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?

Blurb taken from Goodreads.

 

I received an advance copy of Love, Theoretically from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

When I picked up this book, I was full of excitement and apprehension. On the one hand, I've really enjoyed Ali Hazelwood's previous books. On the other, I did anticipate that this would follow a similar format, and I wasn't sure if I would enjoy a 'copycat' of the author's previous books. 

Thankfully, even thought there are clear similarities between this and Hazelwood's previous books, I found that I really thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I think The Love Hypothesis will remain my #1, this definitely came close.

My Thoughts

It'd difficult to articulate thoughts on this novel, at the risk of repeating a lot of things I've said before about Hazelwood's other novels. All the reasons I enjoyed this story are almost exactly the same as the reasons I've enjoyed previous stories by the same author. 

One of the things I love most about Hazelwood's novels are rooted in her representation of young women in STEM. That's one thing that continues to be really important and enjoyable about her stories. In Love, Theoretically, physics is on the menu, with Elsie waging into the war between theoretical and experimental physicists. However, you don't have to be knowledgeable about physics to be able to enjoy the story. Sure, it helps if you've watched Big Bang Theory a few times, but it's a pretty accessible read nonetheless.

So the story is definitely similar to The Love Hypothesis and Love On the Brain. I think anybody who says it isn't is kidding themselves a little bit. And I really thought that would be a problem for me. However, it wasn't at all. Although there's a very similar structure and plot progression, I really enjoyed the story in its own right. 

I think the reason for that is partly because the story felt really well-padded. Half of the problem with a lot of romance books I read is that they're so focused in on the core romance, all plot and structure cease to have any real development. This felt like it actually had a lot going on. We start with a fake dating situation, then lead into a full-blown physics war, and somewhere along the way, we stop off at a job interview. There's a lot, and it all works hard to serve the story.

The other reason I enjoyed this book so much is because I just really, really liked Elsie and Jack. They had that perfect enemies to lovers romance, and written so well. There was lots of depth and detail that made their connection believable, but it was still incredibly easy to read.

Overall, for everyone saying this is a copy of Hazelwoo'd previous books: Yes. I agree with you. But also, it's written really, really well. So who cares?

Rating: ✫✫✫✫✫