Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Posted June 12, 2023 in review Tags: 5 star, enemies to lovers

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Pages: 368

Genres: Contemporary Romance
Setting: Boston, MA
Source: ARC, NetGalley, Publisher/PR
Narrator: Therese Plummer
Also by this author: Bride

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?

I cannot tell you how much I loved Love, Theoretically! I am going to try, but it will be a lot of “Gah” and “Swoon”.

Elsie is a phenomenal heroine that I think will really click with a lot of readers. If you are a people pleaser, you will understand Elsie like she is your soul sister. She is so passionate about theoretical physics, but it isn’t paying the bills. So, she uses her ability to read people to be a fake girlfriend for hire. She can make just about anyone love her! Jack is the brother of one of her fake boyfriends and she cannot figure him out. At first, neither could I, but he sees through Elsie’s “con” and calls her out. Turns out, he is the man she has hated since middle school (by name only).

I adored Jack and Elsie together because Jack was so determined to get her to be honest. He really wanted to find out about HER-not what she thinks other people want from her. He manages to crack her shell and honestly, it had me in tears! I loved how he loved her. There are great supporting characters as well in George, Cece, and Greg. It is also humorous, in both actually funny ways and groanworthy puns! I loved that everyone in the story is intelligent and hardworking. Elsie and Jack are both brilliant and it is super sexy!

Bottom line: Love, Theoretically is one of my favorite read this year. I switched back and forth between the ebook and the audio. The audio is fantastic as well!