To say that I was completely obsessed with the tumultuous relationship between the two main characters is an understatement!

It all started at an university mixer where Liz was speaking with a group of male students about Anime and they didn’t value her opinion or listen really and Tom Henderson came to ‘save’ Liz from the situation.

From there, there were many lows caused by both parts while trying to navigate a shift in family dynamics and to save an upcoming wedding.

Both characters had major flaws especially in what they considered to treat one another, with Tom especially presenting with narcissistic traits.

The writing style of the novel could have been better, with some parts being a simple recount of mental thought processes. I did enjoy this, but it could have been done better.

This was a funny quick read - if you love Ali Hazlewood this will be up your street. Smart, funny and a lot of fun.

Tom and Liz meet at a Ph.D. staff-student mixer and bond over dodgy mimosas and anime. There's an instant attraction, but when Tom becomes her assessor, he (incomprehensibly) decides to quell that by making her life hell. Four years later, they find themselves sharing a lab bench. And when Tom's mum and Liz's dad announce they're getting married, it grows harder for Liz and Tom to continue denying their attraction.

I was so excited to dive into this. It had the potential to be a really great enemies-to-lovers STEM romance. Their banter sometimes worked really well, and there was an obvious attraction (though it seemed to be about 95% physical for most of the book). Once they actually start talking, it was really enjoyable, however that took until the final third of what was a 400k+ word rom-com. There are some well-drawn supporting characters, and I actually loved the plot surrounding their parents. I also enjoy anime, so those references were fun. Perhaps my biggest concern was the central male character. Tom, is a walking, talking 🚩 for a lot of the story. Going into Liz's phone? Creeping on her dates? Essentially being a d¡ck for 4 years simply because he fancies her? Entering her hotel room without even knocking? None of it was acceptable. The only thing that made mecontinue was that he at least expressed remorse. Both Liz and Tom acted like teenagers at times, and the story meanders through several sexual scenarios with dubious consent, without either character properly addressing their feelings, and definitely not anything more than sexual attraction until well into the latter half. Miscommunication or rather total lack of communication is the order of the day, and I applauded Liz's friend Chloë when she finally called Liz out on exactly this, relieved it wasn't just me who was so frustrated.

There are enough coincidences and romance tropes in this book to make you dizzy. It's like the author threw them all in to see which would work and then just decided to leave them all in regardless. Some worked really well, but because there are so many, we end up with most of them not really going anywhere. Rather like the title, the story is ultimately unbalanced, which is such a shame as it had so much potential.

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Emotional Rating: 😬😡🤦🏻‍♀️🤔🙈😂🙄😊

I thoroughly enjoyed this scientific romance, the chemistry was amazing between the main characters,
Laughed out loud in places and kept me on my toes in others!
Would recommend this for some fun Summer reading.

This was a fantastic read! If I could give it more than 5 stars I would! The relationship between the main characters was perfect. I would read so many things by this author!

Big thank you to Netgalley for providing me an advanced review copy (ARC). All opinions are my own.

Set in Glasgow, Scotland, The Unbalanced Equation is an enemies-to-lovers story following postgrad student Liz working alongside her previous hellish PhD assessor Tom. This is a spicy age-gap romance and dual-pov.

I enjoyed this book and gave it three stars. I felt like the two main leads had a lot of chemistry. They bond over watching anime which was cute to read. The characters are both flawed, but they also own up to their mistakes. Another detail I appreciated in the book is Liz’s confidence in her appearance. In most romances, the main woman is self-conscious and critical of herself; Liz’s attitude in this book was a breath of fresh air. I also enjoyed how the characters discuss not wanting to have children and following the traditional path of marriage. This is something that should be more normalized.

If you like STEM-themed romance books, such as The Love Hypothesis, you will enjoy this one. Liz is a postgrad student working on a chemistry project and there are multiple scenes of her working in the lab. The author has a PhD in molecular genetics, and you can tell that these scenes feel genuine and well-researched.

