ⭐️
3/5 🌶️
5/5 🎙️

There is a lot I liked about this, but enough I didn’t like to keep it from being five stars. This book really suffers from the FMC being the only flawed character who needs to arc. She is this meek, weak willed thing who has to find herself after a breakup of a long engagement and also cutting off her family. She’s just a mess. Enter our Hero who is ready to do everything for her…except be honest about his feelings. Because why would we expect open and honest communication from grown adults with grown up jobs?

Do they have chemistry? Absolutely. Spicy scenes are amazingggg. Size Queen Ali strikes again! I enjoyed the full friendship group they had, but it might have been easier in an eyeball read. Is the audiobook production insane? Yes. I just could not get over the complete lack of communication and the way the FMC was portrayed to be able to enjoy this as much as I anticipated. This should be been an easy win for me. I love Ali Hazelwood and a full cast audiobook?? Sign me up! Weirdly, I didn’t hate Teddy Hamilton in this. I’ve been having Teddy Hamilton fatigue like crazy, but I think he works as this character. Brooke Bloomingdale did a great job as well

[Anna Nenna · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

A work from home day allows me time to finish my work faster and have time for some much needed escapism and better written reviews! Yay!

I knew what to expect from the title, but I still hoped for a bit of different dynamic (delulu much!?😜🤫)
Here are a few things that annoyed me (and triggered my chaotic ADHD hyperfixation- “welcome to my weirdness”… I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️):

The insecurity - in past books by AH the FMC’s low self-esteem was usually a quirky byproduct of being an overthinking scientist. But here, it felt different (or at least that’s how my brain perceived it!) - like she was in a cycle of comparison where she feels lesser-than, her insecurities, doubts and a poor, unsatisfactory sexual experience (with her cheating douchebag ex) was just a bit more than I needed… while Max was placed on a different pedestal.

- The ex-girlfriend misstep: -near the end, Max drops the fact that he also had loved his ex, Hayden (not on the same level as our FMC Billie- what a relief! he was pinning for Billie and Haden was aware of it!)… but still, even though we know he is down bad for Billie, this confession felt like a misstep that spoiled a bit the "obsessed hero" fantasy (for me!)
I would have preferred if the narrative showed his POV - in his past, being just as vulnerable or emotionally threatened as Billie was… a bit of a balance if you will!
🤷🏻‍♀️
Overall a 5/5 for duet-style multi-cast narration and 3,75/5 for how the story felt for me!
Spice was 3,5/5
No cheating, no sharing!

[Kayla Hobbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

an fmc who is absolutely not like other girls and is super sweet and innocent enlists the help of the guy she hates to teach her sex because her ex said she was bad at sex. an mmc with an absolutely enormous massive very large dong agrees to help her because duh (also he has a very large dong). despite asking him to teach her sex, she’s so embarrassed when he actually suggests they do the sex with his very large dong. they eventually have sex and at least 95% of the scene is him getting angry because he’s going to split her open with his absolutely enormously huge wiener :) (btw i’m pretty sure he said it’s so big he has to order custom jeans and boxers)

[Amanda Vieira]

Didn't "read" it yet, just wanted to know and plead: I wanna //read// this, I don't like audiobooks, I can't get into the story by only listening it, I need the words :( will we ever have a written version, like the videogame one?

[Aline Supmar · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️

[Aneesa Andrews · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

I < u Ali hazelwood u can do no wrong!!!!

Except: I wish there was more yearning from max 😭 I love love loved their relationship and the hint to the fact that max has loved her for a long time but like Harrison was like “Billie he had a shrine for you!” And that wasn’t expanded on??? TELL ME the extent to which he loved her!!! Tell me how he fell for her!! Their relationship was so sweet and he was clearly gone for her but I wanted history.

Also. Dare I say I wanted more plot in my romance novel? Because of the lack of history it also felt like nothing was really happening. Especially given the synopsis, which made it feel like Billie’s ex talking about her being boring in bed was a major plot point (also like…….. the title) but actually it was never even revealed to her closest friends? Actually the more I write this review the more I feel like there are loose ends that weren’t tied up. Hello ao3? It’s me, aneesa.

I thoroughly had a wonderful time listening to this (it did come out today and I had to stop myself from finishing it before 2pm so that I could listen to the last 2 hours while I made dinner) like it was so so so sweet but again some things felt like they were lacking

[annotated by Noi (in & out) · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

This was actually rally fun.

