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A STEM love story! Read an exclusive excerpt of Ali Hazelwood's next novel, Love, Theoretically

We've got a juicy taste of Ali Hazelwood's STEMinist rom-com.

Enemies-to-lovers, but with a STEM spin!

Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, is back with a new STEMinist love story, following Elsie Hannaway and Jack Smith-Turner. Read the official synopsis and an exclusive excerpt below!

The Love Hypothesis synopsis

"It's a rivalry as old as time: theoretical versus experimental physicists. Elsie Hannaway is firmly in the camp of theoretical physics—an adjunct professor by day, she toils long and hard to teach students about the laws of thermodynamics in hopes of landing tenure. But to make ends meet, Elsie takes on another role in her (very) limited spare time: fake girlfriend. In this career, Elsie can pretend to be anyone her client needs her to be… and while she's not supposed to go on more than one date with a guy, she develops a soft spot for one who really needs her help in front of his family. What could possibly go wrong?

"Here is what can go wrong: her client has an older brother. A very hot older brother. And, on an interview for her dream tenure-track position in MIT's physics department, Elsie learns that said older brother is a member of the hiring committee. And he also just so happens to be the very same experimental physicist who ruined her mentor's career and is the reason why the entire science field views theoretical physicists as wastes of space. Did we mention that he happens to be terribly sexy? And he thinks that Elsie is a librarian who has been dating his brother?

"Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage when her physics nemesis realizes that Elsie isn't who she had claimed to be. 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?"

Ali Hazelwood's Love, Theoretically hits stores June 13, 2023, but EW has an exclusive sneak peek below.

The Love Hypothesis excerpt

From Chapter 3

"Calm down," Jack murmurs against the shell of my ear, like he knows that I'm on the verge of popping an aneurysm."

"They're from the MIT table," I whisper under my breath.

"Shh." His giant paws tighten around my waist, as if to contain me and my panic. They span my waist. Our size difference sits somewhere between absurd and obscene. "Settle down."

I feel dizzy. "Why am I standing on the toilet?"

"I figured you'd rather Dr. Pereira and Dr. Crowley keep on chatting about superpolynomial speedups and not see your heels under the stall. Was I wrong?"

I close my eyes, mortified. This is not my life. I'm a discerning scientist with insightful opinions onspintronic tech, not this blighted creature clinging to Jonathan Smith-Turner's shoulders on top of alatrine.

Oh, who am I kidding? This is exactly my brand. Improbable. Cringeworthy. Botched.

"Settle down," Jack repeats, gruffly reassuring. We're way too close. I want his breath to be garlic and sauerkraut, but it's vaguely minty and pleasantly warm. I want his skin to smell ridiculous, like mango tanning mousse, but all my nose picks up on is good, clean, nice . I want his grip to be creepy and knee-in-the-groin worthy, but it's just what I need to avoid slipping in the toilet. Argh. "Stop fidgeting."

"I'm not—" Pereira and Crowley are still talking physics— can't believe all the fuss with the quantum Hadamard transform —with the added background of a stream trickling. Oh God, they're peeing. I'm eavesdropping on one of the world's foremost solar neutrinos scholars peeing . I can't comeback from this, can I?

"Elsie." Jack's lips graze my cheekbone. "Calm down. They'll leave as soon as they're done, andyou can go back to the table. Laugh at Volkov's puns till he votes for you. Tell a few more lies."

"I'm not lying. " I pull back, and our eyes are at the same level. The slice of blue in the deep brown is icy, weird, beautiful. "I can't explain, but this is . . . not the way you think it is. It's . . . different."

"From what?"

"From the way you think it is."

He nods. Our noses nearly brush together. "That was remarkably articulate."

I roll my eyes.

"Monica will love to hear about your secret librarian identity—"

"No!" I barely keep my voice down. " Please , just call Greg before you talk to Monica. He'll explain."

"Convenient, given that I can't get in touch with him while he's on his retreat, and he won't be backuntil your interview is over."

Crap. S---. I'd forgotten about Woodacre. "There must be a way to reach him. Can you tell him it's an emergency? That, um, he left his porch light on? You need his alarm code to go turn it off. Save the environment."

"No."

"Please. At least—""No."

"You're being absolutely unreasonable . All I ask is that you—"

"—you think about the girl? Hannaway, right?" one of the urinal voices asks. We both still and instantly tune in.

A mistake, clearly.

"CV's real good. Her two-dimensional liquid crystals theories . . . good stuff."

"I remember reading her stuff last year. I was very impressed. Had no idea she was that junior."

"Right? Makes you wonder how much of it is her mentor's." A vague hum of agreement that has my hands tightening around the balls of Jack's shoulders. None , I want to scream. It was my model . "She's young and beautiful. Which means that she'll get pregnant in a couple of years, and we'll have to teach her courses."

It's like a punch in the sternum, to the point that I almost slip butt-first into the toilet. Jack stops me with a hand between my shoulder blades, arm contracting around my waist. He's frowning like he's as disgusted as I am. Though he's not. He can't be, because Pereira, or maybe Crowley, adds:

"Doesn't matter. I'm voting for Jack's candidate. He's got influence, and he hates theorists."

"He does? Oh, yeah. Can't believe I forgot that article he wrote."

"It was brutal, man. And hilarious. Wouldn't want to be on his bad side."

A hand dryer goes off, muffling the rest. Jack's still holding me, eyes on mine, foreheads near touching. My nails dig into his chest—made of some granite-Kevlar blend, engineered by a task force of experimentalists to exude heat. He's a sentient weighted blanket, and I—

I hate him.

I've never hated anybody: not J.J. Not the Film Appreciation 101 professor who nearly failed me for saying that Twilight is an unrecognized masterpiece. Not even my brother Lucas, who had me convinced that I was adopted for over six months. I'm mild mannered, adaptable, unobtrusive. I get along with people: I give them what they want, and all I ask in return is that they not actively dislike me.

But Jack Smith. Jonathan F---ing Smith F---ing Turner. He's been hostile and unpleasant and suspicious since the day we met. He has shat upon my field and destroyed my mentor, and now stands between me and my dreams. For that, he lost the privilege that I afford every human being: to deal with the Elsie he wants.

The Elsie he's going to get is the one I care to give him. And she's pissed.

"I want this job, Jack," I hiss over the hand dryer. I actually need this job, but—semantics.

"I know you do, Elsie." His voice is low pitched and rumbly. "But I want someone else to get it."

"I know. Jack ."

"Then it seems like we're at an impasse. Elsie ." He articulates my name slowly, carefully. I'm going to lean forward and bite his stupid lips bloody.

No, I won't, because I'm better than that.

"You do not want to come at me," I hiss.

"Oh, Elsie." His hands on me are incongruously gentle, and yet we're on the verge of the academic equivalent of nuclear warfare. "I think it's exactly what I want."

The dryer turns off into silence and saves me from committing aggravated assault. "They left," I say. "Let me go ."

His mouth twitches, but he deposits me on the floor in some ludicrous reverse– Dirty Dancing move. His hands on my waist linger, but as soon as they leave me I'm scampering out of the stall, heels clicking on the tiles. I nearly lose my balance. With Jack's scent out of my nose, the stench of the place hits me anew.

"Talk to Monica if you want to," I bluff, turning back to him. "You'll see the good it does you."

"Oh, I will." He's clearly about to smile, like the angrier I get, the more amused he becomes. A never-ending vicious cycle that can end only in me holding his head in the toilet bowl.

"It's my word against the word of the guy with a decade-long agenda against theorists, after all."

He shrugs. "Maybe. Or maybe it's a physicist's word against a librarian's."

I scoff and stalk to the entrance, suddenly confident in my stilt shoes, determined not to be in his presence a second longer. But when I reach the door, something ticks inside me. I whip my head back toJack, who's standing there like the K2, studying me with an interested frown, like I'm an exotic caterpillar about to pupate.

God, I hope he has itchy, purulent ass acne for the rest of his natural life. "I know you have despisedme since the very first moment we met," I spit out.

He bites the inside of his cheek. "You do?"

"Yes. And you know what? It doesn't matter if you hated me at first sight, because I've hated you long before we ever met. I hated you the first time I heard your name. I hated you when I was twelve and read what you'd done in Scientific American . I've hated you harder, I've hated you longer, and I've hated you for better reasons."

Jack doesn't look so amused anymore. This is new to me—talking to others like the me I really am. It's new and different and weird, and I freaking love it.

"I'm really good at hating you, Jack, so here's what I'm going to do: not only am I going to get this job, but when we're colleagues at MIT, I'm going to make sure that you have to look at me every day and wish that I were George. I'm going to make you regret every single little jab. And I'm going to single-handedly make your life so hard that you'll regret taking on me and Monica and theoretical physics, until you cry in your office every morning and finally apologize to the scientific community for what you did."

He is really not amused now. "Is that so?" he asks. Cold. Cutting.

This time I'm the one to smile. "You bet, Jonathan ."

From LOVE, THEORETICALLY published by arrangement with Berkley, an imprint of Penguin RandomHouse LLC. Copyright © 2023 by Ali Hazelwood.

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Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

IndieBound Bestseller

THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS

by Ali Hazelwood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2021

Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.

An earnest grad student and a faculty member with a bit of a jerkish reputation concoct a fake dating scheme in this nerdy, STEM-filled contemporary romance.

Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen first met in the bathroom of Adam's lab. Olive wore expired contact lenses, reducing her eyes to temporary tears, while Adam just needed to dispose of a solution. It's a memory that only one of them has held onto. Now, nearly three years later, Olive is fully committed to her research in pancreatic cancer at Stanford University's biology department. As a faculty member, Adam's reputation precedes him, since he's made many students cry or drop their programs entirely with his bluntness. When Olive needs her best friend, Anh, to think she's dating someone so Anh will feel more comfortable getting involved with Olive's barely-an-ex, Jeremy, she impulsively kisses Adam, who happens to be standing there when Anh walks by. But rumors start to spread, and the one-time kiss morphs into a fake relationship, especially as Adam sees there's a benefit for him. The university is withholding funds for Adam's research out of fear that he'll leave for a better position elsewhere. If he puts down more roots by getting involved with someone, his research funds could be released at the next budgeting meeting in about a month's time. After setting a few ground rules, Adam and Olive agree that come the end of September, they'll part ways, having gotten what they need from their arrangement. Hazelwood has a keen understanding of romance tropes and puts them to good use—in addition to fake dating, Olive and Adam are an opposites-attract pairing with their sunny and grumpy personalities—but there are a couple of weaknesses in this debut novel. Hazelwood manages to sidestep a lot of the complicated power dynamics of a student-faculty romance by putting Olive and Adam in different departments, but the impetus for their fake relationship has much higher stakes for Adam. Olive does reap the benefits of dating a faculty member, but in the end, she's still the one seemingly punished or taunted by her colleagues; readers may have been hoping for a more subversive twist. For a first novel, there's plenty of shine here, with clear signs that Hazelwood feels completely comfortable with happily-ever-afters.

Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-33682-3

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Berkley

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021

ROMANCE | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | GENERAL ROMANCE

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by Ali Hazelwood

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PERSPECTIVES

by Ali Hazelwood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.

A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.

As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9780593550403

Page Count: 416

Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023

ROMANCE | PARANORMAL ROMANCE | GENERAL ROMANCE

New York Times Bestseller

IT ENDS WITH US

by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2016

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...

Hoover’s ( November 9 , 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.

At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

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by Colleen Hoover

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Love, Theoretically

49 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 6

Chapters 7-11

Chapters 12-16

Chapters 17-22

Chapter 23-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Love, Theoretically is a 2023 novel by best-selling novelist and neuroscientist Ali Hazelwood. A romantic comedy about love, lies, and standing up for oneself, Love, Theoretically centers on Elsie Hannaway , a theoretical physicist and chronic people-pleaser. Within the novel, Elsie navigates the difficulties of being a woman in academia and falls for the rival physicist who nearly destroyed her field. By employing many of the classic tropes of contemporary romance, Hazelwood explores the human need for love and acceptance along with themes of self-worth, revenge , and performance.

This study guide refers to the Berkley e-book edition of the text.

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Content Warning: This text features recurring discussions of institutionalized sexism.

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Elsie is an overworked and underappreciated adjunct professor at three Boston universities who loves theoretical physics but dislikes teaching. To cover her medical expenses and to make up for the poor compensation she receives as an adjunct, Elsie works for an app called Faux that allows users to hire people to pretend to be their girlfriends. Greg Smith has been a client of Elsie’s for some time, and she considers them to be friends, but she feels antagonized by Greg’s older brother, Jack, who believes she is lying to Greg about who she really is.

At the beginning of the novel, Elsie is interviewing for a tenure-track professorship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) but is warned about the politics between theoretical and experimental physicists in the department. One of the experimental physicists is Jonathan Smith-Turner, a man who once wrote a hoax article that discredited theorists and got Elsie’s mentor, Christophe Laurendeau , fired from his role as an editor. Jonathan has proposed a candidate for the position named George, another experimental physicist. When Elsie meets the members of the MIT physics department, she is surprised to learn that Jonathan Smith-Turner is actually Jack Smith , her client Greg’s judgmental older brother.

Jack is convinced that Elsie is lying about her qualifications for the job just as he thinks she lied to Greg, who is unreachable throughout the week of Elsie’s interview due to a work retreat. Elsie's dislike of both Jack Smith and Jonathan Smith-Turner makes her want the job even more and, throughout her interview process, she does everything she can to make him miserable. Despite her efforts, Elsie learns that George—who turns out to be another woman in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math)—got the job. Jack tells her that many members of the department did not want the professor who promoted Elsie’s application to do so, as the position was essentially created and intended for George.

Elsie is distraught about returning to adjunct teaching but recognizes that George deserved the job. She begins to trust Jack, who has learned through his brother that he and Elsie were only pretending to date in order to placate his obsessive mother and conceal the secret that Greg is aromantic and has no interest in dating anyone. Once he recognizes that Greg and Elsie were never actually together, Jack confesses that he has always had feelings for her and that he only seemed to hate her because he was both protective and jealous of Greg. He offers Elsie a postdoctoral research fellowship after she is officially rejected by MIT, which she refuses. Jack also asks Elsie on a date, which she also refuses at first but feels compelled to accept once she learns that Jack’s mother was a theoretical physicist and that his article might not have been intentionally written to prove the superiority of experimental physics.

Jack is one of the few people who notice Elsie’s tendency to change her personality based on the people she is interacting with, a tactic that she hopes will help her prove herself to others and feel loved. To do this, Elsie has become an expert at reading people and learning exactly what they want from her, yet Jack is the only person she does not understand, as he does not want any other Elsie than the one she truly is. Her self-confidence grows throughout the novel as she learns to be honest with Jack.

Elsie begins to fall for Jack but does not feel worthy of him and is still uncertain about his feelings toward theoretical physicists, like herself, as he avoids discussion of his infamous article. Just when she is starting to believe that she and Jack can have a future together, Elsie brings up the article and the effects it has had on her and her field. Jack admits that he wrote the article for revenge against Laurendeau, Elsie’s advisor, who had been the reason that his mother was shunned from academia after he was born. When Laurendeau tells Elsie that she cannot accept a dream job offered to her by George, she realizes that, like Jack, Laurendeau has concealed information from her and made decisions on her behalf about what she is capable of.

While giving Elsie space, Jack writes and publishes another article apologizing for his previous one and how he did not do anything afterward to suggest that he didn’t believe theoretical physics was inferior to experimental physics. Elsie and Jack forgive each other and the lies they have told one another, and Elsie accepts the job George has offered her at MIT. Toward the end of the novel, Elsie becomes much better at setting boundaries with those around her and telling the truth, dismantling her instinct to people-please.

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Love, Theoretically

Love, Theoretically combines meme-based humor, sizzling romantic tension, soul-searching personal growth, and blazing critiques of the glaring disparities in academia. This book isn’t just awesome in theory — it’s a proven fact!

Description

"The reigning queen of STEM romance."— The Washington Post

An Indie Next and Library Reads Pick!

Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain .   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 arrogant 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 he’s the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing 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?

About the Author

Ali Hazelwood is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and The Love Hypothesis, as well as a writer of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the US to pursue a PhD in neuroscience. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her three feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).

Praise for Love, Theoretically

Praise for Love, Theoretically “It would be so easy to hate Ali—who is brilliant and funny and the most delightful writer…but it’s far more productive to create a shrine I can worship at, praying for her to finish another book quickly. LOVED. IT.” —#1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult

"Whenever I want a sexy, witty, delicious romance, told in a fresh and intelligent voice, I read Ali Hazelwood. Prepare to get addicted. Each book is pure joy." —Simone St. James, New York Times bestselling author

"The reigning queen of STEMinist rom-coms returns with a tale set in the cutthroat world of eliteacademia full of delightful humor, realistic emotions, and the messy search for self-acceptance." — Booklist , starred review

"A decidedly quirky and thoroughly charming tale...Geeky science jokes, humorous student emails, and expertly delivered snarky banter enhance the narrative. Readers will cheer for Jack and Elsie and their bumpy road to happily ever after." — Publishers Weekly , starred review “Hazelwood’s latest STEM-set novel may be her best yet, addressing not only discrimination among different realms of physics, but the unconscious bias Elsie has to continually fight as a woman in her field...A dynamic rivals-to-lovers romance." — Kirkus , starred review

Praise for Ali Hazelwood “Hazelwood is an absolute romance powerhouse.”— New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren

“Hazelwood proves that she is the perfect writer to show that science is sexy as hell.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult

“Gloriously nerdy and sexy, with on-point commentary about women in STEM.”— New York Times bestselling author Helen Hoang on Love on the Brain   “Funny, sexy and smart, Ali Hazelwood did a terrific job with The Love Hypothesis .”— New York Times bestselling author Mariana Zapata

“STEMinists, assemble. Your world is about to be rocked.”— New York Times bestselling author Elena Armas on Love on the Brain

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The Love Hypothesis

Quick recap & summary by chapter.

The Full Book Recap and Chapter-by-Chapter Summary for The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood are below.

Quick(-ish) Recap

Three years prior, Olive Smith talks to a guy when she's in the bathroom fixing her contacts (and can't see) after her Ph.D. candidate interview. She tells him about her passion for her research. She doesn't catch his name but remembers the conversation distinctly and wonders about the guy she met.

In present day, Olive is a biology Ph.D. student researching early detection methods for pancreatic cancer. She kisses a guy randomly in order to trick her best friend into thinking she's dating someone (so that her best friend Anh won't feel bad about dating Olive's ex). That guy turns out to be Dr. Adam Carlson , a young, handsome and highly-respected tenured faculty member in her department. He's also known for being hypercritical and moody.

Meanwhile, Adam's department chair is worried that he's planning on leaving for another university and has frozen some of his research funds. So, Adam he agrees to pretend to be in a relationship with Olive in order to give the impression he's putting down "roots" here, in hopes they will unfreeze the funds.

As Olive and Adam fake-date, they get to know each other. Olive sees that Adam is demanding and blunt towards his students, but not unkind or mean. Olive confides in him about her mother getting pancreatic cancer, which is why she's doing her research.

Olive soon realizes that she has feelings for Adam, but she's afraid to tell him. When he overhears her talking about a crush, she pretends it's about someone else. Olive also hears someone else refer to a woman Adam's been pining after for years and is surprised at how jealous she feels.

In the meantime, Olive needs more lab space and has been talking to Dr. Tom Benton for a spot at his lab at Harvard. When Tom arrives in town, it turns out he's friends with Adam. Adam and Tom are friends from grad school, and they have recently gotten a large grant for some joint research that Adam is excited about. After Olive completes a report on her research for Tom, he offers her a spot in his lab for the next year.

Olive and Adam's relationship continues to progress until they attend a science conference in Boston. Olive's research has been selected for a panel presentation, while Adam is a keynote speaker. There, Olive is sexually harassed by Tom, who makes advances on her. When she rejects him, he accuses her of someone who sleeps around to get ahead. He also says that he'll deny it if she tells anyone and that they won't believe her.

While Olive does finally sleep with Adam at the conference, she soon tearfully breaks things off since she doesn't want to complicate things with Adam's joint research project with Tom. Adam is also in the process of applying for a spot at Harvard.

Olive is certain no one will believe her about Tom until she realizes that the accidentally recorded the conversation where he made advances and threatened her. Meanwhile, Olive's roommate Malcolm has started seeing Dr. Holden Rodriguez, a faculty member who is a childhood friend of Adam's. Olive and Malcolm turn to Holden for advice, who encourages them to tell Adam about the recording. He points out that he thinks the main reason that Adam is considering a move to Harvard is because Olive is supposed to be going there.

