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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
While I thought the book was a fun read and I found the writing style to be humorous and witty and very engaging, there are a few aspects of it that made it a bit difficult for me to fully dive into and enjoy. First, the story could be a little cheesy at times, but I think this is entirely forgivable for a humorous romance story. But what was most off-putting was the book’s heavy emphasis on the world of academia. It may be a personal opinion, but the positions of the characters (student and professor) made it difficult to really believe the progression of the relationship at times. And it was also quite uncomfortable to imagine, so it was difficult to get through some parts.
I did love it so much. A little painfully convenient at times & I didn’t love the title ix joke between adam and olive. Also low key adam might be a stalker, but I can’t help liking him
Im sorry but there was so much I didn’t like in this book I don’t think it’s even worth explaining it all but ya I didn’t like it, lots of weird parts, olive got so super annoying to me too
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
** CAUTION: These are my reading notes and, therefore, contain approximately one million spoilers**
Overall # of Stars: 4/5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
📖 parallel reading this w Dev while she reads Deep End :)
📖 ugh I just LOVED THIS BOOK! Deep End is still my fave AH book, tied for first w Bride, but this is a v close second.
👯♀️ Olive + Anh = me + Dev 💜
🥰 our girl is 5’8 AND part of the IBTC 👏🏻
🚨 THAT BONUS CHAPTER AT THE END THO 😍
🥰 nickname: smart-ass / sweetheart
Source: lib 📚
*Recommended by: Dev!
✅ fake dating!! 😍
✅ forced proximity
✅ grumpy x sunshine
✅ he falls first
✅ strong female friendship!! 👯♀️
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Olive Smith
Adam Carlsen
Prologue
Olive put expired contacts in so now her eyes are blurry and burning 😂
She’s hiding out in a bathroom and meets The Guy
They have the weirdest, funniest exchange I love her
She thinks he’s a PhD student
“Good luck on your interview, Olive.”
“Thanks.”
He was almost out the door already.
“Maybe I’ll see you next year,” she babbled, flushing a little. “If I get in. And if you haven’t graduated.”
“Maybe,” she heard him say.
With that, The Guy was gone. And Olive never got his name. But a few weeks later, when Stanford biology department extended her an offer, she accepted it. Without hesitating.
Two years, eleven months later
Oh okay, she’s kissing someone random at 11p in the biology hall
Like literally in this first sentence
LFG!!
Oh shit, not just anyone, Adam Carlsen 🫣
She saw her bff Anh coming down the hall, and for some reason we have yet to learn, turns to the closest man, whispers “Can I please kiss you?” And then just leaned in and kissed him 😂
Olive, girl, I fucking love you
Now she’s losing her shit bc she just now realizes it’s Adam
He was a notoriously moody, obnoxious, terrifying dick
He’s like ummm… did u just kiss me?
Olive: no
(Lolol)
He’s like that was assault (it’s true)
She’s like wut!!
*also she is 5’8 😍👏🏻
Omg this book is already so funny and quirky
Oh, also, Anh is nowhere to be found
She’s like plz don’t report me
A: the kiss. Explain.
O: i went on a couple of dates w Jeremy Langley but when I took him to Anh’s bday party they hit it off
I told her to go for it but she won’t bc girl code
So I told her I was on a date… tonight.
Also, go ahead and report me I am so so sooo sorry
*runs away*
A: “Olive… Olive, wait up.
It never occurred to Olive that Dr. Adam Carlsen—known ass—had called her by her name. 😍
A few days later
O: if I’ve done two years w/o interacting w Adam Carlsen then I’m pretty sure I can go the rest of my time here without seeing him again! (lol girl love the delusion)
Her research focus is pancreatic cancer detection
She needs more funding, reached out to leading researcher at Harvard
He said he’d like to speak w her when she is in town omg!
Oh shit but first…
Anh: I saw u w Dr Carlsen the other night, the most bizarre kiss I’ve ever seen
O: no the spider man kiss was way more bizarre
Lolol
“The situation was depressingly simple: Olive was alone in the world. She had been for a long time, ever since high school.” 😔
“—until… Anh.”