I must say my last reads from Ali were Bride and Mate which I loved. My last contemporary from her was Not in Love which I hated. But this was really good. Didn't realize it's like full length novel but I read it in about a day - it's also duet/full cast and a good one at that. It's not super deep or emotional but it doesn’t try to be and I'm happy I read it.

Our FMC has odd social interactions and is trying to navigate them, and the MMC is there to help her.
They have a very cute dynamic, some banter, teasing, a little bit of a past, but most of all open communication which I loved.

[Clare Gilmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

so deep in her bag she’s gonna get lost in there

[Azanta (azantareads) · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

read this literally the day it dropped, perfect timing mother thank you! excellent full cast production, a classic Ali Hazelwood romance in every way!

[Rosi · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

For fans of: Spicy lessons, frenemies to lovers, opposites attract, forced proximity, and STEM romance.

I usually enjoy Ali Hazelwood’s books, but this one was just not it for me.

First of all, I’m getting SO tired of the whole innocent, sweet girl who needs a man to teach her how to be good in bed trope. It’s so overused at this point, and I really wish we could move on from it.

And can we please talk about how the entire plot seemed to revolve around Max having a big dick? I swear, we were reminded of it every five minutes. That joke got old really quickly, and after a while, it felt like his size was his entire personality.

The premise was already pretty predictable, but I was hoping the chemistry between Billie and Max would make up for it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t particularly invested in either of them. The constant emphasis on how inexperienced and insecure Billie was got old pretty quickly, and I didn’t think their relationship had enough development outside of the physical attraction. I know this is supposed to be a spicy romance, but I would’ve loved a little more actual romance. I don’t mind a book being heavy on spice, but I need something else to keep me interested.

I will say that the audiobook was easy to get through, and I enjoyed the narration. There were also a few funny moments that I appreciated.

[Olena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let’s start with the audiobook, because this book was originally announced as an audio-first release, and as someone who absolutely LOVES a good audiobook when it’s narrated by the right people, I couldn’t be happier about that.
And oh, did they get it right.
Teddy Hamilton. This man’s voice was made for delivering love confessions that make your heart stop and bring tears to your eyes, only to turn around and whisper the filthiest things imaginable, leaving you breathless and covered in goosebumps. IYKYK. 🫠
Brooke Bloomingdale, the voice behind so many heroines from the romances we love.

Together? An absolutely PERFECT duo. 💞💞💞

Okay, I’ll put my audiobook enthusiasm aside for a moment and talk about the story.

After the humiliating end of her long-term engagement, Billie is trying to pick up the pieces and move on. Her absolute garbage excuse for a fiancé had the audacity to complain to a party full of equally awful men that she was bad in bed. Because apparently, publicly humiliating the woman you were supposed to marry is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. 🙄
Billie is working toward her PhD, loves math and statistics, and isn’t exactly the most socially confident person in the room. Although, honestly, having the kind of friends she has in this book means she’s doing pretty damn well in the friendship department.
Her close-knit circle also includes Dr. Maxwell Austin. Max is charming, confident, and everything Billie feels she isn’t. But when it comes to their interactions, she never backs down. Their banter is sharp, hilarious, and ridiculously entertaining. The way Billie comes up with comebacks? I WISH I had that kind of verbal dexterity.
These two are complete opposites, and watching them go toe-to-toe is an absolute delight.

But when Max finds out about Billie’s breakup and the reason behind it, he’s furious on her behalf. Especially considering that he and her ex used to be best friends before their friendship fell apart under rather mysterious circumstances.
When Billie admits that she genuinely believes she’s bad in bed and agrees with what she heard on that video, a conversation filled with jokes, honesty, and a surprising amount of vulnerability takes an interesting turn. Somehow, they end up making a deal: Max will help Billie with her little “problem.”

And from there, the story pretty much follows a trajectory we can all predict, with a few little detours along the way. Is it groundbreaking? No. Is it particularly unpredictable? Also no.

BUT.

There’s something I really want to talk about: the way Max talks to Billie during their intimate moments.

