Captivating Catch-Up | Ali Hazelwood Edition

Love, Theoretically Published by Little Brown Books by Ali Hazelwood
Series: The Love Hypothesis
on June 13, 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Chick-Lit
Pages: 389
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram
Also by this author: The Love Hypothesis, Love on the Brain
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

ISBN: 1408725797
Rating:

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?

This was a book that I read in parts–I started right before I had my baby over the summer. And then I finished after she was born. And the beauty of it is that, though unplanned, the character’s first name is the name we picked for our baby. It made me even more invested for some reason.

Like all of the other books in this “series”, Love, Theoretically was such a delight! I absolutely love the way Hazelwood writes her heroines; they’re feisty, super-intelligent, witty, and most of the time have a level of sarcasm that makes me laugh.

Elsie was probably one of my favorites that she’s written. She had all the normal ingredients of a Hazelwood character, but she also possessed some serious loyalty–oftentimes to her own detriment.

The other thing I love about Hazelwood’s characters are her heroes. They’re usually full of morals, taciturn, endearing, and don’t always wear their emotions on their sleeves–for the heroines to see, anyway. Jack Smith was fantastic. I love the fact that you can just feel his yearning for Elsie throughout all of his actions.

The plot was exactly what I needed. There was never a time in this story where I was bored or irritated with the characters–and that speaks volumes.

Bride Published by Berkley by Ali Hazelwood
on February 6, 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Vampires, Romance
Pages: 416
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram
Also by this author: The Love Hypothesis, Love on the Brain
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

ISBN: 0593550404
Rating:

A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance.
Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again...
Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….
Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.

Another great read from Hazelwood, Bride was chock-full of the normal wittiness and intelligence. You can always tell that Ali Hazelwood is a well-educated individual in her writing–there’s always so many little snippets thrown in that showcase her brilliance–even in a book about vampires and werewolves.

And there was still the feisty, hilarious heroine with Misery–yes, Misery is the vampire bride’s name. She had some of the best insights. I loved her so much!

Lowe, true to form, was just as irresistible. He was one of those alphas who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders and also has such a mushy soft spot. I loved him the most, I think. And the little snippets we get of his point-of-view before every chapter added just the right amount of time in his head without giving the story over to him.

I sincerely hope that this will be a series of sorts and we’ll get more from these characters in the future.

 

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