I thought Love on the Brain was my favorite, but now it’s Love, Theoretically. I absolutely LOVED the characters and their interactions. Especially the ones with Millicent. Gosh, it sucks for women in STEM. I loved that this story exists in the same universe as some of Ali Hazelwood’s other stories and there are some Easter eggs in here if you’re looking for them. The story was an enjoyable sloooooowww burn romance, with spice. The 3rd act breakup was done well, even if I keep reading books hoping that if I’m over 80% through there won’t be one. One day! Once I got started this book was unputdownable. I appreciated the character growth for some. Nerdy dad jokes were on point. Jack and Elsie were chefs kiss. Highly recommend.

I absolutely LOVED Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. We follow struggling physicist, Elsie Hannaway as she applies for her dream job - the only problem is one of her could-be future co-workers is her arch-nemesis, Jack Smith. This is quite possibly the SLOWEST burn I have ever read (with no kissing until 73%!) but I actually did not mind it one bit. It allowed for the characters to become completely comfortable with one another and care for each other in ways that may not have been possible with earlier steam. For a more in depth review, see the attached video from 17:40-24:08.

Another banger from Ali Hazelwood. And let me just say, broody older brother is one of my favorite tropes.

All of the MML's that Hazelwood writes are truly perfection, however I will say that I had a bit harder time digesting our main, Elsie. Jack Smith was truly a perfect specimen- stern, caring, observant. etc. However, the caveat is that both of them probably (should be) are in much need of therapy (don't worry!). I think the characters and their own problems, was the only drag here.

This was a solid 4-star read- plot carried us well, characters were relatable, and the emotion evoked in readers was really the best part. I mean, the outrage! Truly the best part of reading any book is when the emotion is so visceral that readers can't help but feel as reading along. This is something that Hazelwood definitely succeeds at, here and repeatedly so.

As always, will probably be buying multiple editions because her books are just so digestible and easily re-visitible.

Ali Hazelwood not only gave us another smart, fun and witty book, but also provides believable characters and storyline. I enjoyed every chapter of this book and found myself being able to truly relate to some of the lines that just hit home a little harder than I expected. Excellent read, lover's of Hazelwood's work will fall head over heels with this book!

This started off so strong for me but unfortunately, I felt like the pacing was off so by the 70% mark I was starting to get bored. Miscommunication is also a large part of this book which is always my least favorite trope. With that being said, if you've enjoyed Ali Hazelwood's books in the past, I'm sure this one will still hit the spot. It follows a lot of familiar themes and tropes as her prior releases. If you were looking for something different from Ali Hazelwood, you won't find it in this release. There's still a tiny heroine and a huge hero. There's a lot of talk about science and academia. There's a mustache twirling villain. But none of that is a negative as far as I'm concerned and I'll continue reading her upcoming releases.

Hazelwood has done it again. I adored Love on the Brain and The Love Hypothesis, but Love Theoretically is my favorite yet. Elsie’s deep desire to people please, to give people the version of herself they want, is highly relatable. Like Elsie, I spent much of my life caving to those same impulses.

And even though many of Hazelwood’s male leads share characteristics (super tall, famous leaders in their STEM fields, etc.), Jack is my favorite. He’s the epitome of a man written by a woman who all women want. He’s thoughtful, attentive to Elsie’s needs, devoted, intelligent, handsome, and a wizard in bed. What else could we possibly want?

This book is physics heavy, but I never felt like I was lost in a sea of not understanding. I love that we got a peek behind the insanity of working in academia. And Elsie’s bestie in this book definitely needs her own story.

Even though I got a digital arc of this one, I’m still planning to buy a physical copy when it releases in June!

I think Ali Hazelwood has truly hit her stride as an author. Not that her first novel wasn’t enjoyable, and I enjoyed her second as well, but there were clunky elements. Repeated dialogue, silly interactions that didn’t match characters, etc, and I’ve seen none of that in Love, Theoretically. And as much as I enjoyed the character dynamics in her debut novel, I think we can all agree that she copy/pasted it into her second. I’m thrilled to see that she can in fact write something outside of uncomfortably tall man and worlds smallest woman. (Edit - I just got to the part where he is in fact described as horribly tall while her poor brittle neck can barely help from breaking as she looks up at him. So, never mind. However, the characters themselves are still much different from like likes of Olive and Adam so I’m still very relieved and excited to read something new.)

