This book was such a fun read!! I loved everything about this book. The characters were so authentic and I especially loved the chemistry between Liz and Tom. Their relationship was such a whirlwind, but that made the book so much more enjoyable. The character development between the two was probably my favorite, as I always love the enemies to lovers trope. There are so many genuine funny parts within the story, as both main characters are super smart and witty. I would definitely love to read more from H.L. Macfarlane!

Thank you, BooksGoSocial, for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Liz's new lab partner is her old PhD supervisor who was horrible to her for years. They then find out that her dad and his mum are engaged, forcing them into close proximity amid sexual frustration and unresolved drama and lies.

Despite containing a couple of tropes I dislike (age gap, step-siblings (sort of)), this was a solid sexy science romantic comedy. The workplace enemies-to-lovers is well done and the banter was top notch!

The characters are loveable and remain so throughout the conflict/mistakes, unlike a lot of romances where I end up hating one of the MCs due to an unforgivable fuck up. They have great chemistry as well and I really rooted for them.

The pacing is good, not flopping at any point and I read this in two sittings. I really enjoyed the science as well, it was really well done (saying this as someone with a degree in a biological field).

The rating is brought down by the whole age gap thing which really is just unnecessary. Furthermore I like romances to have a few extra side plots which I feel like this just didn’t have. Side characters apart from one or two also felt underdeveloped.

Still an enjoyable read and I’d recommend this for any fan of the genre!

I was gifted an advance reader copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 ⭐

I wanted to love this. I was waiting for the story to make me all giggly and for the characters to take a piece of my heart. And for the first 20% or so in the book, I was HOOKED. I was convinced this is my next 5 star read.

I couldn't make myself enjoy it no matter how much I wanted to. I still see why it would (and already did) appeal to other readers.


Enemies to lovers, age gap (11 years), STEM/academic setting, forced proximity, dual POV, and second chance. A lovely cover and gets compared to the widely adored books "The Love Hypothesis" and "The Hating Game".

What's there not to love? Sounds so promising, doesn't it? But also kind of... too much, maybe?


So, Liz and Tom meet and they instantly click. Tom is determined to ask Liz out and she can't wait for it. Then Tom finds out he will be Liz's advisor and everything starts getting confusing.

All of the initial attraction disappears and for some reason Tom decides that the right thing to do is to become a total asshole to Liz...?

To sabotage her flat-hunt to force her to stay at his house after she was had to leave her old flat, to invade her privacy and block all her matches on dating apps, AND then to have the audacity to justify all of his questionable decisions?

Honestly at this point I wasn't really sure they should date. Tom was annoying at times and genuinely so childish. His actions were really worrying and he is left having to justify and explain himself a lot.

The book was also wordy which made it longer than necessary. The characters' thoughts and intentions are constantly being explained, tediously at parts, which resulted in lots of unnecessary details and almost no conclusions reached from nuances or body language without having to read every thought so clearly.

** Besides the point, but lots of anime references that at parts went on for pages, which I found boring since personally I'm not the least bit interested in anime.

I really had very high expectations. And as J said, the beginning was so enjoyable I couldn't wait to read more. I couldn't relate to the characters, they didn't feel genuine and I was left waiting for them to feel closer to my heart the whole time.

The author already has other published books and a fan base which I'm sure will find this book far more enjoyable than I did :)

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review! :)

The Unbalanced Equation was a book that I was really interested to read. Let me start off by saying that I did really enjoy this book for like the first 30%. Their banter and the way they “loathed” each other was fun and I really enjoyed reading that part. Liz was really funny and I liked the forced proximity in the book. I will say that I can tell how much love and effort was put into making this book, but unfortunately it did just fall a little flat for me, especially during the middle. It had so many of my favorite tropes such as enemies to lovers, forced proximity, age gap, dual pov, and second chance (in a way?), so you can see why I thought that I would absolutely love this book. I can definitely see how others would really enjoy this book, but personally it just did not work for me.

It said that if you like the Love Hypothesis, this would be something that you would like. And while I really loved The Love Hypothesis, this book was not like that, except for maybe the STEM aspect of it. That being said, let’s start with the not so good aspects of the book. My main thing was that this is marketed as an “enemies to lovers” and it was not that. We are told that Tom was really mean to Liz throughout her four years, but we never got to see that with the time jump. He was pretty much smitten with her from the get go, which I didn’t mind, but I went into it thinking that they were going to be enemies and wish they were. The conflict was honestly a little annoying and really unnecessary. They were both pretty immature and it could have been easily resolved with a simple conversation (like Liz mentions). I thought Tom was fine throughout the book. He wasn’t really anything special, but the things he was doing was really weird and almost controlling, which I didn’t really like. It was just strange and very off putting. As for the anime references, I didn’t care for them and as someone who likes anime (not to the extent of Liz and Tom) there were moments were it felt forced and like it was just trying too hard.

