Isn't It Romantic?

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Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Published by Berkley on June 13, 2023
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Goodreads

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?

First, a song to set the mood: Are You With Me - Highnoon

I think Love, Theoretically has surpassed The Love Hypothesis as my new favorite Ali Hazelwood book.

When I first read the description of Love, Theoretically, I squealed with glee - the whole concept sounded so fun! This book definitely did not disappoint.

As is standard for Ali Hazelwood's work, this is a nerdy STEM romance - this time between two physicists of opposing disciplines - theorists and experimentalists. There are a lot of details on various parts of academia in this book, discussing topics like adjunct professorship, academic advisors, controversial interview practices, and more. It was really interesting to see how all these topics wove together in the story and how Elsie and the rest of the cast tackled those challenges.

Even with those more serious STEM topics, this book is chocked full of quirky details and romantic hijinks. I'm obsessed with Elsie and her love of cheese and Twilight movies - she really gets me. Elsie and her roommate, Cece, were totally roomie goals (well, except perhaps Elsie's contemptuous relationship with Cece's hedgehog).

What really made me love this story the most though was Elsie's personal journey. Elsie is a people pleaser who is extremely anxious in her relationships. I found a lot of the things Elsie struggled with to be really relatable, and it was incredibly satisfying to see how Jack helped pull her out of her shell and challenged her to be true to herself. I think this book falls a bit heavier on the character driven side compared to The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain, but the character development was so important and so intertwined in the romance - I was so invested in Elsie's growth and my heart absolutely broke for her as she was facing her fears throughout.

I absolutely loved every moment of Love, Theoretically - it was incredibly heartfelt and sweet while also filled with odd little details that made the whole thing a lot of fun. It was also so fun to see how Olive and Adam were doing in their little cameo. Ali Hazelwood delivered once again with a heartfelt, quirky, nerdy romance, and I can't wait for the next one!

*ARC PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER

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