Omg 😭😭😭
These descriptions of her friendship w Anh — I simply cannot 🥹👯♀️
The day Olive met Anh’s rolling eyes, a life-changing friendship was born. Slowly, they’d begun to include Malcolm and become a little bit of a trio, but Anh… Anh was her person. Family. Olive hadn’t even thought that was possible for someone like her.
Anh: “I mean that we talk every minute of every day, and you never mentioned Carlsen before. My closest friend is supposedly seeing the superstar professor of the department, and somehow I’ve never heard of it? You know his reputation, right? Is it some kind of joke? Do you have a brain tumor? Do I have a brain tumor?”
Olive starts spiraling, thinking of how this lie is going to cost her friendship w Anh and then she’ll be all alone again, fail out of grad school etc etc etc
“Hey.”
ITS ADAM FUCKING CARLSEN AND HE HAS HIS HAND ON HER LOWER BACK OMFG 😍
“Is everything okay?” He said it looking into her eyes, in a low, intimate tone. Like they were alone. Like Anh was not there. He said it in a way that should have made Olive uncomfortable but didn’t. For some inexplicable reason his presence in the room soothed her, even though until a second ago she had been freaking out.
Eeeeeee 😍😍😍
A says hi to Anh
Anh is like omg and says okay Ol ttyl
“Is everything okay?” he asked again. His tone was still soft. Not something she would have expected from him.
“Yes. Yes, I just…” Olive waved her hand. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Did you hear what she said? About Friday and…”
“I did. That’s why I…” He looked at her, and then at his hand—the one that had been warming her back a few seconds ago—and Olive immediately understood.
Okay back w Anh, she’s like is this a prank? This book is so funny:
“Okay.” Anh chewed on her lower lip, deep in concentration. “So it’s not a prank. Which means that there must be another explanation. Let me find it.”
“There is no explanation to be found. We just—“
“Oh my God, are you trying to get citizenship? Are they deporting you back to Canada because we’ve been sharing Malcolm’s Netflix password? Tell them we didn’t know it was a federal crime. No, wait, don’t tell them anything until we get you a lawyer. And, Ol, I will marry you. I’ll get you a green card and you won’t have to—“
Omfg I wish I could highlight this entire scene w them it’s sooo cute and funny
“Is he blackmailing you?”
Lolol
Tom Benton is coming to Stanford to meet w a collaborator on a recent grant! Will meet when he arrives
All of her biology peers, her advisor etc are suddenly acting super weird around her…
Oh fuck, everyone “knows” she’s dating Adam 🙃
She goes to speak w A, absolutely panicked that this is happening.
O: if u have any ideas abt how to fix this mess…
“You could let them go on thinking it.”
😍👏🏻🎉
This book just made me *literally* laugh out loud I’m dying 😂😂😂
Win-win for them both
Solves Olive’s problem w Anh (kinda?)
A is considered a flight risk to leave Stanford so Stanford froze 1/3 of his research funds (millions of $$$)
If it looked like he is in a rx, it would really help paint the picture that he was tied here
Okay she agrees: she’s been getting so much more respect and access to resources since the rumors started so…
He goes to the dean, there’s no current conflict of interest bc he’s not her advisor so it’s okay for them to date, he just couldn’t be on her thesis (dissertation?) committee
Ground rules
Deadline: Sept 29th, A will know if he has his funds by then
They will do things together every once in awhile
Meeting Weds for coffee so people can see them out and about together
Malcolm is still mad at her
A had him throw out a ton of his data last year and redo half his study so there’s bad blood there for M
She tells him it’s fake
He’s not mad anymore lol
First fake Weds coffee date
Oh it’s cute
Tom Benton scheduled the meeting w her!
