Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Genre: Romance
Blurb (on back of book):
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?
MY OPINION: ***
Firstly, I am aware that I am incredibly late in writing this review but September was one of the busiest and most chaotic months ever so I did not get the chance to either read too much or write anything at all that wasn't for school. I read this book almost a full month ago and genuinely I cannot remember too much about it, which I feel like speaks for itself.
I haven't read much from Hazelwood since her debut even though I know she's released a lot of other novels and novellas since. I hadn't heard too many good things about her second book so I still have yet to even start that one and this one just popped up on my recommended one day when I was looking for a new book to read. It was super short so I figured it was time and I literally finished it in a day. That being said, I didn't necessarily love or hate it. I just felt very mediocre about it overall.
Elsie is an adjunct professor swamped with work and no money (she's so real for that). However, to make a little extra cash, she works for a fake dating service, acting as a poor man's fake girlfriend for a night to weddings, family dinners, and the like where men feel ashamed for not being able to pull.
However, her best fake date's brother ends up being her STEM competitor who ruined her entire field's line of work with a really poorly orchestrated prank decades before. However, Jack has the future of her dream career in his hands and Elsie is certain their supposedly mutual hatred will ruin any and all of her chances.
What I don't love about books that are marketed as enemies to lovers is the fact that they were never actually enemies or that it was a one-sided dislike. It was plainly obvious that Jack did not hate Elsie at any point whatsoever and from the beginning it read as instalove on his end. I love the she fell first and he fell harder trope as well and this was the opposite of that. I honestly just wasn't a fan of how the chemistry between the two was portrayed, and I wanted more of a build-up and angst and a "woah I hate her but she's really hot" type of moment.
Also, I don't give a flying *beep* about STEM. I am a social sciences girlie through and through and reading about STEM is nauseating. HOWEVER, I love seeing women in STEM succeed and I think Hazelwood consistently does a good job of that and portraying the struggles of being a woman in STEM. I just think that at some point every single one of her books is just the same exact plot and tropes and themes with different character names.
Overall, this wasn't my favorite but if you enjoyed any of Hazelwood's other books, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one as well.
Main Character: Elsie
Sidekick(s): Jack, friends, etc
Villain(s): men in STEM, patriarchy, the one guy whose name I won't spoil
Romance Elements: This was a rom-com novel.
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