DNF
Thank you for the opportunity to read Love and the Laws of Motion. At this point, I am no longer interested in the title for several reasons. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Book one of this series was one of favorites. I immediately fell in love with the Romano sisters. So I was excited to return to Brooklyn with this great group of women. Book 2 was just as good. I love when books feature strong, smart, accomplished women. I loved Olivia, her passion for science, and seeing her come into her own. I also loved Nicholas. He was such an interesting character. The two of them together were so great! I can't wait to read book 3!


Astrophysicist Olivia Romano has always preferred to stay close to her family in Brooklyn—even at the expense of her academic career. But with her advisor missing in action and an unscrupulous professor undermining her work, she’s forced to rely on the reformed-hacker-turned-elite-computer-genius whose sexy smile she can’t get out of her head.

Nicholas DeSantis cut ties with his family at eighteen, running away from his old-school Italian American neighborhood to make it big in Silicon Valley. When Livie comes to him for help, he can’t resist the project or the quirky woman behind it. Moving into the Romano house in his old neighborhood seems like the perfect short-term solution, if he can just continue to avoid his own family.

But while living together makes working with Livie easier, fighting his growing attraction to her becomes a whole lot harder.

When Livie’s research is sabotaged, Nick takes a huge risk to get her the proof she needs to salvage her career. Moving forward means leaving Brooklyn and spreading her wings at last—just when Nick might finally be ready to put down some roots.

This book had so much promise and I was really excited to start it too!! The first few chapters were great, but then when the author decided to slight the ML's current girlfriend because she's a model with the typical, she only cares about shopping, her friends are fake, her interests don't align with the super smart ML, I decided to not go further in this and DNFed it.

I love, love, loved this. The Brooklyn, small town feel setting: the con artist hero: the slow friends to lovers burn. So good!

3 1/5 stars!

The description for this book has everything I love - nerds, working together, roommates but unfortunately Nick and Livie’s story fell a bit flat for me.
I was hoping for a slower burn and more chemistry between our main characters but it felt sadly insta-love like. One of my favourite parts of geeky/nerdy characters is really having their awareness of attraction slowly unfold and be explored.
I will say that the ending was really cute and saved it from being a 3 star read for me.

I will definitely continue reading from this author however, my love for her first story in this series remains strong!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

astrophysicist olivia romano needs a genius to help her figure out the coding to her research project. she might be a genius when it comes to searching the cosmos for proto-black holes, but computer programming is a little outside her area of expertise. luckily in her little corner of brooklyn, there's always someone who knows someone, and nicholas disantis might be the perfect guy for figuring out how to program an algorithm to search for something a telescope doesn't know it's seen.

i have to admit that maybe the fact that some of love and the laws of motion was set in an astronomy department had me predisposed to like this. though i will say, unlike the evil and horrendous grad students and advisors depicted in this story, my experience in astronomy departments, and really there's only the one i work at, is that everyone is super kind and nice. people care about each other's work and research and celebrate accomplishments.

needless to say, that's not what olivia experiences. poor olivia goes through quite a lot of trauma in this book, because she's purposely sheltered herself from experiencing anything outside her routines. she stayed in brooklyn at a lower tier school because she couldn't imagine leaving her family behind. and while nick has done the exact opposite, running from his family, from commitments, what he finds in olivia makes everything worthwhile. too bad he may only realize that when it's too late.

this was such an enjoyable story, these characters so charming, it's well worth the read.

**love and the laws of motion will publish on september 9, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars - This is a great romance about Olivia, an astrophysicist middle daughter, who’s a virgin and comfortable staying close to home. The hero, Nicholas, a genius too, is a former hacker who has made vast amounts of money while using his skills in a mostly legal way. Now he only takes jobs that interest him and boy, does Olivia have a job for him. What follows is a truly engaging story about finding love, re-establishing connections and putting your grown folk panties on. It’s pretty great!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF at 50% — I just do not care about any of these cliched characters, and if I have to read about Lizzie’s chest “flooding with heat” at the sight of Nick again my eyes will be permanently rolled back. Also not here for the way the fiancée was written—are we not past writing mean girl rivals?

**Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ecopy in exchange for an honest review.**

This book was good. It's just the type of book I like to read after a really stressful week. I actually think the characters were well thought out, and I liked Livie's drive in her career and her research. I liked the bits of mystery thrown into the story and altogether the plot doesn't feel rushed. While parts of the story delve into cliche, I can't say that's a drawback of this story.