Second fake date, he’s grumpy bc they still won’t release his funds
Omg Tom fucking Benton walks up: HES FRIENDS W ADAM
He’s like okay let’s meet now, come with Adam
They’re looking at each other like wtf do we do
They sit down together: asks for her pitch
T: what’s cool abt your research
She freezes
A: wtf what kind of question is that
T: well wtf would you ask
A: supplies several detailed questions
O: aces it 😎
T: I’ll need a complete write up in two weeks
O: okay! (*Internally panicking*)
T: great, in the meantime I will see you around since Adam and I will be joined at the hip for a few weeks. And I’m staying w A, so I’ll see you at his place
FUCK YES U WILL TOM
Forced proximity 😍
Speaking of, has to sit in his lap during Tom’s lecture 😏
Anh: go kiss him
O: omg wut
They kiss
Anh: he is so into you, I can tell by the way he stares at you
Greg blows up at O bc A failed his proposal — excuse me sir she is separate from him
She texts Adam like wtf y r u so mean
A: it’s not my job to be nice
O: fuck u Adam
Three days later, faculty picnic
Anh is SPF-obsessed: my girl!
Makes her put sunscreen all over A in front of everyone 😂
Opens up about how her mom died when she was 15yo
Gabbing, teasing each other
She made to stand and leave indignantly, but he grabbed the sleeve of her shirt and gently tugged at it until she was sitting down again, next to him on the narrow couch—maybe even a little closer than before.
She’s like why don’t you want/have a gf to real-date
“Olive.” He took a deep breath. “You should know that—“
Then fucking Jeremy interrupts 😫
Tom read her report, wants to review it, asks her to come over to Adam’s to meet w him
ITS OFFICAL SHES GOING TO HARVARD NEXT YEAR TO WORK IN HIS LAB TO COMPLETE HER RESEARCH YES!
Anh: you’re both crazy in love, and over the moon about it
O: wut! No! *panics*
Pours her heart out to Malcolm
Adam overheard the last part of their convo
Then Holden joins them. Friends for decades. He doesn’t like Tom.
O: “it wasn’t about you. I just have a thing. For a guy”
A: Olive you are extraordinary. You should tell Jeremy how u feel
Shit he thinks she’s in love w Jeremy
Also is Tom going to be the bad guy here?? (Yep)
Adam, Tom OOT for the week
A texts her abt a pumpkin spice latte (inside joke)
He texts her: Wish you were here, then.
😭🥹😍
Runs into Holden again, this time in the lab
Finds out A has been wanting to ask her out for YEARS OMFG
“Yep. I’m so glad he finally scrounged up the courage to ask you out. He’d been going on and on and this ‘amazing girl’ for years, but he was concerned about being in the same department, and you know how he is… I’m glad he finally managed to pull his head out of his ass.”
Olive’s brain stuttered… and it took her several seconds to process that Adam had been wanting to ask her out for years. She couldn’t wrap her head about it, because… it was not possible.
Then he warns her about Tom, says “Watch your back w him” 🙃
Her proposal was accepted as a talk!!
She’s terrified to speak in public
Anh and Malcolm are staying w others at the conference… Anh is like well yeah bc we figured you’d be staying w Carlsen
I THINK WE ARE ABOUT TO HAVE A ONE BED SITUATION HERE PEOPLE
Lol fake out, the room really does have two beds
They’re only overlapping for one night
He’s been helping her prep her talk
O: are u still coming to my talk? It partially overlaps with the keynote address
TURNS OUT HE IS THE FUCKING KEYNOTE SPEAKER
A gives her a protein bar, it’s chocolate 🥹
This man hates chocolate and clearly brought that for her
She did it!! Completed her talk!!
Feeling happy, giddy, relieved
Omfg Tom fucking Benton is coming onto her WHAT THE FUCK
I fucking knew it
He’s being SO cruel to her omg
And also threatening to take her research and replicate it himself
Holy fucking shit
She’s, understandably, bereft and crying in their room
Adam comes back:
She startled when she found him kneeling in front of her. Right by her chair, his head level with hers, studying her with a worried frown. She made to hide her face in her palms, but his hand came up to her chin and lifted it up,until she had no choice but to meet his eyes. Then his fingers slid up to her cheek, cupping it as he asked, yet again, “Olive. What happened?”
She’s like do I tell him? No I can’t.
So she tells him that she heard “people” criticizing it
He’s like give me names
His fingers shifted on her skin to weave through the hair behind her ear. “Your work is brilliant.”
