Oh. My. Gosh. I'm in love with this book. I started reading it as a joke, but I fell in love with the characters and the plot and literally just everything. This is the perfect book and will now be my permanent go-to for anytime I need a comfort read. My favorite part of this book by far was just the relationship between Jack and Elsie. Could it have gotten any better? No. It was that good. I love the way he is in love with her (he learned everything he possibly could about diabetes for her, for gods sake) and I love the way she learns to better herself for him. I love the way they talk to each other and the things that they do together to make the other person in the relationship happy. For real though, 10/10 read!!! I loved every second of it and it was such a great book. Please, please, please read this if you are looking for something uplifting and adorable <3

This is the third book I’ve read by this author & I really liked the STEM theme with a theoretical physicist FMC. There were 3 spicy chapters and nothing weird 😏🌶️. I thought it was a good mix of spice & storyline. The chemistry & rivalry of Elsie & Jack was cute & progressed nicely. It is a science heavy book so I love science so I enjoyed it! Note: I listened to the audiobook & the voice actors did well.

This is a great, fun romance read that says a ton about character and careers. I love when romances are also plot-driven, and with the excess (in a good way!) amount of physics concepts, university politics, and familial issues, this absolutely fits the bill. The main characters have electric chemistry, and the side characters are also all fully fleshed out and interesting. I actually teared up two or three times while reading this, even though it's not that dramatic of a plot, because I could just feel the emotion of the characters/ where they were coming from so much. I feel like I could relate to and learn a lot from Elsie.

A few low points for me personally were some of the wording that won't age well, some cheesy moments that seemed to lean a bit too much into the classic tropes of the genre instead of modern takes, and the epilogue. I'm not really into the trope of adding prologues and epilogues to romance novels, I'm not really sure where that came from and why it's so popular. But this prologue didn't add anything to the plot, and the epilogue was mildly confusing. I felt like maybe it was a callback to something within the book, but if it was, I had completely forgotten about the reference by the time I reached the epilogue. Also, what happened to Kyle?? And, I got annoyed by the idea that Elsie's brothers were fully grown adults acting like children, and the mother is okay with that, AND Elsie entertains it? Moments talking about her brothers fighting over some chick were just not convincing to me at all.

I don't factor audiobook performance into my overall review of a book, but I would give Thérèse Plummer 4/5⭐️. She did a fine performance, although her male voices came across as a bit odd, unlike some other female narrators I've heard.

Overall a fine read. Funny premise--both with the fake dating and the scientific community feud. Ali Hazelwood certainly has her types 😂 STEM academia petite woman + STEM academia large, marginally older man. I like how she makes a point to write adult characters who are inexperienced sexually and/or demisexual-coded. However, her portrayals are perhaps a bit too idealic; obviously romance is an idealic genre, but I like to see depictions of sex thats awkward, that doesn't lead to orgasms right away, etc.

My biggest gripe with their first sexual exchange, however, was that Elsie went in for a kiss, and Jack's response was "we're not gonna fuck." It made me think of that Leith Ross lyric, "oh you kissed me, just to kiss me, not to take me home." Like why could they not just kiss? Why would going in for a kiss = let's fuck right now immediately. It could've still led to sex, I just didn't like the implication that initiating a first kiss signals an initiate for sex. Something I liked about the scene was how it finally touched on how Jack's quasi-mind-reading/expecting her not to voice her wants wasn't always in her best interest i.e. he attempted to make her own decision for her, removing her agency.

All in all, it was exactly the romance fix I was craving. Though (well, idk if this is a caveat or not 😏), I had the thought while reading that these might be the most explicit sex scenes I've ever read in a book. So like, be forewarned lol. 

As an aside, I'd like to see a romance novel that inverts this traditional hetero dynamic (inexperienced anxious woman narrator + learned, self-assured male love interest). I'm sure this traditional route appeals to many readers, but doesn't it get tired for anyone else?

Such a cute romance. I loved the emotionality of this book. The development of both main characters but especially the first. The journey was sad but moving and hopeful. I loved how

Jack pushed her to grow, to be honest and herself. How he cared for her and making her feel wanted, loved, secure. That it was okay to want things for yourself,  to not mold yourself around other people's ideal. I love that he he helped her get out of that mindset. I also love the women supporting other women. How they won't bash each other. How even if they failed they want the other to succeed. I loved the subtle lgbtqia+ rep, like with the demisexual and aromantic and women couples. I felt seen. I loved her finally telling her mom to shove it and her mom ends up trying to be better which is nice. 

the main thing I disliked was

how hypocritical Jack was at the end, how he lied to her this whole time when he's been trying to get her to be completely honest yet not doing the same. But thats where we see some development from him. I like that he made it right in the science world though, both because of it being the right thing and overdue but also for her.