The Romano sisters are back! I have been anticipating the next story in this series since I read The One I Love to Hate back in March.

Can I just say, I freaking LOVE smarty pants heroines. Livie is an astrophysicist and PhD candidate living with her family in Brooklyn. She meets Nick, a computer hacker/genius who happens to be from her neighborhood when she is looking for a coder to help with her research. When shit hits the fan in Nick's personal life & he is left without an apartment, Livie offers him the spare bedroom at her families house.

I loved this genius meets genius and all around good girl meets bad boy with a little added forced proximity romance. The writing was fantastic, the characters have layers and depth, and the conflict/resolution was so good.

Firstly a huge thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this wonderful book. I read the first book in this series and quickly became a fan of Amanda Weaver's writing. There's no other way to express how much I loved this book than to say that I could not put it down once I started reading it. The mystry behind the hero's elusive status or the dorkiness of the heroine simply made me smile. I loved the hacker twist that is made in the plot. And absolute loved the evident chemistry between the protagonist from the first time they met. This book is a delight. No let me correct that, this whole series is a complete delight. There banter,chemistry,slowburn romance-all this played a major role in making this book such a success. I really don't want to give any spoilers other than saying that all gets well ans above in the end despite police and FBI's involvement. Intriguing right? Well you don't have to read the previous book to enjoy this one though I will hugely suggest reading that too because I still love it more than this one(guilty🤭). I love intelligent protagonists and this book have those characters in spade. Hope you too have a great time reading it. It was a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐read for me! Happy reading...xoxo.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and I am happy to give my honest review.

This is a new to me author and I requested this book because of the gorgeous cover and blurb. It took me a while to get into the book and the first third was fairly slow going. Once I was invested, I couldn't put the book down.

Livie is a graduate student under a brilliant researcher. They are awarded a substantial research grant but before they can begin her mentor suffers a stroke. Livie meets Nick serendipitously and signs him up to work on the IT coding for their research. Without a mentor, she continues to work on the research and falls into bed with Nick.

Few things I didn't like: Nick is a genius savant IT guru. He's passionate about his work but closed off to the rest of the world. He's engaged to a beautiful model and things look great until they suddenly implode. Poppy breaks up with him and he finds out she was cheating on him. Bummer. I hate cheating. I also didn't like how Livie was a virgin. Now, in and of itself, virginity isn't bad. But when an author uses it in a way to signify that this character is naive, innocent, inexperienced, etc I am annoyed. Livie had no reason to be so removed from the world except by her own doing. She had ample opportunity to be attracted to people and explore her sexuality but it never occurred to her as she's been wrapped up in her scientific mind. Not a fan.

Few things I did like: Livie's sisters/family are amazing. There's a deep family bond and they had each other's backs. I liked that Nick got reconnected to his family and that he didn't blame Livie for pushing it. I also liked that Livie opened herself up to connecting with her fellow students and made some tough decisions about her career/education. I could definitely see character growth in Livie throughout the book.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. You have to suspend belief a little in regards to their research and Nick's profession. I liked Nick & Livie together and the ending was happy if a little rushed.

I enjoyed reading this romance, although I had a small quibble with it. I felt that the male love interest's brushes with the law were a little glossed over in a rather privileged way and with all of the current corruption and lack of consequences for rich white men these days, it bothered me a little. However, I do not believe that was the author's intent and overall the book was cute. I appreciated the female love interest's career choice and the emphasis on struggling to be a woman studying in higher education and how much of a frustratingly boy's club high education can be was much appreciated.

This is book two in the Romano sisters trilogy. I haven't read book one but this one stands alone.

There are elements of this book that really worked for me and some that did not so it was an uneven read for me. On the pro side: Livie's character growth personally and professionally was great; the nightmare of academia for PhDs rang true; the work they do together is really fascinating. On the cons: Nick is engaged when the book starts and the quickness in that ending and of course, the fiancée turning out to be not so great was completely unnecessary; the grant spending accountability info was questionable (or it's very different between the US and Canada); Nick's family stuff also felt shoved in when it could've been a better secondary storyline. They become friends with benefits (fairly quickly post engagement) and then eventually it's more.
Ultimately I was more interested in Livie's journey than the romance, and the romance was the weakest part of the story. Meeting Nick serves as a catalyst for things in her life but being with him does not.

Love and the Laws of Motion is an enjoyable tale of unexpected love between a reclusive astrophysicist and a brilliant, but slightly misguided computer hacker. It’s the second book in Amanda Weaver’s The Romano Sisters trilogy and, like the first book, it’s a delightful read full of lovable characters and sweet romance.