Olive finds Adam and shows him the video. He is incensed at Tom and reports it to their faculty. When Adam returns from Boston, he reports that Tom has been fired. Meanwhile, Olive has been reaching out to other cancer researchers for spots at other labs, and she's gotten promising responses. Olive tells Adam that she loves him and that she never liked anyone else. Adam admits that he remembered her from the day he met her in the bathroom and that she's the one he's been interested in for years.

Ten months later at the anniversary of their first kiss, Olive and Adam re-create the kiss to mark their anniversary.

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Chapter-by-Chapter Summary

Olive Smith is an applicant for Stanford’s biology Ph.D program. After the interview with Dr. Aysegul Aslan , she ends up in a bathroom nearby unable to see and trying to wash out her eyes because she put in expired contacts.

She meets “The Guy” there, who she assumes is a Ph.D student there. As they strike up a conversation, she tells him that her name is Olive and talks about why she’s applying to the program. She tells him that she wants to do it in order to research a specific topic.

A few weeks later, Olive is accepted into the program.

Years later, Olive is now 26 and a Ph.D. student in Dr. Aslan’s lab. Olive has just kissed a random stranger (in order to trick her best friend, Anh , into thinking she’s on a date) — only to realize that the “stranger” is actually Dr. Adam Carlson , a 34-year-old tenured and highly-respected professor in her program with a reputation for being notorious moody, mean and hypercritical.

After they pull away, Adam accuses her of assaulting him. Olive insists she asked him and he said yes, but he says he merely snorted. Finally, she explains that her friend Anh had hit it off with a guy she’d been dating, Jeremy. Olive broke things off with Jeremy, but Anh felt too bad to go out with Jeremy. To make Anh feel better about it, Olive lied to Anh about dating someone and being on a date tonight. When Anh showed up at the lab, Olive needed to kiss someone so Anh would believe she was on a date.

Finally, Olive apologizes and leaves. She doesn’t notice that Adam had called her by her name (which she hadn’t brought up in this conversation).

A few days later, Olive is still embarrassed by what happened. However, she figures that she’d never crossed paths with Adam before then, so perhaps she wouldn’t cross paths with him again. Meanwhile, Olive is preoccupied with needing to find more lab space for her research on early detection of pancreatic cancer. Today, she also finds out Tom Benton , a well-known cancer researcher and an associate professor at Harvard, is interested in potentially allowing her to carry out her research at his lab at Harvard. He’s going to be in town in two weeks and wants to meet with her.

When Anh sees her, she confronts Olive about kissing Adam Carlson. Olive thinks back to how they met since they were the only two non-cis-white-male students in their class. Beyond that, Anh was her biggest support and best friend.

Today, Anh demands to know why Olive is dating Dr. Carlson. This conversation is interrupted when Adam walks in. He plays along and pretends that he and Olive are together. After they make formal introductions, he tells her to call him Adam, in case her friend Anh is around. Later, when Olive talks to Anh again, Olive continues to pretend she’s dating Adam, and she once again encourages Anh to date Jeremy.

On campus, Olive starts to notice that people are treating her differently and with some level of curiosity. When her roommate, Malcom , demands to know why she didn’t tell him about dating Dr. Carlson, Olive realize that everyone know about her lie. Olive goes to Adam’s lab to tell him what’s going on, and she apologizes to him for it.

Olive notes that he seems very at ease with everyone believing that they’re dating, and she wonders why. Finally, he admits that Stanford considers him to be a “flight risk” (that he wants to leave them for another institution) and that they’ve frozen some of his research funds because of it. Part of the issue is that he’s recently gotten a large grant with one of his collaborator’s at another institution, and the department is worried he’s planning on moving there. He hopes that the dating rumors will make them think he’s more likely to stick around since he’s dating someone here.

A few days later, Olive goes to Adam’s office and tells him she wants to proceed with pretending that they’re dating. Olive notices that she’s been treated much better by everyone since the rumor started. (Apart from Malcom, who dislikes Adam Carlson, and has been shunning her.) Adam explains that he’s looked into it and there’s no issue with it, though he can’t serve in any supervisory capacity for her or serve on her thesis committee or be a part of any decisions if she’s nominated for a fellowship or other awards.

They decide to set some ground rules for their fake-dating arrangement. They decide to be fake-dating while on-campus only, so no personal engagements. Olive stipulates that there’ll be no sex. They also agree not to date others in the interim, since it will make things messy. And they agree that they should get coffee or something regularly to make things believable.

They plan to continue their fake-dating until September 29, roughly a month from now, which is the day after the department’s budget review. Their first coffee “date” is planned for Wednesday at 10 AM.

Later, Olive talks to Malcom, who is still upset with her. Malcom comes from a long line of well-known scientists, and he dislikes that Adam Carlson’s criticism of his research had made his life so difficult. Olive confides in Malcom that they’re merely fake-dating and that she barely knows Adam. She says that he’s just helping her out with the Anh/Jeremy situation (and she doesn’t mention Adam’s reasons for participating).

On Wednesday, Olive and Adam have their first fake-date at the coffee house. They ask each other some basic questions, and Adam pays for her order.

The next week, they meet up again, though Olive is running late since she was getting ready for a meeting she has with Tom Benton later that day. Meanwhile, Adam is a little moody because his department chair has still not agreed to release his research funds. They discuss attending the fall biosciences picnic together so that his department chair can see that they’re together.

They’re interrupted when a friend of Adam’s walks in and greets him warmly. Adam introduces the man to Olive as his friend and collaborator — who turns out to be Tom Benton.

Dr. Benton reveals that he’s heard about Adam’s romantic exploits all the way at Harvard, and he’s surprised to hear the rumors about Adam’s new girlfriend being true. Olive also awkwardly tells Dr. Benton that they have a meeting planned for later that day. Tom is delighted to find out that his meeting is with Adam’s new girlfriend.

The three of them sit down to chat. As Tom asks her about her research, Adam rephrases it to help Olive organize her thoughts when he sees that she’s struggling to come up with an answer. Olive then tells Tom about her research on biomarkers in order to more easily and cheaply diagnose pancreatic cancer. As Tom inquires about her reasons for doing her research, Olive reluctantly admits that it’s because her mother had pancreatic cancer.

Finally, Tom asks Olive to spend two weeks writing up a report on the current state of her research. He says that he’ll make a determination of whether to give her the lab space and cover her research expenses depending on what he reads in that report.

When Tom steps away, Olive and Adam discuss that if she decides to go to Harvard then she needs to keep it a secret until the end of their arrangement, otherwise it’ll make Adam look worse. They also agree not to tell Tom that they’re only fake-dating.

The next day, Olive attends a well-attended talk that Tom is giving on campus. The auditorium is so packed that there’s no space anywhere. Anh convinces Olive to sit in Adam’s lap for the duration of the talk.

Afterwards, Olive and Anh head back to the biology building. Olive talks about the report she’s preparing for Tom and the presentation she needs to work on for a conference (the “SBD Conference”) coming up in Boston. Meanwhile, Anh is working on organizing an outreach event for BIPOC women in STEM for the conference.

As they walk back, they see that there’s a traffic jam involving a stopped car blocking an exit. Then they see Cherie , the department secretary, talking to Adam. Adam then proceeds to physically push a car out of the way to relieve the jam. Anh encourages Olive to go over and give him a kiss for his efforts. After some awkward negotiation with Adam, they kiss.

Olive is working on her report for Tom when Greg Cohen , one of Dr. Aslan’s other Ph.D. candidates, barges in, clearly agitated. Chase , another one of their lab mates, walks in uneasily after him. When Olive asks Greg what’s wrong, he angrily responds that Carlson is on his dissertation committee and he failed his proposal. They ask Olive whether she knew he was going to fail Greg, and Olive insists she didn’t know. Greg then yells at Olive and calls her selfish for not caring how Adam makes everyone’s lives miserable. Greg then storms off.

Later that day, Olive texts Adam. She asks him about failing Greg. She argues that he should be nicer, but Adam is unapologetic. He insists that his job is to make sure that students produce useful research. Olive gets frustrated texts profanity at him, and he doesn’t respond.

A few days later, Olive is on her way to the biosciences picnic, where she’ll be seeing Adam after their tense exchange. She, Anh, Jeremy and Malcom go together and are quite late. When they arrive, they see Adam playing Ultimate Frisbee shirtless, showing off his six-pack. Olive is surprised to find herself “viscerally attracted” to Adam.

As they put on sunscreen, Anh gives Olive way too much sunscreen. Meanwhile, the frisbee from the game lands near her. When Adam comes over to retrieve the frisbee, Anh offers Olive’s excess sunscreen to Adam. He accepts, and Olive rubs the sunscreen on him. Olive also apologizes for what she texted him the other day.

Tom then comes over and brings up that Adam will be going to Boston soon for a few days.

Olive is in the break room at night when she runs into Adam next. Olive is working on her report for Tom, but there’s a section she’s having trouble with since her lab equipment seems to be messing up. They chat and share snacks. Olive finds herself wondering why he’s single.

Olive also finds herself telling him about her mother and her death. She describes how, when she was 15, her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer too late and only had a few weeks left to live by then. Olive also says that her father was never in the picture and her grandparents were deceased, so she was sent into the foster system until she was emancipated at 16.

When she mentions needing to get back to work, Adam offers to let her use his lab equipment if she needs it. He also gives her some advice on the Western blot she’s working with to make sure she’s doing it correctly. Before Olive leaves, she asks Adam why he’s single, but before he can really answer, Jeremy walks in and interrupts them.

On Saturday, Olive sends in her report to Tom. He responds by asking her to meet to talk about it at Adam’s house (where he’s staying) on Tuesday before he leaves for Boston. At Adam’s house, she and Tom chat about her report for about 20 minutes. Before she leaves, Tom offers her a spot at Harvard for the next year, and Olive is thrilled.

Adam gives her a ride back to campus. He talks about how excited he is about the research he and Tom are working on. As they chat, Adam says something that The Guy she’d met in the bathroom all those years ago had said to her. Olive realizes then that Adam was The Guy she’d met. She marvels at how she’d wondered about The Guy for years. Olive then suggests that go celebrate her lab spot and him and Tom’s grant.

They agree to get coffee. Before then, she convinces him to go with her to get flu shots at the setup on campus, all the while she teases him for his fear of needles.

