e-Audio, 12:33:50
Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
Release Date: June 13, 2023
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: June 3-5, 2023
Companion Novel
Source: PRH App
TW: Gaslighting, Sexism, Emotional Abuse, Misogyny, Death of a parent, Bullying, Medical Content
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Adult, Chronic Illness (Diabetes), Academic Rivals to LoversThe 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?
*MY THOUGHTS*
I always say I’m not going to read the next one but every time I always change my mind at the last minute. But this time I actually liked this one. Don’t get me wrong, it was the same story as all the others, but I think it was the diabetes rep and the narrator that I really liked. It definitely made me get more into the story.
When I say it was the same as her others, it most certainly was. All her books are about academics in STEM. Now while I love seeing women in STEM, I would most like to see something else from Hazelwood. (I’m really interested in trying to see what she’s going to do in this new YA she’s got coming out this fall…..) The other thing that was just the same was the freaking academic rivals to lovers. And just like, ARE THERE NO MORE STORYLINES?! At this point I don’t even have to read the synopsis anymore. At this point it seems lazy lol
The romance was cute enough tho. I was actually more sold on this one than the others tho. I think because I could immediately tell he was in love with her immediately. I knew from the beginning at the opening scene. It was just the way he looked at her. I thought I knew the twist that was going to happen, but I was wrong. It ended up being something completely different. I don’t know which was worse tho. Because what actually happened was terrible. I wanted to hug him. But also I just need to tell someone…. As someone who isn’t a fan of science, I just thought this entire argument was dumb lol But that’s just me. (The argument that I think was dumb was the whole article and the way these two huge branches of science were feuding each other. Like do y’all both not have to get PhDs? That’s not a small thing.)
Another reason I liked this a bit more I think was because I related to Elise so hard. I KNOW how it is to be a people pleaser. I do it all the time. I recognized it as soon as I realized she was doing it. I didn’t like that Jack called her out like that. Only because it was too close to someone calling me out lol But I do know it was something that she had to hear. Especially since she still didn’t believe it when he told her and she had to experience things on her own. And that pissed me off. Because we both knew she wouldn’t have believed him if he did tell her.
I also liked the diabetes rep. My mom is someone who has diabetes and I know the struggle she goes through all the time. She’s very stubborn and doesn’t like to change anything, so when she found out about it a couple years ago she wasn’t excited. She’s nowhere near as ontop of her meds as Elise is. Now I only have proximity to someone with diabetes, so take what I have with a grain of salt. But all in all everything in the books was something that I recognized in something my mom had done.
This one was different than the others and I enjoyed it so much more than the others. Mainly because it was something I related to. The things I didn’t enjoy were the things that were the same in all her other books. I just wish she would do something else. Could they be partners and be like friends to lovers or something? Anything without them being so dense that they are arguing over dumb things over and over.
Overall, I give this