The sheer BEAUTY of it all. The things he says to her. The way he makes her feel. I wanted to write down every single quote, but most of them would be spoilers, and I refuse to ruin that experience for anyone else.
The way this man gives her comfort, makes her feel safe and confident, and creates a space where she can simply be herself without fear or shame? Absolutely incredible.
I spent so much of this book giggling at the way these two constantly teased each other, but the moments that truly made my heart skip a beat were the ones filled with tenderness, care, and passion. ❤️‍🔥
Because beneath all that witty banter and sexual tension, there’s something genuinely beautiful about the way Max shows up for Billie. He doesn’t just want her. He wants her to feel good about herself. He wants her to feel safe, desired, and confident in her own skin. And THAT is what got me.

One of my favorite things about Ali Hazelwood is the way she writes characters, both main and secondary. She makes them feel like people you actually want to spend time with, and by the end, you somehow find yourself loving the entire cast.
You can read dozens upon dozens of romance novels, and then you pick up an Ali Hazelwood book and suddenly remember exactly what makes her writing so special. There’s a certain magic to the way she combines nerdy characters, razor-sharp humor, irresistible chemistry, and those unexpectedly tender moments that sneak up on you and absolutely wreck you.

Do I recommend this book? ABSOLUTELY.

If you enjoy audiobooks, I highly recommend listening to this one as soon as possible. And if you prefer physical books, definitely add it to your TBR for when the print edition comes out.

Five stars for the banter, the chemistry, the tenderness, and a certain Dr. Maxwell Austin who clearly understood the assignment. ❤️‍🔥

🏷️ Tropes:
💞 Frenemies to Lovers
🧮 Women in STEM
😏 Witty Banter
💔 Newly Single Heroine
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Close-Knit Friend Group
🔥 Sexual Tension
📚 Love Lessons
❤️‍🔥 It's Always Been You

[enqi ☾⋆˚*̣̩✩]

Okay consider me sat

[Becky Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally love Ali’s books, and while I didn’t hate this book, I also don’t love it. I get that the FMC was sheltered and a bit brainwashed, but for someone who was so smart and going to Harvard she was very obtuse….It was almost painful.

[mimi!!!]

why an audiobooooooooooook !!???!!!!!

[bella fazzati · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

the amount of yearning in this fucking book????? 😩✊🏻😮‍💨🛐❤️‍🔥

[Leslie Ann · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

One day I will get tired of the Ali Hazelwood book formula, but today is not that day. I knew exactly what was happening throughout the entire book, but I still ate it up.

[ilana · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

I definitely would’ve liked this a lot more if I was reading it physically instead of listening to the audiobook. I don’t like audiobooks usually, and this only solidified the fact that romance books should stay in my mind. There’s something about these books that are supposed to be read and not spoken aloud — that’s why book to screen adaptations go through extensive re-writes. Also, the MMC’s narrator is super popular with audiobook lovers and I personally do not see the appeal; his voice was pretty monotone and he had a slight lisp that bugged me. I liked the narrator for the FMC though, she was good.

The story itself was alright. Again, I can’t review it properly because I was listening rather than reading it so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could’ve. I liked how Billie had a fully fleshed out background, and on the one hand I wish we got Max’s pov to know him better but on the other hand I don’t like his voice so I’m glad it was in there sparingly. Overall, I had fun, it was quick, but definitely not in the top five of Ali Hazelwood’s books for me.

[pages_that_burn · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

The characters are quirky, sometimes awkward and just perfect. I tried to finish this in a day because my patience is no existent but the ebook wasn't released yet to read at home. So 2 days it was...lol The audiobook is excellent and the full cast makes the story so easy to visualize.

The miscommunication trope took a bit long to resolve for me personally...see the comment on patience but it wouldn't deter me from suggesting it to others.

[lula · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m FREE😭

[ohna · Rating 1 out of 5]

thank fuck this was a multi-cast otherwise all the guys would have just been teddy hamilton but regardless of my negative opinions on him and his lack of range i think his voice suits characters like dr maxwell austin and koen alexander, the sleazes



and because this is an ali hazelwood novel i must acknowledge the fact that his penis is so big that i do believe the astronauts looking down can see it from space.

[Sydni · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Ali Hazelwood we trust. Billie van Buren is my actual twin, I related to her so much and she has entered my top five Ali Hazelwood fmcs 🤸‍♀️🫶🏻😁