Another wonderful STEM romance from Ali Hazelwood, who remains an absolute powerhouse with the most distinctive voice in the genre, writing things that absolutely no one else could write.

Though I still laughed out loud many times, this one has a slightly more serious tone. Some will say that's a good thing. Some will say that's a bad thing. It's neither. It's just what this book and these characters required.

Ali Hazewood is a star that shows no sign of burning out.

his one is for those who have thought if I just anticipate their needs and be who they want me to be, they'll love me, If I'm not useful to them anymore they'll leave me, or have just wanted to have someone take care of them the way they take care of others.

Ali Hazelwood, you did not have to make me cry like this. Jack and Elsie's story is going to be a comfort read for me, I can feel it now. Though it's on the lower side of the spicy scale, it is sweet and fantastic for rom-com readers who love the "I want to/let me take care of you" tropes.

Love Theoretically does have a bit more academic content than the previous books, but it was still easy and fun to follow along with. Everyone who loves(d) The Love Hypothesis is going to be thrilled to see our favorite Grump x Sunshine duo make a reappearance that if you're like me, will have you dropping a few tears.

I can not wait to have a physical copy of this in my hands!


Thank you so much to the publisher(Berkley Romance) for granting me an ARC!

I LOVED Ali’s first book. I was a little disappointed in the short stories, but Love, Theoretically has me counting down the days until I can read anything else Ali writes. I laughed so hard it hurt. The characters are fantastic. The situation is ridiculous but somehow perfect. Read this book.

I feel like Ali Hazelwood has truly found her stride. In Love, Theoretically, she strikes a chef's kiss balance between disrupting toxic systems and writing bomb romance. Jack and Elsie are dreamy because they are brilliant, kind, and quirky. As someone who has a loved one with type I diabetes, I really appreciate the representation. So. Good.

It looked simple at first: rivals to lovers in academia. But in truth, it’s SO MUCH more than that. It’s a rivalry between two different sides of the physics battlefield, and the main characters stood on each side of it. It’s about self acceptance and setting boundaries. It’s about compromise.

Elsie is a people pleaser, always putting everyone first before herself, constantly shifting her personality to be liked. She doesn't care about her needs as long as people like her. She could read people like an open book, but not with Jack. No matter how hard she observed, she couldn’t crack him, and it made her anxious.

On the other hand… Jack got a lot to unpack from his past, and it made his guard always up. Together, they were a mess, but they’re slowly trying to navigate their situationship amid academia drama. It’s kinda slow-burn for a “romance book” level, but it fits the story perfectly. Their dynamics were nice, and so were their developments. Elsie is a “mirrorball” to “Bejeweled” personified (iykyk) and I’m so proud of her. And Jack, even though I don’t really like his mediocre name, his personality was anything but mediocre. I think Elsie-Jack is my fav couple in Hazelwoodverse(?) so far. God, I love them.

I felt like this book was specifically written for me. There’s a lot of trivial things I love. Adam-Olive's cameo and Bee’s presence just outside the pages were fun to read. And as someone who loved physics above all subjects in high school, this book made me feel nostalgic. Ah, good times🥲

If I see someone saying that this book is The Love Hypothesis 3.0 (like many who've said that Love on the Brain is TLH 2.0 even though it’s clearly NOT THE SAME) I’m just gonna assume that they hate science. End of discussion.

Ali, I hope you keep getting better at writing. I rarely enjoy adult romance but after loving Love on the Brain and Love, Theoretically, I decided that I will read every book you write.

P.s I need a friend like Cece
P.p.s once I paused reading this book to make a hot chocolate because the amount of hot chocolate mentioned was taunting me

I love Ali Hazelwood. I love how she has integrated academia and STEM topics into mainstream fiction, I love her heroines being imperfect, and I love the concept of found family you find in her books. But, for the next book, she comes out with I really hope she tries a new trope and retires enemies to lovers for now. Because while I DEVOURED this book I knew exactly where it was going. It was taking the same exact journey in the first two books (and her novellas) so I'm hoping for something fresh in future novels.