Besides all of that though, it was a fun little read. I loved Jim and Jenny, they were really adorable and brought fun aspects to the story. The ending was really precious and adorable. Everything seemed to come full circle and I was content with the way that it ended. I love how Liz and Tom didn’t change their minds about what they wanted in life, it was refreshing to read about something like that because there aren’t many books that do that. There were moments that felt very dragged out and I feel like if this book was shorter and a little thought out more, it could have been amazing! Thank you again! :)

Rating: 5 stars

I loved this book from the very first chapter. I was instantly drawn in from the first time we meet Liz and Tom and from the get go I was rooting for them.

I thought the characters were set up really well, I felt like I was constantly learning new things about the characters which made them more complex and interesting as the book went on. I was a big fan of Liz and Tom straight away, even though the two of them do make some questionable decisions at times throughout the book, I always found myself rooting for them.

This book is everything I could have wanted in a romance. I loved the dynamic Liz and Tom had together but also with other characters, I loved Jenny and Jim from the second we met them and how the two of them were constantly wanting the best for their kids.

I already know this is a book I will go back and read time and time again, H L Macfarlane has written an incredible book which I found difficult to put down as I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Thanks, NetGalley!

This was a read I got through pretty quickly, but sometimes felt a little too dragged on and longer than it needed to be. At times, Tom was not easy to like and very manipulative and he would easily get away with it? Overall, would recommend this read for anyone in a slump!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'The Unbalanced Equation' by H.L Macfarlane.

'The Unbalanced Equation' is conflicting to me. You see, I love the occasional enemies to lovers and I love a good STEM based romance. However, I always feel icky when I find out that the two MCs are techincally step siblings (Her dad, his mum)

I also didn't like the fact that Tom was very toxic in the beginning and self-destroying our MCs love life and living situation. Did he hold himself accountable in the end? Yes. But my goodness, he could have actually told her what he had done months prior before she had to find out from others.

The plot was great and I did enjoy the writing (there was a large amount of sex though, be warned!!) But idk, I'm just conflicted.

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley for this ARC.

Tropes:
*Forced proximity
*Workplace romance
*Enemies to lovers
*Second chance love
*Age gap
*Guy falls first


Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley for this ARC. I had heard that this was similar to The Love Hypothesis. While there are a few similarities, they are definitely not the same. I feel like this book was more about how their relationship affected everyone around them and I did not hate it.

When Tom and Liz meet at a work mixer, they are instantly attracted to each other. But when Tom finds out after meeting her that he would be her professor for the following four years, he knew he had to back off and he acted like he hated her. But when Liz is no more his student but now in his best friend's lab they are bound to see more of each other. When they find out that their widow parents were engaged to each other and Liz's landlord kicking her out, concluding with them living together, they start to wonder if maybe they can make it work.

I give this book 3.5⭐ . It was definitely not a horrible book but I still feel like there could have been more added in parts of the book. I enjoyed how all the side characters had to do with the story and not just there for their relationship and their relationship only. (view spoiler) I feel like the cover is a bit of a turn - off. It makes Tom look way too old for the age of 38 in my opinion, making him look like one of those awkward uncles. I really liked Liz's character. She was a strong alpha female that wasn't shy or scared to share her opinions and she knew what she wanted.

I would definitely recommend for people to read this since it is a good book. It does have some spice in it (ok maybe a lot more than a bit).

Favorite Quotes:

"Whatever else I could say about my life right now, I certainly couldn’t call it boring"

"Standing there alone, looking at the door, I was faced with an inevitable conclusion that had been chasing me for four years. I was stupidly crazy about this woman. It wasn’t simply a crush."

"Have you tried shutting the f*ck up?"
"Not yet."
"Then add it to your list of things to do today"

Thankyou NetGalley for the Arc.

I really wanted to love this book, it has all my favourite tropes - enemies to lovers, forced proximity, second chance romance, age gap & workplace romance
But unfortunately the mmc came across toxic with multiple red flags, as well as the book becoming cringe at parts

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

First of all, I can totally see this book being someone’s new favourite. The writing style is fun, with snarky banter between a couple that ticks off so many well-loved and searched for tropes: workplace romance, enemies (?) to lovers, age gap, dual-pov, second chance romance, and forced close-proximity. (Like, the closest you can imagine.)

There is also a trope I’m not sure what to name: their parents are getting married later-in-life which makes them soon-to-be step-siblings. Due to the fact Tom and Liz knew each other prior to their parents meeting (and getting engaged), this aspect didn’t bother me personally but I can understand why someone would not feel comfortable reading this.

