book review Archives - Page 2 of 6

Weather Girl Book Review: A Romantic Seattle Story

Oh, weather girl! Here is the review where I gush about the book, Weather Girl.

The Book:

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon cover, A blue background with a rain foreground, an umbrella hides two figures behind it, the only thing of the figures we can see is the feet and legs, one is wearing blue jeans and brown boots, the other is in a red dress and yellow boots with clouds, the title and author are written in blue — Weather Girl cover pulled from Goodreads

Title: Weather Girl

Author: Rachel Lynn Solomon

Published January 11th, 2022 by Berkley

Genre: Romance, Fiction, Adult

Pages: 330

“Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.

In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.

Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?” -Goodreads

Weather Girl Review:

This is one of my favorite books of 2022 thus far! It will be the easiest review I have written in a while because I have LOVED IT!

Weather Girl has everything I love: Washington, rain, spice, drama, and a scheme to get their bosses together!

I was born and raised in Washington state, so I was excited to pick this book up at The Strand, especially since I was so far from home. My least favorite thing is when books or movies have location plot holes, such as it takes X amount of hours to get somewhere when it really only takes X, or the two places the person lives and works are on literally the opposite end of the state. This book represented Washington so well! I even heard a mention of this itty bitty town called Darrington. A few friends from college live there and so I rushed to text them about their town being in a book.

The writing was so beautiful and stunning in the Weather Girl book. Romance book with this simple style of writing has been hard to come by that didn’t make me feel stupid in a month or two, like Heartstopper.

I loved the number of weather puns that Solomon sprinkled in. Sometimes I didn’t notice them, and then my brain had a “Hold on, what did that say?” moment and it was a good laugh. Some of them were glaringly corny but in the best way.

I devoured Weather Girl in a few days. This is largely related to the two main characters because they were so fun.

The protagonist, Ari, has depression, and she struggles with hiding that from her love interests and friends. She is frustrating at times, but in the end, she makes the right decisions. It was fun falling in love with her. I also went through a similar experience to her, a breakup, so when I opened the book we were at the same place in life.

Russel was amazing! He is one of my top love interests for the year. He is a “fat hero,” as I saw in many reviews. He is sexy and knows exactly what to say. He never does anything toxic or weird. He cares for his family and for Ari in ways I wish a man would care for me.

I love to see representation and this book served it. Both Ari, Russel, and many side characters, are Jewish. There is also talk about body image, stretch marks, and other things not normally mentioned in books. It is not all lean, mean bodies in this book.

I love everything about Weather Girl. The romance was exciting and fun. I have a new love for the rain. It was nice to see my home through this book while I was gone. This book should be read by anyone from Washington or looking for a cute, sweet romance. I hope you all liked my review of the book Weather Girl.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 5

Read my latest posts:

All My Love to This Book: All My Rage

The Book:

Tan background with purple and red writing saying All my rage and Sabaa Tahir
To filled in semi-circles overlap each other — All My Rage Cover pulled from Goodreads.com

Title: All My Rage

Author: Sabaa Tahir

Published March 1st 2022 by Razorbill

Genre: YA, Contemporary

Pages: 384

“Lahore, Pakistan. Then.
Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Cloud’s Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start.

Juniper, California. Now.
Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding.

Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah’s health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever.

When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.

From one of today’s most cherished and bestselling young adult authors comes a breathtaking novel of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness—one that’s both tragic and poignant in its tender ferocity.” –Goodreads

My Review:

I am loving the books that are showing incarceration as sometimes just a mistake. I like seeing “criminals” through a more positive lens. With books like Reminders of Him and Heart Bones, All My Rage joins these books showing sympathetic characters who made a bad decision and got arrested. It is positive for incarcerated people. It helps spread that perspective around.

Meeting these characters was an emotional ride. Noor had this mystique while being introduced as someone scorned by her best friend and her circumstances. Sal gave us little bits of his soul as we followed his journey after his mother’s death.

Each of these characters was flawed in the best way. Seeing these characters grow and change was awesome.

The story was mostly character-driven so there wasn’t a lot of plot points to cover. Usually, I see character-driven stories as kind of dull and boring, but maybe I haven’t been reading the right ones. This one was so good.

Tahir wove this intricate story about three people. I love the multiple POVs, especially one POV from Misbah who is not in the present timeline. Her story blended well with the story about her son and Noor.

