Title: Spoiler Free Review: Love, Theoretically
Author:Ali Hazelwood
Pub. Date: June 13th 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format: eARC + ALC
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Pages: 389/12hrs 33 min
GOODREADS | BARNES & NOBLE | AMAZON | LIBROFM
☆☆ARC + AlC PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER, netgalley, and librofm IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW☆☆
*•.¸♡ “𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞? 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝” ♡¸.•*
Theoretical Physicist Elsie Hannaway is an adjunct professor hoping to make tenure in order to pay her bills and get medical insurance. Her day job(s) don’t cut it despite what her family thinks and as a type 1 Diabetic, she doesn’t have the privilege of slumming it. Elsie and her quirky roommate Cece have joined a fake dating site which works for Elsie who is comfortable as a people pleaser. She learns her client and their situation in order to convert herself into whomever they need her to be at family functions, parties, or corporate events. This all changes when her favorite client’s older brother begins to suspect that something just isn’t right, he’s not buying their relationship and begins to press Elsie. The hate to love trope is activated and we see Jack Smith truly get under Elsie’s skin simply for seeing right through to her. Navigating family functions becomes a game of cat and mouse as they circle one another. Elsie tries to avoid getting caught not being able to answer questions about her client aka Jack’s younger brother. She’s sold everyone the story of her being a Librarian with no mention of what her career actually is but things take a turn and she soon sees herself exposed.
Elsie is about to begin an intense interview process for a highly coveted professor gig at MIT when she finds out that Jack Smith is on the committee in charge of hiring the candidate to fill the position. They are BOTH taken by surprise when they lay eyes on eachother and Jack now has more reason to believe his brother is dating someone he should not trust. Elsie who takes the privacy of her clients very seriously can’t speak freely so she decides to focus on impressing the rest of the board and getting the job.
I first started reading my DRC of this book when I decided to switch to the audiobook I downloaded as an ALC from Libro.FM, best decision I could’ve made! the narrator did their thing and I was fully engaged laughing, smiling and or grinning throughout the story. Having read all other books by Ali Hazelwood and thoroughly enjoyed them, I was really hoping this one didn’t follow the formula of its predecessors. Happy to report that certain things were scaled back a bit (obsessive ogling of male love interest’s body) and new themes were explored. Also, THIS is actually a hate-to-love! not a 5 second I thought I didn’t like you but really do love you type story. The first 32% of the book is cat & mouse and I enjoyed every minute of it. As a Diabetic myself, it was also cool to see it not being thrown around like a judgment call or joke. Our MC has type 1, she was born with it and brings to light the reality of just how expensive it is to be insulin resistant. On the academia front the author goes more in depth with the inner politics that have shaped STEM to be a field dominated by those who are cis white males. We see more women side characters in STEM who wish to see others also join the field and balance out the odds. I found the inner workings to be interesting, especially when the relationship between student and mentor is explored. The fact that not all mentors can be trusted drives home the point that the odds are def stacked high for the women interested in this field.
The ROMANCE my loves! steamy AF and fun! Jack is all about pleasing Elsie who has made a whole side hustle out of people pleasing. She doesn’t know how to be cared for and her frustration at not being able to figure out what Jack wants/needs is real. That last 30% of the book was LOTS of sexual tension and exploration, not for the faint of heart haha! I’ll say it here, Love Theoretically is better than Love On The Brain 🤷🏻♀️ and for those who love seeing their faves pop up in later books, I won’t say which couple but it is my fave duo who make an appearance! 💞
🔬🧪💞
*•.¸♡ ωнαт ι ℓσνє∂ ♡¸.•*
🧪Women in STEM
🔬Hate-to-Love that’s believable 🧪Diabetic female lead bringing awareness to the steep price tag on insulin/Glucometer
🔬ACE Representation from a side character
🔬Academic settings/inner politics of Academia
🧪discussion on post grad financial challenges
🔬Steamy slow burn romance/sex scenes
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Title: Malibu Rising
While The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo still remains my all time favorite, I did really enjoy my time spent in this story. I also found some parts sadly relatable which made me feel more connected to certain characters. I didn’t really care much for the party itself which the story leads up to all throughout. If anything, that took me away from the book more than I would’ve liked and made the main story arc feel a bit disjointed. Things I loved: the sibling bond, atmospheric surfing vibes, women surfers, how compulsively readable it is, the Historical Fiction feel of it all…TJR’s signature writing style really does make you almost believe these aren’t fictional characters. All in all, Malibu Rising is yet another hit for this book lover 🙌🏽
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