5⭐️/ 3🌶️ 

ALI HAZELWOOD! OH HOW I HAVE MISSED YOUR BEAUTIFUL WRITING, AMAZING CHARACTERS, HUMOR, AND MORE! Of course, I was highly anticipating this book! Anything Ali writes, you bet I’m going to read because, her stories bring me absolute joy and shots of serotonin to my soul! Now, I’m not a science girlie, nor was science my best subject in school, but whenever I read Ali’s books. I’m immediately fascinated by all the subject material she includes in her stories. Who knows, maybe in another life I might have been a S.T.E.M. girlie, but here’s to another fantastic story with a strong, intelligent woman going up against her academic rival, and along the way somehow finding love with the least likely person she ever imagined she’d end up with. 

When it comes to Ali Hazelwood’s stories, it’s easily no surprise that I’d fall in love with the characters as well as the plot, and this was exactly the case with Elise and Jack’s story. Elise was a recent P.h.D. graduate, an adjunct professor. Now, you’d think with being a professor, Elsie would be making decent money, but… that wasn’t the case especially being an adjunct professor. So, as a means to make more money Elsie was also a fake girlfriend for hire. Turns out being a fake girlfriend helped paid the bills, and with that additional income it helped Elsie along the way until she’d reach her goal of getting her dream job at MIT. When it came to the final rounds of interviews with fellow colleagues from MIT, Elsie thought she’d prepared herself for anything… that was until she came face to face with her favorite client’s older brother, Jack, who also happened to be one of the heads of his own department at MIT. With Elsie and Jack being opposing people in their academic careers, different views on physics, and the overall dislike of each other, this was such an interesting and fun take on academic rivals! OMG! SO FREAKING GOOD!

Another fantastic female lead written by Ali Hazelwood, and Elsie was not only incredibly intelligent, but equally humorous and sassy. Elsie was use to assessing the people around her, seeing how another person was in order to best portray herself in a way that suited the person in whichever situation she was in which, played nicely for her side job as a fake girlfriend. I really loved Elsie and how she was, I admired her drive and determination in order to get her dream job, as well as not backing down when it came to Jack. I found it interesting how Elsie was, specifically how she molded herself to be a certain way depending on the person she was interacting with. While Elsie was very much comfortable in her own skin, she also dealt with saying no to others such as, her family and trying to appease everyone. Elsie was a theoretical physicist and had garnered some well known fame within the physics community and I thought that was incredible for her! Along with her intellectual, Elsie was funny and it was clear through her perspective that she had a lot to say from the male dominated field she was in and her stance against Jack Smith-Turner.

As much as I was loving the whole academic rivals between Elsie and Jack, I was even more excited once things started to soften between them. For most of the beginning, it seemed like Elsie and Jack didn’t see eye to eye when it came to their own fields/ lives, but that actually wasn’t the whole case. As Elsie and Jack started to actually spend time together through the course of Elsie’s interviews, things were starting to change. I really loved the fact that Jack was able to see past all the ways that Elsie modified herself to be whatever kind of person others wanted, he recognized that she was a person unlike any he had ever met, and was truly impressed by her level of detail and intelligence when it came to theoretical physics. I also loved the fact that Jack revealed how he truly felt about Elsie when the whole time Elsie thought he didn’t like her, etc. 

As much as Elsie had originally been anti-Jack Smith-Turner anything, she slowly started to see that one, he was outrageously gorgeous and two, he wasn’t the enemy she had always thought he was. Slowly but surely these two academic rivals found a common ground and started to work together as opposed to be against one another, as well as finding out that things weren’t as they seemed like they had when they first met. 

OMG THE CAMEO IN THIS BOOK! YASSS! I’M SO HAPPY! MY PRECIOUS BABIES ARE BACK! Seeing Adam and Olive in this story was a happy welcome back to seeing them after a while! I also loved how Olive and Elsie quickly became friends as well as seeing Jack and Adam’s already close friendship from over the years. Needless to say, I might have to (more like want to!) do a re-read of, “The Love Hypothesis”! 

JACK SMITH! ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR ANOTHER FICTIONAL MAN WRITTEN BY ALI HAZELWOOD! WOO! Jack was not only a beautiful man, but his intelligence and protectiveness over Elsie was SO ATTRACTIVE! I loved the way Jack called out Elsie, never holding back, but also showing her that she should be honest with herself about everything and anything. Like most fictional men that Ali Hazelwood writes about, it was clear from the get-go that Jack was going to join the ranks of book boyfriends and absolutely loved every aspect of him. Also side note, for most of this men in the academic world, they’re fit as can be…maybe I should look into dating a physicist. Anyways, I also loved seeing the way Jack was so utterly obsessed and in love with Elsie! That man willingly watched, “Twilight” with Elsie (btw I LOVE the “Twilight” series), supported her, and showered her with love and affection. All in all, Jack was by all accounts a fantastic man that I wish was real so I could have him all to myself!

I’M IN LOVE! AND I CAN’T HELP IT! Ali Hazelwood has done it again, she brought to life a story filled with the political dynamics within academia, showcased academic rivals falling in love, strong characters, humor, fun references of, “Twilight”, swoon worthy romance, and SPICE! I genuinely was in love with every part of this story, I want to read it all over again! I admired Elsie and her determination, the years she put into her career finally came to a wonderful new chapter for her which she rightly deserved! I loved the character growth in Elsie and learning to vocalize her honesty which is a lesson we can all learn from. Jack was a phenomenal character as well and I loved seeing his own story alongside Elsie’s. Elsie and Jack had magical chemistry together and OMG THE SPICY SCENES! OMG! Jack and Elsie’s spicy scenes were *chef’s kiss, loved the commanding presence Jack had over Elsie, but more importantly the open communication Elsie and Jack had during their intimate moments was amazing! Another home run with this story, Elsie and Jack’s story came to a happy ending and I loved the epilogue! Overall, such a whirlwind fun story with lots of focus in the world of academia within physics which was so intriguing, Jack and Elsie were phenomenal and I love them dearly! ALI HAZELWOOD YOU PUT IN THE WORK IN THIS BOOK AND ONCE AGAIN I LOVE YOU AND YOUR STORIES!