I got love, loss, grief, pain, and most of all hope. It was amazing! It definitely was not Top Ten books other, but I still loved it.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4

For more from me check out my newest posts:

I Am A Broken Record: A Gail Carriger Novel Review

The Book:

Title: Blameless

Author: Gail Carriger

Series: Parasol Protectorate #3

Published September 1st, 2010 by Orbit

Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk, Romance

Pages: 355

“Quitting her husband’s house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season in the third book of the NYT bestselling Parasol Protectorate series.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London’s vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires — and they’re armed with pesto.
BLAMELESS is the third book of the Parasol Protectorate series: a comedy of manners set in Victorian London, full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.” –Goodreads

My Review:

After a heartbreaking, and utterly shocking, twist at the end of the second book, I almost was nervous to pick this up. I won’t go too much into it but Changeless had some crazy stuff happen at the end.

I was excited to see where Carriger went with this novel, and she served up a steaming plate of the best vegetarian meatloaf you have ever had. Doesn’t sound appealing? It does to me, so we are going with it.

I loved this book. I mean this is a moot point now since I always love her books. She cannot fail me.

The romance was like the last book, a little so-so but it did have a good tension aspect that carried over from the events of the last book.

We get to see so much more lore about preternatural and the supernatural set in this book. I love the worldbuilding and the new places she goes in this book. She is AMAZING!

I am keeping this short again because I have another review to do for this series right after and I just did one and they are all going to be the same!

Please read Gail Carriger, I will die on this hill. She is amazing and deserves all the love!

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4

Check out my latest posts here:

Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022

“Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” -That Artsy Reader Girl

This week’s theme:

Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
Demon in the Wood by Leigh Bardugo
Woman Without Shame by Sandra Cisneros
It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover
The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake
Wherever the Wind Takes Us by Kelly Harms
Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell
Whiteout by Dhonielle Clayton

Some of these sound so good! I have also already read We Deserve Monuments, so I hope everyone checks that out and checks out my blog that will come out on July 28th about that book.

I am excited to get some of my preorders like The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber. I will probably preorder/pick up these other books as soon as I can.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

My Policeman: A Book Review

The Book:

Title: My Policeman

Author: Bethan Roberts

Published August 3rd 2021 by Penguin Books (first published February 2nd 2012)

Genre: Fiction, Romance, LGBT

Pages: 304

“It is in 1950’s Brighton that Marion first catches sight of Tom. He teaches her to swim, gently guiding her through the water in the shadow of the city’s famous pier and Marion is smitten–determined her love alone will be enough for them both. A few years later near the Brighton Museum, Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted, and opens Tom’s eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world of art, travel, and beauty. Tom is their policeman, and in this age it is safer for him to marry Marion and meet Patrick in secret. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.

In this evocative portrait of midcentury England, Bethan Roberts reimagines the real life relationship the novelist E. M. Forster had with a policeman, Bob Buckingham, and his wife. My Policeman is a deeply heartfelt story of love’s passionate endurance, and the devastation wrought by a repressive society.” -Goodreads

My Review:

Did I read this book solely because of Harry Styles?

Yes.

Did I leave this book with so much more?

YES!

This book is going to be made into a movie and one of the main characters is being played by Harry Styles. It was a major factor (really the only factor) in me picking up this book.

It was fascinating. The writing was spectacular. The two character’s voices used were amazing. I love all three characters, Marion, Tom, and Patrick. They were all imperfect characters, which is apparently what I now enjoy.

Lots of reviews complain about the two gay characters being miserable the entire time. I have to agree that yes it would be nice to have less traumatic portrayals of the LGBTQIAS2+ people in media, especially books. I thought that this book seemed pretty historically accurate (at least according to very very limited research on my part) and was that not the point? To look at the lives of three people who make mistakes, and the woman who makes a really horrible mistake and wrecks the lives of others.

I don’t know. I am an ally to the community, so I really cannot make those judgements for the community.

I thought the mistakes and miserability of all three characters were amazing though. None of the characters left unharmed. I hated them all, except for maybe Patrick, he did not really do anything wrong. He was a victim of happenstance and Marion’s rash actions.

Getting away from the problems of the books, the book was beautifully written. It was poetic and touching. It highlighted a slice of life, and I felt so sympathetic to all the characters (in a sense). The writing is why I stay saying this book is good even with the controversy I said earlier.

