Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

This is my first Ali Hazelwood read where the characters are human (shoutout to Bride, which was thoroughly enjoyable), and my second romance novel overall with a fully human cast. Human males, let’s be honest, are kind of a tough sell these days. I find I’d much rather fantasize about some winged, horned, furry blue alien vampire fae monster than a human male with both a capacity for empathy and the skill to elicit multiple orgasms in quick succession; considering neither exists, you might as well go all out. But maybe I’ve been missing out.

Synopsis without spoilers:

Our FMC is a wicked smart PhD-level scientist who lets anybody and everybody walk all over her and changes her personality to suit people because she feels like her authentic self might be rejected by them. Our MMC is also a wicked smart PhD scientist, but he does not let people walk all over him. In fact, he distances himself from people as a way to protect himself from getting hurt by them. She is pretending to date his brother, he is pretending he doesn’t want to steal her from his brother, shit gets complicated. And also very sexy. But also pretty sweet.

Every time I go to read a new romance author, there’s always that chance I’m gonna hate the way they write the spice; he’ll be too aggressive, she’ll be too passive, I’ll learn nothing about either during the interaction. Ali seems to be a very she-comes-first, enthusiastic consent, her-body-is-perfect-just-as-it-is kinda girl who incorporates character development into adult time, which I very much appreciate. Moving right along to her next novel thank you so much.