But Love Theoretically was adorable. I loved Elsie's journey to find herself and stand up for what she wanted and Jack's help. It was so sweet, I finished it in a day!

thank you so much berkley for this arc!


5 stars! personally, this is my favorite Ali Hazelwood book yet. I absolutely had an amazing time while reading it, I loved every part of every single character introduced in the book, except for obviously the negative ones. I loved the progression of the story, I loved how the plot progressed I just had a good time! Elise is a character that I relate very deeply with, her big character flaw is one that I see within myself, or at least saw within myself, and every single decision she made I could absolutely understand, so from the standpoint, she is my favorite character that Ali Hazelwood has ever written, and then we get to jack who is everything anybody would ever want in a partner, and their banter in the beginning, is just beautiful, as well as the progression of the relationship. I had a lot of fun reading this book, and this book is absolutely a book I could see myself re-reading!

I loved this book. I enjoyed it even more than Love on the Brain. I really liked the characters and it didn’t feel like the conflict was just dragging on to extend the story. There were twists and new developments that added layers to the conflict and I liked that this didn’t leave me yelling JUST USE YOUR WORDS at the characters. There were minor communication issues that contributed to the conflict, but the entire plot didn’t depend on the characters being unusually poor at communicating. Even knowing they would end up together, it felt like there was still enough drama to move the story along and it was still believable that they worked through it. I am also a sucker for a solid friendship storyline, and I loved the way Elsie’s existing friendship with Cece developed and the way she built new friendships with Greg and George.

Ali Hazelwood is an incredible author and has quickly become one of my must-read writers. As soon as I hear there is a book coming out, I am giddy to get my hands on it!

"Love, Theoretically" was no different. Give me a strong woman in STEM and a surly, misunderstood male lead and I'm ready to swoon over their enemies-to-lovers romance.

While I don't think this title is as special as "The Love Hypothesis" and "Love on the Brain," I did sincerely enjoy this steamy, stem-y love story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

Ali Hazelwood once again hits STEM romance gold again with Love, Theoretically. She sticks to her tried and true formula - enemies to lovers, giant man, STEM setting, mutual pining, some misunderstanding that leads to the heroine believing the hero hates her, workplace and academic drama - and knocks it out of the park. I personally don’t care if she writes the same tropes over and over - it’s always a good time for me. If you liked Hazelwood’s other novels, then pick this one up for a delightful romantic romp. If you’re looking for something wildly different than her other offerings, this isn’t for you.

Jack might be my favorite hero of hers yet - he is quiet, thoughtful, and wants to take care of our heroine, Elsie. The steamy scenes were incredibly hot, in no small part because of how good the communication was between the couple and how we see them figuring out what feels good together on page. I adored the domestic scenes we got to see with Elsie and Jack together - the quiet moments of making meals together, driving around, or watching each others’ favorite movies were charming. There is also excellent type 1 diabetes rep - my mom has type 1 and I grew up around it, and I appreciated that it was included so naturally here.

Love, Theoretically is another sweet STEM-themed romance from Ali Hazelwood, this one being more STEM-heavy and academic than her previous novels, as Ali points out in her authors note. I enjoyed reading about Elsie and Jack navigating their tumultuous feelings for each other to becoming cordial acquaintances to more. While the romance between Jack and Elsie has both its tender (and sizzling) moments, I do feel like both characters are muddled in comparison to their respective counterparts in The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain. Elsie, Bee, and Olive are practically cut from the same cloth, as are Jack, Levi, and Adam. Reflecting back on all three books, it's really hard to distinguish each main character from one another considering they share such similar personalities. And overall, Love, Theoretically felt very much like an ode to The Love Hypothesis, with very similar themes and many nods to Ali Hazelwood's debut dispersed throughout the book. Because of how similar the themes of both novels are, I was able to predict the multiple twists throughout the novel quite easily.

The Adam and Olive cameo was very cute, though, and it felt really nice to see what they'd been up to all this time! As we close out Ali's "STEM-inist" era, I look forward to reading her YA work next.

