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.
Content warning General spoilers
I really sped through this one (read it in two days), but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. It's a light read and a little too up my alley.
That aside, I will say first and foremost: this reads like fanfiction. I mean this in a pretty positive way, since I enjoy the tropes going on here. I also enjoy the perspective that the author has on academia, being an academic herself. Some jokes genuinely got a snicker out of me, and some bits about impostor syndrome and the ups and downs of a PhD program were a little bit too real.
I will say, how on the nose it was with fourth wall breaks and self-referential humor was a little annoying in some parts. The obliviousness of the main couple, while enjoyable most of the time, was also incredibly unbelievable. Even for fanfiction. I also felt like the ending really lacked gravitas because of how quickly Olive and Adam got back together. I would've liked to see more struggle there. I do also want to note that the characters are somewhat one-dimensional. This is definitely the largest drawback of the fact that it reads like fanfiction. (EDIT: this makes more sense now, see below) I feel like I barely understood Olive, and I understood even less of Adam. I would've liked more time spent with Olive and Adam overall, but honestly I'm not sure if this writing style or storyline would've been able to sustain much more plot without getting tedious.
Anyway, the tl;dr is that this book was perfectly servicable for my specific interests and I enjoyed it as a fellow academic.
EDIT: I was informed after writing this review that this was reylo fanfic. That connects a lot of dots. I'm not a fan of reylo, but it doesn't influence my opinion in any way in regards to this review.
No me había reído tanto desde hace un tiempo, lo mejorcito de lo mejorcito
Ojo spoilers! Porque vengo a quejarme a pesar de ser una lectura que me gustó muchísimo, que me hizo reír y llorar, y enamorarme de Adam:
Uno: Se sigue perpetuando la idea de chica pequeña frente a hombre grande con rabo monstruoso. Y ya me cansa, me cansa sieeeempre lo mismo: "uy qué grande eres", "uy qué apretadita eres", venga, por favor...
Y dos: ¿podemos hablar ya de lo creepy que resulta que este tío de 34 años se haya tirado los últimos 3 o 4 "vigilando" a la muchacha? Entiendo las dudas, la timidez, el miedo al rechazo... Pero, joder. Es que ni un paso ha dado para conocerla, ni uno. No eran ni colegas, ni compañeros, ni nada, así que es TURBIO cuando menos. Cuando por fin están juntos y él le enumera situaciones que ella vivió en el pasado y que él había visto desde su punto …
Ojo spoilers! Porque vengo a quejarme a pesar de ser una lectura que me gustó muchísimo, que me hizo reír y llorar, y enamorarme de Adam:
Uno: Se sigue perpetuando la idea de chica pequeña frente a hombre grande con rabo monstruoso. Y ya me cansa, me cansa sieeeempre lo mismo: "uy qué grande eres", "uy qué apretadita eres", venga, por favor...
Y dos: ¿podemos hablar ya de lo creepy que resulta que este tío de 34 años se haya tirado los últimos 3 o 4 "vigilando" a la muchacha? Entiendo las dudas, la timidez, el miedo al rechazo... Pero, joder. Es que ni un paso ha dado para conocerla, ni uno. No eran ni colegas, ni compañeros, ni nada, así que es TURBIO cuando menos. Cuando por fin están juntos y él le enumera situaciones que ella vivió en el pasado y que él había visto desde su punto de vista oculto entre las sombras de un tío serio y despegado a mí me dio todo el mal rollo del mundo. Eso no puede ser romántico, lo siento. No, no y no. Esto nos pasa en la vida real y da una sensación de indefensión y de violación de la intimidad, brutal. Pero claro, como es Adam y ya estamos conquistadas al 100% pues aquí todo vale