This is easily my favorite book of hers and I’m very excited to see what comes next. It seems to me that she’s exclusively on an upward trajectory.

This book was so much fun. I've read Hazelwood's other books as audiobooks and wasn't sure if I would enjoy this one as much when I wasn't listening but I really enjoyed this book.

Pros:
I loved the comedy in this book. Even though a lot of heavy topics were discussed and some of the nuances of academia went over my head a bit, there were so many funny and relatable moments.
The ace/aro spectrum representation was fantastic. This spectrum and sexual and romantic orientations are so rarely represented in media, and it was so refreshing to see them represented here and depicted in an understanding and positive way.
I liked that we got to see Olive and Adam again. If I remember correctly, Adam at one point in the Love Hypothesis talked about his friend Jack in Boston and I really liked seeing them again.
I thought Elsie was a fun heroine. There were some points were I was like come on Elsie, but I really liked her.
Jack was an interesting caveman but I really liked him too.
Cece and Hedgie were fun side characters that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Elsie's character arc and growth were fantastic. I liked how Jack helped her grow too but that a big part of her growth ended up being her pushing herself even when Jack wasn't around.
I liked that the final confrontation with Dr. L wasn't dragged out. It was quick and painless and I think that was nice.

Cons:
Sweet Elsie seemed to be putting on deliberate blinders with Dr. L and by the point where she was discussing a post-doc with him the first time, I was like seriously. because it really seemed like this went beyond Elsie having some low self-esteem and really seemed like she was not thinking about the fact that maybe her mentor didn't have her best interest in mind.
I found the resolution between Elsie and her mom to not make sense. There was no explanation as to how this relationship got better if that even is the right way to put it.
Jack really got on my nerves during the first sex scene. It felt like he was deliberately trying to embarrass Elsie for no reason and he was being so high-handed and patronizing. It really aggravated me and I felt like based on Elsie's character, his questions would have been a turn off and would have scared her off too.
Jack was being very secretive about the issue with the article and by the time we got to the explanation as to what happened, it sort of felt like he could've at least tried to explain sooner.
I don't understand why none of the academics around Elsie ever mentioned to her that the job market for her field wasn't anemic enough for her to still be working adjunct positions. At some points they seemed to imply it, but it didn't make sense why none of them ever came out and told her that there were plenty of jobs and her mentor might not have the connections he should to help her.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and found it to be so much fun and I think the best book thus far in the STEMinist universe Hazelwood created. I'm excited to see what's next and I think romance readers will really enjoy this book.

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

OH MY GOD! Ali Hazelwood has done it again in my book! I fell in love hard with The Love Hypothesis and have been obsessed with Ali Hazelwood books ever since. I was shocked to be approved for this e-ARC, but I am so happy that I was. Getting to read this book early has been a ride and I loved it so much.

Ali Hazelwood writes the kind of romance books that have me swooning. I love the chemistry she writes between her characters and this was no exception. The fact that this book was more STEM heavy with the academia backdrop being even more present was so interesting to read about, especially since I bet it is pretty accurate with Hazelwood having an academia background.

I hope she keeps writing adult romance books because I will keep buying them. Five stars all around and I will definitely be re-reading this book as soon as it is released because I have to annotate this.

The rivalry between theoretical and experimental physics has never been cuter!

Ali Hazelwood's LOVE, THEORETICALLY is a big thumbs up from me, her biggest fan. This romance is more smart, sassy women in STEM perfect for contemporary rom-com fans everywhere.

I started the year off with a bang with a book that is going to be one of the best of 2023 for me. Hazelwood's writing just clicks with me with her alternately quirky and serious characters, the tenderness and trust and understanding between them, and their unfailing support for each other. I know, last summer, when I read her entire backlist back-to-back, while I loved each book individually, I felt that the characterization was a bit repetitive, but I had also suspected that time and distance would make the next book exciting to read. And it turned out to be true. I enjoyed this book thoroughly. This book is a clash between a theoretical physicist adjunct professor and an experimental physicist tenured professor, set in Cambridge (Boston). He disapproves of theoretical physicists and has recommended another experimentalist for the dream job she is gunning for at MIT. Since her paycheck as an adjunct in non-existent, she supplements her income by offering her services as a fake girlfriend. This book contains more science than her previous books; that actually was a draw for me. Untangling their vulnerabilities and deep-seated views of self is where Hazelwood shines. Highly recommended!