As far as I am concerned, Hazelwood can continue to write enemies to lovers with oversized romantic interest and their nerdy and absolutely brilliant counterparts for the rest of her life. Her novels are delightful and a soothing balm to the soul as her heroines are plucky, devastatingly brilliant, and find a way to worm a space into your heart.

"Love, Theoretically" is all about physics, specifically the branch focusing on the theoretical rather than practical application. Elsie Hannaway has been barely making it as an adjunct professor and therefore, has taken up faux dating to make ends meet. However, this all comes back to haunt her when a tenure professor position at MIT opens up and her fake boyfriend's brother is overseeing the interview. As if academic interviews weren't hard enough, Elsie has to prove herself to Jack Smith, the annoyingly handsome physicist, who questions her motives and singlehandedly destroyed her mentor's career and made it impossible for theorists to be taken seriously.

Even though the synopsis seems similar to Hazelwood's other titles, there is something more to Elsie than previous protagonists. Yes, she's nerdy and quirky, but there's an element of realness to her character that feels fresh and unique. In this story, Elsie is dealing with her incessant need to mold herself into whatever is the most convenient and pleasing to the person she's interacting with. She anticipates the needs of others and then accordingly adjusts her own to maintain peace and her relationship with other people. This seems to stem from a childhood, where Elsie's needs were never prioritized and affected her as an adult to the point that she's a pushover.

The other element of this novel that I really enjoyed is how Hazelwood captured the issues and conflicts of being an adult in the 21st century. This is a novel about someone in their later twenties, who hasn't made it yet. Elsie is struggling not only to afford her rent but to find a semblance of a life in her existence, which is being stretched in six different directions. It was nice to see a story that dealt with type 1 diabetes in a manner that didn't shy away from it but also illustrated how expensive it is to buy insulin and how much that hampers Elsie's ability to be financially secure.

Stability and independence are themes that crop up again and again in this novel. Hazelwood dangles these concepts like carrots in front of Elsie, who dreams of affording expensive cheese and not having to work three different adjunct jobs. It is these luxuries that resonate with me as a reader, who faces the same challenges and dreams of the same privileges. I may be alone, but Hazelwood did a wonderful job of portraying how much one job could make a difference. This also plays into the relationship with Jack as he pushes her to become her own person and fight for a position at MIT. All in all, this is still a fluffy romance, but there was more depth to it than Hazelwood's other titles and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Devoured this book in a day! Another winner from Ali Hazelwood. While definitely similar to previous titles, Hazelwood knocks it out of the park each time. Will definitely recommend to patrons looking for a STEM romance!

Ali Hazelwood has made a name for herself in the publishing world with a very specific niche: STEM themed romance novels. Her breakout debut, The Love Hypothesis, followed two biologists; subsequently, Love on the Brain tackled neuroscience. Her three novellas (recently compiled into their own bound book, Loathe to Love You) centered around three engineer best friends. Now, her third novel, Love, Theoretically, gets into what I consider the most fascinating branch of science: physics.

