Love, Theoretically follows Elsie, a theoretical physicist, and like many in early academia she’s struggling with money. To combat this, she’s got a side hustle: being paid to pose as a fake girlfriend. Elsie is incredibly good at molding herself to fit people’s preferences, so she’s great at this! 

All is well until during a very important job interview, she comes face to face with her fake boyfriend’s evil older brother. Jack Smith is a notorious experimental physicist, famously the enemy of all theoretical physicists. They are supposed to be sworn enemies because of their fields of study, but he’s pretty.   

Ali Hazewood is known for writing academia and Ph.D. based books, so it’s my fault for reading another one. This book is intended for smart, Ph.D. people. I am not the target audience for this book. As a normal Highschool girl, I wish the fake dating storyline was more involved in the story. It was a fun subplot that got overrun after the first few chapters.

This novel followed the enemies to lovers trope that I know and love. Ali Hazelwood books follow the same theme: Insecure weird quirky stem girl falls in love with a quiet enormous man in a position of power in academia. The love interest is unrealistically patient and nice, and always gargantuan. The dramatic height difference and age gap are a main plot point in the story. 

Honestly, I wasn’t very attached to Elsie or Jack. Their past trauma didn’t break my heart and I wasn’t filled with relief and joy when they inevitably got together at the end. Elsie is a people pleaser, and apparently never wants herself to find happiness because Jack declares his love for her for about 3 pages and she still doesn’t believe him.

This book is part of the Ali Hazelwood Cinematic Universe. Characters from her other books are referred to and make cameos. I love when authors do this because it shows that they really know their characters, even when writing from a different perspective. 

I read this book very quickly, as it was very entertaining and paced nicely. 

Love, theoretically was awarded a whooping 4.17 stars on goodreads, and a nominee for Best Romance (2023).

https://www.goodreads.com/joliedx2