Paperback, 352 pages
English language
Published Sept. 14, 2021 by Berkley.
As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding... six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the …
As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding... six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.
The book is nothing deep and the writing isn't anything special – but it's fun. Like a popcorn movie.
Content warning General spoilers
I really sped through this one (read it in two days), but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. It's a light read and a little too up my alley.
That aside, I will say first and foremost: this reads like fanfiction. I mean this in a pretty positive way, since I enjoy the tropes going on here. I also enjoy the perspective that the author has on academia, being an academic herself. Some jokes genuinely got a snicker out of me, and some bits about impostor syndrome and the ups and downs of a PhD program were a little bit too real.
I will say, how on the nose it was with fourth wall breaks and self-referential humor was a little annoying in some parts. The obliviousness of the main couple, while enjoyable most of the time, was also incredibly unbelievable. Even for fanfiction. I also felt like the ending really lacked gravitas because of how quickly Olive and Adam got back together. I would've liked to see more struggle there. I do also want to note that the characters are somewhat one-dimensional. This is definitely the largest drawback of the fact that it reads like fanfiction. (EDIT: this makes more sense now, see below) I feel like I barely understood Olive, and I understood even less of Adam. I would've liked more time spent with Olive and Adam overall, but honestly I'm not sure if this writing style or storyline would've been able to sustain much more plot without getting tedious.
Anyway, the tl;dr is that this book was perfectly servicable for my specific interests and I enjoyed it as a fellow academic.
EDIT: I was informed after writing this review that this was reylo fanfic. That connects a lot of dots. I'm not a fan of reylo, but it doesn't influence my opinion in any way in regards to this review.
Read this just to keep in track with the stuff my daughter reads. One of the kind of those books where you know who will be together from the first chapter. The background info and setting was a nice one though, thus 3 stars not 1. Academia and sexual harassment: educative stuff about not keeping quiet.
It was ok, but not particularly amazing.
Maybe I'm simply too old for the classic insecure-but-secretly-super-hot-and-smart heroine. I just couldn't really identify with the female protagonist in this story. But then I'm not working in an academic field, maybe being told and shown your worth less than your male counterparts all the time does this to you.
Still a reasonably good plot and indeed convincing characters (My favourite is Holden. I want a Holden-story next, please.)
I didn't know I liked contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia, and yeap, I do! This was fun and light-hearted! Just what I needed to get out of a sudden book slump at the end of the month. I empathized with the characters, their academic struggles, and their self-doubts. The romance was adorable, I just wanted a happy ending for all the characters!
I have a very low standart for books in a STEM setting: the lab work has to make sence!
And it does.
The romance is cute and everything (for eff sake, talk to each other!), but my heart was won with all the science.
This was adorable! I enjoyed myself very much.
It is sooo cute! Favourite CR read for this year by far :)
0 stars, totally not an amazing book, i did not screech a concerning amount of times into my pillow during this reading endeavor…
somebody sedate me
update:(i was actually having a high fever and extremely nauseous while reading this book to the point where i do not remember clearly what happens in it, soooo dubious rating)
Funny, sexy, spicy, nerdy, and wonderful. I love the women in STEM aspect, too.
I loved this book so much ♥️♥️♥️ I can’t articulate it yet.
