Rival physicists collide in a
vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this
delightfully STEMinist romcom from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain.
The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally
caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at
grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure.
By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by
offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly
honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the
client needs.
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed
Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly
attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out
to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s
career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he’s
the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT,
standing right between Elsie and her dream job.
Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those
long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true
self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit
finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into
practice?
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What I thought about Love, Theoretically
When Dr. Elsie Hannaway, theoretical physicist, adjunct professor and Faux-dater realizes her latest fake-date has ties to her most hated experimental physicist -- the one who messed with her mentor and wrote about how her field of theoretical physics is a joke -- things go from bad to worse. It turns out he's more connected to her life when Jack Smith-Turner is connected to her dream job. She finds out just how small of a world it really is. And just how rigged academia can be. And maybe things just aren't exactly the way they seem with Jack Smith-Turner.
There is great romantic tension in the first third of this book. It was masterfully done and I could feel the sparks between Jack and Elsie in a major way and I loved it. I loved the emotional building in this part of the book. I just wanted it to go on and on.
I really did love Elsie, her humor and insight, even her cluelessness when it came to Jack. I loved it even move when she figured out what she wanted and decided to go for it. That was just lovely. This slow-burn, enemies-to-lover romance was just perfect for this reader. I love how it built up and that neither Jack nor Elsie were perfect in how they handled the stuff that is thrown their way.
Being affliated with academia myself, I found this story to be an accurate representation of the
sometimes nasty, back-stabbity world of research and faculty tenure I had to
stop reading at the pivotal moment that Elsie realizes
that she wants to be supportive of her female colleagues in science,
but is lured into slamming one of them -- that was just so meaningful and real moment to me. A beautiful one too
because women should always support other women in their career
aspirations. The power moves made by Elsie's mentor also rang true unfortunately and it made Elsie's growth just that much sweeter.
I really liked Love Theoretically. Elsie is terrific, I connected with her right away. Jack took longer to show his heart, but he was a swoony romantic lead when it counted. They are hot stuff together, for sure.
So this is going to be on my favorites of 2023 list. The slow burn romance has great tension and doesn't disappear when the characters connect. The conflicts are realistic, timely and often gut-wrenching and I loved that about it too. A terrific romance in the world of STEM research.
About the Author
I'm Ali, and I write
contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia. I love
cats, Nutella, and side ponytails. I'm also currently learning to
crochet, so as you can tell I'm a super busy gal with an intense and
exciting life!
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