Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review. I read this in the larger novella and this was my least favorite of the three.

Sending my apologies for not being able to provide a review. I am unable to offer a review for this book - I had sent it to my kindle to read and the file did not download properly. Unfortunately the book has been archived and I'm unable to re-send it.

When Hannah, a graduate student, interviews NASA engineer Ian for a class assignment, they can’t ignore the heat between them. Hannah, though, won’t entertain the idea of relationships—commitments only lead to heartache—so after a dreamy day together, they don’t talk again…

That is until years later when Hannah arrives at NASA for employee orientation and finds Ian scheduled to speak. Awkward! When Hannah found out that Ian vetoed funding for her project, though, she couldn’t help but feel betrayed.

Still, Hannah was able to find alternate funding to take her rover prototype to NASA’s remote Arctic research station. When she is stranded in a crevasse during a blizzard with a sprained ankle and first responders can’t reach her, it is her sworn enemy, Ian, supposedly working in Houston, who arrives to rescue her.

One of a trio of “STEMinist” novellas about best friends and scientists Hannah, Mara, and Sadie, 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘡𝘦𝘳𝘰 has great female friendships, fun science, and a swoony book boyfriend. Hazelwood includes three different timelines, a feat in a brief novella, steamy interludes (though I was a little over Ian’s big d*ck), and a heartwarming reunion of the three besties and their beaus. It culminates in a triumphant and feel-good epilogue.

Book Review for Below Zero (The STEMinist Novellas #3) by Ali Hazelwood

First Impressions: Brrr
What’s Your Type? Pining, Career Rivals, One Afternoon Stand, White Knight Syndrome
Meet Cute: Informational Interview
The Lean: Do You Remember the Time?
Dirty Talk: Hit It (Don’t) and Forget It
We Need to Talk: Quickie
Was it Good For You? Goosebumps

First Impressions:
We’ve had covers for a Merida AU and a Sherlock Holmes AU, and now we have … a Frozen AU? I think I’m reaching with that one, but I can’t think of anything else this looks like. Maybe Six of Crows—Matias and Nina? They did have that one snuggle sesh in the frozen wilds.

What’s Your Type?
Pining
Career Rivals
One Afternoon Stand
White Knight Syndrome

Dating Profile
Hannah Arroyo never liked school, until she fell in love with space. And then she did everything she could to get to NASA so that she could spend her life studying and working around the thing she loved most. She’s never had (or made) time for a real relationship but appreciates a good hookup with partners who won’t lean too hard on her for anything more.

Ian Floyd has a similar love for space, but he’s Hannah’s opposite in that he loved school—at least enough to be one of those overachievers who finishes with pre-college work way earlier than the rest of us. He’s also her opposite when it comes to relationships, which makes him—a guy who could be “fancast to play the hot Weasley brother”—a total turn-off.

Meet Cute: Informational Interview
As part of an (annoying) grad school class, Hannah has to do an informational interview with someone in her desired career field. Thankfully, her friend Mara Floyd has an estranged cousin who works at NASA and an aunt who has something to hold over his head. Hannah’s quite surprised when the cousin turns out to be insanely hot as well as a rocket scientist, and the interview quickly turns into both of them getting quite formal, if you know what I mean.

But then Hannah and Ian cross paths when she starts work at NASA, and she finds herself on the losing end of a request for project funding. And then stuck at the bottom of a crevasse in the arctic with a sprained ankle.

The Lean: Do You Remember the Time?
Hannah’s all about sex but isn’t interested in getting close. Ian doesn’t really date, either, but that’s because he’s got other things in this life that take precedence (e.g., his job); he’s actually a total softy with a major white knight complex. Seeing their relationship—or lack thereof—from Hannah’s POV makes it seem like there’s very little between the two, but realizing why Ian shows up at her project and literally saves her life, realizing that he’s been hung up on her since that fateful interview, makes the feelings that eventually pop up a little more believable. (Hannah’s obviously been harboring her own feelings, too, even though she doesn’t want to admit it a/or we don’t quite see it until Ian’s back in her life.)

Dirty Talk: Hit It (Don’t) and Forget It
Hannah and Ian’s first meeting leads to both of them getting off but no actual intercourse. That doesn’t make it any less hot (or satisfying, if we’re to believe Hannah’s assertions (and Ian’s, uh, emissions). It happens in an office at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is a tad unbelievable but also a very specific, very nerdy wet dream.

Their redo near the end of the novella is a little more private, but even more nerdy, with the dirty talk involving various topographical features of Mars, a planet that both Hannah and Ian are more than a little fascinated with. It’s goofy, but somehow really perfect for the two of them and the story.