On Wednesday, Olive and Adam are texting and teasing each other when Anh comes in and comments on how in love with Adam she is. Anh says that she feels better about dating Jeremy, since she sees how much Olive likes Adam. As Anh leaves, it dawns on Olive that Anh is right.

Olive soon texts Malcolm asking to talk. When they get together, she tells him about how she thinks she’s fallen for Adam. She also tells him that she thinks that Adam was The Guy that she met all those years ago. Malcolm suggests that perhaps Adam feels the same way. Olive doesn’t think that’s the case, but moreover, she says scared of being vulnerable and possibly giving up the friendship she and Adam currently have if she’s wrong. Olive also says that everyone she cares about ends up leaving her — citing her mother, father and grandparents.

Olive says she’s certain she doesn’t want to say anything to Adam about her feelings — but then she turns around and sees Adam standing there.

When Adam acknowledges that he overheard her, Olive quickly lies and said she was talking about some other guy she has a crush on. Their conversation is interrupted by Dr. Holden Rodriguez , who is going to Boston with Tom and Adam. Dr. Rodriguez knows Olive since he was on her graduate advisory committee her first year.

As they talk, Holden explains that he and Adam are old friends. They grew up together because their parents were all diplomats. Holden tells Olive about how his boyfriend dumped him just before prom, so Adam went as his date instead.

After Holden leaves, Adam comments that Holden speaks highly of Olive and her research. Adam also explains a comment Holden made about Tom, saying that the two don’t really get along. He then tells Olive that she should just tell Jeremy how she feels, incorrectly assuming that the mystery crush Olive was referring to is Jeremy.

Malcolm continues trying to convince Olive to admit her feelings to Adam, but Olive refuses. With Adam out of town, she feels his absence. When Adam finally texts her on Sunday, she feels even worse about her stupid lie about liking someone else.

On campus, she runs into Holden, who mentions how glad he is that Adam and Olive got together. Holden days that Adam had talked about someone he wanted to ask out for years, and he’s glad Adam finally did it. When he says that, Olive thinks about how there must be someone else out there that Adam likes, then, since they only really met a couple weeks ago.

Holden also warns her to watch out when it comes to Tom and to watch Adam’s back, since he doesn’t trust Tom.

A little later, Olive is informed that her research has been accepted for the SBD conference as a panel presentation with faculty. Olive feels overwhelmed, since graduate students very rarely are selected for oral presentations. She goes to her advisor, Dr. Aslan, and explains that she’s terrible at talking. Of course, Dr. Aslan just gives her some encouragement and tells Olive she’ll help her practice her presentation.

Afterwards, Olive tells Malcom and Anh, who also volunteer to help her practice. They also mention, however, that they each got invited to stay with people in Boston for the conference (Anh with Jeremy and Malcolm with some friends who had a spare room), so they won’t be rooming with Olive. Anh says she figured Olive would stay with Adam.

Olive is trying to sort out some living arrangements for Boston when Adam, who is back in town now, comes up to her. She tells him about having trouble finding accommodations in Boston. Adam comments that there’s probably not anything left in the vicinity by now, but she could stay in his room at the conference center. He adds that he has the room for the whole conference, but he will only be using the room two nights, so they’ll only overlap for one night most likely.

When she tells him about her presentation, he offers to look over her slides. She also invites him to her talk, and she thinks about how one of the reasons she likes him is that she always feels like he’s on her side.

At the hotel in Boston, Olive takes the empty bed, and she rehearses the talk she’s about to give in a few hours. When Adam arrives, she thanks him for all the help he gave regarding her presentation.

He asks when her presentation is so he can attend, but it turns out it overlaps with the Keynote speech, which he is giving along with two other people. She offers to show him the recording of it afterwards.

When Olive goes to do her panel presentation, she sees that Tom is on the same panel. She gives her portion of the talk, and it goes well. Malcolm and Anh are there to cheer her on.

Afterwards, the room empties out, and it’s just her and Tom. As they talk, she notices him moving closer until he tries to kiss her. When she pushes him away, he keeps trying. Finally, he says that she’s clearly someone who sleeps around to get ahead, and so they both know she’ll sleep with him, too, for the same reason. He also says that she only got on this panel because someone wanted to kiss-up to Adam Carlson.

He also says that Adam is the reason he accepted Olive into his lab. When Olive threatens to tell Adam about this, he says that Adam won’t believe her word against his. Olive also says she won’t go work in his lab, but Tom says she knows it’s the best option for her, and if she doesn’t then he’ll just replicate her research since he already knows all about it.

When Adam gets back to the hotel, Olive is crying. She tries to pretend nothing is wrong, but fails at it. Finally, she lies and tells him that she’s upset because she overheard someone saying that her research was “derivative” and that she was only chosen because of Adam.

Adam comforts her, and then he says he has an idea for where they should go instead.

Holding her hand, they walk past all the people at the department social and instead head out to dinner. Adam asks what she wants to eat, and Olive sees an all-you-can-eat sushi place and wants to go.

After dinner, as they head back, Olive’s heels are hurting her, so Adam gamely picks her up and brings her to their room. She then suggests that they watch a movie. Olive goes to grab a quick shower, and Adam offers her a t-shirt since she forgot to pack pajamas.

When Olive’s mind wanders back to being called mediocre (by Tom, though she doesn’t tell Adam that), Adam tells her about how his advisor had once told him he wouldn’t amount to anything because of a mistake he made. He says that he had started preparing applications for law school as a result, since the comment shook his confidence. However, Holden and Tom (who also trained under the same advisor) convinced him to stick with science.

Adam says that later he realized that his advisor was abusive and a bad mentor who created a toxic environment. Comparatively, Adam says that he is critical since he wants students to be better, but it isn’t about belittling them as people or cutting down their self-worth. Adam also says that no one ever reported his advisor’s behavior because he was short-listed for a Nobel Prize, and they didn’t think anyone would listen. Adam also mentions how Tom had helped mediate thing with him and his advisor, so he was grateful to Tom for that.

Adam then tells Olive that the abstracts submitted to SBD go through a blind review process, so they definitely didn’t choose her because of him.

Finally, Olive moves to kiss Adam, but before anything can happen, he stops her. He points out that she’s upset and staying in his room and that the situation feels coercive to him. When Olive says she’s fine, he points out that she said she was in love with someone else and that he doesn’t want to regret this later.

Olive convinces him that she’s fine with the situation, and soon things get intimate.

They have sex.

Afterwards, Olive asks Adam about a book he’s reading. He says it’s in Dutch and that he learned it as a kid. He also says that his parents were busy all the time and that he was mostly raised by au pairs. They then talk more about their childhoods.

As they chat, Adam finally tells Olive that he might be going to Harvard. The reason he’s leaving the conference early is to go interview with them. He thinks that working together with Tom in the same lab would make them much more productive. He also mentions that he could show her around Boston when she’s there.

Olive wakes up to a barrage of texts from Anh and Malcolm. When she finally talks to them, it turns out the Malcolm hooked up with Holden at the department social. Malcolm also says that Holden mentioned that Adam’s funds had been released (though Adam hadn’t mentioned it to Olive).

That night, Olive meets up with Adam. He wants to go out and have dinner, but Olive breaks things off with him, since she doesn’t know what to do about the Tom situation. She thinks that taking herself out of the equation is the best thing for him.

As she starts to leave, they end up kissing, but he pulls away, and she leaves.

Olive spends the next day crying. Then, determined not to send up at Harvard, Olive takes Adam’s advice to reach out to people through her advisor and asks Dr. Aslan to e-mail various people she’d met at the conference to see if they’d be interested in her research.

Dr. Aslan agrees, and also asks to see her speech. As Olive edits the video recording, Malcolm talks about how he went on a first date with Holden, but they ended up running into his entire family (since they are all science junkies who attend science conferences).

As she’s editing, Olive realizes she recorded her upsetting conversation with Tom. Malcolm and Anh hear her listening to it. Once they’ve listened to the whole thing, they insist that Olive needs to tell Adam about it. Finally, Malcolm fills Anh in on what was really going on with Olive and Adam. However, they both agree it’s clear that Olive has feelings for Adam and that Adam would want to know about this. Still, Olive knows how important the collaboration with Tom is to Adam, and she is reluctant to complicate things for him.

They decide to call Holden to ask for advice. Olive asks Holden what he thinks about Adam moving to Boston and working with Tom. Holden says that he doesn’t trust Tom. He says he thinks there was a weird dynamic where Tom was secretly sabotaging Adam during grad school and then defending him. He thinks that Tom likes Adam’s loyalty towards him and having influence over him. Holden also tells them that he thinks Tom and Adam’s collaboration benefits Tom more than Adam. Finally, Holden implies that he thinks the only reason Adam is considering leaving Stanford is because Olive is going to Harvard.

Olive tracks down Adam’s location at a dinner with some Harvard people, including Tom. When he sees her, he gets up and asks what’s wrong. Tom comes over to try to get Adam to sit back down, but Adam insists on talking to Olive. Finally, Olive starts playing the video. Adam grows furious as he realizes what happened. He tells Tom that he’s going to kill him and goes after him, but Olive tells Adam that he’s not worth it.

As the Harvard people demand an explanation, Adam ignores them and kisses Olive. He then tells Olive to send him the recording immediately and then goes to talk to the Harvard people.

A few days later, Olive is back home, and Adam is on his way back to San Francisco. Meanwhile, Olive has received responses from four cancer researchers who are all interested in her research.

When Adam gets back, Holden insists on a double date. Adam reluctantly agrees. When they all sit down, they address the fact that Malcolm still has misgivings about Adam because of Adam’s harsh criticism of his work. Adam tells Malcolm that it wasn’t personal.

As they joke around about pumpkin spiced flavored foods, Holden mentions how Adam has liked Olive for years. Olive corrects him, saying they’ve only been dating for a few weeks, but Holden says that they met three years ago and that he’s liked Olive ever since. Olive then realizes that Adam was definitely the The Guy (from three years ago) and that he did remember her.

After dinner, Olive and Adam head home. Adam tells Olive that Harvard is going to fire Tom and that there will be other disciplinary actions. Olive then tells Adam that she remembered him, too, from all those years ago. But she didn’t piece it together until later, and she admits that she didn’t say anything once she figured it out.

Finally, she tells him that she loves him (in broken Dutch).

Ten months later, it’s the 1-year anniversary of their first kiss. Olive and Adam go to the lab and recreate and their kiss at precisely the same time as last year.