I loved it, it was beautiful, please go read this book!

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 3.6

King’s Cage, Where I Wish The Beginning Was Better

The Book:

King's Cage cover pulled form Goodreads, Light blue backgorund in the middle fading into a darker blue gradient on the edges, A white crown dripping red and silver blood, King's cage in black letters with Victoria Averyard's name in white letter. All Will Burn written in white on the bottom, — King’s Cage cover pulled form Goodreads

Title: King’s Cage

Author: Victoria Aveyard

Series: Red Queen #3

Published February 7th 2017 by HarperTeen

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Pages: 528

“In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl’s spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?

Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother’s web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.

As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare’s heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.

When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.” –Goodreads

My Review:

*Contains minor spoilers to previous books soooooo dont read if you have not read the others*

AGH Victoria I want to love you so bad, but the beginnings of your books are soooo boring.

Red Queen was great. But the sequel and this book were oh so boring at the beginning.

Aveyard’s endings are awesome and action-packed, but it is taking me months to finish these books because of how much the books repeat the exact same thing. Glass Sword was not half as bad as this one.

But literally, nothing happened. Mare remains locked up for ages. The switch to the multiple POVs was cool, but not when it was Cameron’s point of view, only Evangeline’s. Cameron is supposed to show what’s going on while Mare isn’t there but honestly, her parts always made me put the book down cause she just doesn’t do anything.

But let me say the thing Aveyard does right is the TENSION. I have tried not to say anything like this because people will think I am crazy, but Maven and Mare could still be together in my opinion. I love Mare and Cal, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes I feel like I am going to get a plot twist about Maven and Mare.

The ending of the book was so worth it though.

It had action, climax, fighting, all the good stuff! When I finished this book I almost immediately jumped to the next book. I had to leave for my program a week later and I knew I wasn’t going to finish it. I will start it when I get back.

I hope the next book is not boring in the beginning because it is super long, and I am super nervous. I have to read Realm Breaker and Blade Breaker when I get back too. So I have a lot of Aveyard coming up. Stay tuned for that.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 3.5

(I also just found out you can do half stars on this!!!)

For more from me check out my newest posts:

What I Read This Week: Spring Break Edition03/28/2024
What I Read This Week03/17/2024
What I Read This Week03/09/2024
How Should You Read Throne of Glass Read?09/26/2023
My Most Anticipated New Releases08/09/2023

Loveless: A Book Review

The Book:

Title: Loveless

Author: Alice Oseman

Series: Osemanverse #10

Published July 9th 2020 by HarperCollins Children’s Books

Genre: Contemporary, YA, LGBTQIA+

Pages: 433

“It was all sinking in. I’d never had a crush on anyone. No boys, no girls, not a single person I had ever met. What did that mean?

Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush – but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she’s sure she’ll find her person one day.

As she starts university with her best friends, Pip and Jason, in a whole new town far from home, Georgia’s ready to find romance, and with her outgoing roommate on her side and a place in the Shakespeare Society, her ‘teenage dream’ is in sight.

But when her romance plan wreaks havoc amongst her friends, Georgia ends up in her own comedy of errors, and she starts to question why love seems so easy for other people but not for her. With new terms thrown at her – asexual, aromantic – Georgia is more uncertain about her feelings than ever.

Is she destined to remain loveless? Or has she been looking for the wrong thing all along?

This wise, warm and witty story of identity and self-acceptance sees Alice Oseman on towering form as Georgia and her friends discover that true love isn’t limited to romance” –Goodreads

My Review:

This is going to be the shortest review ever!! I am trying to avoid saying anything wrong and there is seemingly a lot of controversy about this book these days.

The story was cute. I liked the self-discovery we went on with Georgia. I liked seeing her friends’ lives through her eyes. I felt like I also learned about asexual/aromantic sexualities. I did not understand completely understand, but now I fully comprehend and respect the author for creating that understanding.

Oseman has a nice YA style writing. I definitely don’t think this is my favorite by them, (Heartstopper has my heart).

The main character of the book was so-so. I thought that the story was great, but sometimes the character just didn’t do anything. It seemed like we were exploring their sexuality, but that was it. We weren’t doing anything else with the main character. I don’t think that is wrong but I love it when characters have more. What I mean is Georgia had no interests that really drove her. Does that make sense?

