The Book Wench

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?

I can’t lie, you guys. I may be an English and Language Arts girlie through and through but I was so excited to read one of the STEM romances that Hazelwood has become famous for. What I didn’t know is that they seem to be interconnected and I started not with the “first” one (they are standalone but feature characters from the other books so their could be spoilers) but the second one. Not very STEM OR English/LA of me. Should have done my research. To be honest, this one was available at the library and I snatched it up thinking it wouldn’t matter (in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t but, again, the fact that certain people are together in this book may ruin the whimsy of discovering the end result of other books, if that makes sense).

All that aside I seriously enjoyed Love, Theoretically farm more than I expected to (and I expected to enjoy it a lot, if that tells you anything). The characters were hilarious and engaging and I LOVED all the nerdy little references (even the love for Twilight which I admit I love ironically). As someone with Borderline Personality Disorder, I was really able to empathize with Elsie’s need to be the perfect person for everyone and the need to please even when inconvenient. I so badly need to learn to stand up for myself and be honest about who I am and what I want and so I felt a certain kinship with Elsie over it. Throw in the chronic illness and nerdy references and Hazelwood had me sold.

The writing was fresh and engaging, especially for a romance that would end up with a little spice. It felt natural and fun and nothing seemed forced or awkward to me. I truly enjoyed the experience and the adventure as I read through Elsie’s mind. I will not lie though…this book really made me reconsider becoming a professor myself. I wish I could do something that was more “research only” geared in the literary academic world. That WOULD be my dream whereas the idea of teaching already gave me anxiety and this book made it even worse. I’m sure that was not Hazelwood’s intention but it is what it is.

I loved the romance in this book. It was fun and fresh and of course filled with honesty and I just really enjoyed how the not-quite enemies became lovers (it’s not a secret or spoiler, they are kissing on the cover for goodness’s sake). I do kinda wish that we had gotten to explore Jack’s head a little bit but I was still overall incredibly happy and completely sucked in by the book.

It was a wonderful palate cleanser for my fantasy fatigue but also a fantastic and fun romance/STEM romance in its own right. This, and I am assuming the other STEM romances, is one you definitely do not want to miss if you like fun and flirty romances with a bit of spice and nerdiness. You literally could not go wrong here.