I went into reading this book really excited but in the end I DNF’d it at 36%. The male lead, Tom, had absolutely zero redeemable qualities. He was insufferable, manipulative, juvenile, gross, and demeaning. We are led to believe he is a very intelligent man but this is never reflected in any aspect of his behaviour. At first I thought I enjoyed Liz’s chapters but on reflection I think I was just happy it was a break from reading Tom’s attempts at justifying his actions.

There were so many red flags throughout, but it was when Tom went through Liz’s phone and blocked all her dating app matches that was my final push to give this up. “Looking at her phone when she wasn’t around was a line I should never cross. I sold my soul and unlocked her phone anyway.”

This behavior should never be excused or glamourised, even (especially!) in fiction. I would not feel comfortable recommending this book to anyone I know.

(On a completely unrelated note, there were far too many anime references that would go on for multiple pages. A few references sprinkled here and there to signify the characters have a shared interest in anime would’ve been fine, but having it go on for so long completely took me out of the story and I felt like I was reading a think-piece by the author.)

We follow the ins and outs of Liz and Tom as life throws everything at them. Tom treats Liz harshly for teh 4 years of her PHD and just as she thinks she is away from him, the book starts as they discover their remaining parents are in love and getting married,
Some great banter from Tom, Liz and Liz’ dad - a real star for me in the book. The sexual tension is strong and well dealt with and the turns are unusual but work well.
The book had a great first half and ending, but took a long time to do the unravelling.

I am always compelled towards an enemies to lovers story especially in the setting of academia. Thomas Henderson and Elizabeth Maclean met at a party four years ago and the sparks were just beginning to ignite with the promise of more to come, only to die an expedited death afterwards when Liz’s assigned Ph.D. assessor is none other than Tom. The prologue begins with their first meeting in Tom’s POV. The story then begins 4 years later when Liz is no longer Tom’s graduate student, alternating between perspectives for each chapter.

I couldn’t love this as much as I wanted to because I felt like the presence of Tom’s voice was excessive to the backbone of the plot. Since he was so transparent in his feelings with his internal monologue, obviously pining for Liz, it took away a lot of the mystery and guesswork of his behavior and actions. He’s genuinely earnest and likable except in Liz’s opinion. There’s very little observation of their time during Liz’s Ph.D. days, so it’s more of being simply told rather than actually showing the reader of how belittling or horrendous Tom could be during the evaluations. It has to be taken at its word at face value which did not work for me. I needed more plausibility that Tom was as treacherous as described to reconcile this current guy who is the opposite. If anything, it swayed me towards disliking Liz because she’s so embittered and resentful about the past that she goes about a little bit of revenge seduction and it’s not flattering.

If Liz had been the primary narrator with time to be acquainted with her before her postdoctoral studies, I could’ve been more sympathetic or supportive to her plight and understood her better as to where she was coming from. She’s obviously intelligent and well-liked, but it was still a hard sell to me. Even with Tom making some questionable decisions to swing the odds in his favor with regards to earning Liz’s affections, I still felt more invested in his happiness because he could also be self deprecating and self aware.

The cast of secondary characters are fun and likable. Between Liz’s dad, Tom’s mom and all of their friends and coworkers, it was no secret that these two had an ongoing attraction that couldn’t be smothered. I warmed up to Liz slightly towards the end because she justifies her stance well about open communication and personal choices. While I prefer a bit more intrigue and angst, this could be someone else’s entertaining beach read.

oh boy, i did not like this book. it went from stiff to awkward to cringy and back again. neither of the characters were likable and i wasn’t rooting for them. i almost DNF’d but i pushed through.

This book was such a fun read! It was super engaging and hard to put down. This had all of my all time favourite tropes so it wasn't a surprise to me that I enjoyed it. I loved the banter between Liz and Tom and we love a women in STEM. My absolute favourite part was that Tom fell first. and Liz was such badass main character who will be an inspiration to all women who read this.

"That’s the thing about hindsight: nobody has it when they actually need it."

°•*⁀➷

He falls first, and make it nerdy.

This was your typical semi-cringey, mostly funny rom-com that follow (for me) two very relatable nerds. Whether it be their shared love for anime, very entertaining bander, or their shared passion for science, none of it let me down.

I haven't been able to sit down and read a book in a while because of how busy the summer has been (audiobooks are my bread and butter), but I was happy to get into bed with this every night. To hang out with Liz and Tom and see what they came up with next.

I also just adored that it didn't push the normalcy of everyone (WOMEN!!!) wanting only marriage and a baby out of life. Liz and Tom are both so passionate about their life in academia and science and aren't looking for more than that. They're both so filled up on that part of their life that they just don't want the rest, and they talk about it many times throughout the book. It's one of the reasons why the ending is oh, so sweet. Family is what you choose to define it as, and seeing them love life outside of the expectations of others... it's inspiring. And not something you see in books a lot.

