Love, Theoretically - Book Review

Book Blurb:

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 broody 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 that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, 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?

 

My Thoughts

Love, Theoretically is Ali Hazelwood’s yet another slow-burn romance. Its another book with a very-very sorted, very-very tall and very-very empathetic hero. The girl is a genius yet confused and broke. I have read The Love Hypothesis and this book is in similar types. A near Mills & Boons category. We know the ending. We know the middle part. We just know everything except… except… where are these men? Oops, did I say that out alound? Oops!

Yet what stands out is that this is not just another love story. It talks about politics in STEM and the challenges of being woman in STEM. It brought out an aspect of ace/aro spectrum. Honestly, I wasn’t very much aware of that before and to write about their struggles brought more perspective. And the friend in Cece, the most loyal and trustworthy. It was unbelievable to learn about the pay parity between full time professors and others. And, how mentors could make or break one’s career. So yes, this is a love story. But it gives some perspective of many other things. The lovely guest appearance of Adam and Olive from The Love Hypothesis made me giggle like a teenager.

Regardless of one’s age, I mean unless you are a teenager or something, this book is one of those escape books. It lets us forget the cruel ways of life or the hard-hitting reality. These books let us safely settle in a bubble where all dreams come true. Where boy meets girl and love blooms – the divine types. I love such escape books and if you also like such ones, I highly recommend.