Book Review: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Love, Theoretically was a 2023 book release by New York Times bestselling author, Ali Hazelwood. It’s the third book in the Love Hypothesis series.

Ali Hazelwood often draws on her experience as a scientist and includes elements of STEM subjects within her romance novels.

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Love Hypothesis Series: Book Three

Genre: Romance

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Buy: Amazon | Waterstones

Published: 2023

Plot

Elsie Hannaway leads a double life as a physics professor and a professional fake girlfriend. Things get complicated when she discovers Jack Smith, an annoyingly attractive experimental physicist and brother of a client, is on the hiring committee for her dream job at MIT.

Ready for a scholarly war, Elsie finds herself caught in unexpected moments with Jack. Will she finally test her guarded theories on love and let go of her carefully constructed personas?

Love, Theoretically Book Review

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fun mix of romance, humour and self-acceptance.

I really liked the two main characters, Jack and Elsie. Jack was swoon-worthy yet realistic. He wasn’t perfect and neither was Elsie, they were just real people trying to deal with real life emotions. Elsie’s character, with her Type One diabetes, brought a unique and authentic element to the story. It’s always refreshing to see diverse and well-represented characters in books, especially romance novels.

Elsie was so clearly intelligent but had such a lack of self esteem. I usually find it irritating when a female main character starts to talk about how undesirable they are despite clearly being beautiful, smart and funny. Massive eye roll. But given Elsie’s back story I could sympathise with her feelings of self doubt. She was so used to adapting her behaviour and personality to suit the person she was with.

I’ve got to admit, I love an enemies-to-lovers trope so this story was right up my alley! The chemistry between Elsie and Jack felt authentic and I really enjoyed the dialogue between them.

The book felt smart and witty and I really enjoyed the modern references. I know nothing about science but I really enjoy how Ali Hazelwood writes about physics and academia. While it’s not a topic that particularly interests me, I find it interesting as part of the wider story, especially as the author explores politics and misogyny in that world.