Summary:
Ali Hazelwood meets Helen Huang with her newest narrator, Elsie, a theoretical physicist and adjunct professor by day, fake girlfriend by night, and chronic people pleaser. Elsie Hannaway is a year out of her PhD program and "living the dream." She has a doctorate in theoretical physics, numerous awards for her work with crystals, and plenty of publications, but instead of continuing her research or working on her manuscript, she's an adjunct professor for a myriad of Boston colleges, teaching undergrad physics courses to students who couldn't care less.
Because adjuncting pays so well, Elsie also works as a fake girlfriend through the app Faux, which allows hundreds of eligible Boston bachelors to pay Elsie to come to family events, work parties, or act as arm candy for the night. Through years of practice as peace-keeper for her family, Elsie's expertly honed people pleasing skills let her become whatever version of herself her client needs in the moment. But no, she won't sleep with them.
Elsie's favorite client is Greg, a harmless guy with an incredibly judgmental family. Despite Faux's rules, Elsie and Greg have a longstanding contract where she'll play his fake librarian girlfriend whenever Greg's mother gets on his case about being single. Elsie loves helping Greg, but his brother seems to hate her, for reasons Elsie can't discern.
Meanwhile, in the academic world, Elsie is up for a position at MIT as a tenure-track professor in their physics department, a role that would pay her enough to quit Faux, finally have the healthcare to pay for her Insulin, and would allow her to complete her research on crystals. But, just her luck, who else would be on the hiring committee but Jack Smith-Turner, Greg's prickly older brother, and the author behind the paper that ruined her academic advisor's career, as well as made a joke out of theoretical physics as a field. Of course Jack recognizes Elsie, who never made the connection between Greg's brother and the Jonathon that ruined her advisor's career years prior.
Like any Ali Hazelwood novel, miscommunication, misplaced anger, and a whirlwind romance follow. Once Elsie manages to explain to Jack that she hasn't been lying to his little brother all this time, the pair warm to each other. Nevertheless, Elsie can't stop herself from wondering why Jack wrote the paper that made a farce of theorists and her advisor, especially when it seems like he has so much respect for her work.
As Elsie grows closer to Jack she feels guilty for "betraying" her advisor, but friendship with Jack has shown her that she doesn't need to be afraid of her own opinion, or using her voice instead of molding her personality to fit the needs of the person talking to her. To Elsie's theorist education, falling in love with an experimentalist is the epitome of a disaster, but even she can't deny how happy Jack makes her.
Will Elsie and Jack be fated for doom or destined to succeed? And can a theoretical physicist and experimental physicist ever truly overcome their academic disputes?

Thoughts:
Love, Theoretically is by far my favorite of Hazelwood's STEM love sagas. As a narrator, I found Elsie to not only be incredibly relatable (especially as someone who is about to graduate college), but I also enjoyed her focus of study the most. Hazelwood does such an incredible job layering science with plot, and always ensures the reader will understand even the most complicated of topics without dumbing anything down. The author's note mentions that Love, Theoretically is her most academically focused book, as the plot does spend a great deal of time discussing the politics of science in higher education, particularly the history of fraud, sexism, and laziness amongst the older generation of gatekeeping white men.
Similarly to my love of Elsie, Jack was my favorite love interest by miles and miles. I'm not always the biggest fan of the trope where the man is overly protective of the woman to the point of treating her like she's incapacitated, but Jack was protective of Elsie to the perfect degree. I loved how much he respected her as a scientist regardless of her past or other forms of income, and he made sure to own his wrongdoings and refuse to contribute to the sexism of his colleagues. I never worried for Elsie with Jack, whereas I had some negative feelings at points during Adam and Olive and Bee and Levi's respective romances.
I did want to know more about Elsie's family. I wish Hazelwood had spent more time explaining the dynamic between Elsie and her brothers, as they were written like elementary aged children despite being older than her. Furthermore, I feel like we were given a lot of details to follow about the twins' hijinks without ever meeting them or even getting a flashback to Elsie's childhood growing up with them. I hated Elsie's mom, not just because she was cruel, but because she seemed a little unrealistic. Even the worst parents in the world would understand what getting a doctorate degree meant, and for Elsie's entire family to not know about her level of education or awards in physics felt like a reach.

Overall:
Ali Hazelwood only continues to grow as an author with each publication. Hazelwood brings an element to the table that other romance authors don't: real-life experience in the fields she writes about. As a scientist herself, Hazelwood adds an authentic voice to each of her narrators that I always appreciate.
I saw preliminary reviews of Love, Theoretically that were afraid that this novel would repeat The Love Hypothesis based on the initial summary, but I did not find that to be true. Hazelwood uses her favorite tropes in each book, but plays with and manipulates the situations to be so different from each other that I haven't found anything to be repetitive. My heart ached for Elsie and Jack, and there were definitely points where I wished I could switch places with Elsie, which is how I know it was a good romance.
Fans of Ali Hazelwood's previous novels, Helen Hoang's Kiss Quotient, and Emily Henry's Book Lovers will not be disappointed with Love, Theoretically!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for an ARC! To state the obvious, if you enjoyed Ali’s previous novels and are looking for another fun book featuring the grumpy/sunshine trope, this is the perfect read for you! While there are similarities between this one and her previous books, I enjoyed this one just as much! The Love Hypothesis was the first book I read that incorporated STEM, women empowerment, and emphasized the hardships of working in academia within a male dominated field. Love, Theoretically is similar but also adds in the difficulties and frustrations of competing and interviewing for academic jobs, the power of authority figures, academic politics, and how words can hold such a powerful influence in both the academic and personal life of our protagonist, Elsie.