I don’t think the book was bad, but I do not feel qualified to talk too much about it. It was mainly about sexuality, and I have seen mixed reviews about the representation in this book. Since it is the only thing this story really has (meaning there is no real plot), I don’t feel like I can say too much due to my lack of authority on this topic. Let me know what you think if you have read this book.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 3.5

Perfect ’80s Nostalgia Horror Piece: My Best Friend’s Exorcism

The Book:

My Best friend's exorcism cover
Designed as a VHS case with rainbow stripes on a black ground with a VHS sticker on the bottom. THe overlay picture is a collage in a 80s style art. Some of the pictures here include A blonde girl with red eyes wearing a cross necklace that is floating upside down, another blonde girl screaming as crows surround here, an owl flying past a picture of the moon, a shadow of some person across trees, two children rollerblading around some balloons, a girl swimming in a lake while two girls sit in a boat, a brick school building, and a clock tower with a person taking flight from it, all of these images are in counter clockwise order as read, — My Best Friend’s Exorcism Cover pulled from Goodreads.com

Title: My Best Friend’s Exorcism

Author: Grady Hendrix

Published July 11th, 2017 by Quirk Books (first published May 17th 2016)

Genre: Horror, Fiction, YA

Pages: 332

“The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act … different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby.

Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries — and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?” –Goodreads

My Review:

*This book touches on themes of self-harm, suicide, and sexual assault*

Like I said in my Roll for Initiative review, Stranger Things has become my personality recently. When walking around The Strand, I saw the cover of this beautiful book with its VHS design and ’80s-style art. I grabbed it and knew I had to take it home with me immediately.

I am going to preface this (because I am rather negative about the book) by saying that I loved this book. I am so happy I picked it up even though it will add extra weight to my suitcase when I leave New York.

While I do not read horror often, so I cannot give its horror aspects an expert review, I did think it did well.

It did have great horror scenes, but there was nothing that made me not be able to sleep at night. I might not have been able to fully immerse in the horror scenes or it just was not a thriller-type book.

Writing-wise the book was so-so. I thought some parts, especially near the end, there were great descriptions. We got some vivid characterization of the two main characters. But then sometimes, things were confusing and not fully explained. Hendrix did not tell us how certain characters got from point A to point B, especially with the side characters, Glee and Margaret.

The biggest flaw for me was the prologue/first chapter. The one thing about most horror/murder mystery books I have read (like You’re So Dead) is they spoil the ending in the first chapter. They show that they get through all of their struggles in the first chapter of this book. You know that nothing bad is really going to happen to the main character because she is sitting in her cushy office at the beginning of the story.

Also, when we get to the end, it does not loop back around to the first chapter, and it doesn’t really take about the exorcist dying like it says in the first chapter. (None of this is a spoiler btw because I am still talking about the FIRST chapter.)

The first chapter revealing the ending is such a buzzkill.

The last little bit I didn’t like was the use of outdated, politically incorrect language. I felt that many of the instances used could have been left out. None of the references were necessary to the storyline, like a super racist spirit day theme, and could have been left out. An ’80s timepiece can still be good without the use of racism, ableism, sexism, and many other things touched upon.

Now you might be thinking: Wow I really don’t want to read this book because Kat gave it such a bad review. NO! Read this book! I still loved it!

Yes, I hated the first chapter thing, and it took me out of the suspenseful moments because I knew the end goal. I was so happy with how it ended and I even cried.

I CRIED!!

If you are a reader of this blog, you know that means that I was so enamored by this book to actually cry. Despite the book having a major spoiler in the beginning and not having a spine-chilling plot (mostly because of the first chapter), I still loved it.

The whole book had this crazy tale of adventure and touched on friendship in a weird, but heartwarming way. Let me tell you that the last 150 pages were worth everything. It gained a whole extra star just for making me cry!

