“Love, Theoretically”, Ali Hazelwood
Published June 13, 2023
The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.
Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.
Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?
“Have you considered that maybe you’re already the way I want you to be? That maybe there are no signals because nothing needs to be changed.”
Love, Theoretically is Ali once again proving she has the STEM romance formula down to an exact science—and somehow, it never gets old. This time we follow Elsie Hannaway, a theoretical physicist juggling adjunct jobs like a pro and fake-dating on the side to make ends meet (because of course Ali’s heroines are both brilliant and catastrophically overbooked and did we think The Love Hypothesis was the end of fake-dating?). Enter Jack Smith, a broody experimental physicist with a permanent side-eye for Elsie and a harboring a long game of personal revenge. And he just happens to be her fake boyfriend’s brother who also holds the key to her employment at MIT. Naturally, sparks fly, equations combust, and academic chaos ensues.
Elsie is a people-pleaser to the point of self-sabotage, which makes her growth feel all the more satisfying. She isn’t just a quirky STEM heroine—she’s an adjunct professor, hustling between multiple universities, teaching intro physics classes for meager pay, and living with the constant anxiety of job insecurity. I learn so much about the politics of academia from Ali’s books. And Ali doesn’t sugarcoat it either: the financial precarity, the lack of stability, and the exhausting workload of adjunct life all come across vividly. It’s rare to see romance tackle this reality, and it adds weight to Elsie’s character arc. She’s not just striving for love; she’s striving for professional legitimacy.
Then there’s the physics feud at the heart of the book: theoretical vs. experimental physics. Like I said, I learn a lot from Ali’s romance books. I didn’t even know there was a difference. Elsie, firmly in the theoretical camp, spends her career crafting elegant equations and models of the universe, while Jack represents the grounded, hands-on world of experimental physics. And both camps are like the Montagues and Capulets. Their rivalry isn’t just personal—it’s a microcosm of academic politics. Ali uses their debates to showcase how different branches of science see themselves (and each other), and how egos, funding, and prestige play into the struggle. The whole backdrop of faculty hires, tenure tracks, and interdepartmental drama adds another layer of tension, especially when Elsie realizes Jack has more power over her professional future than she’d like.
What’s so refreshing is how Ali makes academia not just window dressing, but an active force shaping the romance. I actually found this more intriguing than the romance (sometimes!) Elsie’s professional struggles mirror her personal ones. Jack, in contrast, is confident in his position and unafraid to speak bluntly. The academic setting heightens their conflict.
In short: Love, Theoretically is messy, hilarious, and adorably nerdy. Workplace drama, fake dating, and personal growth all rolled into one charming package. And of course, I annotated about half the book with sticky notes that just said “LOL” and “HOT.”
Content Warnings
Note: This is not an exhaustive list of content and trigger warnings.
chronic illness • sexism • gaslighting
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Owned: signed paperback