#36 in Romance
Love, Theoretically
- 400
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 4 weeks on the list, peaked at #2
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About the book
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?
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.2 across 685 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 82% of the weight and the score stays at 8.1 — the Romance average of 7.7 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.6 | 17 | 3% |
| Hardcover | 8.2 | 668 | 98% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“I had fun with this one! It's Ali Hazelwood's formula once again, and there were a few too many mentions of how big Jack was and how tiny Elsie was (but a lot less than in LotB). However, I liked Elsie and Jack together. I…”
“My favourite so far from this author! Truly enjoy that there is even more academia in this one. It creates a deeper context for the romance part and reminds me how I used to love science!”
Frequently asked
How long is Love, Theoretically?
It has 400 pages — shorter than 51% of the ranked books in Romance.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Romance — and a score of 8.1, the closest to this book.
