I loved this book it was so cute and it had some of my favorite tropes in it
Age gap
Enemies to lovers
Tom and Liz are so cute and if you loved the Love Hypotheses please check this book out

🧪The Unbalanced Equation🧪

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

After suffering four years of scrutiny from her PhD assessor, Elizabeth Maclean believes she’s finally free of Dr Thomas Henderson’s tyranny when she begins her postdoc. But when a fire goes off in Tom’s lab (stupid undergrads) he ends up working in the same lab as Liz.

On the same bench, no less.

For three whole months.

Read if you like:
🧪enemies to lovers trope
🧪STEM
🧪The Love Hypothesis
🧪Age gap romance
🧪Forced proximity

I thought this was such a fun book! I loved the STEM aspect and the Glasgow setting. There were several cute twists throughout the book. I really enjoyed Liz’ character!

Grab a copy of “The Unbalanced Equation” available September 15, 2022!

#theunbalancedequation #netgalley #hlmacfarlane #bookstagram #booktok #bookish #bookrecommendations #readingrecommendations #bookaddict #romancereading

“The Unbalanced Equation” is “The Love Hypothesis” in a nutshell and if anyone knows me knows it was one of the most overhyped books of all 2021. It had everything I hated in “The Love Hypothesis” but throw in was an instant love instant marriage between parents and suddenly we are step siblings BS.

More so, like many other comments this novel is falsely being advertised as an enemies turned lovers romance. It is not. Nonetheless, this is ideal for readers who fell for the hype of another popular STEM romance and want to subject themselves to a rise and repeat romance novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I loved and hated this book, let me explain. This book had all the tropes that i absolutely adore in any romance - age-gap, long term pining, friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity but i have mixed feeling with how it was executed.

The story follows Tom (PHD assessor and professor) as well as Liz, after sparks fly at a party due to shared interests, its not long before Tom is assigned as Liz's PHD assessor, cue 4 years of torment, it soon spirals as they discover that they are soon to be step sibling and major misunderstandings ensue!

Firstly, let's talk about the elements i loved, I loved the way in which Tom felt about Liz, however I don't think i could get round the way he treated her during her PHD, similarly I thought his behaviour was extremely manipulative (Liz also exhibited the same behaviour but not to the same extent) If i look past the manipulative behaviour, the romance at the core is excellent! I also appreciated the way in which Liz stood her ground, and the way in which she navigated Tom's hot and cold behaviour.

I would recommend if you're a fan of angst and tension (I certainly am!).

A fun, quick STEM workplace romance with forced proximity and enemies to lovers. The plot plateaued in a few places and I found the FMC to be annoying at times but overall a solid 3.5 star romance. It’s set in Scotland so it was nice to read about my country in a romance novel!

This book sounded cute and something similar to the highly popular booktok book "Love Hypothesis" so I was excited to read it! I genuinely did like the style it was written and I really liked Liz. She was a very relatable character due to "how down to earth" she seemed and I think I just liked her hardworking and loyal qualities. Tom was good, but I did not completely fall in love with him however I think that was just due to his actions (which I will get to later). But it was a well paced book, which I think is something people do not appreciate enough. Overall, I did like the nerds falling in love thing and the right person wrong time trope going on throughout the book.

*spoilers ahead!!!*

Unfortunately, the one thing that just irked me about the plot of the book was their parents getting married. Honestly, it wouldn't have bothered me that much if it was just their parents getting married and they would be step-siblings within their adult life. But, it was the fact their parents had an inkling about them liking each other and low-key urged them to get together that was odd... in my personal opinion. Additionally, Tom did so many things to meddle with Liz in order to get close to her and apologized then immediately did it again for the ending resolution. That was just frustrating because it felt like he did not have that much character development as he could have. Again, just another personal opinion so to each their own!

Honestly, this book was good, I would rate it 3.5 if possible but just have to go down due to the parents thing. I do think fans of the Love Hypothesis would like this book due to the similarities. Great fun and cute book to get out of a reading slump - coming from someone who got out of a reading slump with this! Big thanks to the Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

This was a fun quick read. Basically everything included on the synopsis happens in the first quarter of the book, don’t let that keep you from reading because that is when the push/pull between Liz and Tom really starts. It was a little frustrating at moments because the miscommunication was the driving force between the enemies-to-lovers trope. There is an 11 year age gap between the characters not necessarily something that noticeable since Tom was a literal man child. I digress. The FMC was fantastic, I didn’t love the MMC because I just didn’t approve some of the things he did throughout the book to win the FMC’s affections. Liz was an amazing FMC and I liked that she was a geneticist, was good at public speaking, was confident, assertive, and hilarious. Even her internal monologues had me laughing. Liz excels at comebacks and I loved that energy, especially for a woman in STEM. Liz was quite petty however I understand why, she was treated unfairly without explanation. Tom on tman child, he was cocky, arrogant, and his behavior towards Liz was distasteful to say the least. Especially when he was her PhD advisor. Other things I enjoyed about this book: the pining, the angst, the banter, the side characters, wow Chlöe is such a fantastic friend and Daichi Ito playing cupid was the best. The love between Jennie and Jim was so beautiful, I just loved them both.

