Number of stars: 3 of 5
Genre: Romance
Edition: Ebook
Synopsis taken from author’s website:
When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman’s carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.
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.
My review:
Funny!
I enjoyed the majority of this book and Hazelwood’s hilarious writing style. She writes people well and I would love to have Ahn and Malcolm as my friends in real life!
This would have been an easy 4 stars for me, were it not for the middle where the book dissolved into the trope “woe is me, I’d better lie to the man I love, I have no other choice”. There’s always a choice to tell the truth, even if it puts you a step backward in the relationship. I got downright angry reading those chapters.
Ugh. Could authors please stoooooop couples lying to each other in romance?