DNF at 32%.

Four years ago Liz and Tom met at at a university cocktail evening at Glasgow University and just clicked, right up until Tom discovered that he had been assigned Liz as one of his Phd mentees. Tom has to switch very quickly from lust to absolute impartiality, which he takes waaaay too far and subjects her to microscopic scrutiny and criticising her for the most miniscule errors. No surprise that Liz is thrilled to get her Phd and leave Tom's lab to work in another, more congenial atmosphere.

Coincidence 1. One of Tom's students is left alone in the lab late one night (no, it's not that song) and manages to burn it down, in order to finish his current thesis Tom needs access to a lab and his BFF offers to let him share a desk with his newest scientist ... Liz.

Then Liz and Tom find they are both heading to the same restaurant for dinner because ... coincidence 2, their parents have been secretly dating for months but haven't told them because they know that Liz hates her Phd assessor. So they choose now to announce they are getting married. I mean seriously, does anyone know anyone (other than psychopaths) who glibly announces that they are getting married to someone they have been dating for quite some time, without having introduced them to their offspring? I get the 'we met a week ago and now we're getting married because life's too short' scenario but to be dating seriously and not even mention it to your child, when you are close? Ridiculous.

Then coincidence 3, Liz loses her apartment (I forget why) and has to vacate within a week, her father has already given up his home to move in with Tom's mother (who lives with Tom), so the only option is for Liz to move into Tom's palatial Glasgow mansion/townhouse (because he inherited a lot of money from something).

Nothing about this feels authentic, I can't put my finger on it but this doesn't 'feel' like it is set in Glasgow it feels more like it should be set in Seattle or San Francisco, it just doesn't have any Scottish vibe (sorry I can't explain it better). Then the sheer number of coincidences, I read that the two of them will be 'forced' to plan their parents' wedding (I mean seriously just tell them to eff off - if you don't have the time to organise your own wedding either pay a professional or don't bother, don't go imposing on people who already have full-time jobs to organise it for you) - it was just too much and felt fake. Finally, these are two educated scientists why do they talk and act like my eleven year old niece?

There could have been a good romance here but I'm grumpy and I've had enough, I gave up at 32%.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I was excited for this book. Women in STEM! But I just couldn't fall in love with Tom. I don't read alpha-holes. I don't like them. Tom is probably the whitest, most privileged hero I've ever read. And he's not for me. I don't like the way he treats Liz, he does not listen to her, and the scene in the hotel room had zero consent. Consent is sexy.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Enemies to lovers is my absolute favorite trope! This story began 4 years in the past, with Tom meeting Liz at a school function. They hit it off immediately and it seemed like they would start dating. However, Tom is told the next day that he has been put in charge of Liz’s PhD dissertation so he decides they cannot date. He makes that decision without consulting with Liz, he chooses to just be a dick to her for the next four years.

Fast forward 4 years, a series of unfortunate events keep pushing Tom and Liz together. They end up working in a lab together, sharing a work a bench and then living together with their parents who are marrying each other.

I loved watching Tom and Liz work through their issues while also trying to ignore their attraction to each other. They faced a lot of obstacles but in the end they were able to overcome them and find their Happily Ever After. Also, most books end with marriage and babies, this was a refreshing twist that a couple agreed that wasn’t the end all be all for them. This was my first HL Macfarlane book and will not be my last!

Release Date: September 15, 2022
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🔥 Scene: Conference

A fun read with the classic enemies to lovers trope. The first person POVs was well done and it was easy to distinguish the different voices. It was also great to have a strong female lead who never backed down.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

dnf @ 33% (page 154)

A lot of the time I spent reading the third of this I managed to get through was sending angry, rant-y WhatsApp messages to my friend because my christ how can any self-respecting woman write a romance book like this?! Honestly I am not even sure whether I can put into words how much I hated Tom (the male main character). The English language does not have the capacity.