However, I found a lot of Liz and Tom’s relationship was built on their physical connection (this stood out to me particularly in the opening scene—it seemed Tom only had one thing on his mind). I prefer stories that don’t focus on this as much. Plus, towards the end of the story, the book dragged for me. It is over 400 pages, so I found the pacing to be slow at times.

Overall though, if you are interested in an enemies-to-lovers STEM romance, I would recommend The Unbalanced Equation.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶🌶🌶🌶

Thank you to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Where to begin.... I had a hard time getting into the beginning of this book. Once the parents announced the engagement, the momentum picked up as did my interest. First , I love banter. I love enemies to lovers. I DONT love miscommunication. Granted it seems to come with the territory in romance novels especially when it comes to enemies to lovers. But the miscommunication between these two is from start to nearly finish. Even the parents point it out and they still couldn't get it together.
While the steam was top notch for me, nothing too cringe or overly kinky that is just gross, these two both made horrible decisions that overshadowed the steam. I gave this one a 3 star because of all of the revenge and manipulation. Liz goes to some dirty levels with her revenge (ahem... halloween) and Tom literally derails her personal life (her flat searching and Tinder). To me the lengths they each went to were over the top and unnecessary. Overall, if you look past the red flags and miscommunication, it was an up-and-down ride and a unique plot.

The Unbalanced Equation has a few troupes happening with enemies to lovers and forced proximity along with an age gap. The characters are interesting and while it starts as like at first sight between Tom and Liz, circumstances make it into hate for 4 years. Things start to change with a lab fire force them to work in the same lab and then finding out their parents are getting married throws a whole new craziness to the mix. I enjoyed the science int he story along with the romance and it was a quick read.

Holy flawed characters!!! I was hooked from start to finish. I enjoyed the conflict between Liz and Tom. I thought the story flowed easily. The dialogue was believable, and the chemistry between the two was hot. I really enjoyed the side characters and plot.

Not “quite” a second chance romance, but it has that feeling! I really enjoyed this story set in academia, especially so because it takes place in Scotland. I could picture the locations as I read. The steam took a while to build but was totally worth it. I have already recommended this book to my audience and I only finished it last night.

Fun romance for those that love contemporary, modern romance. The story follows Liz and Tom, as they meet again 4 years after their initial meeting. I enjoyed the witty banter and chemistry between Liz and Tom.

It was entertaining to read this account set in academic research, seemingly by an author who knows that world well - I did love the characters and storyline and enjoyed it. Definite feel good read.

There were a couple of jarring words/moments that I thought had been added unnecessarily to sex it up a little that didn't seem to fit the characters other actions - but that is my only critique. I definitely enjoyed reading this.

*arc for review* the books starting off good but was it really necessary for their parents to be a “couple?” after that i just didn’t seem so interested after. there was many different ways it could have been written if you wanted the forced proximity trope. the step siblings isn’t really my cup of tea.

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ARC provided by BooksGoSocial.

What do a bad landlord, a family wedding and a rogue Bunsen burner all have in common? After suffering four years of scrutiny from her PhD assessor, Elizabeth Maclean believes she is finally free of Dr. Thomas (Tom) Henderson’s tyranny when she begins her postdoc. But when a fire goes off in Tom’s lab he ends up working in the same lab as Liz. On the same bench, no less. For three whole months.

To make matters worse Tom’s mom and Liz’s dad announce their impending marriage after a whirlwind romance. So when Liz’s landlord tells her to move out, pronto, it tips her over the edge. Desperate for a place to stay and in need of a saviour, the last person Liz expects to offer her a temporary home is Tom himself. Now stuck working together, living together and planning their parents’ Christmas wedding together, will Liz discover that Tom’s attitude over the last four years was all a ruse to hide his true feelings? Or are the two doomed to fail in their co-existence experiment?