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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.

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For Chapter 16, I think it’s important to include the part where Olive comes out to Adam as demisexual. But other than that this is a great summary.

this book is so good i couldn’t put it down. the only i wish is it was both POVS i would of loved to see what adam was thinking during all of this or have his thoughts on when they met each other during the bathroom scene. and i would of loved to see him actually hurting tom for saying that stuff to olive.

I giggled, chortled and laughed my way through this wonderful story. It’s a STEM romcom with terrific characters and lots of smart, snarky humor and I enjoyed it immensely.

Elsie Hannaway is a theoretical physicist working as an adjunct professor trying to get a research position with benefits. She is also diabetic and in desperate need of health insurance. She teaches nine classes at three different colleges but barely makes enough to get by. To make extra money she and her roommate hire themselves out for fake dates on an app called Faux.

Faux creates the meet cute this novel builds on. Elsie first meets Jack when she goes to a family gathering as a fake date with his brother, Greg. Greg’s mother has been pressuring Greg to find a partner so he hires Elsie to go with him to a family party. She tells his family she is a librarian and she thinks Jack is a PE teacher because she mishears Greg when they are introduced. Elsie and Jack play a game of Go and it ends in a tie which surprises everyone at the party because Jack always wins.

The second time Elsie meets Jack is with Greg at his family’s Labor Day Party. Everyone is in the pool swimming but she can’t hide her insulin pump in her swimsuit so she decides to sit on a blanket and have a piece of cake. But she miscalculates the insulin she needs and when Jack notices she’s having trouble, he comes to her rescue and carries her into the house. Jack and Elsie are each riveted by the other.

Elsie applies for a tenure track position (with health benefits) at the physics department at MIT and--yay!--is one of two finalists for the position. She is at a dinner to meet the hiring committee when in walks Jack Smith (Greg’s brother) aka Jonathan Smith-Turner, the head of the MIT Physics Institute. Elsie thinks Jack is a total bae--he's wonderfully big and strong with broad shoulders and all, but she is wary because he’s part of the group that will decide whether she gets her dream job. Jack finds himself attracted to Elsie, which concerns him because he thinks she’s his brother’s girlfriend and he also wonders why she said she was a librarian when he met her with Greg.

Elsie is a people pleaser--she bends her personality to get along with everyone. She often puts other people’s needs before her own. She's the kind of friend who will watch a Belgian movie about cannibalism instead of her favorite movie, Twilight , just to make her roommate and best friend happy. She wants Jack to like her but he is hard for her to read and she’s not able to figure out what he wants. Of course, he just wants her to be herself and challenges her to speak her mind and be honest. He makes her happy and they were great together and I think this is her spiciest book so far.

There are hilarious emails from her students that are sprinkled throughout the book and had me laughing out loud. In one email a student asks her to draw a map to class because she can’t find the room or another where the student confuses her with another teacher and asks for help with a paper on a Shakespeare play. The student writes to thank her for her help when she gets an A for her paper comparing Twilight to A Midsummer Night’s Dream :)

Some of the academic politics and physics language was over my head like a side plot involving Elsie’s Ph.D. advisor and a paper Jack wrote that discredited him. Or that Elsie has become an expert in Liquid Crystals, a hot topic in physics because of their practical uses, like the light in our monitors, light delivered drug release for cancer treatment and their possible importance in the building blocks of life. But the wonderful cast of characters kept me immersed in the story. I liked how the women in STEM encouraged each other, like when Georgina, another physicist, meets Elsie after she’s done teaching a class, tells her they should be best friends and takes her to lunch while sharing ideas and advice. It is impressive to see a main character like Elsie who is a brilliant physicist, funny and a devoted friend. I can see why Jack is attracted to her. Fans of Olive and Adam from The Love Hypothesis will be happy to know that they have a cameo appearance in this story.

This book was full of my favorite things, a terrific romance, women in STEM, lots of humor and good friendships, both weird and wonderful.

Sensuality:  Warm

Publication Date:  06/2023

Review Tags:  STEM heroine chronic illness cons and frauds diabetes funny professor

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The Love Hypothesis

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Helpful Book Guide: The Love Hypothesis Spicy Chapters List and Review

Posted on Published: July 27, 2023  - Last updated: October 23, 2023

Categories Book Guide , Spicy Chapters

What are The Love Hypothesis spicy chapters? Well, this guide is for you! Though this book is not very spicy, it is still my responsibility to squeeze out the spiciest The Love Hypothesis spicy chapters possible for you. It’s also a book I recommend with the ‘who did this to you” trope!

Table of Contents

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

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.

The Love Hypothesis Review

The Love Hypothesis is a captivating and heartwarming romance that delves into the complexities of academia and love. The story revolves around Olive Smith, a dedicated PhD student, and Adam Carlsen, a charming and cocky professor. Both characters are beautifully crafted with depth and vulnerability, making them relatable and endearing to readers.

The romance between Olive and Adam is a slow-burn delight, filled with moments of vulnerability and tenderness that will leave you swooning. Their undeniable chemistry and emotional connection create an engaging and satisfying love story. The witty banter between the two adds a delightful touch to their interactions.

Ali Hazelwood’s writing is both engaging and emotionally resonant, effortlessly drawing readers into the world of academia and scientific research. The novel’s exploration of the characters’ hidden depths and vulnerability adds layers to the story, making it a truly captivating read from beginning to end. “The Love Hypothesis” is a must-read for anyone looking for a heartwarming and well-developed romance that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

books like the Love Hypothesis

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

Catalina Martín desperately needs a date to her sister’s wedding. Especially since her little white lie about her American boyfriend has spiralled out of control. Now everyone she knows—including her ex and his fiancée—will be there and eager to meet him.

She only has four weeks to find someone willing to cross the Atlantic and aid in her deception. New York to Spain is no short flight and her raucous family won’t be easy to fool.

Enter Aaron Blackford—her tall, handsome, condescending colleague—who surprisingly offers to step in. She’d rather refuse; never has there been a more aggravating, blood-boiling, and insufferable man.

But Catalina is desperate, and as the wedding draws nearer, Aaron looks like her best option. And she begins to realize he might not be as terrible in the real world as he is at the office.

This book was cute to read! Also have the only one bed trope and enemies to lovers (of course).

Twisted Games by Ana Huang

She can never be his…but he’s taking her anyway.

Stoic, broody, and arrogant, elite bodyguard Rhys Larsen has two rules: 1) Protect his clients at all costs 2) Do not become emotionally involved. Ever.

He has never once been tempted to break those rules…until  her.

Bridget von Ascheberg. A princess with a stubborn streak that matches his own and a hidden fire that reduces his rules to ash. She’s nothing he expected and everything he never knew he needed.

Day by day, inch by inch, she breaks down his defences until he’s faced with a truth he can no longer deny: he swore an oath to protect her, but all he wants is to ruin her. Take her.

Because she’s his.

His princess. His forbidden fruit. His every depraved fantasy.

Regal, strong-willed, and bound by the chains of duty, Princess Bridget dreams of the freedom to live and love as she chooses.

But when her brother abdicates, she’s suddenly faced with the prospect of a loveless, politically expedient marriage and a throne she never wanted.

And as she navigates the intricacies—and treacheries—of her new role, she must also hide her desire for a man she can’t have.

Her bodyguard. Her protector. Her ultimate ruin.

Unexpected and forbidden, theirs is a love that could destroy a kingdom…and doom them both.

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA.

A competitive figure skater since she was five years old, a full college scholarship thanks to her place on the Maple Hills skating team, and a schedule that would make even the most driven person weep, Stassie comes to win.

No exceptions.

Nathan Hawkins has never had a problem he couldn’t solve. As captain of the Maple Hills Titans, he knows the responsibility of keeping the hockey team on the ice rests on his shoulders.

When a misunderstanding results in the two teams sharing a rink, and Anastasia’s partner gets hurt in the aftermath, Nate finds himself swapping his stick for tights, and one scary coach for an even scarier one.

The pair find themselves stuck together in more ways than one, but it’s fine, because Anastasia doesn’t even like hockey players…right?

Twisted Hate by Ana Huang

He hates her…almost as much as he wants her.

Gorgeous, cocky, and fast on his way to becoming a hotshot doctor, Josh Chen has never met a woman he couldn’t charm—except for Jules f**king Ambrose.

The beautiful redhead has been a thorn in his side since they met, but she also consumes his thoughts in a way no woman ever has.

When their animosity explodes into one unforgettable night, he proposes a solution that’ll get her out of his system once and for all: an enemies with benefits arrangement with simple rules.

No jealousy.

No strings attached.

And absolutely no falling in love.

Outgoing and ambitious, Jules Ambrose is a former party girl who’s focused on one thing: passing the attorney’s bar exam.

The last thing she needs is to get involved with a doctor who puts the SUFFER in insufferable…no matter how good-looking he is.

But the more she gets to know him, the more she realizes there’s more than meets the eye to the man she’s hated for so long.

Her best friend’s brother.

Her nemesis.

And her only salvation.

Theirs is a match made in hell, and when the demons from their past catch up with them, they’re faced with truths that could either save them …or destroy everything they’ve worked for.

Twisted Hate is a steamy enemies with benefits/enemies to lovers romance. It’s book three in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.

Abou t The Fine Print by Lauren Asher

A typical billionaire romance that is quite popular. It’s one of the more famous ones of the genre, especially on Kindle Unlimited.

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project – a literal dream come true – Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.

Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school – archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.

But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas… devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing.

But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, and her reputation as a wild child means the paparazzi are constantly on her heels. When too much champagne and an out-of-control rooftop party lands Piper in the slammer, her stepfather decides enough is enough. So he cuts her off, and sends Piper and her sister to learn some responsibility running their late father’s dive bar… in Washington.

Piper hasn’t even been in Westport for five minutes when she meets big, bearded sea captain Brendan, who thinks she won’t last a week outside of Beverly Hills. So what if Piper can’t do math, and the idea of sleeping in a shabby apartment with bunk beds gives her hives. How bad could it really be? She’s determined to show her stepfather—and the hot, grumpy local—that she’s more than a pretty face.

Except it’s a small town and everywhere she turns, she bumps into Brendan. The fun-loving socialite and the gruff fisherman are polar opposites, but there’s an undeniable attraction simmering between them. Piper doesn’t want any distractions, especially feelings for a man who sails off into the sunset for weeks at a time.