This hug omg 🥹
He’s like come on we’re skipping the dept social and going out together
“Adam.” She grabbed his wrist, and he immediately turned to look at her. “Adam, you can’t skip those events. People will say that you—“
His smile was lopsided. “That I want to spend time with my girlfriend?”
Olives brain stopped. Just like that. And then it started again, and—
The world was a little different.
When he tugged her hand again, she smiled and simply followed him out of the room.
*side note, she finds her phone and it’s almost dead and she thinks “probably bc she had forgotten to turn off the recording after her talk”
How much you want to BET that it captured the sexual harassment from Tom!! (I was right!!)
Gives her his tshirt to sleep in
“And the work you presented is important, rigorous, and brilliant.” He took a deep breath. His shoulders rose and fell in time with the thudding of her heart. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.”
THIS KISS!!! 😍
FINALLY 🌶️🌶️🌶️
“I want to go down on you until you pass out.” His lips were so soft against her skin.
.. “Can I fuck you?”
“Mmm.” Her palms came up to cup his face, and she began to trace his cheekbones with her thumbs. They were red, and hot. “What?”
“Can I fuck you?” He sucked the base of her throat. “Please?” He breathed it against the shell of her ear.
.. “You’re so big.”
He groaned into her neck. His entire body was vibrating with tension. “You can take it.”
.. “I like it.” She reached up to fist her fingers in his hair. To catch his eyes, make sure he was paying attention as she said, “I love it, Adam.”
His control poured out. He made a crude noise and shuddered, pumping hard and muttering nonsense into her skin—how perfect she was, how beautiful, how long he’d wanted this, how he would never, could never let go of her.
I love this man
😍😍😍
She returned the empty glass and sat up. “I should move to my bed.”
He shook his head with an intensity that suggested that he didn’t want her to go, not anywhere, not ever. His free hand closed tight around her waist, as if to tether her to him.
🌶️🌶️
🫑🫑
A: I’m actually going to interview at Harvard
O: *internally panicking bc he doesn’t know what Tom did it her and how it completely changes her plans to go there as well*
Oh and Malcolm hooked up w Holden!
O suddenly realized it’s Sept 29: A’s frozen funds have been released
A invites her to come get dinner w him at Harvard
Her laugh sounded fake. “I’ll have to put them on my CV. Fake girlfriend with extensive experience… Available immediately, only serious callers.
“Not immediately.” He looked at her curiously. Tenderly. “Not for a while, I’d say.”
She can’t bring herself to tell him abt Tom
So she ends things
When he pressed his lips against her forehead one last time, she felt her love for him swell fuller than a river in flood.
THIS IS SO SAD WTF
Cries, avoids her friends
She’d decided to put Adam’s well-being first, and she didn’t regret it. But she’d be damned if she let Tom Fucking Benton take credit for a project she had worked on for years.
I WAS RIGHT SHE UNINTENTIONALLY RECORDED THE HARASSMENT FROM BENTON
Anh, Malcolm: you have to tell A abt this
They finally come clean to Anh abt the fake dating
Anh shook her head, as if suddenly appalled at her own actions. “I just—you guys looked so good together! It was so obvious from the way Adam stared at you that he was wild about you. And the opposite—you looked at him like he was the only guy on earth..”
Malcolm: we could ask Holden if we should tell A or not
Holden: it always seemed like Tom was sabotaging A
Also, A has been courted by a ton of institutions, offered money, power, prestige etc
But this is the first time he’s agreed to interview. And he only agreed after you decided to go work in Tom’s lab.
“Make of that what you will, Olive.” 🥹
She goes to find him
So many lies she’d told, so many true things she could have said but never did, all because she’d been too scared of the truth, of driving the people she loved away from her. All because she’d been afraid to lose them. All because she hadn’t wanted to be alone again…
Time for some truth.
He’s literally in the middle of interviewing w the Harvard team
She’s going to wait until he’s done
But he spots her, immediately leaves the interview to go to her 🥹
Tom tries to intervene in their convo
So O just starts playing the recording out loud
Adam exploded so fast, she didn’t even see him move. One moment he stood in front of her, and the next he was pinning Tom against the wall.
“I’m going to kill you,” he gritted out, little more than a growl. “If you say another word about the woman I love, if you look at her, if you even think about her—I’m going to fucking kill you.”