The things that man did were toxic and manipulative in a gigantic way, and it was making me angry to know I was reading the process of Liz falling in love with such an arrogant, patronising, controlling, manipulative person - I may have gotten carried away with the adjectives there but they're all true so it is what it is.

Basically Tom and Liz meet each other and get flirty for all of like one hour before Liz has to leave, and the next day Tom finds out he is going to be her PhD assessor, and in his words this of course means he has to be "a complete and utter bastard to her", because of course if he doesn't then he'll ask for her number so this is really the only possible solution. Now, this all happens in the prologue of the book and I already hate him.

I mean, come on, he's about 40 (maybe? I don't remember), and he has that little emotional maturity and professionalism? Does he have no self-control? To make his own life 'easier' he has to treat this woman like pure shit JUST so he doesn't ask for her number?? Tom is in a position of power over Liz as her assessor, and he decides to go out of his way to be awful to her, and even after he isn't her assessor anymore and they start getting on a bit, he doesn't even think to maybe apologise immediately. Furthermore, Tom is completely aware of his "shameful" (his word) and disgusting behaviour, but he still has the absolute gall to be upset when she doesn't keep her subsequent dislike for him a secret.

And ok, I have read some other reviews of this book since I started it, and apparently the way he treated her during her PhD is addressed at the end, so maybe it is unfair for me to DNF and give 1 star, but I spent the 150 pages of this book that I did read seething about most of Tom's behaviour, and there is really no excuse for the way he acts (and you should stay tuned because it gets worse). And god, even after they start working in close proximity after Liz has completed her PhD, he says he enjoys "pushing her buttons". I couldn't believe my eyes with that one, he clearly doesn't have much shame or guilt over treating her awfully for four years if he doesn't apologise and just keeps doing it because it's fun for him.

Oh! Another thing, at one point Tom complains about how it was "hellish trying to find a fault with her research by the final year of her PhD". This man is complaining about how hard it was for him making Liz's life difficult. He quite literally admits to being "her own personal tyrant" but still seems to only care that doing so made his life difficult. All of his behaviour is incredibly selfish and unprofessional. A perfect example of this comes when he talks about how if he'd known Liz would be single at the end of her PhD, he'd have been nicer to her. Because of course, the only way he could have treated her like a decent human being would have been if he could have known in advance that he would get something (clearly sex) out of it. Gotta love when rich men in positions of power think it's ok to treat a woman badly just because they aren't pursuing her romantically, because in that situation what's the point in being decent?

Eventually when Liz is forced to move in with him, he makes the decision to "sabotage" (again, his word) her flat-hunt so that she cannot move out. Yes, this is a real plan he comes up with. He excuses this behaviour in his head because "it was far less awful than being a bastard to her during her PhD assessments." As if that makes any of it ok or any less manipulative or controlling. He even tells himself that he is doing her a favour (as in she won't need to pay rent) as a further justification for this disgusting turn of events. Soon after this Tom also decides to sabotage any dates she has, because she should be with him. Because, naturally, scheming to take away all of Liz's independence can only help her.

At one point in the book (chapter six) I wrote the note that I would rather this book became a girlboss thriller where she just stabbed him and I stand by that.

So yeah, I was no way going to stick around for the full near 500 pages of this book, 150 pages was way more than enough. Literally whenever I have thought about this book since putting it down, I just get really angry again. It's happened now and I am going to need to play some Animal Crossing to bring my mood back around from all the anger.

I really enjoyed this read. I think the slow-burn was really well done and the chemistry and tension really built between the two characters. The banter was excellent and as a scientist, I can attest to the science also being excellent (the author has her PhD in genetics!). I found myself chuckling at some parts of the book and I kept wanting to see when they would finally get together. Not a perfect read for me because there is one scene with dubious consent that could have been redone in a number of ways. Tom was a little too underhanded and somewhat immature, but he recognizes that so it is dealt with. I also hate the cover because women in science get enough crap without having to be painted as an outraged angry scientist on the front cover.