Favorite moment: This interaction between Liz and Tom

“Have you tried shutting the F*ck up?”
“Not yet.”
“Then add it to your list of things to do today,”

Book review for my latest book The Unbalanced Equation by H.L. Macfarlane
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
(If I could do more than 5 I would)
Thank you so much to @netgalley for the early copy.
I read this in one day! Absolutely loved it.

Elizabeth Maclean is a PhD student , who has lived through the torture of her hot but hateful professor, Dr. Thomas Henderson for the last four years while he scrutinized everything about her work toward her PhD.
She's now free! Working in a different lab now, unfortunately hot but hateful Dr. Tom's lab catches fire 🔥 and now he will be working in her lab sharing a desk with her, while construction takes place to restore his lab. Yikes!
Tempers are high and then they find out to both their surprise that their parents have met in a grief counseling group and are now getting married. Oh my! Now the last bit, throw in that Liz's landlord gives her next to no notice that she needs to move.
Tom's mother, her soon to be step mother throws out there that she should move in with her, her dad and Professor Tom to help Liz out.
Totally hot 🔥 sexual tension ensues as they work together, live together and plan their parents wedding 💑. Will Liz learn why Tom has been so hateful? Will they communicate well enough to realize they both really have a lot in common and would make a tremendous couple?

This is the first of a trilogy and I can't wait for the next book! This book will be out September 15, 2022. I recommend grabbing it.

#NetGalley #TheUnbalancedEquation #crazybooknerd #bookstagram

I don’t often read romance novels, but I was looking for something to read, liked the STEM connection, so picked this up.

If you don’t look too deeply or think too much about how inappropriate their behavior is to each other, it’s nice. The STEM elements were a lovely addition, as well as his mum and her father meeting at a grief support group as both their previous spouses had died of cancer. Even the Scottish weather was appreciated since I was reading this during a summer heat wave.

However, as an example of real-world behavior, ugh! Depending on local laws / school policies, Tom is guilty of sex discrimination (treating her differently as her assessor, being harsh enough to leave her in tears), sexual assault, identity theft (unlocking her phone to access apps), invasion of privacy (walking into her hotel room and not leaving despite her demands) – events that would have led to him being fired / reprimanded in reality. Both acted extremely childish (Tom saying he ‘liked her’ – is he still in grade school? Liz wanting to get ‘revenge’? If his behavior as an accessor was that offensive, why didn’t she report it?). And yes, lots of poor communication for no valid reason except to prolong the book.

Overall, Tom’s behavior was too unbecoming and inappropriate for me to really enjoy this book.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.

Did I just become a fan of the age-gap trope? Because I'm pretty sure I am after devouring this book.

Tom and Liz first meet at a social gathering, where Tom definitely falls first for Liz and all her adorable anime-loving nerdiness. After a little too many drinks, and lots of flirting later, Tom and Liz end up in that "will they, won't they" type situation. You know the one where everyone is yelling "JUST DO IT ALREADY", but life happens, and Liz has to leave before we get our big moment. Very Cinderella style.
The next day it turns out that Tom has to become Liz's PhD Assessor, which means no freaking dating. For the next 4 years Tom secretly pines for Liz, while she hates him for being the worlds biggest dick to her out of nowhere.

This book has all the enemies to lovers, forced proximity, age gap romance, and lots of good and smutty freaking smut. There is a few things I didn't love, like Tom being overly possessive to the point of almost uncomfortable. Liz had her moments of "what the frick Liz" that made me roll my eyes. But somehow it all just fits in this book.

The banter and sass between Tom and Liz is hilarious, to the point where I was actually laughing out loud during some scenes. Liz's friendship between her soon to be step-mom Jenny was adorable. Jim hating Tom and all his snide comments and remarks towards him reminded me so much of my own dad, and I loved it.

Overall I really loved this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves a good rom-com. It's a enemies to lovers, but make it nerdy AF type book.

Thank you NetGalley, Macfarlane Lantern Publishing & H.L. Macfarlane for letting me read the ARC of this book for an honest review.

