Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
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 hones 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 favourite 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 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 practices?
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Ali Hazelwood has done it again! I deepy enjoyed Love, Theoretically and it felt like the true “sequel” to The Love, Hypothesis that I’d been waiting for. Say what you want about the “copy/paste” practice she had with her novellas, her first novel and this latest one just had something different and deeper in them that her other novel and novellas lacked. This novel dug a little bit into the politics of science academia which I found interesting (no idea on accuracy but I was definitely there for the drama). I also really loved that the characters were just different enough to feel a little more unique from her other heroines/leading men. The best part of this novel? No miscommunication trope! Or at least, only minor appearances of it. That was my biggest pet peeve with some of the STEMinist novellas so I was so happy to see a more open communication and dialogue between these two even if they were sworn enemies. Elsie had a chronic illness that was also a big part of her driving factor towards job stability so it made her objective in this novel a lot more personal in my opinion and had some great representation on how the difficulties of health insurance (although, as a Canadian I can’t relate or speak to the accuracy). Jack was a really fun character and he felt a lot more well-adjusted than some of Hazelwoods other leading men so it felt like a breath of fresh air. I had a great time with this one and I’m happy to be back on the Ali Hazelwood train!
We follow Elsie through the trials of her neglectful family and the fake personas she puts on for each person she meets. We follow her through the struggle of showing up everyday to a job you hate and still be able to pay the rent (along with an illness that takes a good chunk of her savings). As she gets a shot at her dream job, one that would provide her with financial stability and time to work on her research, the only one standing in her way is her sworn enemy, who doesn’t really know she exists (besides being the fake girlfriend of his little brother). Instant miscommunication (this trope was only used for comedic relief which was a fantastic spin!) sets in motion a hilarious rapport between these two. We dig into the rivalry of different academic fields, which I found highly enjoyable. We also get a great funny and sweet romance between Jack and Elsie. I found their slow friendship so fun and realistic and it built a great foundation for trust that allowed us to navigate away from the dreaded “miscommunication as a tool for angst” trope.
The character arcs were my favourite part of this. Elsie herself doesn’t transform too much throughout this novel so her story wasn’t as compelling in that sense. That would be why this was 4 stars and not 5 for me. I just felt like there was more room for her to admit to need of growth and there were only very small moments of realization for her. Jack, however, even though I seen him as a healthy well-adjusted character, had great growth in the atonement department. He’s a good person who can admit when he’s wrong but there was definitely room for growth in the ego department and his arc throughout this realization was fantastic. I also loved seeing how these characters relationships changed throughout their growth (not just the leads but side characters as well). I felt like this book dug a lot more into what it means to have a healthy support system to fall back on and what type of work it takes to maintain those healthy relationships on your own part which was an interesting take for a romance novel.
I really enjoyed this read, it felt unique from her other academia-based novels and I’m so glad I gave it a chance. If you’re on the fence about it, I’d encourage you to give it a chance as it just might surprise you (it definitely did me!). I’m giving this one 4 stars, it’s a wonderful read to lose yourself in for the summer.