Ms. Perky’s Prize for Purplest Prose
The first sex scene in the book is quick and dirty, and the language equally so, thanks to Hannah’s more, shall we say, colorful personality.

We Need to Talk: Quickie
Below Zero is the longest novella in this series, clocking in at a whopping 139 (Kindle) pages. It also has the relationship that feels the least compelling of the three novellas, but the characters that I liked the most. Hannah’s got a crazy vulnerable side underneath a tough exterior, and Ian’s savior complex comes from a place of love, not sexism. They’re both SUPER smart, and the science comes into play a lot more in this story, too, which is something that was somewhat missing from the previous two stories—and why I feel like the “STEMinist” in the series title is a bit misleading (although all of the novellas are fun, regardless).

Was it Good For You? Goosebumps
Animated GIF of Marge from the Simpsons saying "Oh, I love happy endings"
I sadly didn’t need to shuck my clothes and crawl into a single sleeping bag to stay warm with this story, but it gave me the happy ending I was hoping for with this short-but-sweet series.

I'd say that Below Zero is my favorite of this series. But I'm definitely seeing a pattern with Ali's books with little differences here and there. I enjoyed this for what it was, definitely some angsty moments. The thing with novellas is that sometimes characters can't be fully developed and I was left with some questions about Hannah.

But overall, loved the tension between Hannah and Ian, there's sooo much pull. And bah, just wanted to get over that big hump and be together. But it's going to take time. Ian may no display it, but he's cared about Hannah from the very beginning, love it.

Below Zero is a quick and enjoyable read!

Of the three short stories, this one makes the best use of the time jumping for suspense.

The STEMinist Novellas are all short stories featuring best friends Mara, Sadie and Hannah, each engaging in a different science. Each of these women studied and pursued difficult professions. What I like best about Hannah is the fact that Hannah didn’t start out in school as a overachiever. Most times these top level scientists make the rest of us appear stupid as they make advance science look so easy to them. So it is nice to have a character like Hannah who wasn’t much of a student and didn’t care to even try until that moment when she started obsessing about Mars. When NASA scientists dropped the first rover on Mars, Hannah knew in that moment where her destiny lies. She wanted to be part of NASA and anything to do with Mars. So the girl who had little interest in education suddenly makes the grade, and adding on learning everything to do with coding computers and creating robotics in her desire to get into NASA. Hannah showed us that not everyone is a super-student. You just need to know what is most important to you and then focus on getting there.

In one of her final classes, Hannah needed to do an interview and since one of her best friend’s Mara Floyd, had a cousin who worked at NASA, Hannah was set up to meet engineer Ian Floyd. A great big, red-headed mountain of a man. Hannah and Floyd had great chemistry and Hannah wanted to go back to Ian’s place but Ian wanted to take Hannah to dinner. You see, as well as being a bad student, Hannah also had a little self-esteem problem. She has come to believe that people who get to know her, don’t like her. She doesn’t have a great relationship with her parents and until Mara and Sadie forced her to be friends and roommates with them, Hannah didn’t really have any friends. So Hannah keeps her relationships to one night stands and Ian wanted more. And I liked that Ian held out for more instead of jumping on the opportunity to jump Hannah.

When Hannah graduates and gets a position with NASA, she one again meets Ian and I like that Ian didn’t hold a grudge that Hannah never agreed to go out with him. He was excited for Hannah that she achieved her dream job with NASA and still hoped he could convince Hannah to go to dinner with him.

As I mentioned before, all these short stories jumped from the present issue to the past history between chapters as a lure. I needed to know what was that one thing that went wrong to sour what we see in this easy relationship. In Hannah’s case, her work with NASA brought her to a wasteland part of Norway that would be similar to Mars. Hannah was testing out the rover she created for the next Mars Mission when she falls into a crevice and her immediate boss let’s her know that no one will be braving the fast-moving storm to get her out, but over the radio Hannah hears Ian say he is coming for her. Ian who isn’t even supposed to be there. Ian who she didn’t think would risk his life for her, even though we could see how interested he was in Hannah. So what happened between them and can Ian rescue Hannah before the storm hits. It was very stressful as Hannah faced the cold and dark trapped in the crevice.

I really like both Ian and Hannah and enjoyed their story very much.

The same formulaic story with a different backdrop, characters that are slight differentiations from each other, timeline makes no sense and underdeveloped character arcs.