The only thing I didn't love was the parents addition to the storyline. It made both of them feel much younger than they were to have their parents around all the time, especially since so much of it revolved around them planning a wedding for them.

Make room on your TBR for a romcom perfect to start you back into school for the semester on September 15. I hope it's a nice little escape, just like it was for me. And thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this book because I just love the STEM representation but this one fell a little flat to me. MMC was toxic AF and I just couldn't get past that. I would definitely try another book by this author in the future though
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own

Unfortunately I struggled to finish this book. Tom's perspective was really insufferable and a real abuse of power from a supervisor/supervisee relationship. Everything felt manipulative.

I adored this book it’s a must-read I loved the banter between Tom and Elizabeth and the fact that he fell for her first and has been in love with her for years. I love all the people in the lab and how they know something is going on between them and the aspects of STEM being a bio major myself who’s applying to med school STEM romances have a special place in my heart. I also loved Tom meddling into Liz’s life and trying to find ways to keep her with him it was hilarious.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My rating: 3.5 stars (rounded down to 3)

Quick Stats
Overall: 3.5/5 ☆
Characters: 3/5 ☆
Relationships/Friendships: 3.5/5 ☆
Setting: 3.5/5 ☆
Writing: 4/5 ☆
Plot and Themes: 3.5/5 ☆

The Unbalanced Equation is a romance novel that follows Elisabeth Maclean, a postdoc and her old PhD assessor, Thomas Henderson. After a sudden event that leads to their forced proximity, the two of them are forced to combat old feelings and "burning hatred" for each other.

Pros:
✨ writing that flowed and was easy to read
✨ interesting and funny dialogues + internal monologues
✨ good theme
✨ interesting side plots
✨ eye-catching cover

I thought the writing flowed very well and made the book easy to binge. I loved Elizabeth's internal monologues and her fiery personality, although sometimes they were a bit overdone. Do you ever just want a character to calm down and actually think sensibly for once? The side-plots were interesting enough, like the changes that are happening to the FMC's family. The cover caught my eye instantly, because it got me thinking of "The Love Hypothesis" and "The Hating Game".

Cons:
🍄 enemies-to-lovers concept that felt rushed
🍄 too many anime references
🍄 male lead's behaviour

I tend to love enemies-to-lovers, but I felt that it didn't work very well in this book. I thought that the reason they were enemies in the first place wasn't well-developed. To be completely honest, I wouldn't even say that the two MC's were enemies to begin with. It felt a bit like lovers-to-lovers, because from the start they were already practically lusting for each other.

There are a bit too many anime references. I'm not a big anime fan, but I've watched a few series, and yet I still didn't understand the majority of the references. Someone who hasn't watched any anime would be left hanging and confused as they're forced to read those lines.

Last words:
Overall, I would say to give this book a shot, but don't have too high of expectations because you might be disappointed. The banter between the main characters is fun enough to read, but the relationship isn't as well-developed as I'd have hoped for.

Thank you for reading my review!

What do you do with a book that you devoured almost holding your breath? I know, you give it five stars. But what if the mmc deserves a smack on the head or even a kick in the nuts? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Tom and Liz first met on a department social. The attraction was instant, but they were interrupted and nothing happened. They were both hoping to meet again but the next day Tom found out he would be Liz’s PhD assessor. So no dating. And the total moron that he was, he figured the best course of action would be to be a total dick cause otherwise there would be flirting. 🤦‍♀️

Fast forward four years, Liz finished her PhD despite Tom’s best efforts and she is more than happy to be done with him. But life has a few surprises: it turns out they are now working together. Then Liz’s dad announces that he is marrying Tom’s mom. That’s not all! The final blow: Liz is being kicked out of her apartment. So she is temporarily moving in with her dad and his fiancée. Who are - yes you guessed correctly- temporarily moving in with Tom. Yaaaay, all four of them under one roof!

Sounds insane and contrived and all, but don’t let it deceive you, this book is amazing! Liz and Tom were great; their dynamic was just pure pent up sexual tension and I loved it 😍🌶🥰. The chemistry and banter were so well done!

What I didn’t love was all the manipulative moves, especially on Tom’s end. Like dude!! Not sure I would even want to talk to you after that shit show! Liz wasn’t without a fault either, but Tom really overdid it big time.

But then he melted my heart completely when Liz was on her period and he took care of her 🫠

I was about to rate it five stars but there’s this thing I’m allergic to. I can’t read public love declarations cause I cringe so hard I spill my drinks. So four stars it is. Four and a half maybe?

Anyway, read this book people, it’s so much fun!

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.