💭 What’s your favourite romance trope? 💕💘⁣
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It’s PUB DAY! 🥳 Run, don’t walk, if you’ve not already snagged your copy of LOVE THEORETICALLY // Ali Hazelwood out TODAY! Packed with loveable characters (incl. strong women in STEM 🙌🏻) it’s just a totally cute + addictive read.⁣
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I loved the hilarious banter, dynamics + chemistry between Elsie and Jack - enemies to lovers + fake dating tropes are just a favourite of mine, and this one has them both! It was executed f-l-a-w-l-e-s-s-l-y and gave me butterflies 🤩 for fans of THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS + LOVE ON THE BRAIN you won’t be disappointed (this one packs more heat too 🔥) ⁣Ps. Best enjoyed with a S’mores milkshake 😋⁣
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I really enjoyed this, I feel like Ali's writing style improves every time!
It does however follow the same story outline as her other books, but if you want a light-hearted predictable romance this hits the spot!

Hands down the absolute best thing Ali has written! I laughed, I cried and my heart was so full of love for these characters! I adore The Love Hypothesis but this blows it out of the water! There was actually squealing when Adam and Olive made a cameo. But this story- it’s witty and fun and OMG Elsie’s love of cheese speaks to my soul! Seriously this was so good- I resented life for pulling me away from reading.

I'm not entirely sure what Hazelwood does, but she takes a girl who reads fantasy and never, ever reads chick lit or romance, but when she picks up a Hazelwood novel she can't put it down! I quite literally devoured this book and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about the characters. The same thing happened with the love hypothesis. I would suggest it's magic, however, in this case it must be some form of science!

Elsie is a struggling adjunct, desperate for her big break in the field of theoretical physics. To make ends meet, she works as a fake girlfriend in the evenings. Her carefully crafted world is turned upside down when she attends a job interview for her ideal position, only to discover the older brother of one of her favourite clients has his own idea of who should get the job.

This is a really fun read. I love the quirky characters and enemies to lovers is just my go to favourite trope. I loved how Elsie battled with the world of academia, diabetes and an over bearing mother. I honestly didn't want this book to end. Do I get any of the STEM references? Not in the least and the jokes were way over my head, but it's still so accessible and absorbing. Another brilliant romance, realistic but it still pulls at your heartstings and makes you want your very own Jack.

I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for providing an arc in return for an honest review.

SO GOOD. Perfect romantic, addictive summer reading. Stayed up late and got up early to finish this, which considering I have two small children is the highest praise I can possibly give. Such a good time, swoon!

I was really excited for this arc as I loved the love hypothesis and when this book was being promoted it was going to be similar to this book but its more like love on the brain which I did not enjoy.

I think the problem I had was 3 things:
1. Charcters
2. Relationship
3. Plot

I had no interest in any of these characters. Jack is a giant with zero personality who's existence is to be the "enemy" but really he's not an enemy. There is so much depth we could have got of Jack but I feel like we don't get much of Jack's life/background etc till 2/3 into the book. Therefore how can I be interested in a character who has nothing to offer but to be a hot guy who's tall and broody.

Then we have Elsie who is as as annoying as Bea was but somehow worse as she is cringe and comes off as a womans woman but clearly would talk shit about woman behind their backs and be like guys are so much better to be friends with than women. That is the vibe I get from her. In addition, being a normal human being and adjusting your attitude to the situation e.g. helping to resolve conflict, comforting an upset person does not make you a people pleaser who cannot be yourself. These are normal interactions nice people do and nothing out of the blue but in this book we really fed that Elsie is soooooooooo different because she adjusts her personality/attitude to the situation. Is this just a way of saying that Elsie if she could would be a crappy human? I just couldn't care about her in this book.

The relationship is slow building and was just so boring to read as it takes ages for them to get along and start to build the relationship but lets face it there is no love its just lust cause he's oh so handsome. Gosh it was boring.

Finally the plot... or better to say what plot? Like it feels like there are many things going on, none which is focused or developed or dealt with in a good way. E.g. Elsie has a bad faith interview, Jack knows and somehow in the next scene she is visiting Jack's grandma's house with him (bare in mind she isn't fake dating Jack but his brother Greg). Honestly this was a hot mess of non structure. Oh but let's not forget the amount of pop culture references is a lot like in Love on the Brain.

I really loved the Love Hypothesis and really want another book like that but this was not it. I still have her Novella's and Check Mate to read. If they are good I will keep supporting and buying her books but if they are bad I think I need to stop trying.