This is a case of the novella curse for me. It's very hard for me to get into them and fully enjoy them. I struggle to get invested and believe what I'm reading, which was the case for this one. I do think if there had been more to the story and the characters I would have enjoyed it more, but it just felt rushed and full of eye rolls. The love story was cute, I enjoyed the end with the 3 characters re-uniting but I definitely wanted a lot more from this.

Thoroughly enjoyed this short story. I could have used a bit more character depth and story but for a quick novella I plowed through it and enjoyed the story!

Hannah is injured and stranded on a remote work assignment. She thinks it is game over but she is rescued by the one man she can’t stand. Ian and Hannah have a long past and they must figure out to move forward.

I liked this one better than the last story but it still felt off. Hannah is a hard character to like. She is very rude and crass. She kept pushing people away from her. Mara and Sadie were lucky she liked them. The thing is that the author never really gave me a full understanding on why Hannah was like that. She had no real reasons to push Ian away each time but she did and expected him to have sex with her. Just an odd concept for a woman to be so smart and logical. I didn’t care for her at all and thought Ian could have done better.

However, the chemistry between was intense. It just happens to be purely sexual. They have known each other five years prior to the present day and met up multiple times. Each time it was so much sexual tension. I was waiting for the romantic emotions to pull in. They barely knew each other outside of that sexual pull.

I loved that Hannah was a boss chick and knew what she wanted in her career. Ian being nerdy and top of the food chain made him sexy. I just wished that the characters had time to be developed more. They didn’t change from the first time they met despite a minor miscommunication between them.

Overall, a light read for fans of geeky romances.

~ Samantha

Thank you Penguin Random House Audio for the complimentary audiobook.

𝘍𝘶𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨!

I’m in love with this series and with Ali Hazelwood’s writing, there’s nothing not to like with these short stories. I love the female characters, they’re funny, sweet, heartwarming and adorable. Her books just keep getting better and better.

𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗭𝗲𝗿𝗼 by Ali Hazelwood is the third book in The STEMinist Novellas and releases tomorrow July 5, 2022.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

This was a quick and dirty novella about hot NASA scientists stuck in Antartica. What's not to love?

This one wasn't my favourite out of the novellas. It felt predictable and lackluster with the characters being 2-dimensional.

Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood is the 3rd book in her The STEMinist Novellas series. Mara, Sadie and Hannah were best friends, with each being scientists in different fields; in Below Zero, Hannah is the lead. In the first two books, Hannah was sweet, but I did find her somewhat annoying early on in the book.

Hannah is an aerospace engineer for NASA, and she loves her job. She met Ian, early on, discovering how hot he was; but all she wanted was sex, no dating, and Ian just stepped away; since he was interested in dating and getting to know Hannah. Over the years, she runs into Ian a couple of times, and in her sexy dreams: but when she learns that he denied her major project, she is angrier than ever, meeting up with him to tell him off. But her boss managed to get people to support her project, despite Ian’s claim that it was too dangerous.

There is no question that Ian was attracted to Hannah, but she wasn’t really nice to him, and because of that I did not feel the chemistry between them; at least until closer to the end. When Hannah starts her project, she becomes injured during a storm at her remote station, unable to get out. To her shock, the person who will come to rescue her is Ian; Hannah doesn’t understand why he would put his own life in danger for her.
What follows is a quick story line, that was a bit funny, somewhat zany, and at times fun. I have enjoyed Ali Hazelwood’s previous full novels, but thus far I am not a fan of these novellas. Love on the Brain is the next full-length novel. If you like novellas, that are zany and fun, you should read Ali Hazelwood.

3.5 STARS
Hannah Arroyo grew up in a family of brilliant overachievers. As the youngest, a lot of pressure was put upon her to excel so naturally, Hannah did the opposite for most of her time in school until the idea of becoming a NASA scientist made her kick academics into gear to achieve her life goal. Hannah had to work extremely hard to catch up in order to make it to graduate school for her PhD. When Hannah has to interview someone in her chosen field for a school assignment, she meets Ian who is working at NASA, but some of the time at the JPL as well.

Hannah is very attracted to Ian, but when she suggests a hook-up, he is not interested. Some years later when she finally gets her dream job at NASA, Hannah sees Ian again. It seems like he has it in for her trying to keep Hannah from going to NASA’s Mars testing sight in the arctic part of Norway. Hannah is furious when she hers about Ian’s interference, but she is able to go anyway to do her experiments. All is well until she ends up in a crevasse, injured and in danger of freezing to death.