This was SUCH a good story! I really enjoyed the enemies to lovers and guy falls first. Those tropes while also taking place in the workplace, such a good pairing. This gave me Love Hypothesis vibes, in the best way. I've never read anything by this author and can't wait to continue with other stories!

First, a sincere thank you to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This title was a wonderful addition into the growing STEM Romance genre. The Unbalanced Equation is a sweet "Steminist" "enemies to lovers" "forced proximity" romance that highlights it's incredible Scottish setting and scientist leads in a way that echoes the "grumpy/sunshine" trope found in Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis. Although I wouldn't say this title is making new ground in the genre, I think The Unbalanced Equation does the genre and tropes justice.

The characters are smart, funny, and absolutely adorable together. I will say that the male main character Tom fed heavily into adult toddler behavior that made it feel more like a bully romance than an enemies to lovers at times. Overall, the banter and steamy scenes really made The Unbalanced Equation stand out as a delightful romance read.

Thank you Netgalley for ARC!

Through a string of bad luck, Liz (a recent postdoc graduate) is forced to keep her mean PhD assessor in her personal orbit. But despite, their past history, Liz begins to see a new, more appealing side of Tom.

'The Unbalanced Equation' was bursting with romance tropes - from enemies to lovers; forced proximity and grumpy sunshine. For Macfarlane's first venture into the rom com scene, she definitely knew what she was doing by delivering all the popular tropes.

I adored the STEM setting, perhaps due to being a former STEM student myself. Reading tidbits about their lab life brought some 'interesting' flashbacks. I could definitely relate to the stress of failed experiments. I loved the vibe of Liz's lab and it was great that Macfarlane showed a fun, more exciting side to the biological research industry.

Both Liz and Tom were quirky, nerdy characters and would have fit well into 'The Big Bang Theory' TV show. However, I did find they both exhibited questionable behaviour. It's true nobody is perfect but for their age, their behaviour was bordering on immature.

Contrary to the length of the book, the beginning was fast-paced and the story unfolded quickly. Although, this could be overwhelming, I liked that the book dove straight in. I finished the book in two sittings. I do wish the ending was more focussed on the couple but I did appreciate how the HEA wasn't 'traditional', which was refreshing.

'The Unbalanced Equation' was a cute, easy read, perfect for rom com readers and those who love a STEM romance!

[slight spoilers] I had such high hopes for this one, a science romance set in Glasgow, Scotland!!! What could go wrong!?

Let me start off by saying I love an emended to lovers trope, so this box was easily ticket. The smut was just perfection and not overdone either.

Did I cringe a little at effectively step siblings falling for each other? Yes but that doesn’t make it wrong. It’s just I myself haven’t come across that situation often.

I found Tom to be somewhat possessive which I don’t normally hate in fictional novels but it was sometimes bordering on creepy!

Overall, I loved the writing and it was a really easy novel to read. Would recommend!

I enjoyed 'The Unbalanced Equation' so much! This was the perfect sort of romance and read for me following some heavier reads. It definitely brought some desperately needed fun into my reading.

The story as a whole felt satisfying the entire way through. Every plot point stayed true to the characters, right through until the epilogue. I don't often like epilogues in romance books because I find then predictive and repetitive, but the epilogue in this novel felt like a wonderful way to wrap up the story between Tom and Liz.

Saying this, even the spicy scenes stayed true to both of the main characters which is such an important thing for me. It made the sex scenes read that much more intimate becuase the characters didn't totally transform into different people the moment the spice began. If you are looking for a romance book which is equal parts plot/romance and spice, then I think this is the solution to your search!

I also thought that the theme of second-chance-romance throughout this book was such a massive part of the book, even extending into the side characters. It's super well done and enjoyable and thankfully lacking the excessive flashbacks other second chance romances lean on.

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for H. L. Macfarlane's next romance publication after enjoying this one so much!

DNF'd officially at 20%, but I did also skim through first to see whether or not I should keep going first (the answer was unfortunately not).