Thank you @littlebrownbookgroup_uk for sending me an eARC of Love Theoretically by @alihazelwood to review! 📖

The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain set the bar high for this third book and I was not disappointed. Love Theoretically had the same perfect blend of romance, a little science (explained in simple terms), a look inside the world of academia, and fun side characters, while also being a fresh and exciting new story.

As this series of interconnected standalones goes on I think for sure the next one is my favourite then somehow Ali Hazelwood makes me fall in love with new characters all over again making it impossible to decide.

FMC Elsie is the ultimate people pleaser and watching her figure out who she was without shaping herself to make others more comfortable was such a fun journey of growth to see.

I thought the pacing was excellent! Each element of the story was introduced at the perfect time. There was a large cast of side characters and they all felt like well developed, real people.

Read for:
• Complicated, to enemies, to lovers relationship ❤️
• Main character and a side character who identify within the Ace spectrum 💜
• A supportive best friend with a pet hedgehog 🦔
• A window into issues within the world of academia 🧐
• Family drama
• Cameo of a previous book’s couple and mentions of the other previous FMC ✨
• Physics things
• Cheese appreciation 🧀

Reading Love Theoretically was a joyful experience! I was rooting for this couple and for Elsie’s career so hard. I would absolutely recommend this one, out 13th June in the UK. ☺️

Rating: 5/5🌟
Steam Level: 3.5/5🔥

This was probably one of my favorite of Hazelwoods so far. There was just a more realistic feeling with everything that was happening, Elsie is just so relatable and lovely, trying to survive in a world where not everything is perfect. Jack took a while to grow on me but I adored him by the end. I loved this one. Would recomment to any Hazelwood fan.

I really enjoyed this read, and thought it the most literary out of Hazelwood's three steminist novels. I really liked the characters, and appreciated the emphasis placed on academic politics and representation of mental and physical health. I really can't wait to see what Hazelwood writes next and have recommended this read to my followers on my bookstagram.

I'd also say that the...spicier...scenes in this book were the best out of all three, and the descriptions in general throughout the novel were brilliant.

I enjoyed most of this but I didn’t love it. I am wondering if I’m just tiring of the same tropes in these books and need something wildly different to make me really love it. I did think we got some great character growth from Elsie and at its core it’s a lovely story about being loved as your most authentic self. There were a number of lovely moments and I don’t think the spice was as cringey as others, (there were a few odd tense usages in the last quarter but this was an ARC so they all could have been edited and they have no effect on the overall rating). I just need more going forward i.e. not an “enemies to lovers but really he’s been in love with her the whole time and it’s wildly obvious to everyone but her” storyline. If you love Ali Hazelwood, you'll love this. If you have yet to read any, start with this one. If you disliked them in the past, I don't think this is going to be the one to change your mind.

3.5*-4*

Okay so I think this is my fave AH book yet and that's saying something because I was a goner for TLH!

Elsie Hannaway sees herself as medium. At everything. She's a people pleaser to an exteme! I loved her. More than life itself because she gives and she gives and she gives. I wanted to grab her up and cuddle her and protect her....and this is why I am a fan of old Jackie boy. Because he does in the most exquisite way!

'Easy peasy, photons squeezy.'

All I can say is you need to read this! You won't be disappointed, I guarantee it!

Talented theoretical physicist Elsie is desperate for a research position which would pay her a living wage, plus benefits such as health insurance (a diabetic, she's forced to pay full price for insulin). To her shock, one of the selection panel members is Jack Smith, the brother of a man she fake dates as a side hustle. Worst still, Jack is responsible for the downfall of her academic mentor, Dr L.

I loved this book. For me, the biggest strength of this book was the realistic picture Hazelwood paints of academia especially the academic politics and how this plays out. Having worked for three universities, none of what she writes could be accused of being exaggerated, if anything she's probably too kind!.

The heavy focus on academic culture grounded the book and provided a fantastic counter-balance to the smouldering love story playing out between Elsie and Jack. When I read a book set in a specific workplace I WANT that authenticity and detail and Hazelwood doesn't disappoint.

Like real-world non-tenured academic staff, Elsie is exploited labour, forced to work three casual jobs at different universities just to survive. As I write this, the National Tertiary Education Union here in Australia is fighting a lot of university Vice Chancellors over the increased casualisation of academic staff.