Who comes to the rescue but the vary man she loathes! Ian puts his own life at considerable risk to save Hannah; she begins to realize the feelings he has for her are far from negative. Hannah does not do relationships and she is seriously afraid of commitment, but just maybe, it is time to change.

Ms. Hazelwood has a gift for pithy and enjoyable, for the most part, writing although miscommunication seems to be major theme in her books of which I am not a fan. Another issue I have with this story is that the way Hannah comes on to Ian would be seen as SEXUAL harassment if the tables were turned and unprofessional considering the circumstances. I don’t think there should be a double standard for either party in that arena. This novella is the third in a series about women who are scientist friends featuring Hannah, and two women, Mara, and Sadie who are from her STEM program. Although they are interconnected, this story can be read as a standalone.

Maybe if this were a standalone book or novella I could give it a pass, but after reading not only the preceding novellas but also Love on the Brain, I'm a little burnt out on the miscommunication and giant, gentle, man-beast tropes. Especially as the third in a trilogy, it's a little too similar to its predecessors.

Aside from the location (and I'm being forgiving on that as technically Love on the Brain takes place at/around NASA as well...) and scientific specialties (which can often be too nuanced for the non-scientific community to appreciate), there is little difference between this story and that of Mara and Sadie. It's clear that Ali Hazelwood has a type - large, broody stoics who are somehow incredibly hot but struggle to get a sentence out around a woman. I'm into it, don't get me wrong - if I had a type, that would be it, but again, it's a little over-saturated at this point.

All that said, I will still read anything that Ali Hazelwood puts out. I love her writing style and her main characters. I just hope the next book runs with a different trope or two.

Ended up reading all three of the novellas in this series in one day and it was THE BEST decision. Don’t have much to add that I haven’t already said about the previous two so I will repeat: Ali Hazelwood has such a damn gift for writing romance. She is able to make any situation sexy at the drop of a hat and I'm left with no choice but to stan. This novella (and series as a whole!!!) was an absolute delight.

I am not a huge, huge fan of novellas, as I find that they are usually too rushed for my liking, however this series does not fell like that.

In fact, I really do quite like what I am reading

I liked how Ali Hazelwood got all of Ian and Hannah's past and present into a short story, and I didn't feel like we were all out of breath as it all happened so fast.

Below Zero is sweet and funny and sparkly and snowing and gingery, and I liked everything about it

I am looking forward to more in the series.

Hannah first meets Ian when she's still in school. Forced to write an informational interview on someone who shares the same career girls, she decides to write it on her friend Mara's cousin Ian. Ian is a NASA engineer and Hannah's career aspirations are to one day work as a NASA engineer. Their one short afternoon together turns in to so much more when they act on their attraction to one another. But Hannah doesn't do relationships and tells Ian this. He is hurt, but understands and they part their separate ways.

That is until 4 years later when Hannah and Ian meet again at NASA when Hannah ends up working there. Soon they work together and are constantly in each others orbit. But when Hannah finds out that Ian may be keeping her from her ultimate goal her shields go up.

Only, when Hannah finds herself trapped in a snow storm on an expedition it's Ian who comes to her rescue. Will she be able to put aside her differences to find out why he's there when he challenged her project every step of the way?

Below Zero was a short and fun novella. At this point I expect Ali's books to make me laugh, swoon and deliver on the 🔥 and Below Zero did exactly that. I do love a good time lapse and it was fun to see Hannah, Mara and Sadie first meet and get to know each other through the length of this novella.

Ian was the ultimate cinnamon roll hero and I loved how much he cared for Hannah. I needed to know what happened to put these two individuals who liked and respected each other at odds.

I will say that out of the three novellas, this book maybe felt the most like a novella to me and I wanted to feel more of a connection to Ian and Hannah. Overall I did enjoy Below Zero and this series of novellas as a whole!

My first Ali Hazelwood story, and I totally get why her debut book "Love Hypothesis" has 4.6 stars from 30,800 readers on Amazon. She is a superb writer and tells an entertaining, fast-paced story of nerdy NASA engineers and scientists geeking out over code and Mars rovers and engaging in great derring-do in the brutal wilds of Svalbard, Norway. She is prickly and thinks very poorly of herself. She believes men are only interested in hookups with her and would be turned off if they got to know her. He thinks she is fabulous and fell in love with her at their first meeting. He is a total cinnamon roll, kind and sweet and earnest. I loved all the tech in the book -- you get the feeling that Hazelwood has really researched it all in great, authentic detail. And who does not have stars (ha!) in their eyes over NASA?

Review will be published on my blog at the end of May. http:.//keirasoleore.blogspot.com.