Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Queen of steamy-STEM is back and she’s brought with her a BIG man! Oh yeahhhh, you better believe it!
His name is Jack, he’s brillant and he’s the size of a refrigerator. His chest is so wide, that when our MC, Elsie, runs into him, black holes are brought to mind. And his hands!? Don’t even get me started on his hands!!
Listen. We all know Ms. Ali Hazelwood has a formula. She knows what works and she is sticking to it. Clearly, as I have read everything she has had published, I AM HERE FOR IT!!
Seriously, I am such a fangirl at this point, it’s embarrassing. I don’t think I have ever rated one of her books less than 4.5-stars. It’s a whole thing.
The setting of this one is Boston’s bustling academic corridor. We have Elsie, a theoretical physicist, who is currently working as an adjunct professor at multiple area colleges and universities.
Elsie is sweet and quirky and also, struggling financially. She has acquired a bit of an undercover second-job, where she works as a fake girlfriend. She has kept this part of her life completely secret, except from her best friend/roommate, as it could put her academic career in jeopardy.
Sure enough, she finds herself in a bit of a pickle when the grumpy older brother of her favorite client turns up on the hiring committee of her latest job interview. It’s MIT. She wants this.
Jack Smith, an annoyingly attractive experimental physicist believes Elsie is a librarian dating his brother, so needless to say he’s a little shocked to find out who she really is.
Confusion ensues on both parts. What to do, what to do?!
It’s Ali Hazelwood, y’all! You know what’s about to go down in this story. Sparks, steam and all out nerdy romance bliss.
I loved these characters. Again. Always. Hazelwood creates such charming, lovable characters. They have issues, they’re not perfect and they’re so relatable because of that.
Jack is an absolute cinnamon roll. I loved how thoughtful and open he was. His feelings for Elsie were pretty clear, although she was a bit more bumbling, I did actually really adore her. The chemistry between the two was fantastic.
I feel like we do wait a bit longer for the steam to set in with this story than with previous Hazelwood books, but boy, oh boy, was it ever worth the wait!!!
I loved this. It’s that simple. I will continue to pick up every single thing that Hazelwood writes. I would love to see an archaeologist thrown in the mix at some point, but that could be my own personal kink…
Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review.
As expected, this was steamy, swoon-worthy, witty, perfection. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what Hazelwood comes up with next!!