Additionally I loved how Hazelwood slowly unravelled the power differential and how many academic mentors can weld their power in exploitative ways through the sub plot with Elsie feeling indebted to her mentor Dr L, and his deliberate obliviousness to her struggles.

Elsie and Jack are vividly characterised and I found a lot of her struggles relatable. Elsie is a chameleon, knowing how to observe what a person would want from her and adjusts her personality so suit, much to the detriment of herself. I loved how Jack is the only person she can be 100% herself. Jack supports and guides her to not be a people-pleaser, and to just be herself.

While I enjoyed parts of her debut novel, I cringed at a lot of things (like the sitting on his lap in a lecture) and her past books have tended to be the same fan fiction that I find tired. Going into Love Theoretically I didn't didn't expect much. And boy it's so nice to be proven wrong, because I'd much rather read a book I enjoyed than be disappointed. I LOVED this (though Ali, come on, can we please move on from the same tired gendered body descriptions? All her heroes must be hulking, sculptured works of art, while her heroines are little.).

This book is sparkles with fire hot chemistry, witty banter between our lovely leads, along with an authentic academic setting that makes this book shine.

Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK, Sphere and NetGalley for the ARC.

this was 368 pages of ali hazelwood saying 'fuck academia' good for her!

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i really loved this one!!

ali hazelwood writes incredibly engaging romances that suck me in every time. even though i'm not honestly a huge fan of the dislike to lovers trope, she makes me care for the characters and creates real reasons for the dislike (that aren't irredeemable either—she perfectly toes that line) that make me root for the relationship. i really love the focus on (the problems in) academia in all of her work, but felt that it especially shone here. i also appreciated the explorations of mental health and therapy and loved that elsie wasn't magically "fixed" by the end, but rather was on the right track with a long journey ahead.

one thing i did pick up on is that throughout the beginning of the book, there are hints that our main character may be somewhere on the asexual spectrum (we love). however, i noticed that once she and jack hooked up for the first time, these references stopped completely. i worry that there is a slight narrative here of 'a good shag will make you "normal" / you just haven't found the right person yet' and would have appreciated a later comment about her sexuality—nothing huge but enough to defy this narrative. i believe the same thing happened in the love hypothesis and feel that this could have been a good way to avoid falling into the same trap of hinting at representation without confirming anything, and in fact potentially employing a harmful trope.

I absolutely gobbled this up. I adored the love hypothesis, and liked love on the brain but this might have over taken them both??

‘Love Theoretically’ is the third novel by Ali Hazelwood which follows our main protagonist, Elsie.

She's a theoretical physicist and graduate, but is currently stuck doing multiple teaching gigs which doesn't pay well and leaves her no time to do her own research. Despite her glowing recommendations, field of study, and publications, no one wants to hire her.

She largely blames this on a controversial paper which was published almost 10 years ago, which caused the academic community to lose faith in theoretical physicists and their work, and in turn favouring experimental physicists.

In order to earn some money, she is also a ‘girlfriend for hire’ and is able to adapt her entire personality to fit her clients, including fake background, jobs, how they met etc. However, in doing so, she struggles to be the ‘real Elsie’ around her friends and family. She barely even knows who the ‘real Elsie’ is anymore.

She has fortunately landed an interview with MIT for a new position that's open, which would solve all her problems (both financially and academically)...until she realises one of the staff who will be involved in her interviews is not only the brother of the guy she is currently ‘fake dating’, but also wrote the paper that screwed over her entire field of study.

‘Love Theoretically’ follows much the same pattern of other Ali Hazelwood books; smart female MC who, while a total boss babe in their field of study, lacks total confidence in herself (in this case, Elsie is a complete push over and people pleaser who can't even tell her best friend she doesn't enjoy the same movies) and hasn't had a good romantic relationship before (or even good sex)....until *enter male love interest*.

The male love interest is also a boss babe in their academic field, is physically huge, handsome, looks like they work out (but they don't really), is really good at sex, fell in love with the female MC first, and just really wants to take care of the female MC in every possible way.

Yeah, it's repetitive. But if you don't mind all that (Ali Hazelwood is clearly filling a much needed niche here) and are willing to look past it - this book was really enjoyable.

I liked the stakes with the job interview process and the interactions with Jack and Elsie. The ‘fake girlfriend for hire’ was an interesting plot point, although I wished there were more instances of Elsie doing her ‘job’ throughout the book rather than just at the start or just mentioning previous gigs.