Yet as she reconnects with her past and begins to feel at home in Westport, Piper starts to wonder if the cold, glamorous life she knew is what she truly wants. LA is calling her name, but Brendan—and this town full of memories—may have already caught her heart. 

Romance between a sunshine fashionable “it” celebrity girl with grumpy sea sailor local. Bright cheerful icon x cold ordinary sailor combo meal.

The Love Hypothesis Spicy Chapters

As many readers may know (especially romance book readers), oftentimes we like to seek out book tropes and read romance books that include the book tropes we usually like and the book tropes we want to read at the moment. It’s what drives a lot of book recommendations and is a common way we seek out books to read. If you are a reader who is interested in:

• Tracking tropes that you have already read
• Tracking tropes that you would want to read in the future
• Collect original trope ideas that you came up with (and haven’t come across before)

Then this book trope reading journal is perfectly made for you!

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Alice & Jack Finale Recap: ‘Til Death Do Us Part — Grade the Season

Matt webb mitovich, chief content officer.

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The titular Alice & Jack ‘s “ unfiltered ” 15-year love story came to an end this Sunday night, with PBS ‘ airing of the six-episode MASTERPIECE drama’s finale.

Or… will Alice and Jack in fact be together forever?

The sequence was interrupted by a bright, vibrant visual of Alice in an outdoor setting — a memory we had not seen before — smiling. Jack was jostled awake at the hospital by the sound of Alice’s beeping monitors indicating she was flatlining. He yelled for the staff to come see what’s what, but it was for naught. Though Alice thought she had a meaningful amount of time left, she had suddenly passed, in Jack’s arms.

Jack, bereft, stayed with Alice’s body as long as he could, sitting with it in a downstairs “holding area” for a while — or, at least long enough for him to cue up a six-minute montage of every major moment/exchange of words he and Alice had shared over the years. Said montage included a bit of a memory we had not seen yet, of Alice running up to and hugging Jack at some sort of colorful seaside location. More on that in a moment.

As Jack closed his eyes, wincing, we cut to the full context of the never-before-seen memory that had been glimpsed earlier in pieces. It was Jack in Cuba, years ago, where he very unexpectedly happened to cross paths with Alice. Each surprised to see the other, Alice ran up to and embraced Jack. They then embarked on a stroll, and spoke of kismet-y things.

But… was this just a memory of a pivotal incident from their off-and-on, decade-and-a-half courtship? Or were Alice and Jack symbolically reuniting somewhere else, on “another plane” that mirrored the memorable locale? Because next we saw Jack on the bench, it was from the back, his body still and his head listed.

Following a few more clips of Alice’s and Jack’s “greatest hits,” Jack’s own passing (from a “broken heart”?) was confirmed, as Celia visited the fresh, side-by-side graves where her father and his one true love now lay. Later, Alice paid a visit to her father’s self-storage unit, to shred some of his medical research files. Along the way, she found a box containing keepsakes from his life with Alice — a flyer for the kite festival, goofy photo booth snaps from Cuba, the “We’ll meet again” note she’d left for him after their financial windfalls…. Celia smiled warmly — she’d found this note once before, remember, under different circumstances — and then put it back in the box and closed up the unit.

What did you think of Alice and Jack’s roller coaster love story?

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I adore Domhnall Gleeson, & would watch him read a phone book, but was highly disappointed in this dirge of a show. It was so hard to watch the Jack character, who could do better, put up with Alice’s selfish behavior all those years. He didn’t deserve being treated like that & should have outlived her.

I ugly cried through the whole episode-beautiful

Two awful, narcissistic characters. Alice pushes Jack around, disappearing for years because she feels like it, and Jack likes being bullied by her. Emotional S&M. They’re normal only when they’re dead? Fitting for this series. I watched it because it kept dragging me in. Not proud of that.

Well written, well acted. Slow moving but I felt every moment of happiness and sadness. The characters were realistic and completed. Made me think about how much in life we miss and how sad it is for those left behind when a loved one leaves. As sad as it was the thought that maybe they week be together leaves hope

This was the worst agonizingly slow depressing series I have ever watched on PBS I watch PBS very often and have loved most of the Masterpiece series. These characters were very unlikeable.

You’re a better person than me. I only managed to get through 2 and a bit episodes before asking myself why I was torturing myself. Like you I love PBS Masterpiece shows.

You’re better than me. I only managed 1 episode.

I managed 5 minutes because Alice ticked me off with her insufferable attitude about his research. No way was I going to waste hours of my life watching her.

So depressing!! I wouldn’t had gotten sucked in if I knew this.

I wish they had shown us more about Alice because it was really hard to see why he would be obsessed with her. She just didn’t come off as that interesting. Neither had much emotional range though.

I hope Tvline brings up Mr. Bates versus the Post Office that is currently airing on PBS. It’s so good and deserves more attention. Great acting and writing.

I was very, very unhappy with the ending 😢

I will accept that Jack died of a broken heart. I was not aware that he had an aorta issue.

I enjoyed Alice and Jack quite a bit until the last episode. The last episode felt self-indulgent and repetitive. The ending could have easily been appended to the penultimate episode and nothing would have been lost.

Great series. Both Lead actors did a great job . Congratulations to all who had a part in the production of this series.

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‘Alice & Jack’ Creator Explains Why the Devastating Ending Was the ‘Only One That Felt Right’

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Alice & Jack series finale.]

Alice & Jack’s six-episode run on Masterpiece on PBS ended with a definitive conclusion to the pair’s love story. After years of missed connections, Alice ( Andrea Riseborough ) and Jack ( Domhnall Gleeson ) were finally able to be together. Unfortunately, their happy ending was short-lived.

Alice was diagnosed with cancer during a 10-week pregnancy scan. Despite an exhaustive effort to save her on Jack’s part, Alice passed away. She died in Jack’s arms before he had the opportunity to say goodbye on his terms.

Shortly after Alice’s death, Jack went to rest on a bench. During his moment of respite, Jack slumped over and quietly died. As Jack’s daughter, Celia (Millie Ashford), sorted through her father’s belongings, she found photographs of Alice and a note from her saying “we’ll meet again.”

Below, Alice & Jack’s creator, writer, and executive producer Victor Levin spoke with TV Insider about the powerful ending and the importance of telling “messy” love stories.

What was the inspiration behind the show for you?

Victor Levin: Love is a messy business, and it’s not the way it’s handed to us in fairy tales. And frankly, in a lot of the popular culture materials — books, movies, etc. — it’s difficult and people are flawed and they make mistakes. But love for one another—romantic love, parental love, and love in all its forms—is still the best thing we have right and is still worth fighting for, even if we are imperfect creatures. So I wanted to tell a story about how strong love is and can be, and is it strong enough to withstand the forces that would tear us apart?

In the finale, both Alice and Jack die within a short period of one another. Did you consider alternative endings for the show? 

I’m sure I did, but this was the only one that felt right. In a sense, it felt right because it represented love’s ultimate victory over those forces I mentioned a moment ago in as much as this couple and their bonds proved stronger than death, if you choose to read the ending that way. And that, of course, is up to the viewer. They had a lot of difficulties in this life, but the story contends that they will find each other in another life or in an afterlife or in another dimension or in another state of being and that they will be in that next iteration less fraught with trouble.

Did you think about a scenario where Jack lived on after Alice?

I did. I’m sure I did consider it, but not for very long. It was very important to me that he dies of a broken heart [caused by his Ehlers-Danlos syndrome diagnosis], which is very real and medically justified by his condition. Of course, I looked down every avenue I could think of, that’s what one does, but this was the one that felt politically correct to me.

'Alice & Jack's Andrea Riseborough on the Show's 'Uncontrollable' Love Story (VIDEO)

One of the show’s most poignant scenes is when Celia has to bury them both, and then the show ends with Celia going through her father’s things. Why did you want to conclude the series with Celia? 

You may recall that in an earlier episode, Alice says to Jack, “Make sure you find me a nice spot in a nice cemetery next to interesting people.” Jack passes that conversation along to Celia later on, so it falls to Celia to make sure that they have each other for eternity and that they’re in proximity to each other. That’s why she’s at the graveside, the dual gravesite. As to why I wanted to end on Celia, she goes to the storage facility and finds the letter, which she has read before. When she reads it again, and we read it again, “we’ll meet again” says we understand and she understands that that has greater meeting than simply, we’ll meet again in Cuba in this life, right? She can take some comfort in that.

While it is a very a very sad ending on one level, I hope that it is also a happy ending in as much as if they come together in another state of being, then you can be happy about that. But also, because Celia believes it. Celia knows the trouble that they’ve had, and we know it. They’ve spoken about it. “Do you think she’ll have less trouble than we will?” Jack says in Episode 5. It was very important that the sadness of their deaths be tempered by hope for the future and hope for the next generation. Alice also speaks about the next generation in Episode 5. She says something like, when you give yourself over to the next generation, it’s like you can finally breathe or something. And this is us breathing. Because Celia can go on with her life with a full heart believing that on some level, things ended happily for these two people who are so dear to her.

Have you thought about what happens to Celia after that final frame? 

I think Celia lives a very happy and emotionally evolved life and is wiser than most of the people she meets.

Are you working on something new? Could it be another love story? 

I am working on something new. It is also a series for television, but not necessarily a limited series. It’s about a young person’s loss of idealism, and there is a love story at its core. But it’s more than a love story as well.

Alice & Jack where to stream

Alice & Jack

Andrea riseborough, domhnall gleeson, victor levin.

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Love Theoretically: From the bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis Kindle Edition

From the author of TikTok sensations and global bestsellers The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom. 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 arrogant older brother of her favourite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor's career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he's the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing 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?

Praise for Ali Hazelwood and her novels: 'Ali Hazelwood proves that science is sexy as hell, and that love can 'STEM' from the most unlikely places. She's my newest must-buy author.' Jodi Picoult ' I cannot get enough of her brand of brainy romance! Writing with an emotionally brilliant and witty pen, Hazelwood is an absolute romance powerhouse.' Christina Lauren, author of The Unhoneymooners 'Gloriously nerdy and sexy, with on-point commentary about women in STEM.' Helen Hoang, author of The Heart Principle 'Proves that STEM can be sexy!' Red Readers love The Love Hypothesis: 'Did I read this in 24 hours? Yes.' 'Funny. Snarky. Intelligent. Real.' 'If you're even slightly thinking about getting this book to read, just go a head and do it' 'Ali Hazelwood has made herself an auto-buy author' 'It was just... perfect.' 'A heroine you will instantly fall in love with'

• Print length 400 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Sphere
• Publication date June 13, 2023
• File size 2653 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details

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Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BJPBGMY7
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sphere (June 13, 2023)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 13, 2023
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 2653 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1408725797
• #3,501 in New Adult & College Romance (Kindle Store)
• #4,408 in Romantic Comedy (Kindle Store)
• #5,453 in Romantic Comedy (Books)

About the author

Ali hazelwood.

