Title: Love, Theoretically
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Series: N/A
Dates Read: 11 – 15/09/2024
Published Date: 13 June 2023
Genre: Romance
Pages: 389
Pace: Medium
Content Warnings (May contain spoilers)
Sexual content, Toxic relationship
Who is this for? Young Adults, Adults.
This book covers:
- Your life plan not always going the way you expect.
- Sometimes your trust being put in the wrong people.
- Found family, and toxic biological relationships.
Format/Disclosure: Library, paperback.
Rating: 4.5⭐
Review:
Elsie has loved theoretical physics as long as she remembers, and has also hated experimental physicist, Johnathan Smith-Turner, who wrote an inflammatory article many years ago, discrediting theoretical physics as a whole, as well as her beloved mentor. When Elsie has the opportunity of a lifetime to interview for a position at MIT, she jumps at it, but doesn’t expect one of the interviewers to be none other than.. Johnathan Smith-Turner. Elsie is faced with confronting the person who has ruined her career for her, but finds herself slowly falling for him. Is she able to face his past and what he believes or will it be the ruin of them?
This is my second Ali Hazelwood book, and although I haven’t read any others, there’s definitely a lot of similarities between this and The Love Hypothesis. We have the female main character, who is the damsel-in-distress type – she’s super smart/accomplished in her field, but working beneath where she should be, so she is struggling financially and is more vulnerable/dependant than she would be. Then we have the male main character/love interest who is instantly smitten with the female (Typically before they’ve even properly met, and he’ll stalk her online to find out as much as he can, without her knowing.. Which is.. questionable). She’ll not realise how much he’s attracted to her (Thinking he actually hates her), and even after he declares his love, she’ll still constantly doubt it. She’ll be inexperienced with sex, due to spending so much of her life ignoring men/relationships to pursue academia/work, so he’ll absolutely blow her mind sexually. She’ll also have a close female friend who is more like a sister to her, and maybe even a complicated backstory/family life. Did I just describe both The Love Hypothesis AND Love, Theoretically? Y E P. But, in saying that, I still really enjoyed this book.
Honestly, after summarising the tropes in this one (& The Love Hypothesis), there’s really not much more for me to say. Elsie is.. relatively well fleshed out – she’s a massive people-pleaser, and puts everybody else’s needs before her own (Relatable, ouch). Jack is the silent and stoic type, but he’s also no-bullshit. He won’t lie, he won’t hide his true feelings. He’s actually pretty decent. But, he’s also kinda patronising/condescending, which may be because he’s older or more confident or.. who knows. But, that definitely pops up a bit. Jack has an okay backstory, but it’s not really fleshed out. It would’ve been nice to see more of Millicent and the rest of the family to see how they all interact. We got a snippet of Millicent (who is brilliant), but then nothing more. It would’ve also been nice to see more of the trio (Elsie, Jack & Greg) together and interacting to see more of how Jack interacts with family members he actually likes.
I enjoyed that this is a slow burn – a lot of the book is them getting to know each other, and the actual sex scene/romance doesn’t happen until about 2/3 of the way through. It’s nice to see how Elsie changes with Jack, and then in other aspects of her life. She comes clean to those who she’s previously told tall tales to – admitting that she hadn’t been telling the truth, solely so they would like her more.
As I’ve said a million times, my main genre of choice is thrillers, so reading something light (where I know it’ll be a happy ending) is normally a nice brain detox, and this book was no different. Even with the predictability/similarities, I still enjoyed it. I’m going to check out more of Ali Hazelwood’s work, solely because I know how it’ll go and how nice it is to not read something so dark/mysterious for a change.