..Adam ignored [Harvard dean who was yelling at him], and everyone else. He headed straight for Olive, and—
He cradled her head with both hands, fingers sliding through her hair and holding tight as he lowered his forehead to hers. He was warm, and smelled like himself, like safe and home. His thumbs swept through the mess of tears on her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know, and I’m sorry.”
.. “I am going to take care of this,” he told her. There was something determined, earnest in his eyes. Olive had never felt safer, or more loved. “And then I’ll come find you, and I’ll take care of you.”
😭🥹
Back in CA
She gets FOUR emails from other cancer researchers who agreed to meet w her abt working in their labs next year! 🎉
Finally reunited w A at the airport
Double date W Malcolm and Holden
Holden: Adam was into Olive for ages
Olive burst into laughter… “We only just started hanging out. At the beginning of the fall semester.
“Yes, but you knew each other from earlier.” Holden was frowning. “You two met the year before you started your Ph.D. here, when you came for your interview, and he’s been pining after you ever since.”
😭😍
A walks her home
Omg
They were so close, now. She could smell his scent and his warmth, and his hands were cradling her face, thumbs swiping back and forth to dry her cheeks.
“Sweetheart,” he murmured. “What is the second thing?”
She was still crying, but she’d never been happier. So she said it, probably in the worst accent he’d ever heard.
“Tells him she loves him , in Dutch 🥹
Epilogue
Ten months later
She’s going to start working at a cancer lab at Berkeley in less than a week!
Recreating the moment of their first kiss
“May I kiss you, Dr. Carlsen?”
My kindle duped me again!!
It told me I was at 90% but the book just finished! wtf!
I loved this book 📚
🚨 WAIT OMFG A HIDDEN BONUS CHAPTER ALL THE AT THE V V END OF THE BOOK 😍
ADAM’S POV 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Omg the YEARNING! This man is SO DOWN BAD FOR HER 🥵
Overall # of Stars: 4/5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
📖 parallel reading this w Dev while she reads Deep End :)
📖 ugh I just LOVED THIS BOOK! Deep End is still my fave AH book, tied for first w Bride, but this is a v close second.
👯♀️ Olive + Anh = me + Dev 💜
🥰 our girl is 5’8 AND part of the IBTC 👏🏻
🚨 THAT BONUS CHAPTER AT THE END THO 😍
🥰 nickname: smart-ass / sweetheart
Source: lib 📚
*Recommended by: Dev!
✅ fake dating!! 😍
✅ forced proximity
✅ grumpy x sunshine
✅ he falls first
✅ strong female friendship!! 👯♀️
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Olive Smith
Adam Carlsen
Prologue
Olive put expired contacts in so now her eyes are blurry and burning 😂
She’s hiding out in a bathroom and meets The Guy
They have the weirdest, funniest exchange I love her
She thinks he’s a PhD student
“Good luck on your interview, Olive.”
“Thanks.”
He was almost out the door already.
“Maybe I’ll see you next year,” she babbled, flushing a little. “If I get in. And if you haven’t graduated.”
“Maybe,” she heard him say.
With that, The Guy was gone. And Olive never got his name. But a few weeks later, when Stanford biology department extended her an offer, she accepted it. Without hesitating.
Two years, eleven months later
Oh okay, she’s kissing someone random at 11p in the biology hall
Like literally in this first sentence
LFG!!
Oh shit, not just anyone, Adam Carlsen 🫣
She saw her bff Anh coming down the hall, and for some reason we have yet to learn, turns to the closest man, whispers “Can I please kiss you?” And then just leaned in and kissed him 😂
Olive, girl, I fucking love you
Now she’s losing her shit bc she just now realizes it’s Adam
He was a notoriously moody, obnoxious, terrifying dick
He’s like ummm… did u just kiss me?
Olive: no
(Lolol)
He’s like that was assault (it’s true)
She’s like wut!!
*also she is 5’8 😍👏🏻
Omg this book is already so funny and quirky
Oh, also, Anh is nowhere to be found
She’s like plz don’t report me
A: the kiss. Explain.