Look, I'm all for enemies to lovers stories, and usually I can handle a little angst between the 2 MCs. But something about this book was just not it for me. In most other books, the whole "I need to be mean to drive them away" plot point usually happens closer to the end when they have their 3rd act break up. In this case, it's what started their whole story. And honestly, it really ruined the experience for me.

Straight off the bat, Tom has supposedly made Liz's PhD life a living hell because he was so mean. But he's actually still had feelings for her the whole time. So obviously, that means it's perfectly okay for Liz to get some joy out of being the one to tell him his lab is on fire? But then of course, when they get stuck on the same lab bench together, the best course of action is to decide that you're going to be as rude as possible towards him in any way you can. It just wasn't vibing with me. It immediately drew my attention away from the story and I didn't remotely want to get back into it. Even through skimming through the rest of the book, the whole relationship felt super inauthentic to me and way too toxic to really condone.

I am a lover of both The Hating Game and The Love Hypothesis, and this story did not even remotely match up to either. Both of those stories had a super appropriate and low level amount of "toxic" behaviour in which it was more just juvenile things they did, and was never outrightly viscious like this book was.

I'm so sorry I couldn't enjoy it. I'm sure others will. This is all completely my own opinion. Thank you to Netgalley Publishing for allowing me the opportunity to give this book a go.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. This is by far my favorite Rom-Com Ever!

If you loved the love hypothesis and you are a fan of the enemies-to-lovers trope, appreciate great banter and fall for flawed fictional men, just read this book. You would do yourself a huge favor!

I was not even 20% into it that I decided to preorder the physical copy because I HAVE TO OWN IT!

I am still shell shocked at how good this was. The characters, the plot, the setting, the references. Oh, so so soooooo good!

The author did a fantastic job with the dual POV, especially with Tom, with him she created a real man with good and bad. There is a lot of character growth too in between the lines and the cast is awesomely balanced.

I can’t pinpoint to a scene in particular I loved above the others because the whole book was fantastic. For me it had it all and I am so happy to see these characters again in her next book even if not as the main couple!

This is the book for you if you like:
- Enemies-To-Lovers
- Forced Proximity (work together/live together)
- Class difference
- Age Gap (11 years)
- Dual POV
- Great Banter
- LGTBQ+ rep
- Set in Scotland 😍
- Steamy

Dr. Tom Henderson is a wealthy Scottish professor of genetics at a university in Glasgow. Elizabeth Maclean is a PhD candidate in the same department where she meets Tom at a new student mixer. The two are immediately attracted to one another but Tom is surprised to find he has been assigned as Liz's assessor a few days later. To cover his attraction to Liz, Tom is exceedingly tough during his appraisal of her work, angering Elizabeth. Years later, the paths of Tom and Liz cross once again after a series of mishaps, including Tom's lab burning down and their parents announcing a surprise engagement. Liz and Tom once again face their attraction to each other but this time with years of animosity between the two.

This book is definitely for fans of The Love Hypothesis. It has the academia vibes, small age gap (a decade), size difference kink, sexy times in a hotel room at a conference, and flirty banter. It has a leg up over The Love Hypothesis in the steam department because it features multiple sex scenes (including a squirming-in-my-panties embarrassing moment where Liz is interrupted masturbating). While it is no Pride & Prejudice, it is certainly a fun enemies to lovers read. If you're not a fan of the miscommunication trope, BEWARE. It is full of it. Tom and Liz are both pretty immature and I was rolling my eyes toward the end, but overall it was a fun, sexy read with great visual descriptions and includes scenes at Halloween and Christmas (which is a cozy bonus in my book!).

CW: discussions of loss of parent to cancer

This book was incredible! Liz and Tom are the perfect stem couple and you cannot tell me otherwise. This book at times reminded me of the Love Hypothesis in the points that it is a stem romance and the man falls first but it by no means felt like the same story. I loved how our two main characters shared a similar love of anime and the dual POV throughout this book. I will be reading more from this author in the future.