Thank you to @netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
——
Ooooo boy this book. You know I love a good book with an academia setting, and even better when it’s STEM! However, this book frustrated me so much. Why can’t there be more books about healthy relationships in academia that don’t center people who take advantage of people they have power over?!?!

Tom and Liz are both in academia. They both start lusting after each other from the moment they meet, Which happens to be at a staff/student mixer to welcome the new first year of PhD students. Liz is a first year PhD student and Tom has his doctorate and works at the University. After their first encounter, which includes spilled orange juice and Liz changing out of her clothes in front of Tom and his lab, Tom goes back to his house and jerks off to her all night. The next day Tom is asked to be Liz his PhD assessor which would be highly inappropriate. He seems to realize the inappropriateness of this but instead of declining the position he excepts to be her assessor and he’s a complete ass to her for four years to try to hide his feelings for her. This is the DEFINITION of harassment. And yet because he was nice to everyone else around them Liz kept questioning herself because no one else believed her. Since this is some thing that happens far too often in real life and creates a very toxic unsafe environment for women in academia I was just so fed up with this component of the book.

<blockquote><i>“He was cruel to me from the get-go. Mercilessly so. The problem was that nobody else seemed to think Tom was a complete and utter rat bastard. The other students Tom assessed always insisted that he was fair, approachable and incredibly helpful. If Tom was what other people deemed fair, approachable and helpful, then had I been overreacting?” </blockquote></i>

Than the books skips ahead for years later to when Liz has her PhD. She is now I post talk and Tom is a professor. Some unfortunate events happened which lead to Tom and Liz needing to interact again despite Liz heating Tom for how badly he treated her. As this is a romance it’s not giving anything away to say that it’s predictable that the book focuses on Liz and Tom fighting and lusting over with each other in an enemies- to-lovers plot. But Tom continues to be manipulative. He sabotages her ability to find an apartment so she moves in with him, spies on her during dates, snoops in her phone and blocks people on her dating apps without her knowing, invades her privacy by letting himself into her hotel room when they mix up the keys, doesn’t leave when she tells him no to his sexual advances….. the list goes on! Well this does lead to the drama within the book, it ends up being played off as him just doing all of this because he really liked her and didn’t know how to communicate his feelings appropriately.

Between the inappropriate relationships between assessors and students, sexual-harassment, and the invasion of privacy and manipulation, I just couldn’t enjoy this book. Hopefully the next academic romance book I find can steer clear of the all too real toxic tropes about relationships in academia.

Oh this book was brilliant. It really did tick all the boxes for me. It is fun, romantic and just a joy to read. It was an absolutely fabulous story, with characters that you can really get behind and root for.

I though the romance between Liz and Tom was believable and their story certainly held my attention.

I have no hesitation in recommending this novel. I can't wait to read the second book in this series.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC for free in exchange of an honest review.
I loved that it’s a STEM- based romance with some of my favorite tropes like enemies to lovers and forced close- proximity, although I wish the author didn’t skip the enemies part of their relationship.
I enjoyed the banter between Tom and Liz and the spice was good thanks to the undeniable chemistry between them. However, the plot dragged on in the second half of the book and I couldn’t get over how immature the characters acted most of the time, I feel like their conflict could’ve been solved with a simple conversation but they both lacked common sense and indulged in their pettiness.
All of this aside , Liz and Tom redeemed themselves by the occasional thoughtful acts, and by the end of the book they proved that it’s never too late to change your ways and grow into a better version of yourself.
Thank you again!

2.5 ⭐️
Thank you Net galley for the arc!!
I was very excited about this book because I heard it had a similar vibe to the love hypothesis which I loved..
This book started with Liz and Tom meeting at a university conference and having a meet cute and really hitting it off.. but then we find out Tom is going to be her pHD assessor so instead of asking her out he ends up being cold and mean to her because they can’t really go out..
We have a time jump 4 years later and Liz hates Tom but they’re gonna be in forced proximity as they will be working together in the same lab and their parents are getting married.. so Thomas has to convince her to give him a chance since he still likes her but she hates him..
There were some things that I enjoyed about the book but the characters just disappointed me.. they were supposed to be 38 and 28 but still acted like children.. I didn’t enjoy how Tom basically manipulated her love life and hid things from her and I hated how Liz was cruel when she found out about his feelings for her and would deliberately hurt him and twist his feelings against him …It however worked out for them so that’s good but I also think that we just didn’t get any of the mean Tom moments that made Liz hate him so idk… it was just a lot of tell without showing and the pacing just felt a little off…
I did enjoy the banter.. but I did hate the conflict at the end with the parents and also I’m not a big fan public confessions of feelings…
But it definitely had boy obsessed and a STEM vibe and she was the grumpy one…

Nice to see more women in science being represented in books. Of course there were still major power imbalances between the two as is so common (age, wealth, level at work) but we’ll get there some day perhaps.
Nice story wished it had been 10 chapters shorter but the first 30+ chapters kept me engaged really well.