Ali Hazelwood is a multi-published author—alas, of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience. She recently became a professor, which absolutely terrifies her. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, crocheting, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her two feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).

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The Golden Divorce, "Alice & Jack" and why disconnected romances are our new modern love stories

Finding love is harder than ever, despite having tools to make it simpler. these shows and films explore that gap, by melanie mcfarland.

Last week Gerry Turner and his wife Theresa Nist, whose competition-driven courtship was chronicled on the first ever edition of “ The Golden Bachelor ,” announced their divorce on “Good Morning America.”

While they wisely refrained from divulging many specifics on national TV the septuagenarians said they took a hard look at their lives and felt like it was for the best, “for the happiness of each of us, to live apart,” Turner said.

Many poets write odes to love but this time Robert Frost had it right when he said nothing gold can ever stay. But even he may have been impressed by the speed of Turner and Nist’s marital dissolution – it took a scant three months between the live televised event that was “ The Golden Wedding ” and the couple’s “headscratcher” of a revelation to anchor Juju Chang.

Bachelor Nation citizens, meanwhile, have had 22 years of expecting each season’s engagement will be temporary. Besides, if you’ve been keeping an eye on other TV shows, movies and social media lately, you might say Turner and Nist are the more practical examples of a trend.

Take the last season of “ Love Is Blind ,” Netflix’s hit romance competition where people court each other sight unseen. One charming couple, Kenneth Gorham and Brittany Mills, were affectionate and loving after meeting each other and during the “getting to you know” paradise getaway the show rewards the duos who get engaged.

Gorham and Mills seemed to have everything going for them until they returned to the real world, where Gorham’s cell phone unexpectedly became the third partner in their relationship.

In a post-show EW interview Gorham explained their breakup was based on other factors, mainly due to her lack of a “crave” for him. But Gorham’s glued attention to his mobile remains a prime suspect in their affair’s untimely demise.  Moments after the pair made their breakup official he was dialing someone. It wasn't a good look, just a typical one.

Unscripted reality isn’t the only genre lowering our expectations. Sunday brings in the conclusion of “Alice & Jack,” a very modern “Masterpiece” romance starring Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough about a couple who are very much in love but for other head-scratching reasons can’t figure out how to be together.

There is nothing physically preventing them from following through with their feelings. Both live in the U.K. and are wealthy, high-functioning adults. Trying to remain friends ruined Jack’s marriage and made Alice jilt another man at the altar.

Radical honesty about his and Alice’s “It’s Complicated” status doesn’t go over well for Jack in his dating life. At a certain point he shares some version of a prepared script that goes something like, “I’ve been in love with someone for 15 years and she’s in love with me . . . We've never managed to stay in a romantic relationship together for longer than about 11 minutes. So, a long time ago, we decided to just be friends.”

He continues, “We have everything apart from the physical, basically, and that’s the way that that will stay. But I guess my point is that I am not a completely clean slate.” When against all odds he finds a woman who can accept those terms, he and Alice manage to muck that up too.

Love was never easy to find. Lasting romance and marriage, even less so.

The Oscar-nominated “Past Lives” follows the wistful drifting apart of a writer, Nora ( Greta Lee ) and her first love Hae-sung ( Teo Yoo ). The two lose contact for 12 years after Nora’s family emigrates to the United States and reconnect after Hae-sung finds her again on Facebook. They launch a courtship he views as picking up from their pre-teen crushes and evolving into an adult romance.

Several continents, Skype conversations and promised visits aren’t enough to sustain Nora’s heart. She breaks it off. It shatters him, and the only way they’re able to heal is when he visits her in New York where she is married to a fellow writer, Arthur (John Magaro), that she happened to meet at a residency. 

At least Nora found someone. Netflix’s adaptation of David Nicholls’s 2009 novel “One Day” follows Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) over 20 years, starting on the night they meet, their graduation, where Emma diverts what Dex thinks will be a one-night stand into hours of conversation.

She’s brainy and bookish; he’s hot, popular and rich. They don’t look like they’d have anything in common and, indeed, Emma is their friendship’s main support as Dexter bangs women, drifts into shallow TV hosting jobs and an addiction to drugs and alcohol. But for those nagging, inscrutable reasons they’re continuously drawn to each other and have epically bad timing and taste in other lovers.  

Love was never easy to find. Lasting romance and marriage, even less so.  But certainly over the last 20 years – around the same amount of time it takes Emma and Dexter to keep missing each other, and slightly longer that Alice and Jack’s frustrations play out – forging lasting kinships with other people has gotten a lot tougher.

We know this from anecdotal evidence, sharing our dating experiences or hearing about them from friends. But poll data also confirms the suspicion that it’s not just you, or me, it’s all of us.

“Nearly half of U.S. adults – and a majority of women – say that dating has become harder in the last 10 years,” read the findings of a 2020 Pew Research Center poll , working from 2019 data. That report is four years old, granted, but the 47% of Americans who said then that dating is now harder than it was 10 years ago probably haven’t changed their minds.

This is borne out in a March report in The Economist distilling polling data from 20 wealthy countries, using the European Social Survey, America’s General Social Survey and the Korean Social Survey, to explain the expanding political gulf between young men and women. (Turner and Nist are in their 70s, we know, but stay with us.)

The article delves into the many reasons that young men are veering rightward politically, citing the widening education gap between men and women as a primary factor. In the United States, women are 10% more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than men. This results in differing experiences in life work and romance, the Economist explains:

To simplify: when a woman leaves university in a rich country, she is likely to find a white-collar job and be able to support herself. But when she enters the dating market (assuming she is heterosexual), she finds that, because there are many more female graduates than male ones, the supply of liberal, educated men does not match demand.

The story also cites the prevalence of social media-aggravated polarization and the social and workplace strides women have made in what the conservative British publication describes as “advanced” countries.

These devices weren’t present in the Nora Ephron and John Hughes romances that defined the terms of romance aspiration for past generations. Mindy Kaling based two of her comedies, “ The Mindy Project ” and “ Never Have I Ever, ” on the type of expectations that genre set for us, with the girl getting the right boy in each, and not the boy she was expecting.

“Love Is Blind” pretends that’s possible too, emulating the dating app model by prioritizing voice and personality over photos, which tend to lie anyway.  Although the series has a few successful marriages in its column, its most catastrophic failures demonstrate the shortcomings of tech-facilitated meetings and romance, innovations whose purpose are simultaneously at odds with and meant to ease the creation and maintenance of relationships.

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Now consider how these translate into dating and romance, or even friendships. Innovations make it possible to forge partnerships without ever meeting in real life. Or, they act at a foundation that speeds connections to that elusive next level, which how Reesa Teesa’s viral 50-part TikTok story “ Who TF Did I Marry ?” came to be.

The video thread spans some eight hours and tells the story of Teesa meeting the man she calls Legion through Facebook Dating and Hinge before talking to him on the phone. He wooed her with promises of financial stability, a desire to own a home, marry and start a family. Soon he moved into her townhouse so they could spend the pandemic’s lockdown together.

From there her story spirals through a miscarriage, house purchases never materializing and a solar system of lies, ranging from fake family members to non-existent jobs and pretend phone conversations with parties who don’t exist.

Teesa assures us she’s not a dumb person, and the way she tells her story proves that – which is what makes her tale extraordinarily compelling and chillingly cautionary.  She simply wanted things many of us want, a partner to rely on and to share a life with. Having the illusion of that possibility present itself a time when loneliness was endemic worldwide made her especially vulnerable, and in a way that anyone could have fallen for.

When it comes to take one’s chances with a stranger, we may be better off keeping our expectations reasonably pragmatic . . . instead of plunging into the wilderness with our hearts exposed.

“I never thought I was going to be in some sort of Lifetime movie,” she said, “but I was.

At least Turner and Nist met in real life, albeit through the thoroughly manipulated “Bachelor” franchise speed-dating process. And their TV affair wasn’t without its bumps in the road; The Hollywood Reporter published a story pointing to several fabrications in Turner’s storyline that weren’t dealbreakers for Nist. Until, maybe, last week.

It is strange to think that this televised, gamified courtship is somehow more humane than the version facilitated via mobile devices.

Services such as Tinder or Hinge promise to ease, if not remove, irritating emotional friction to skip straight to the physical. But every relationship worth having requires negotiating another person’s feelings.

“Alice & Jack” and “Past Lives” center romances that either begin on an app, which is how Alice meets Jack, or is sustained for a time through electronic communication, as in “Past Lives.”

Each has consequences on the longer-term lifespan of whatever intimacies their characters can scrape out for themselves. (Emma and Dex share a Luddite’s version of not-love, sustaining their half-requited relationship through letters, emails and tearful answering machine messages, appropriate to the story’s timespan between 1988 and 2007.) Alice doesn’t want to know Jack until she decides she does months later, showing up unannounced without having called him.

Nora closes her laptop on Hae-sung’s Skype call, and that’s pretty much that. She meets Arthur and Hae-sung dates someone else until another 12 years go by and he shows up in New York, lovelorn and wondering what would have been.

That’s preferable, I suppose, to the “One Day” model of pining away for your college crush and putting up with his slights, arrogance and alcoholism for two decades only to finally win him — just in time for the worst to happen.

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A version of that fear drove Turner and Nist to the altar, as they explained last fall after “The Golden Bachelor” became the franchise’s biggest hit in years. “We’re going to do it as quickly as we can because, at our age, we don’t have a lot of time to waste,” Turner said. “As quickly as we can put together a wedding plan, we’re getting married.”

Look how that worked out.

Around the same time that the Earth gasped at the announcement of the so-called “Golden Divorce,” another video went viral of a reporter hitting London’s streets and asking women whether they’d rather be stuck in a forest with a man or a bear . Seven out of eight chose the bear without hesitation.

As several of the women who were willing to chance it with a bear explained, they don’t necessarily attack you if you leave them alone. The wrong man might. And while that speaks to a more sinister aspect of the widening chasm between the sexes , it’s another indicator of what entertainment is reflecting.

