3.5 STARS

This book contains three novellas about best friends Mara, Sadie, and Hannah who bonded in their STEM graduate school program and have maintained that strong connection. Each one of these professional women has sworn off men for varying reasons until they meet their matches; however, there are speed bumps and not a few missteps along the way.

Under One Roof
Mara is an environmental engineer with the EPA who unexpectedly inherits part ownership in her mentor’s house. This gift home comes with a resident nephew from her benefactor who also happens to work for a company that is the antithesis of everything Mara stands for in a business. Mara and Liam start out as enemies because he wants her gone while she cannot stand his job or his attitude. The petty bickering and dirty tricks go on for quite awhile and until the mutual attraction of lovers to enemies takes over.

Stuck With You
Sadie works for a small green engineering firm in New York which is in the same building as a very large more traditional competitor where Eric Nowak works. After they met because one of Sadie’s quirky demands in a coffee shop, she and Eric hit it off and then he did something that Sadie saw as a betrayal. When they are stuck in an elevator, the truth comes out as to exactly what happened in flashback scenes. I do enjoy Ms. Hazelwood’s humor and non-sequiturs such as when Sadie tries to explain the color lavender to Eric, she thinks that men can only name five colors. The fact that Sadie cut him off without a word seemed a bit wimpy to me rather than her confronting him.

Below Zero
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 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 to make it to graduate school for her PhD. When Hannah must 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 demurs. 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 test site in the arctic part of Norway. Hannah is furious when she hears about Ian’s interference, but she goes anyway to do her experiments. All is well until Hannah ends up in a crevasse, injured and in danger of freezing to death.

Who comes to the rescue but the vary man she loathes! When 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 generally 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 do not think there should be a double standard for either party in that arena.

I absolutely adored this collection of short stories. They were fun. They were steamy. They were filled with the entertaining banter and smarts that readers have come to know and enjoy from this author. I couldn't get enough of these characters and their stories.

I easily devoured Loathe to Love You in a single sitting. Mara, Sadie, and Hannah's stories did not disappoint. Fans of Ali Hazelwood won't want to miss this fun collection of short stories.

*Thank you so much Berkely Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book*

I loved all the short stories in this volume, but the middle one, Sadie’s, was absolutely my favorite. Maras story has the sex scene at the end almost tacked on, it’s strange and uncomfortable sounding and ruins what’s otherwise a cute enemies to lovers story. It’s definitely my least favorite of the 3 and I’m glad I read them out of order, because something about it just seems off. Hannah’s story is lovely as well. The bonus chapter was especially well drawn, it was nice to get that 3 mens perspective

3.5 rolled to 4 stars

This collection features three best friends and the men they love to hate – but not really. All of the stories are smart and witty with the level of nerdiness and quirks shining high. They were unique in many ways but similar in many ways as well, especially since the ladies are all friends.

One of the things that did bug me was the similarities between a few of the women. They are showcased as being so odd and insecure that they cannot make a decision without their besties involved in all aspects of their life. These are women who have braved the toughest schools, jobs, etc., yet need support because they are sheltered from life and members of the opposite sex. Sigh… really?

Hazelwood also relied on similarities in features of both the guys, big and burly in all aspects, the ladies are tiny and waif-like. Probably not reality but okay.

What I did enjoy was the steam factor. Hazelwood is great at upping the heat level and the build-up. Plus she excels at the uniqueness of the stories. While characterization might be a bit similar, the actual stories are quite different and I loved that.

Overall, I enjoyed the collection of stories in Loathe to Love You. My favorite was the final story. Be prepared for high levels of quirks and insecurities that may grate on your senses. But hang out for the wit, STEMmy banter, dreamy guys, and sweet romance.

Under one roof- This was my first Ali Hazelwood read, I thought I would ease in slowly. I thought this enemies to lovers with forced proximity was cute story. I loved the backstory provided, it made me feel like I knew the characters very quickly.

Stuck with you - This one was a super steamy forced proximity romance. The back and forth timeline was done well and kept my interest.

Below Zero- This one was more second or multiple chance romance, with an enemies to loves trope. I loved the whole premise of this this story. It was definitely my favorite of all three stories!

An adorable threesome of stories filled with all the snark. 3 besties, all STEM girls, meet 3 upstanding, consensual asking men of their dreams. Pointing the consensual part out as it's definitely a part of each of the stories. The snark and sass wins the stories for me! This book will be out in February . Going to grab a few more of this authors books. #loathtoloveyou #alihazelwood #berkleyromance

I loved this collection of steamy STEM forward novellas from Ali Hazelwood. My favorite part of the novellas was the friendship between Mara, Sadie and Hannah. I loved how they were always there for one another throughout each of the novellas. It made it so fun to follow along with their journeys.

Under One Roof: 5/5
This novella was definitely my favorite out of the three. I loved Liam and Mara so much!
Under One Roof had so many of my favorite tropes all wrapped up in one amazing book including
-forced proximity
-roommates
-enemies-to-lovers
-slow burn
-bonding over grief
-strong women in STEM

Stuck with You: 4.5/5
Stuck with You starts off with Sadie being stuck on an elevator during a power outage. Maybe not the best place to be, but it gets worse when Sadie finds out she’s stuck with the person she hates the most right now – Eric Novak. Erik and Sadie had one heated, perfect night together before Sadie finds out that he betrayed her in the worst way. Will being stuck in the elevator get them to work past their issues or make them worse?

Okay first of all, I absolutely love a book with flashback scenes and in Stuck with You the scenes alternated to being stuck in the elevator and Sadie and Erik’s first meeting. While I’m typically not a fan of insta-love, it worked for me in this case.

Below Zero: 4/5
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 ones.

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 totally binged this novella.

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!

STUCK ON YOU:

Okay, but what is the point of being stuck in an elevator if there’s no elevator sex?


BELOW ZERO

1) Easily the best premise and narrator of the the series. I'm bewildered that the publisher got so-so narrators for an audio-first release scheme (UNDER ONE ROOF narration was so bad that I DNFed after two minutes while STUCK WITH YOU narration was tolerable).

2) I don't understand why the heroine on the cover looks... not white. There are zero descriptions in the story so I *think* she's actually white? I don't know, man. The cover is ambiguous enough that I'm irritated.

3) But! Actual "rescue after nearly dying in an avalanche" storyline was good. I liked that the "big miscommunication" (the plot point where the heroine mistakenly thinks the hero is a villain) was explained to the reader immediately, even if the heroine was too angry to believe it.