Family is the most important thing in Olivia Romano’s world. After losing her mother at an early age, Livie has built her life around staying close to them, even turning down generous offers at prestigious colleges so she could stay in Brooklyn. She spends all her time at school or with her family, not really allowing herself time for friendship or social activities. Now she finds herself working with a brilliant advisor (in a not so brilliant college) on the project of a lifetime - analyzing information from the Hubble telescope and looking for primordial black holes. She just needs to find a genius computer programmer to help her interpret the data. "A neighbor tells Livie about Nick DeSantis and she tracks him down."

Nick DeSantis has no idea what the most important thing is, he just knows it’s not family. After starting college early, then getting kicked out after hacking into the Department of Defense (to prove to someone that he could do it), he had a fight with his family and never looked back. He now works for himself, only taking on projects that interest and challenge him.

“You’re going to get to use the Hubble telescope?”

“We probably won’t get an observing time until next spring, so between now and then, I need to write this program. Do you know anything about astronomy?”

“Not a thing. I’m in.”

“Wait...you’ll do it? I haven’t even told you how much the budget is?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care. Writing code for Hubble data...see, that’s interesting. I’m in. That’s the pitch I was looking for.”

Livie feels an immediate attraction to Nick - he’s good-looking, dynamic, and smart. She’s confused by his “alarming moral flexibility” but also intrigued by his outlook on life. They start to work together and the attraction grows as she gets to know him better. Too bad he’s engaged.

Nick has made quite a life for himself - big New York apartment, gorgeous model fiancée - but with all this, he still hasn’t managed to find happiness and he doesn’t even realize he’s unhappy until his fiancée breaks the engagement and he has to take a good, long look at his life. Homeless for the moment, Nick takes Livie up on her offer for him to move into the spare bedroom in the Romano house (where Livie, her two sisters, and her dad still live) so they can continue their work uninterrupted. Livie is hopeful that being with Nick 24/7 will stop her infatuation but it doesn’t work out that way.

He was mercurial, sometimes hopping between five projects in an hour and sometimes closing himself away with an almost obsessive single-mindedness..He was, in short, everything she was not, and nothing she wanted to be. Nothing about him should have appealed to her. And yet he haunted her, and nothing she did-nothing he did-seemed to exorcize him. She was beginning to think nothing ever would.

Nick is suddenly awash in family life and spending more and more time with Livie. He wants her, but he also knows himself well enough to realize that, like all of his relationships, this one has an expiration date and he doesn’t want to hurt her. Livie and Nick circle around each other for quite a while before giving in to the attraction. Ms. Weaver does a marvelous job making us feel the angst both are experiencing and showing us why Nick might not be the best fit for Livie. But she also shows us the tender and vulnerable side of each of them. Both Livie and Nick evolve into fuller versions of themselves throughout the story and I couldn’t help but cheer for them. I had my doubts that Nick could become a man worthy of Livie but Ms. Weaver shows us that there is much more depth and kindness in Nick than he shows the rest of the world. In the end, Nick goes out on a huge, shaky limb to support Livie and her project - a move that stuns Livie and puts Nick’s future at risk.

Love and the Laws of Motion is a pleasing story that I am happy to recommend. Be aware that this is a New Adult book and provides a HFN ending and not a full-on HEA - totally appropriate for Livie and Nick. I’m eager to read the next sister’s story and hear more about Livie’s father’s romance and all the regulars at Romano’s bar.

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Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Disappointed in this novel. I love geeky romances but this read like a YA. Lizzie needs a computer guy to help her create a computer program for her disertation and she finds Nick, cocky computer hacker who works only jobs he finds interesting. Wow! He introduced Lizzie to his fiance and treats her like a naive little girl while she crushes on him lamenting her lack of game. So frustrating to read. Immature and both characters lacked chemistry.

Wow. Livie and Nick’s story is such a cool one. It’s like a match made in geek heaven.

Olivia Romano, the middle sister, a PhD student in astronomy, researching the phenomena occurring right when a black hole is created, is working alongside a brilliant mind. Her doctorate professor is what drew her to choose the college she is now at. Generally, not the best out there for her.

Nick DeSantis is a freelance hacker, estranged from his family, and apparently – gorgeous looking. He’s joining Livie and her professor as the code person to crack the algorithm that will dissect and analyze data from Hubble, thus getting them closer to their academic goal.

Nick and Livie’s relationship essentially begins when Livie offers Nick the Romano’s spare room until he picks himself back up after a breakup with his fiancee. Their attraction undeniable, they become sort of friends with benefits, but both also develop deep emotional bond with the other.

