Audible Audio, 11:07:11
Narrated by: Brooke Bloomingdale
Release Date: August 23, 2022
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: August 23-25, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Audible
TW: Gun Violence, Seizures and other medical content, Panic Attacks (Fainting), Sexism, Misogyny, Mention of past infidelity but the characters make another appearance, Arachnid (A plush one but I still would have liked to have known before hand)
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary Romance, Women in STEM, Realistic Fiction, Academic Rivals to Lovers, AdultA STEMinist rom-com in which a scientist is forced to work on a project with her nemesis–with explosive results.
Like an avenging, purple-haired Jedi bringing balance to the mansplained universe, Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project–a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia–Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.
Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. And sure, he caught her in his powerfully corded arms like a romance novel hero when she accidentally damseled in distress on her first day in the lab. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school–archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.
Now, her equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and Bee finds her floundering career in somewhat of a pickle. Perhaps it’s her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas…devouring her with those eyes. And the possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?
*MY THOUGHTS*
I knew this book was going to give me some conflicted feelings. And I was 100% correct. Did I like this one better than her debut? Yes. But also why did this feel so familiar? Because like her novellas they all read the same. I liked it, but it still was just not what I wanted.
First things first, this book is one of the reasons why I don’t like people trying to convince you to read a book only by listing off the tropes. Because yes this is academic enemies to lovers, but all her books are also academic enemies to lovers and it makes them seem all the same. I really don’t think I would have minded it as much had all that attention had been called to it. Plus since I’m not an enemies to lovers fan, it just gets kind of exhausting that this seems to be the only thing she’s written. BUT I DO love the women in STEM angle, and I know that the things she’s going through (stereotypes and misogyny) are very much something she would run into. And then the whole plot of talking to someone but she didn’t know who it was…. That was in one of the novellas too. But I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me? Or maybe I’m not explaining it right? I don’t know. But I do know that it’s all starting to sound the same.
The actual plot of the story was really wild tho. But as someone that is not sciencey at all, it was definitely some interesting work. And even if they do all read the same, I DO like that they’re all about different types of sciences. And this one is about one that’s actually interesting to me because I know someone who is actually in this field of science. They’re not at NASA, but they work with people’s brains and things like that. It was really cool that I got to ask them questions and see was the info accurate. The ending that resulted from this plot was like 0 to 60 lol I was not expecting that. I did get the villain wrong, so that was another reason I thought it was ok. But it wasn’t exactly something that made me be like OMG because it was only the ending that had me glued to the pages. (To my headphones)
The romance was cute tho. I’m sure we all knew the twist at the end, but I really loved that part. *SPOILER IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE TWIST THEY HAD* I am a SUCKER for social media in romances so the DMs were cuteeeee *END SPOILER* But other than that, it wasn’t something that I’d write home about. Does that make sense? Like it was average. But I guess if you didn’t guess the thing, you could have been surprised and loved it? I know I’m not making sense if you haven’t read this, so I’ll stop lol
Another reviewer (a Bestie of mine, Amber at Du Livre) pointed out the narrator was new to her and they are to me as well. But I thought she did a really great job in talking about books and not mixing up or sounding weird on the sciencey talk. (That would be a real issue for me that I would actively worry about lol) She did a great job at keeping me interested and in the way she switched up for the characters.
This wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t bad. I liked it more than I thought I would tho. It’s not something I would tell anyone to read, but it’s also not something I would tell them not to read it either. It’s not a favorite, unless you mean out of the books that she did. Basically, this was just ok for me.
Overall, I give this