I'm having trouble trying to decide how I feel about this book. I mean, on one hand, it kept my attention and I definitely wanted to see how the book would end, But on the other hand, I found both Tom and Liz unlikable. As the plot progressed, I hated Tom more and more. It is one thing to make mistakes, but I feel like Tom was being manipulative and all around toxic. I will say that they at least figured out they were jerks, not only to each other but to other people. The side trope of step-siblings forced proximity was not that bad, but the thing that put me off was the whole soon to be step-siblings thing. It might just be me, but knowing that I'm catching feelings for essentially a brother would be very weird and a little bit creepy for me However, the miscommunication troupe is not my favourite troupe and just had too much of it in the book. A simple explanation from Tom as to why they couldn't date after he became her advisor could of sufficed. The writing in the book was so well done too. Overall, this book was average. The red flags in our protagonists really just threw me off.

Rating: 2.5/5

The Unbalanced Equation is the perfect tale for those imperfect, humane love stories. It makes us fall in love with all the things we never value, and appreciate the ingenious attractiveness of STEM and specially female representation in said department. The author wrote intelligently, brilliantly and kindly this novel, and it shows.

the book is an enemies to lovers romance between liz and her previous PHD assessor that made her PHD journey hell, with several circumstances Tom and liz end up working in the same lab again and living in the same house.
I actually enjoyed most of the book in terms of the tension and romance between the characters and I loved that the book is in dual POV, (spoiler alert) however the whole plot with their parents dating made it weird for me.
Also, I feel like the book was too long and by 80% in I lost interest and started skimming through it.

I found this to be a bit of a slow starter for me but once it got going, I couldn’t stop reading! I love the banter-filled relationship of Liz and Tom, almost as much as I loved the spice! The real winners of the book however are Jenny and Jim!

If you felt a warm (& hot) embrace from The Love Hypothesis, The Unbalanced Equation by H.L. Macfarlane has the same vibes. The MC & Love Interest are both scientist and have an ex-professor agenda which plays into the story.

Liz & Tom had a connection from the moment they met, but when Tom discovers that Liz will be mentored by him, he switches his unforgivable grump ON for 4 years. Now that circumstances (or a cheeky best friend), aligns their paths, the undeniable chemistry returns between the two, even if their widowed parents are about to get hitched.

I whole-heartedly invested myself in this book. The first 70% of it was *CHEFS KISS*, but then it went on a steep slope where it just went full on cringe. The conflict was disappointing which led me to rate this book a 2/5 stars.

If you love a fluffy romance with killer spice, H.L. Macfarlane delivers.

The Unbalanced Equation H.L. Macfarlane

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

If you loved ‘The Love Hypothesis’ then you’ll love this book too! Another STEM inspired ‘he falls first’, ‘forced proximity’, ‘enemies to lovers’ romance 🫠

A story about Thomas and Elizabeth, two Scottish anime loving scientists that are forced to work in the same lab, on the same table - this would be perfectly fine if Tom didn’t treat Liz horribly whilst she was completing her studies. In addition to this they have found out that their parents are recently engaged so they are now all having to live together under the same roof 🙃

I loved this book! I found it to be such a quick easy read and it had me hooked from the very beginning. I thought it was just as good as Love Hypothesis ~ if not better ~ with about the same amount of spice, and I just want to read it again already 🫶

“The two of us were being equally reckless fools, playing a game of horny chicken until only one of reigned victorious.”

After drinking cheap mimosas at a departmental mixer Liz and Tom feel an instant attraction, however the following day Tom becomes her phD assessor stopping any chance of the two becoming involved.

Following the completion of her phD Liz believes she is finally free of Tom who has made every assessment a misery throughout her studies. But a series of events leads to the two being forever entwined in each other’s lives. Will Liz get over how she has been treated by Tom for the past four years? Will Tom ever admit to the reasons behind his poor decision-making?

All is answered in this enemies to lovers rom-com. With declarations of love from unexpected places and some torturous means of revenge this book will keep you on your toes.

I enjoyed reading both Liz and Toms character development as they both realise that the things coming in the way of their own happiness are themselves.

The supporting characters really add to the story helping to push the main characters to where they need to be.

We get some steamy scenes throughout the book including an extra steamy scene in the shower!