[This review will be published on my blog, Cogitations & Meditations (http://keirasoleore.blogspot.com), later this month.

Wow! I opened this at 7:30 p.m. and didn't put it down until it was finished at 2 am. That doesn't happen to me very often! I have read all of Ali Hazelwood's previous works of fiction (that I'm aware of), and she definitely likes certain tropes, but I still totally love everything about this book. As always, there's a bit of a nod to Darcy of Pride and Prejudice, in the hero of this book, Jack. And there's a female in STEM academia, which I can't fully relate to, but find it interesting. Hazelwood infuses the story with lots of humor, and that combined with the romance between Jack and Elsie had me beaming and grinning from ear to ear. Highly recommend.

This book was everything I was hoping for and more! I am a long-time fan of Ali’s books, and I loved this one SO MUCH. The cast, the setting, THE CAMEOS. Everything about it was delightful and heartwarming and hilarious.

Read if you love:
- STEM
- found family
- quirky, lovable characters
- banter for dayssss
- enemies to lovers

I want to preface this by saying I will be rating this as an individual work based on my absolute enjoyment while reading despite the similarities to Hazelwood's other works.

I loved this book. From the opening paragraph that established the scene for fake dating, forced proximity and enemies to lovers, just chef's kiss. I was absolutely obsessed with every character in this book, they were diverse and interesting and very fun to read.

I adore how Ali Hazelwood goes out of her way to create an extremely diverse cast of characters. From the "imperfectly perfect" Jack, to the ace rep of Greg, to the sapphic rep of an important side character as well as a main character who has T1D, it was a triumph of diversity.

I really enjoyed the pacing of this book. I found the story made sense and the plot twists were well placed and made sense.

I am literally in love with Jack and I am obsessed with his and Elise's banter and interactions throughout the book.

Without going into detail, the nod to the characters in her previous books were fun little Easter eggs to read.

As a Twihard, Elise's takes on Twilight were hilarious and entertaining, I really enjoyed all the references to the franchise.

Although this has become a trope used in many of Ali Hazelwood's works, the use of the protective MMC trope never fails to make me obsessed with the MMC.

The politics showcased of scientific academia between experimentalists and theorists was very interesting to read about, and I like that she went into more detail instead of just having it be in a STEM setting, we got to see the nitty gritty of it all.

I ALMOST liked this more than the Love Hypothesis. I say almost because despite everything, there were so many glaring similarities to AH's other works. It's always a strong independent woman in STEM, it's always a large Nordic man & issues with men in STEM that become the central conflict of the story. However, I found this one was much better paced than the second installment in her series (Love on the Brain) and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of this book despite the similarities to her previous works.

The ONLY real issue I had was the constant mention of Jack's previous lovers in the latter part of the book, I wish the two MCs would have just focused on themselves. It only went on for a chapter or two, but it became off putting.

All in all, I am obsessed with Jack as well as Jackie and Elsie as a couple and I can't wait to get my hands on whatever Ali Hazelwood writes next.

Thank you SO much to Berkley (and PRHC!!) as well as NetGalley for and E-ARC in exchange for an honest review ❤️

Thoroughly adored of course. Elsie’s people pleasing/shape-shifting abilities were so brilliantly written and Olive-and-Adam’s appearance was just the cherry on top. And I loved the deeper dive into academia politics too.

“It’s complicated, being a woman in STEM. Even more so when you’re young and unproven. And even more so when you have a semi-pathological need to get along with others.”

This is an enemies to lovers rom-com between a cheese-loving, coffee-hating (preach!) theoretical physicist (Elsie) who studies liquid crystals and a very muscled, Henley wearing, experimental physicist (Jack) who can basically do whatever he wants because he’s famous, and also did I mention he has muscles?


Disclaimer: You do not need to know what liquid crystals are. Just keep picturing the exact wrong thing, like I do. It won’t matter. And if you do actually understand this weird state of matter, you are superior.


I wish there was a PG-13 version of this book! There was a lot to like in here. Unfortunately, the profanity (everywhere) and sexual content (mainly in chapters 19-22) definitely make this a novel for a mature audience.

How spicy are those few chapters? If I were to put it on Buffalo Wild Wings spectrum of spicy, it would probably roll in around the Mango Habenero heat. I actually have a whole section of my review dedicated to this if you need more information.