When it comes to taking one’s chances with a stranger, we may be better off keeping our expectations reasonably pragmatic, if not bearably low, instead of plunging into the wilderness with our hearts exposed. That’s certainly a hopeful dream. But for many of us it’s been glitching.

about this topic

• "Past Lives" and my family know the true role of that almost mythological first love
• The lonely, beautiful truths of "The Golden Bachelor"
• "Love Is Blind" hasn't really worked since the first season, so why are we still watching?

Melanie McFarland is Salon's award-winning senior culture critic. Follow her on Twitter: @McTelevision

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The Starting Line on Getting a Taylor Swift Shout-Out in ‘The Black Dog,’ 22 Years After Pop-Punk Band’s Breakout: ‘It’s an Unexpected Showering of Love’

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

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There’s no golden ticket quite like the golden ticket of finding your name in the lyrics of a Taylor Swift song. It’s one thing if you’re Charlie Puth, and already on a list of Spotify’s 150 top monthly artists. But for another musical artist name-checked in Swift’s album “ The Tortured Poets Department ,” the impact stands to be much more impactful. The pop-punk band the Starting Line gets mentioned twice in the song “The Black Dog,” and suddenly nostalgia for (or newfound curiosity about) the Philadelphia-based group is skyrocketing.

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The Starting Line actually enjoys the distinction of being the only other artist to get mentioned twice by name in the album lyrics. Take that, Puth, Blue Nile, Patti Smith, Dylan Thomas, Clara Bow and Stevie Nicks! (Actually, it could be three times, since, beyond the two mentions in “The Black Dog,” the phrase “the starting line” also pops up separately in the song “Fresh Out the Slammer,” but it isn’t used as a band reference there, just a figure of speech… or is it? )

The name pops up in the first chorus:

I just don’t understand how you don’t miss me In The Black Dog When someone plays The Starting Line and you jump up But she’s too young to know this song That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming Old habits die screaming

And wait, in the second round, they’re back:

“I feel like it’s trying to impart some sort of nostalgia of the time and the kind of music that we were making at that time, and I’m very flattered that we were the representation of that,” Vasoli says.

Swift would have been turning 13 the year “Best of Me” came out, a number that obviously holds a special place for her, even possibly as an age. And even though the song was a national hit with emo fans, establishing the Starting Line as Warped Tour material, the group remains hometown heroes in the Philadelphia area, not far from where Swift grew up, which may solidify a nostalgic appeal for her.

Yet the lyrics also clearly establish that excitement over sharing “Best of Me” was something that she and the person she just broke up with in the song had in common… and Swift doesn’t often lie in her material. So the question riling fans up has been: If it’s not fiction, is it more likely to be about Matty Healy or Joe Alwyn?

“I’m certainly getting a crash course in the backstory between the characters that are involved in this thing,” says Vasoli, not picking any sides himself. “So it’s been a pretty fascinating study in fandom, for sure.”

Lending obvious weight to the argument in favor of Healy, the frontman for the 1975, is that he actually sang “Best of Me” twice in concert while dating Taylor Swift , at least by the timelines laid out on the world wide web. Or at least he sang a snippet of the Starting Line’s signature song at a show April 21, 2023 and again on May 3 of last year. “Shout-out to people in their thirties,” Healy quipped after performing the song excerpt. Now, it’s not easy to say conclusively that no one else who has split with Swift in recent years was a major emo-head, too, but the Internet is just sayin’.

When Healy started showing his love for the Starting Line in concert last spring, “we heard about it, but it certainly didn’t get the kind of attention that this did. It seems like now people are kind of checking out those YouTube videos of him covering that song a little bit more, and there’s a little bit more investigation to be had about them. At the time it was just sort of a cool thing that was passed around between the guys, but didn’t make it much further past that.”

(Arguing against the theory that “The Black Dog” is about Healy, though: Based on photographs Jack Antonoff posted of studio sessions from last year, fans believe the song was recorded in mid-May 2023. Which would lend itself to a hypothesis that it’s really about Alwyn, and that she played the song for Healy, who was then inspired to cover “Best of Me” in concert. A tangled web.)

But they wouldn’t be playing “Best of Me” over the PA in a metal bar, so we can probably at least rule the Paris possibility out, right? “I don’t know. You know, we’re heavier than you would think,” Vasoli counters. “We surprise people with our heaviness once we get up there.”

But he doesn’t have any personal knowledge of any of the Black Dog geo-location possibilities. “No, the only black dogs I’ve met are just good boys and girls out there at the dog park,” he says. “Your guess is as good as mine on that one.”

The Starting Line only has two shows on the books at present: a gig at the Novo in Los Angeles on the first day of summer, June 21, followed much further down the line by a set at the When We Were Young festival Oct. 19. The Starting Line actually played quite a few shows in 2023; these were the most the band had done in about a quarter-century.

Could they book a lot more now, and bill themselves as one of the few Swift-endorsed rock ‘n’ roll bands of their ilk in the world?

“You know, it’s been sort of a point of conversation of, how much do you lean into something like this?” Vasoli admits, a little cagey even with himself about how much to be seen as taking advantage of it. “Because something like this is not something you really plan for in your music career,. The reverberations have been very big and we’re just sort of trying to accept it with gratitude at this point, sitting back and just seeing what happens from it.”

Although the singer says those two concert dates “are it for now, there’s gonna be more that’s coming down the pike and more that’s getting booked. The vast majority of the band has day jobs that keep them obligated to stay home a little bit, more than some of the other bands. So we don’t hit the road for too long on a regular basis, but we’re trying to get into a rhythm where we can do more of it.”

He also says new music will be heard from the group, for the first time since a 2015 EP.

“There’s been an uptick in us playing together, and a really great interpersonal dynamic between the band members recently that has been very creative and inspirational, playing together recently. So we’ve been into a creative process writing new music since last year. We’re just collecting everything and figuring out the best way to get that out there. But we’re generating music and have been for a bit of time. With us trying to get back into a more usual pace with the band, after all this time, it’s nice that we’re getting a little bit of light on us at this moment, especially given that we’re engaging more than ever since like 2007, when we kind of let our foot off the gas.”

Sample comments on Reddit threads about the Starting Line’s name-check: “I am losing my millennial mind over this reference.” “This one was for the elder emo swifties.” “I screamed! They were my absolute favorite band in high school. My husband and I still listen to them all the time.” “All the elder emo millennials screaming: One of us, one of us.” “That moment when you realize you’re a musical influence to one of the biggest stars on the planet.” “Drop the (Starting Line) cover of the song immediately.”

And: “THIS IS THE MOST PENNSYLVANIA THING THIS WOMAN HAS EVER DONE. i’m so happy for you guys.”

(For those who really pay attention to both intersecting worlds, a joint fan noted: “Funny to think the Starting Line and Jack’s first band Steel Train were both on Drive Thru Records.”)

The singer still seems wonderstruck, to borrow a Swiftian word, about this stroke of recognition. “It’s a trip man, for sure. I can be nothing but really grateful and humbled by this whole thing. And it’s nice that I even get to speak with someone like you about our group in any capacity. So very happy about it.”

And if more dates are indeed in the offing as a result of this? “Please, everybody come check our band out. If it’s good enough for the name drop, come check out the goods.” He is suddenly abashed at what he just said. “You don’t have to print that part. That sounds so weird.” Vasoli can be forgiven for a little enthusiasm: Being embedded in the document that the whole world is scanning — a lyric sheet — is the kind of thing that can make somebody jump up.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Starting Line (@thestartinglinerock)

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Jack Antonoff Says He Is 'Overwhelmed' After The Tortured Poets Department Release: 'Love You Taylor'

The Bleachers singer collaborated with Taylor Swift on this album and numerous projects, including 2022's ‘Midnights’

Dominik Bindl/WireImage; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Jack Antonoff is showing his appreciation for his longtime friend and musical collaborator Taylor Swift after the release of the artist’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department on April 19. 

The record producer and Bleachers frontman used social media to praise Swift, sharing his "love" for her, the record and their fans as well as revealing how he was feeling after the release of her latest album.

"love this album more than i can say .... love you all very much ... more later very overwhelmed ... love you taylor," he posted on X (formerly Twitter) in the early hours of Friday.

In two other tweets, he appeared to shout out tracks (and the fans who would be listening) on the album, writing, "!! FOTS heads lets go !!" — seemingly a nod to the track "Fresh Out the Slammer," —  in one and "down bad heads as well" in another — referring to the song "Down Bad."

Antonoff, 40, is credited as a producer on The Tortured Poets Department . The album includes 16 standard songs, as well as features from Post Malone and Florence + The Machine on two separate tracks. 

Later in the day on April 19, Antonoff posted to his Instagram to share some candid photos from the making of the album. as well as a caption announcing, "TTPD is here." "My favorite work we have made together / made in the most wild unhinged moment. all the pain distilled in this album and all the laughter that came out of it. will hold those days in the studio forever as the most inspiring of my life. i adore this album and the way it came together," he wrote.

"ttpd FOREVER 1- the day we made down bad 2- fots day 3- florida 4- laura sisk forever 5- black dog 6- electric lady 7- i love you taylor! love you @sharp_stick / @olijacobs1 / @jack_m_manning / @electricladystudios / @aarondessner / @heyjonlow / @patrikbergerking / @florence / @postmalone / @mikeyfreedomhart / @esmith109 / @zemaudu / @hutchdrums / @mriddles / @serbangheneamixes from 1989 to TTPD"

Antonoff and Swift, 34, have known each other since 2012 and began working together soon after, collaborating on the song “Sweeter Than Fiction" for the One Chance movie soundtrack. Since then, they have teamed up on multiple of Swift’s greatest hits, including her Grammy-winning albums 1989 and Folklore , among many others. 

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Antonoff has also worked with several of Swift’s other friends, producing and songwriting for artists such as Lana Del Rey and Lorde . 

Kevin Mazur/Getty

In March, Antonoff praised Swift's songwriting skills while  speaking to the  Los Angeles Times , saying that questioning her aptitude is "like challenging someone’s faith in God. You just don’t go there."

Swift and her boyfriend, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce , were spotted in the crowd at Coachella last week at Antonoff’s set for his rock band Bleachers. Bleachers’ drummer Sean Hutchinson also shared snaps of the couple hanging out with other members of the band backstage during the festival on Instagram.

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