I really liked how Ali Hazelwood gave Elsie diabetes (using insulin pods) and made sure it wasn't mentioned then forgotten; from casually noting Elsie checking the app that controls the pod, to checking the food/drinks packaging she's having so she doesn't go over/under.

My main complaint is I wish there were more interactions with Elsie and her family, and more of an explanation into their dynamic. We know she feels indebted to them and feels it’s her fault she got diabetes when they couldn’t really afford it - but it's not really explained when the ‘third parent’ dynamic actually happened? Why is she expected to play peace keeper between her brothers? Is it because she's the only girl? Is she the only one they listen to? Did her parents expect her to be traditionally feminine and get married and stay at home, hence why they don't understand her getting a degree and what she actually does?

All in all, I demolished this book within a day. I couldn't put it down. 4.5 stars

[This review is based on NetGalley ARC provided in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion]

I had so many thoughts while reading this book, and most of them were some variation of me swooning. Honestly, I loved these characters so much!

I related Elsie so much and it made me all the more invested in her and Jack's story. And honestly, even though I wasn't so sure about Jack at the start, he really grew on me. I think he's by far my favourite MMC that Ali Hazelwood has written.

I've already ready this twice since being approved for the ARC, and I loved it just the same the second time round.

Thank you to the publisher for kindly providing me with an ARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

"Light could be two different things at once, depending on what others wanted to see: a particle and a wave..."
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Elsie is an adjunct professor by day but by night she toils as a fake girlfriend for those who require her people pleasing services. But when she applies for an academic position one of the hiring committee at MIT is none other than Jack Smith, the brother of one of her fake dates. He has been given a carefully constructed version of Elsie and now her lies are catching up to her. But can these two physicists deny the heat between them?
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"I want you, Elsie. All the time. I think of you. All. The. Fucking. Time..."
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Ali Hazelwood has figured out the magic formula for writing hilarious, can't-put-me-down Rom-Coms with substance. Honestly, I just get so sucked in when reading her books. Jack and Elsie were no different - I could relate so much to Elsie's people pleasing mannerisms and I was obsessed with how much Jack loved her, even before she realised. Ali Hazelwood's love interests have no flaws, like they are perfect specimens! The humour and the jokes are always funny and I find myself rereading paragraphs just to hit the punchline again. Y'all gunna go wild for these two physicists. Chefs kiss!
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"Jack knows all of this, and he loves me. Not anyway, but because..."

Ali Hazelwood has quickly become an auto-buy author for me and she’s smashed it out of the park once again!

Love Theoretically follows Elsie, an adjunct professor by day and professional fake-girlfriend by night. When her current client’s older brother turns out to be the man who destroyed her mentor’s career, her carefully constructed world begins to shift.

I loved the Elsie and Jack’s relationship and it was so much fun getting stuck into their world. and watching their relationship grow. As usual, the spice was top-tier and I really loved the references to other characters in the Ali Hazelwood-verse, it felt like meeting up with old friends.

Thank you NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book! I didn’t want to put it down!

“The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she's an adjunct professor, By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend,”

All the characters in this book were fantastic and I honestly loved the one sided enemies to loves plot. I loved the dynamic between Elsie and Jack, I felt that they both felt flawed and real which really helped to like & root for them.

I also really enjoyed the little call back to her other books, linking the characters together. Plus the cameo of Olive & Adam!! Perfection!

I would definitely recommend this!!

Thanks @netgalley for a copy of this book I’m exchange for my honest review

Rating: 4.5

I absolutely devoured this story, my favourite of Hazelwood’s novels to date!

This story follows Elsie, a physicist looking to move on from her adjunct position and land a more secure role at MIT, but the man who wrote a hoax physics paper that undermined her entire discipline 15 years prior, and also happens to be the brother of the guy she is fake dating on the side, stands in her way and is on the interview panel. Chaos then ensues!

Overall my favourite part of this story was the character growth, you felt it in leaps and bounds and it was delightful. Elsie’s growth and inner turmoil was heart breaking, frustrating and relatable. this story had so much heart it was bursting at the seams! Jack really went on a journey as well and righted some wrong from the past, and he was also so in love with Elsie it made my heart melt!

Sadly it didn’t give me that 5 star feeling, I think the central conflict (other than the academic rivals plot which I thought was executed well) could have been improved. It left a little to be desired in the build up and I wanted a little more backstory than the conflict gave me.

However I would highly highly recommend this, especially if you are looking for a story centred on woman in STEM, academic rivals to lovers, he falls first (😍), and with some spice too!