This was my first Ali Hazelwood book. Her book, The Love Hypothesis (2021), became uber popular and I believe it’s also being made into a movie. She is known for writing romcom novels about women in STEM. Which I think is amazing!

I enjoy reading about a main character who is not just intelligent, but intelligent in the sciences, who is secure in her knowledge and ability to do her career and get the job she wants. And not only is she legitimately smart, she has a great sense of humor. Especially if you can understand all her science jokes.

I also really liked that Elsie has a really good friendship with her roommate. They’re both weird in their own ways, but very supportive as they live their own lives.


In case you were wondering, I am not in academia. I’m like the opposite of Elsie. Elsie is a physicist who got her PhD in theoretical physics. I’m an art major. I guess we overlap in terms of abstract concepts and a lot of matter that doesn’t make sense to most people.

But the point is… I cannot say one way or the other whether her science should be fact-checked. I have no idea if she is accurately portraying the field or the academic politics in the world of professors and research scientists. Honestly, I don’t even know if liquid crystals is a real thing. But if she’s fabricating, she’s a real good pretender.

It was a whole new world of characters that aren’t typically written about and I enjoyed being there.


A Brief Summary

This is your classic enemies to lovers romcom story-line.

Elsie has her PhD in theoretical physics and works as an adjunct professor teaching classes at three different universities. She has diabetes and no health insurance and is barely making ends meet to get herself the insulin she needs.

To counter this financial deficit, she started ‘fake-dating’ people. An app people can use to hire others to pretend to be their dates for things.

Her latest client is Greg. He’s hired her for multiple family occasions because he is gay and has not come out to his family yet. To get them off his back about getting married, he’s using Elsie as a shield.

Enter Jack. Greg’s brother.

Wearing his “Haute couture by Chuck Norris.”

He is skeptical of her relationship with his brother. And also he has the hots for her.

“He just studies me— attentive, calm, like he knows something secret about me. That I floss once a week, tops. That I can’t figure out what the Dow Jones is, even after reading the Wikipedia entry. Other, scarier, darker things.”

The main animosity here is that both Jack and Elsie are physicists. But Jack is an EXPERIMENTAL physicist while Elsie is a THEORETICAL physicist. [Thank goodness for spellcheck… I’ve misspelled physicist every time I’ve typed it]

To make matters worse, Elsie is interviewing for a major job change that would give her health insurance and allow her to do the research she wants to do without the teaching she hates (including all the annoying— yet hilarious— emails she receives from her students asking if they can pay their tuition in dogecoin).

“Teaching load: 100 percent. Despair load: incalculable.”

“All I want is to spend my days solving hydrodynamic equations to calculate the large-scale spatiotemporal chaos exhibited by dry active nematics. And maybe, if possible, buy life-compatible levels of pancreatic hormones at reasonable prices.”

Jack is on the search committee conducting the interviews, has major influence, and is known for hating theorists. In fact, years ago he ruined the entire field by submitting a prank paper on theoretical physics to an esteemed journal where it somehow got through and became the laughing stock of the science world.


So Elsie wants to hate Jack:

“I always had a bad feeling about him, and last night— that’s why he’s so good at Go. He was a physicist all along, that— that piece of Uranus—”
"Science insult. Nice.”
"I bet he thinks in Fahrenheit—”
"Ooh, sick burn."

But he’s “the electron to my nucleus… constantly spinning around me” and they can’t help but be attracted to each other. Because that’s how science neutrons work.

And really, her hatred isn’t very believable in the book. She’s just trying to convince herself to hate him because she’s afraid of her real feelings.

Thus, this book is correctly titled- Love, Theoretically— because it’s not love actually. Yet.

It’s a theory.

Jack has Elsie figured out, but it’s not until Elsie discovers there is more to Jack when the sparks really start to fly. Because chemical reactions. Science. (Have I convinced you of my science knowledge yet?)


The Spice Factor

As mentioned before, there is some graphic sexual content in this book. You can probably come away unscathed by it if you just skip chapters 19-22.

I am not an avid romance reader. My concept of what ‘graphic sexual content’ is may be skewed. I have no clue. There’s an entire genre called Erotica so I’m sure this isn’t the worst you could read. I don’t want to be able to explain to you from personal experience where this is on the spectrum. Use your best judgement.

But based on my personal preferences on what I want to read, this had stuff that went too far and too detailed.


So imagine my shock when I read this:

“Jack and I did a bunch of things that high schoolers today would barely consider a quarter of first base...”