Dismissing their emotional closeness to each other, they face a challenging resolution to being together, amplified when Nick comes through for Livie with a solution when she is faced with a criminal behavior within the astronomy department, in the absence of her professor.

I loved this story. Granted, there was a little something missing for me in terms of Livie and Nick’s love story, them as a couple. But it might just be that as two super-nerds (and I mean that in a positive sense) they will just always be a little different.

DNF @ 16%

I was excited for this book because I really liked the first book (enemies to lovers~), but <I>Love & the Laws of Motion</I> is hitting some big Nope feelings for me and I’m too frustrated to continue.

One of the first, and biggest, things that stands out to me is how Livie’s attraction to Nick is being portrayed and set up. She talks about never having experienced attraction previously, but rather than exploring an ace or aro spectrum experience it’s only that’s she’s been too busy to pay attention to men previously 😒 But hey, moment this “hot” guy opens the door she’s all tingles and interest and attraction. It feels to me, as an aspec reader, that this is setting up an idea of meeting the right person and suddenly attraction will come easily and immediately. And it is an immediate attraction. From the comments Livie has made, it feels rather abrupt that she is this immediately attracted and interested in Nick. But that could just me reading from my own experiences and feelings.

The other thing that bothers me is how Livie describes her advisor(?) who she is working under/with for her doctorate. The first time we meet Dr Finch she has destroyed all the organization Livie set up in her office at the beginning of the summer (this is beginning of new semester) and the only explanation is that she dropped a pen. Livie then proceeds to “explain” this as Dr Finch not living in the same universe as 99% of people but being so brilliant she sees beyond the known universe. Like, she’s so brilliant <I>because</I> she lives on another plane. This reads to me as something savant and feels like it’s playing into (harmful) autistic tropes.

Finally, I’m just uncomfortable with the way body descriptions are done. I can’t even explain why, but something about how Livie was describing Nick and his fiancée Poppy feels uncomfortable to read.

Side complaint, there’s a big guy who uses his size to intimidate and while it’s challenged (by Michiko Satsuma so presumably Japanese by name while other characters in the scene are presumably white…) it’s not fun or comfortable to see big white guys use their size to intimidate and try to bully those around them, especially when they’re all women so there’s obviously a major element of misogyny. Plus, from the blurb, I strongly suspect he’s the main antagonist that tries to steal Livie’s research, and that’s from the first time meeting him at 8%.

I wanted to enjoy this because blurb sounded cute and I loved the sisterly dynamic from <I>The One I Love to Hate</I> but this isn’t feeling like a book for me. I may give it another chance at a later date, but for now I’m too upset by the elements mentioned above to continue reading. Thank you again to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

4* Really good tale and a really good intro to this author.

This is apparently book 2 in a trilogy, but it's fine to read as a standalone, as I did. Though, I liked the family enough that I want to track down book 1, and will be looking out for book 3.

The leads in this are both geniuses, and it was refreshing to see that the female lead had the edge. Of course, she'd sacrificed some stuff, like friends, relationships, socialising, etc., but luckily the author refrained from making her a clone of Tempe Brennan, who never quite came across as believable (on screen, not in the books). Nick was a bad boy with his heart in the right place and I could see shades of the slightly easily led young guy he'd been when he got in trouble and his life changed.

Everything about the tale was believable, from how the leads came into each other's lives - first professionally, then as becoming-friends, how their personal relationship started, how an event threw a spanner in the works and how things got derailed by a couple of characters who aspired to greatness, but didn't have the credentials, and who weren't above getting their hands dirty. I really disliked both characters I'm hinting at here, but I can't name either or describe what they did/didn't, but OMG did they deserve their comeuppance, and though I know what would have happened, getting to see that on-page would have been the icing on the cake (I'm a bit bloodthirsty like that!).

The leads relationship was paced perfectly and I believed in them because despite coming from different backgrounds, they were both on the same page about what they loved, and had an affinity for each other, for their work, etc., and everything built from there.

The ending was realistic within the premise, and I suspect we'll see more of these guys - and perhaps a wedding or more - in upcoming books.

ARC courtesy of Carina Press and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

I was pretty skeptical when I first started this book. I cringe at the "very smart and very attractive" main character trope, but Livie was great! She wasn't the most naive and over-the-top clumsy nerd. She actually was a good character with a great family! Nick was a fun character to play the love interest. This was a fun read and I'd read more by the author!