Book Review: Passion Project by London Sperry
🎨 Grief, Grind, and One Hell of a Meet-Cute
Passion Project is the debut that Gen Z rom-com readers have been manifesting: achingly honest, delightfully swoony, and set against the cinematic glow of New York City in the spring. It’s giving “healing isn’t linear,” it’s giving “I’m a mess but I’m trying,” and most of all—it’s giving Emily Henry, but make it twenty-five and full of first-job flops, panic attacks in cafes, and very good cinnamon roll men. Henry is a standout MMC of the year and Bennet? She’s frustrating, lovable, and so painfully real I wanted to shake her and hug her at the same time.
Read If You Like:
💜 Cinnamon Roll MMC
💜 NYC Setting (like... THE vibe)
💜 Love After Loss
💜 Slow Burn
💜 Friends to Lovers
💜 Only One Bed
💜 Overcoming Grief
💜 Grumpy x Sunshine
💜 “Let’s do a project together” romance
Blush Meter: 🔥🔥🔥/ 5
Medium heat but high emotional intimacy. Expect sweet, tender moments, flirty banter, and lots of heart-healing hugs. No explicit steam, but the slow-burn tension delivers.
Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/ 5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4.0)
Let’s call it 4 stars with a tiny asterisk. Would’ve been 4.5 or even 5, but a particular late-stage trope deflated me more than it delighted. Still, this book shines, and I’m pressing it into hands left and right.
Bennet Taylor is twenty-five, untethered, and emotionally stuck in place after the loss of her first love, Sam. So what does she do? She moves to New York—because if you’re going to crumble, you might as well do it in a city where you can cry in a bodega and no one will care.
She’s temping around, dodging life decisions, and generally floating through her days in grayscale until she chickens out of a dating app meetup and panic-dashes into a random restaurant. Spoiler: the guy she ghosted? He’s in that restaurant. And that is how we meet Henry Adams.
Y’all. Henry. I need to scream about Henry for a moment.
He’s patient. He listens. He doesn’t push. He’s the kind of person who will make you a playlist and not ask for anything in return. He’s also funny, charming, and just a little bit emotionally bruised in a way that makes you want to wrap him in a weighted blanket. Henry is perfectly imperfect—exactly the kind of rom-com lead you root for with your whole heart.
And yet, this book isn’t really about Henry. Not fully.
It’s about Bennet—her messy, spiraling, deeply relatable journey through grief, stagnation, and the overwhelming pressure of trying to feel “normal” again. The portrayal of her mental health is spot on. She’s funny, awkward, avoidant, and stuck between mourning a person and mourning the version of herself she used to be when she was with him. Her voice feels raw and unfiltered, like you’re reading texts from a close friend who overshares in the best way.
And then comes the Passion Project—a challenge Henry proposes to help her rediscover what lights her up inside. Cue iconic New York moments, food adventures, vulnerable heart-to-hearts, and a slow transformation from ghosting girl to woman finding her groove again.
This book captures what it feels like to be in your mid-twenties and lost in a city that demands clarity you just don’t have yet. It’s not just about grief—it’s about the weird, liminal years when you’re not a kid anymore but definitely don’t feel like an adult. It’s about starting over in a city that doesn’t wait for you to catch your breath.
The romance? A friends-to-lovers arc that is slow, aching, and built on a deep emotional connection. Their banter is adorable. Their chemistry is soft, but persistent. They’re both trying, even when they’re terrified. It’s not insta-love. It’s not fireworks and confessions at sunset. It’s real. And that’s what makes it satisfying.
That said—yes, I had bones to pick.
Around the 60% mark, the book introduces a conflict that felt unnecessary. I get that we need a third-act hurdle, but this one made me sigh so loudly that my neighbor probably heard it 😂. Without spoiling, I’ll say it’s a trope that’s been done—and while it technically worked for the arc, I found myself disappointed in Bennet’s choices, especially toward Henry. She’s real, she’s flawed, but it hurt to see her regress after so much growth. I get it—it’s intentional. Grief is messy. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t sting.
The very last scene? Oof. Didn’t quite give me the warm fuzzies I wanted. Still good. Still satisfying. Just… not the emotional high I was hoping for.
But you know what did give me chills? The setting. London Sperry absolutely bodied the NYC atmosphere. If you love books that feel like love letters to cities, you’ll be swooning.
Also, a side note: this is a debut. A debut!!! London Sperry’s voice is confident, fresh, and extremely readable. It felt like Bennet was sitting across from me at brunch, venting over pancakes. The writing doesn’t try too hard—it just works. I had to double-check that this was her first book because it reads like someone who’s been doing this for years.
Final Thoughts:
This is the Gen Z millennial cusp rom-com we’ve been waiting for. It’s a heartfelt journey through loss, identity, and slow-burn romance—with one of the best MMCs I’ve read this year. If you crave the emotional warmth of Emily Henry with a twenty-something twist, Passion Project needs to be on your summer TBR.
Is it perfect? No. But it is honest. And funny. And messy in the way life actually is. And that, to me, is more than enough.
Put this on your “beach bag but with tears” reading list. You’ll laugh, you’ll ache, you’ll want to journal after. 10/10 would follow Henry on Instagram and DM him my Spotify Wrapped. 🤪🤪🤪🤪
Until the next swoon-worthy story… happy reading and happy romancing! 💕
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T.A.K. Girlie 💋