What?!

I must be very naive to what is happening in high schools right now. It is ridiculous if what they did was not even first base. Clearly they don’t understand how baseball works.

Plus some of it isn’t realistic. Like the fact that he didn’t have “rotten-eggy morning breath.” Everyone has bad breath in the morning. It’s an unfortunate staple of life.

Anyway, I know a lot of readers won’t hold the same views of sex that I do, so I’ll try not to belabor the point.

But if Ali Hazelwood should read my review: Can you PLEASE make PG-13 versions of your books for people like me?


A couple other comments related to sex that I just decided I wanted to point out:

“Not that there would be anything wrong: sex work is legitimate work, and people who engage in it are just as deserving of respect as ballerinas, or firefighters, or hedge fund managers.”

I don’t know if Hazelwood actually believes this idea, though I would venture to guess that she does, but this is a harmful view to hold and completely ignores the fact that most ‘sex work’ is not legitimate. It increases the demand and creation of porn which is also harmful to people. It increases the demand for women which inevitably leads to sex and child trafficking. It is not an ‘innocent line of work’ as some are trying to suggest.

The sexual ‘freedom’ the general population is dying for isn’t quite the utopia they think they’ll get.

If you don’t believe me, do your own research. It’s not hard to find the wreckage in the wake of sex work and porn. Yes, I have strong feelings about this.

I can agree that all people should be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their ‘occupation.’ I am not condemning the people, but the industry.

[Some other related book suggestions: The Porn Problem, Taking Down Backpage]


If that paragraph made me some enemies, how about this one:

“Planned Parenthood is good people.”

I wasn’t planning to write all of this in this review but here I am. I guess there’s worse things I could be doing with my time.

There is a center in my town called Agape. They help women who are pregnant or who recently had babies. They help them with medical and emotional care. But they do not provide abortions. These are the kinds of centers we need more of.

It’s an oxymoron to have Planned Parenthood and good people in the same sentence. Abortion is the killing of babies and that is not good.

I’m sure many of you have lots of arguments you’d like to share with me about Planned Parenthood. I would direct you HERE.


Okay, I’ll get off my soap box.

The bottom line is: There is some graphic sexual content in a few of the chapters that I wish wasn’t there.


Elsie’s People-Pleasing

A core part of this book is Elsie’s desire to please people. She learned early in life that if she could change into what people wanted, they liked her. She became good at recognizing what people wanted to hear, see, etc and adapted to fit their desire or expectation of who she should be.

“I don’t really have time for that. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Or makes you resent your pathological inability to set boundaries, one of the two.”

“I find that people like me better if they don’t have to expend emotional energy on me.”

This paired well with her fake-dating gig. She could be anyone!

This does not pair well with actual dating. Her roommate tells her:

“You’d rather walk into the sea with stones in your pockets than date— though that’s because of your basic misconception that human romantic relationships can only succeed if you hide and shape yourself into what you think others want you to be.”

Jack is different, though. He can see through her various personas. He recognizes when her personality changes. He calls her on it. And psycho-analyzes:

“That way if something goes wrong, if someone rejects you, then it’s not about you, is it? When you’re yourself, that’s when you’re exposed. Vulnerable. But if you hold back… Losing a game’s always painful, but knowing that you haven’t played your best hand makes it bearable.”

This is a somewhat common trope for romance novels/movies. A person who is afraid to be themselves because they don’t want to be rejected.

It wasn’t groundbreaking concepts, but I liked how Jack challenged her to speak her mind, to be honest, and say ‘no.’

She was not afraid to be confrontational with Jack when she was still in the hate-phase. I liked that side of her. I like when someone stands up for themselves. I get annoyed when people don’t say what they’re thinking especially in important situations. Go ahead. Give me an Enneagram number.

Obviously don’t be annoying and argumentative, but just strong-willed, secure, and confident to hold your own.


Randoms

Here are some things I thought were funny and I didn’t know where else to put them so this is the place.

“I sink into the heated seat he turned on for me and remember the time I swerved to avoid a squirrel, almost causing a multivehicle crash. The squirrel turned out to be a Wendy’s paper bag, but it’s fine. I’m good at other things. Probably.”

A character was wearing a “Breathe If You Hate Tom Brady shirt.” Haha. Classic. I’m totally going to use this concept on a shirt for my website’s store. So many possibilities.

