Elsie is scraping to make ends meet as an adjunct professor. With no health insurance, mounting student loan debt and type 1 diabetes. She has started working as a fake dater, where she is hired to be a date for people. She has an opportunity for a tenure position but struggles when her nemesis, Jack Smith, is on the hiring committee. Not only that, but he is the brother of one of the people she has been fake dating, and he thinks she is a complete fraud. She is ready for war, but as she gets to know him, he is a kind, gentle person and she can be her true self when she is with him. 

Ali Hazelwood crafted an amazing character in Elsie. She is a people please and someone we can all relate to on some level. She struggles to be herself and I loved that Jack brought this out in her. I loved that we were able to see that Jack was clearly into Elsie, but she struggled to understand these cues and didn't trust herself with her feelings. The banter and tension between these two were delicious. There are sparks when these two come together. 

The rep of both T1D and the aro/ace spectrum was wonderful and done in a way that wasn't lecturing. Of course, this was a STEM book, and looks at the struggle of women working in a male-dominated field.  

read if you like: enemies to lovers, rivals to lovers, fake dating, pining