An accident in the lab lands Liz’s former PhD assessor and worst nightmare, Tom Henderson, into close proximity with, sharing a lab bench at her new post-doc. Things continue to spiral down, though, as they discover Liz’s dad and Tom’s mom are actually engaged. And they spiral further when Liz learns her landlord is kicking her out on short notice…and she ends up living with her dad, Tom’s mom, and Tom… What else could possibly go worse? For Tom, it’s a chance to get to know Liz outside of an academic setting. For Liz, it’s the opportunity to save some money, and sort out some of her own personal feelings.

This was a “read-now” from NetGalley, and I was intrigued, so I picked it up. The first-person narrative did make it harder for me to get a good read on the characters for the first half of the book, and I struggled with character motivations. That said, the science and anime aspects of the book were clearly well-researched, imbuing passion into the characters for their work and their hobbies. With hero-falls-first, and some great pining, this has Hating Game and Spanish Love Deception vibes. The STEM-academic setting and grumpy/sunshine give it Love Hypothesis vibes, and while there is a bit of a power dynamic with the age gap, it didn’t creep me out the same way LH did.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads and NetGalley because I can appreciate when characters who have previously made dumb decisions own up to them and learn how to talk. Also, rounded up because Tom never once looked down on Liz’s academic research. This was cute, though on the longer side.

4/5 ☆

Surprised at how much I enjoyed this! So entertaining to read and a bit juvenile, but fun nonetheless. This follows Liz, who is a postdoc at the University of Glasgow, and Tom, who was previously her PhD assessor. Tom has been pining over Liz since they met four years ago, but decided not to pursue her after being assigned to oversee her studies. During that time, Tom was notoriously rude and harsh to Liz and her thesis (though this was only mentioned, and not really demonstrated which makes it hard to believe that this is an "enemies to lovers" book).

After completing her PhD, Liz begins her new job, that coincidentally Tom now has to work at, after an incident at his own lab. Due to the forced proximity, both Tom and Liz are starting to realize the attraction that began four years ago never actually went away. Dealing with family drama, sexual tension, and noisy co-workers, Tom and Liz learn to navigate their feelings for one another - some in not the healthiest ways.

If you liked The Love Hypothesis, you'll definitely enjoy this book. Its a lot spicier than TLH with a lot of flirting/angst. Tom and Liz have great banter and I enjoyed them both! I'd have to agree with other reviews that say that some of Tom's behaviors were a bit manipulative/toxic and immature at some points, which is why I gave this 4 stars instead of 5. Nonetheless, it was still very entertaining to read and am interested to see what the author puts out next! I love a STEM romance so this was right up my alley.

Tropes
-Age gap
-Forced proximity
-STEM romance
-Frenemies to lovers
-Workplace romance

Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars
CW: The Unblanced Equation depcits sexual content, cancer, and death of a parent

I want to say thank you to providing me with an E-ARC of The Unblanced Equation by H.L. Macfarlane.

The Unbalanced Equation marketed as an enemies to lovers novel; however, readers did not get to see the rising or growing tensions of the two main characters. After the first chapter there is a time skip and readers are told they are enemies, despite the clear pinning. Additionally, it felt a little too similiar to the Love Hypothesis at times, which might be a good thing if you adore the Love Hypothesis. Some of the sexual content felt out of place and
unnecessary at times. The concept of enemies to lovers in combination with their parents getting married felt icky.


**Note this review will also be posted on instagram @abookwormsgarden on September 15.****

I think the book was well-written. I wasn’t a huge fan of the storyline in general, but as a whole it was pretty good. The only thing I didn’t really like / found mildly annoying was how often some things were repeated. I felt that the information was pretty obvious, and there were multiple callbacks to it but it wasn’t something that most readers were likely to forget.

I’m gonna be very honest here: this book will probably leave you frustrated. You can enjoy it, but it’s not as good as it seems.

Both of the characters are extremely childish (specially Liz). They literally spend 456 pages acting like kids. Liz was also a very bad point… she’s simply a horrible character. Whenever I was starting to enjoy the book, she appeared to destroy my peace and my brain would simply go “Please… not her again.”. Tom is not awesome either, but he’s certainly better than her.

I am also disappointed at the plot. There was SO much going on, all at once, with no good explanation. I feel like the author tried using more tropes than necessary, and that kind of just made the book longer, not greater. There was absolutely no necessity for it to be that long.

It didn’t reach my expectations, but I am aware that it could be worse.