Elsie is an adjunct professor of physics at several Boston universities who fake dates to make ends meet. She is a relatable and likeable main character, and I think many of us can relate to the hardships of putting others’ needs in front of your own, shaping ourselves around other people, and having a hard time saying no to others. While fake dating her client Greg, she has many interactions with his brother, Jack. To no surprise, Jack ends up on the hiring panel for the faculty position she’s applying for. Jack reminded me of the endearing Joshua Templeman from The Hating Game. Jack is grumpy and serious but from the start, I could tell he had a soft spot for Elsie. Elsie and Jack had a fun back and forth banter and witty comebacks and Ali excelled at the slow burn romance for these two and the romance!!!

Love, Theoretically isn’t simply a boy meets girl and they instantly fall in love because they are both into physics type of story. Ali really takes the time to develop her characters, gave them both interesting and emotional back stories, passionately depicted their interest in physics, and overall, I really appreciated the open and honest communication between Elsie and Jack!! Ask questions! Talk things out! Share your feelings! Don’t run away when things get tough! Love! Simply, another great read by the wonderful, Ali Hazelwood. Thank you again to NetGalley and Berkley, this is perfect summer/beach read. Expected publication: June 13th, 2023

Ali Hazelwood's books pack a double (triple?) punch... they are so smart, hilarious, and full of lurrrrrve. I couldn't ask or more! I read The Love Hypothesis and was obsessed - but I have to admit I wasn't as crazy about Love on the Brain. But Love, Theoretically? THE BEST. Elsie is struggling through academia one torturous student email at a time while trying to balance family, friends, and that teeny tiny little thing known as a steady (livable) income. Jack Smith seems to have it all figured out, until Elsie comes into the picture and disrupts his carefully crafted experimentalist bubble. I love that Hazelwood's characters are intelligent, yet real. They can be professors and scientists and doctors while still facing tough life issues and laughing their way through the awkwardness of relationships and job interviews. Such a refreshing, funny, smart - and steamy - love story. Quite possibly my favorite of Ali Hazelwood's books to date. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group, Berkley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Elsie is an adjunct physics professors, but that doesn't really pay the bills. At night she goes on fake dates to make ends meet and pay for her insulin. Everything is going well, she has an interview for a dream job at MIT, until she meets the hiring committee and finds out that one of her fake date's brothers, Jack, is on the committee. Jack has always hated Elsie, at least that's what she thinks, but the more time they spend together, the more she begins to question his feelings and her own.

Ali Hazelwood delivers again with a relatable heroine who is stuck trying to people please and more commentary on STEM and academia. The romance at the center of the novel is similar to Hazelwood's other novels, but the main characters, Elsie and Jack, are distinct enough to make this novel stand on its own. Fans of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain will be excited for a new Hazelwood novel.

This is exactly what I was hoping for. I have loved what Ali Hazelwood has written so far and she did not disappoint with Love, Theoretically. Elsie's people pleasing tendencies are relatable and Jack's patience and understanding are a dream.

Ali Hazelwood does it again! Ali understands academia, and all its nuances, and writes page-turning romances in that setting. In Love, Theoretically, there are several twists and turns that make for a bit of mystery along the way. It's an outstanding read, with characters I'd want to be friends with. A few from a previous book even make a cameo!

Ali Hazelwood levels up her game with every book! Funny, poignant, maddening at parts because of sexism in STEM academia: this book has it all. Ali is an amazing romance writer and deserves all the flowers she gets!