Love, Theoretically - Ali Hazelwood

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 broody 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 that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, 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? (link)

Review: 4/5

I'm not gonna lie, I fell victim to the STEMinist novels around this time last year as well. I don’t know what it is about being not-very-cold in December that makes me want to cozy up with a book focused on a strong and independent female lead, in a romcom that has one really really really good smut scene. And I mean REALLY good.

I guess this could be considered my first-generation tradition, and I have maintained it beautifully for a second year in a row, by starting Love, Theoretically on December 17. Let me tell you: it didn’t let my little traditionalist heart down. I am ashamed to say that these books are my pleasure. And not guilty pleasure because that would have to require guilt around reading them. Did I tell anyone I was reading them? No… actually now that I’m reflecting back, I actually probably did have a little bit of guilt reading these. Maybe this series counts as my first ever guilty pleasure (besides making my girl Barbie dolls kiss each other when I was five). But in another retrospect, can it really be a guilty pleasure if I’m writing a blog post for each book in the series? Bronies, I’m waiting on your answer.

I have no relation to science, technology, engineering, or math, but I can get down with a feminist girl! And you know what, I just consider that being a feminist myself, sue me!

I noticed, after reading three of these books in a row, they’re all eerily similar. I thought about combining all three of the STEMinist books I read this month into one review, but I just have SO much to say. So, reader, you get the pleasure of reading each individual review! You’re welcome.

Here are four of my favorite tropes: he falls first (and harder), feminism, fake dating/marriage, and forced proximity. To say that all three of these books had all of these tropes and more?!? Count me in! No wonder I read all three of these books in less than a week. Pull up the time-stamps if you don’t believe me.

These books were easy to blast through at the end of the year to get my reading count up; I think I read each one in less than 16 hours. And I really appreciated the layman’s terms, but I’m a sucker for feeling smart by reading about women and STEM.

I especially love the idea of a tall, bulky and muscular man comforting a woman who is just too smart for her own good.

HOWEVER I do hate a communication trope. I think that’s why I rated it four stars. I just hate miscommunication. I hate withholding. I hate secrets. It’s so obvious as a reader to be like “they’re lying and this is the truth and the plot twist is so obvious” with the series. That was my only beef with this book though. If you’re a fan of miscommunication and annoyance, I think you’ll love these!

Overall, I really liked this book and I really got a sense of timeless love with the sense of he falls harder and falls first. AGH! Ugh! When will it be my turn, universe? (Publicly pining on the internet has been my most recent, self-inflicted downfall.)

So that’s what I’m trying to relay with this Spotify playlist. a little bit of hopeless romance sprinkled in with enemies to lovers' energy. It is the same playlist for the whole series, but it’s extra long! So enjoy, my trustee steeds. Hyah!

Spotify: LINK