Paperback, 352 pages
English language
Published Sept. 14, 2021 by Berkley.
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 …
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 book is nothing deep and the writing isn't anything special – but it's fun. Like a popcorn movie.
I do recall myself saying, at some point in the past, "My kingdom for a female lead with a STEM degree" (though I think I was talking about paranormal romance, I bet I didn't specify). This definitely succeeds, there!
The main and side characters are all delightful, with a villain you love to hate. The best friends of the romantic leads are particularly charming, with lots of witty banter. Although it's an m/f pairing, it isn't a book full of straight people, which I appreciated (and which makes the setting more believable, as well).
I'm super squeamish about professor-student pairings, but this one's a young professor (tenured early) and a PhD student, with no formal professional relationship (no advising, no classes in common, etc.), in a large enough department where that's presumably realistic. It's still enough for me to take off a star from an otherwise fantastically done book, but …
I do recall myself saying, at some point in the past, "My kingdom for a female lead with a STEM degree" (though I think I was talking about paranormal romance, I bet I didn't specify). This definitely succeeds, there!
The main and side characters are all delightful, with a villain you love to hate. The best friends of the romantic leads are particularly charming, with lots of witty banter. Although it's an m/f pairing, it isn't a book full of straight people, which I appreciated (and which makes the setting more believable, as well).
I'm super squeamish about professor-student pairings, but this one's a young professor (tenured early) and a PhD student, with no formal professional relationship (no advising, no classes in common, etc.), in a large enough department where that's presumably realistic. It's still enough for me to take off a star from an otherwise fantastically done book, but your mileage may vary; I've taught graduate classes, and I want a PhD, so it probably hits me differently.
Occasionally, the dialogue is probably a little more undergraduate STEM level than is realistic for experts in the field, which pulled me out of the story a bit, but that's entirely understandable: a book has to appeal to a broad set of readers to sell copies. And if they'd spoken at too high a level, I, not a biologist, wouldn't have been able to follow, either.
Anyway, I happily recommend it, but with a content warning about sexual harassment of a woman in STEM.
