Love, Theoretically
"The reigning queen of STEM romance."--The Washington Post An Indie Next and Library Reads Pick! Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain. The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she's an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs. Honestly, it's a pretty sweet gig--until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor's career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he's the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job. Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but...those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she's with him? Will falling into an experimentalist's orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?
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I can’t even. Chapter 2 seriously? This is exactly the same plot as Love on the Brain. I can’t even move on to Chapter 3. I mean women wanting a job STEM being the main component and this one guy is an enemy. Did not even continue it.
Having really enjoyed Hazelwood's characters and story telling in "Bride" I chose to go and read through her academia inspired romance series, I did start off with the last one technically... whoops.
This book falls in the same vein as "Bride" for me, with similar highs and lows. I’m starting to think this might be a pattern with Hazelwood’s work, but we’ll see. "Love, Theoretically" has some really fun and interesting characters. I really do enjoy how Hazelwood writes her protagonists and the leaning into STEM related fields is a bonus. I love a character who can hold their own and are proud of it when it comes to their area of expertise. She also develops the relationship between characters very well and I don't have as many ick moments, if at all, as other romance novels. I really enjoyed the back and forth between our two characters in this book for the first 3/4 of the book with the later 1/4 leaving a little bit of a cringe taste. The supporting characters, like roommates and grandmothers, were also fantastic and really rounded everything out.
If I could rate this only on all of the build up to the expected pay off of a romance novel it would have landed at a higher 4 to 4.5 stars. However, I do have to take the book at it's whole and the last 1/4 of the book with the "spicy" moments ended up being super cringy. I don't know why the author had to say the word "big" so many times but I promise the readers understand after the first 5 or 6. Also, to have such confident characters act the way they did once they were intimate was a choice I didn't really agree with. It gave slight red flag vibes for our romantic interest which hadn't really popped up yet. I would've also liked to see a bit more back and forth in the relationship when it comes to aiding in the flaws of our main characters and not mainly just our protagonist. I am never a huge fan of the male love interest coming in to just solve our female leads problems. Instead, I would like to see them both develop towards something better. This story felt more like he helped her with her issues, while she didn’t provide as much in return for him. Sure, he worked through a past issue, but it seemed more like it was done to win her over rather than him genuinely addressing the underlying reasons. And yes, I know she brought him the joy of watching Twilight...
I am off to read the other two books in this "series" in a random order because, why change now?
Where to start?
I thought this was just SO cute, albeit a little predictable. The writing style is a bit of an adjustment at first. It's oddly intense, descriptive, and metaphorical. I feel as though this is meant for a very specific kind of reader. After chapter 3 though, I was golden. I think this may be my favorite couple dynamic I've ever read about. I think the academic and science connections are lovely (especially as a woman in STEM myself with my own physicist boyfriend), this just made my heart tender.
I want to talk about Elsie and Jack's dynamic very quickly. I love how much they support each other and their respective fields. I love the intelligent banter. I love how *honest* they are with each other. And I especially love the slow burn. It was incredibly reaslitic the amount of time it took for them to spend more time together and to get serious. Jack mentions off-hand that he fell in love with her, but I really appreciate that they never directly say they love each other. There is just a series of actions that occur between them so you know how much they care for one another. And I mean REALLY care for each other. I love how much Jack respects her as well - her boundaries, her thoughts, her wants, simply as a person above all else. It was great and I loved it very much.
I thought this was just SO cute, albeit a little predictable. The writing style is a bit of an adjustment at first. It's oddly intense, descriptive, and metaphorical. I feel as though this is meant for a very specific kind of reader. After chapter 3 though, I was golden. I think this may be my favorite couple dynamic I've ever read about. I think the academic and science connections are lovely (especially as a woman in STEM myself with my own physicist boyfriend), this just made my heart tender.
I want to talk about Elsie and Jack's dynamic very quickly. I love how much they support each other and their respective fields. I love the intelligent banter. I love how *honest* they are with each other. And I especially love the slow burn. It was incredibly reaslitic the amount of time it took for them to spend more time together and to get serious. Jack mentions off-hand that he fell in love with her, but I really appreciate that they never directly say they love each other. There is just a series of actions that occur between them so you know how much they care for one another. And I mean REALLY care for each other. I love how much Jack respects her as well - her boundaries, her thoughts, her wants, simply as a person above all else. It was great and I loved it very much.
Funny and cute but almost too many witty quips all at once and all the time. Jack helped Elsie see that she was being controlled, but the way he handled her was pretty controlling too. He gave her space to be honest with herself, but he forced her into it. A little more spice than I like near the end, but an overall fun romance peppered with alot of physics anecdotes. Book #87 in 2024
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