A student comes up to her to “tell me about this super-cool movie he just watched and ask me if one could theoretically invert time (dang you, Christopher Nolan)” This is the movie Tenet. Which I have watched. And I would definitely be the student that would want to discuss the physics of it. Because it’s insane.


Recommendation

Okay, so after all that, what’s the deal?

If you have the self-control to skip over a few chapters, and don’t mind some swearing and sexual innuendo, I think you’ll enjoy this unique and humorous take on a rom-com.

If any of that doesn’t sit well with you, probably try something else. Possibly The Rom-Com Agenda.

And if Hazelwood comes out with some PG-13 material, SOMEONE PLEASE COME TELL ME!


Learning Corner

This book is about scientists, so of course they’re going to say words like ‘gravitational singularity,’ ‘sectoral heterochromic,’ ‘boson,’ and ‘biaxial nematics.’

We have permission to gloss over those. But there were also some other big words if you want to expand your vocabulary and sound like you have a PhD in something.

ignominy: public shame or disgrace (It would be an ignominy if you didn’t follow my reviews on Facebook.)

apotheosis: the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax (The apotheosis of your day was to stumble across my book reviews.)

inchoately: confused or incoherently (When you don’t know what book to read next, you may walk around inchoately.)

convivial: friendly, lively, enjoyable (Browsing my book reviews is a convivial way to spend an afternoon!)

And I finally researched how to actually pronounce these two reads: “canapes” and “annals". So that was cool.


[Content Advisory: 88 f-words (that tend to show up in groupings of 3), 96 s-words, sexual inneundos throughout; a couple graphic sex scenes (as talked about above)]


**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

Elsie is a theoretical physicist who has a few problems. 1. She is an adjunct professor and can barely make ends meet. 2. She is always twisting herself to become the person whoever she's talking to wants. 3. She's interviewing for a job she really needs and finds out one of the people on the panel is her arch-nemesis. This was a pretty light enemies to lovers romance. They didn't stay enemies for too long. The characters were interesting and seemed to have depth and the science was interesting and made this feel more meaty than a typical romance. I did find some character traits to get a little grating by end of the book but would highly recommend.

As always, Ali Hazelwood delivers with a book that is charming, funny, witty, and overall a delight to read. I love her books so much that I'm seriously considering purchasing them all in print to have on my bookshelf.

@prhinternational
Thanks @prhinternational for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book! Elsie and Jack are one of my favourite couples Ali has ever written! The banter and the scientific talks they have will keep you interested in knowing who they truly are beneath their mask as well as how things will end up for them.
I found it very interesting how the author branched out in this novel and explroed other tropes outside of the formula used for previous books! I think it's great to write different things and to show versatility!
Elsie goes through a lot of self discovery and I was particularly excited to see how she would stand up and take ownership of her own life! I loved her friendship with Cece! They has a very meaningful relationship and I think fans of Ali Hazelwood will love them!
This book also dives in with very important topic such as sexism within academia, which is still very prevalent, how much power mentors have over their meentes, especially when it comes to getting them lab positions, and the debate between theoric and experimental physicists. While they're both very different, they are both necessary and should complement each other!
There's also LGBT+ rep as well as very accepting allies, which I think is essential! One of the main characters is demisexual and one of the side characters is aroace!
The Olive and Adam cameo was everything! I loved seeing them again and seeing them interact with Elsie and Jack! Another very important Ali Hazelwood character is mentioned, which proves they are all connected!
Definetily pick this book up, it doesn't disappoint!

TW:sexual content, mentions of sexual assault, sexism, betrayal.

#PRHInternationalPartner #sponsored #ad

First a thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Ali Hazelwood brings another light-hearted, contemporary STEAM romance to the table with Love, Theoretically. Hazelwood's newest edition follows theoretical physicist Elsie, who is desperate to make it out of the teaching sphere, which forces her to turn to part-time online dating for extra cash just to survive, and into the track of academia that will allow her to focus solely on perfecting her theories on a livable wage. When famed theorist hating, experimental physicist Jack Smith stands between Elsie and her chance at a once in a lifetime job opportunity, tension builds and sparks fly.

Filled with Hazelwood's common tropes of grumpy/sunshine and miscommunication galore, this book feels like an echo of both The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain. While Love, Theoretically does not particularly stand out from Hazelwood's previous novels, it does satisfy the desire for a cute, quirky, and easy-going romance read.