Ratings12
Average rating4.5
Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain. 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 arrogant 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 he’s the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing 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?
Reviews with the most likes.
I really wished I liked this more than I did.
The start of the book felt endless. Elsie's thoughts were so jumbled up I got lost so many times. I ended up deciding it was best for my simple brain to just keep reading till it was over.
That was not the best start for me, honestly. Add this to the fact that I didn't connect much with the characters (which usually isn't a problem for me).
Either way, I kept reading because I am a sucker for science nerds romance, and i needed to know what would happen.
I don't think it was Ali's best novel to date, and that might be my inner IT girlie complaining about how much she hates physics and how hard they are to comprehend.
But right now I just want to make an official request to Alli for a male perspective book featuring Kirk and Cece, because I need it. I crave STEM themed books as if they were the air I need to breathe.
ps: not me complaining about Elsie's jumbled thoughts when I mostly do the same in my reviews 🤦🏼♀️ must be why i hated it 😂
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