This book was….ridiculous

First they both just happen to have a parent die from cancer and then his lab just happens to burn down and now they have to share a bench and be around each other then their parents just happen to meet and fall in love and announce that they’re getting married (which makes them step siblings) then Liz’s landlord just happens to kick her out and now she has to stay with her rich so called enemy in his HUGE house.
This is all in the description of the book so this isn’t a spoiler.

The author took forced proximity to another level😭😭 And this was only 14% of the book


I didn’t really like tom he was very plain to me and one thing about me is that I’m going to defend women in STEM With my life so I really didn’t like that he treated her worse than the other students because he liked her. Like couldn’t you be just… professional?
He’s manipulative and he invades her privacy more than once and he’s immature
Unfortunately Liz isn’t much better.
For characters in their late twenties and late thirties they were both very immature

I'm a sucker for a good rom-com, and this read delivered that and then some! From sweet to spicy, we got a little bit of everything in this book. As readers we were given glimpses into Liz and Tom's lives as scientists, but also as they tackled more emotional topics such as helping their parents navigate life after loss.

Their quick wit and banter was fun, and I often found myself either laughing out loud or left with my mouth wide-open! The author did a fabulous job of bringing the scenes to life with her descriptions, and the characters were well developed. This was a quick read for me, and overall I enjoyed it!

[I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.]

This book was super cute and easy to read. It isn’t a deep romance or anything, it’s the perfect light-hearted RomCom.

What a fun story The Unbalanced Equation is ! My very incredibly nerdy and dorky heart appreciated this rom com.

This story is about a stem researcher lady named Liz and a jerk of a scientist named Tom. After a few years of bad blood between the two, circumstances has them reluctantly orbiting back to each other. Liz is rightfully still furious and burned after what transpired between them in the past. Tom knows that his past actions will leave no room for his heart to get one last chance with her. In a desperate attempt to help them both move forward, he sets in place a motion of events that could potentially undo everything. When the secrets catch up, will it bring them closer or tear them apart for good ?

Some of the tropes are :
- Gumpy vs gumpy
-forced proximity
- 11 year age gap
- nerdy romance/humor
-second chance love
-academia romance

I would rate this 3 chilli peppers out of 5 for the steam. There aren't many sex scenes but the ones we got were great and the chemistry between Tom and Liz is undeniable. Also...Tom is a God in the bed room...lucky Liz !

Even though this love story is clearly about Tom and Liz ,we also get a huge glimpse in the love lives of their parents and this was one of my favorite parts about this story. It was so sweet and added a less selfish side to Tom that we didn't see often.

Unbalanced Equation is told in dual points, the chapters were easy to read, and flowed well together. It held my ADD attention from start to finish. Having things in common such as anime, nerd humor, ramen, ect made it easy to relate to the couple and quite enjoyable.

We were constantly told how horrible Tom was to Liz in their past but never really shown. I think I would have felt more feelings if we'd been given the chance to watch some of the events unfold.

Overall this is a pretty solid rom com and I look forward to reading H.L Mcfarlane's other novels.

The Unbalanced Equation follows the story told from the viewpoints of Tom and Liz, a pair of nerdy geneticists at the University of Glasgow. They meet just as Liz starts her doctorate and by a twist of fate, Tom ends up as her PhD assessor and therefore can’t chase after her to ask her out after a very Notting-Hill-esque orange juice spill moment. Fast forward 4 years to the end of her studies and an accident burning down Tom’s lab throws them together once more. But after 4 years of being horrendous to her, can he repair the damage?

A fantastic story set in the nerdy world of Uni science (a subject close to my heart!). It was great to read the biology parts and not wince at all the inaccuracies! For the non-scientists though, the science isn’t overwhelming. I wasn’t sure I’d get into the story for the first couple of pages as it was written quite formally from Tom’s POV, but thankfully as we get to know him, it’s obvious that it’s just the way he thinks when he’s being professional.

The story is engaging, the characters flawed but likeable and the sexual tension is sizzling! I read the second half in an evening as I couldn’t put it down. Overall a fantastic book and I can’t wait to read the follow up set in the same world.