I loved it and I am sure you will too.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4

The Newest Graphic Novel About D&D: Roll for Initiative

The Book:

THe cover of Last Session VOlume 1 Roll for Initiative focuses on two characters, Cassandra and Lana, in their D&D alternate personas wth the other four character lined up in the background. All six of the character sit around a table on the bottom. — The Last Session Vol. 1: Roll for Initiative pulled from Goodreads

Title: The Last Session Vol. 1: Roll for Initiative

Author: Jasmine Walls

Illustrator: Dozerdraws

Series: The Last Session #1

Published on June 22, 2022, by Mad Cave Studios

Genre: Graphic Novels, Fantasy, LGBTQIA+

Pages: 136

“Roll for initiative! Jay, Lana, Drew, Walter, and Shen have played Dice & Deathtraps together since high school. Now, on the verge of graduating college and scattering, they’ve decided to finally complete their unfinished first campaign. But when Jay’s partner Cassandra joins as a new player, Lana’s afraid the party won’t ever finish their quest…” –Goodreads page

My Review:

Stranger Things has been the only thing on my mind recently, so when Roll for Initiative, a graphic novel about a group of friends playing D&D, popped up in my inbox this week, I was so excited.

I received a free copy of this graphic novel from a sweepstake I entered. Thankfully, Mad Cave Studios granted me access to read this arc. This graphic novel is out on June 22, 2022.

This was not a long novel, but I believe the story will continue since this is a Vol. 1. I would have preferred a bit more to read, but the shorter graphic novels are always fun and get my reading count up.

My most extensive critique of the story is that it probably should not have a sequel. The tale of these characters seems like it is over. There was absolutely nothing in the end that had a bit of suspense or openness. When I finished the story seemed over. There were no loose ends.

I would have preferred the book to have stopped in the middle of the conflict, like a few of the graphic novels I have read do. I don’t know if there is a reason some stories like Heartstopper do that and this one didn’t. It just left me not feeling the need to pick the next copy.

Another issue is there really was no time to develop the characters. Yes, we got little blotches of the character here and there, but we did not get to understand the characters. I will explain more in a second.

This novel does not center around one character. It centers around six characters, five of which who met in high school and began playing D&D together.

Lana is the character who is the most irritating. I feel like she would not have been as irritating if we got a bit more context of her character, I think that is one f those things that happen when books are shorter, we don’t know why she is the way that she is. It could have been something the creators could have tried to explain.

Drew is my favorite character. The illustrations of him make him seem so suave and charming. Who doesn’t love a barista? But, honestly, we don’t learn anything about him. We learn he has one struggle, that’s all. We don’t learn about his current projects, only his past writing projects.

Shen and Walter play more of a background duo. They do not have too much that makes them stand out, and the story does not focus on them too much. We get a bit of background, but it did not go to places that they reference in the present day of the story.

Jay and Cassandra are my two favorite people because I feel they were the most unproblematic of the group. Obviously, good characters have problems, but they seem to be at a point in their life where they can be themselves, and it is cool to see. I would love to get a background story of how they met and how Jay introduced Cassandra to D&D.

It was short and sweet to read, but I am left a bit unsatisfied. I would love for people to check this out and comment about their thoughts.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 3

The Love Hypothesis: A Review

The Book:

Title: The Love Hypothesis

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Published September 14th 2021 by Berkley Books

Genre: Romance, Comtemporary, Fiction

Pages: 352

“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.” –Goodreads

My Review:

I listened to this book over the course of two days and omg this was amazing.

Just like my review of One of Us Is Dead, I think this book uses modern-day speak without being super cliche and cringey.

The romance in this book was everything. I loved how there was not some big denial of feelings. The main character did not repeatedly say “I don’t like this man and I never will.” She realizes her crush and accepts it. I love the fake dating trope, but the whole not being truthful about your own feelings that run rampant in this genre gets on my nerves.

Adam Carlson was an amazing dream boyfriend. He is an academic. He is large and broody. He is rude to anyone but the girl, that is literally my favorite. And he has money!

The protagonist, Olive is sweet and charming. She is a good friend even though she goes about helping her friends in a weird fake dating your professor way.

I love how this book discusses some really important topics like the rampant sexism in academics, especially in STEM fields. There is a speech given by to Olive about how she is just a woman and must sleep with men to get higher in her field. This is a common thing in many fields. Men take advantage of women wanting to further themselves and force them into having sex with threats of blacklisting them. I was really impressed that Hazelwood bring this fact to light.

This book balanced everything so well. The science talk was not too much so that non-scientific readers would be confused, but the scene is still set. The romance was the main part of the story, but it didn’t override Olive’s life. She did not let her studies suffer because of her romance, which is something I always see and I hate.

I loved this book a lot. It was a really interesting and pleasing read. I wish I had more, but I am also happy with where the story left off.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4.5