Technical Sheet
Book: Love, Theoretically, by Ali Hazelwood
Genre: Romance
Rating: 5 stars
“There is no universe in which I’m going to let you go. I want to be with you, on you, every second of every day.”
“Have you considered that maybe you’re the way I want you to be? That maybe there are no signals because nothing needs to be changed?”
Review
My very first review could only be about a book by Ali Hazelwood. The Love Hypothesis was the first book I read after getting back into reading earlier this year that gave me that feeling of butterflies in my stomach all over again! Since then, I’ve read almost all of her books and realized that her style works amazingly well for me.
This brilliant story features Elsie as its protagonist. Elsie is an adjunct professor desperately trying to leave this career behind, being with every person she meets along her way the exact person the other most desires her to be. Thus, she manipulates her personality to fit in with everyone. She takes pride in this ability, but is unsuccessful with just one person: Jack. Despite already knowing each other through Jack’s brother, they become rivals when Jack becomes an obstacle to Elsie advancing to a position that interests her greatly.
Ali Hazelwood always manages to build strong women in science with different personality traits than what is usually seen, always captivating and realistic. Not only with this author, but mainly with her, I realized that what makes a romance interesting isn’t just the part where the girl meets the boy and they live happily ever after. Deep down, they’re all like that. What truly captivates the reader are the small intricacies of the characters, their quirks, their personalities. And the way they fit together throughout the book. Now, this can also kill a book, obviously.
However, Hazelwood rarely misses the mark for me. Elsie left a mark on me because I’m also a people pleaser and always try to adapt to the person in front of me. This was the point that captivated me most in the entire book: the way she evolves and gains the confidence to be more herself and demand her rights.
Furthermore, obviously Ali’s men are always automatically head over heels and obsessed with the main characters, but Jack reaches another incredible level (Adam and Levi, watch out!). Jack is patient, prudent, delicate. Reading the rivalry dynamic taking Jack’s traits into account only makes us love him more. I’m coming to understand that a good romance for me as a reader is when it’s noticeable that the MMC already feels something for the FMC from the beginning, and that it’s only revealed to the woman near the end. But throughout the whole book, you read all the little gestures, the hidden smiles, the random encounters (completely planned by the man — it doesn’t happen in this book, but it’s as if it happens in my heart).
Finally, I read this book quite fast, because it has a very fluid read. The author’s style makes you feel like you’re watching a rom-com movie rather than reading. With her writing, I observe, and try to implement in mine, how she constructs her dialogue. As a writer, I tend to always have a certain formality and I find it difficult to write dialogue, especially. However, in this author’s books, her dialogues are so light, so quotable, so funny, so… I often find myself laughing out loud. What the characters say to each other are dialogues you could easily hear on the street. Studying these dialogues helps me find what characterizes the lightness of everyday conversations and apply them in a story of my own.
Needless to say, I highly recommend reading this book. To people who love rivals-to-lovers romance, to anyone who is a people pleaser and would like to stand up for their rights more often, to book-highlighters (you’ll have so much to highlight!), to lovers of female characters with a sense of humor. But for that last one, any book by Hazelwood will do.
Leave a Reply