O: i went on a couple of dates w Jeremy Langley but when I took him to Anh’s bday party they hit it off
I told her to go for it but she won’t bc girl code
So I told her I was on a date… tonight.
Also, go ahead and report me I am so so sooo sorry
*runs away*
A: “Olive… Olive, wait up.
It never occurred to Olive that Dr. Adam Carlsen—known ass—had called her by her name. 😍
A few days later
O: if I’ve done two years w/o interacting w Adam Carlsen then I’m pretty sure I can go the rest of my time here without seeing him again! (lol girl love the delusion)
Her research focus is pancreatic cancer detection
She needs more funding, reached out to leading researcher at Harvard
He said he’d like to speak w her when she is in town omg!
Oh shit but first…
Anh: I saw u w Dr Carlsen the other night, the most bizarre kiss I’ve ever seen
O: no the spider man kiss was way more bizarre
Lolol
“The situation was depressingly simple: Olive was alone in the world. She had been for a long time, ever since high school.” 😔
“—until… Anh.”
Omg 😭😭😭
These descriptions of her friendship w Anh — I simply cannot 🥹👯♀️
The day Olive met Anh’s rolling eyes, a life-changing friendship was born. Slowly, they’d begun to include Malcolm and become a little bit of a trio, but Anh… Anh was her person. Family. Olive hadn’t even thought that was possible for someone like her.
Anh: “I mean that we talk every minute of every day, and you never mentioned Carlsen before. My closest friend is supposedly seeing the superstar professor of the department, and somehow I’ve never heard of it? You know his reputation, right? Is it some kind of joke? Do you have a brain tumor? Do I have a brain tumor?”
Olive starts spiraling, thinking of how this lie is going to cost her friendship w Anh and then she’ll be all alone again, fail out of grad school etc etc etc
“Hey.”
ITS ADAM FUCKING CARLSEN AND HE HAS HIS HAND ON HER LOWER BACK OMFG 😍
“Is everything okay?” He said it looking into her eyes, in a low, intimate tone. Like they were alone. Like Anh was not there. He said it in a way that should have made Olive uncomfortable but didn’t. For some inexplicable reason his presence in the room soothed her, even though until a second ago she had been freaking out.
Eeeeeee 😍😍😍
A says hi to Anh
Anh is like omg and says okay Ol ttyl
“Is everything okay?” he asked again. His tone was still soft. Not something she would have expected from him.
“Yes. Yes, I just…” Olive waved her hand. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Did you hear what she said? About Friday and…”
“I did. That’s why I…” He looked at her, and then at his hand—the one that had been warming her back a few seconds ago—and Olive immediately understood.
Okay back w Anh, she’s like is this a prank? This book is so funny:
“Okay.” Anh chewed on her lower lip, deep in concentration. “So it’s not a prank. Which means that there must be another explanation. Let me find it.”
“There is no explanation to be found. We just—“
“Oh my God, are you trying to get citizenship? Are they deporting you back to Canada because we’ve been sharing Malcolm’s Netflix password? Tell them we didn’t know it was a federal crime. No, wait, don’t tell them anything until we get you a lawyer. And, Ol, I will marry you. I’ll get you a green card and you won’t have to—“
Omfg I wish I could highlight this entire scene w them it’s sooo cute and funny
“Is he blackmailing you?”
Lolol
Tom Benton is coming to Stanford to meet w a collaborator on a recent grant! Will meet when he arrives
All of her biology peers, her advisor etc are suddenly acting super weird around her…
Oh fuck, everyone “knows” she’s dating Adam 🙃
She goes to speak w A, absolutely panicked that this is happening.
O: if u have any ideas abt how to fix this mess…
“You could let them go on thinking it.”
😍👏🏻🎉
This book just made me *literally* laugh out loud I’m dying 😂😂😂
Win-win for them both
Solves Olive’s problem w Anh (kinda?)
A is considered a flight risk to leave Stanford so Stanford froze 1/3 of his research funds (millions of $$$)
If it looked like he is in a rx, it would really help paint the picture that he was tied here
Okay she agrees: she’s been getting so much more respect and access to resources since the rumors started so…
He goes to the dean, there’s no current conflict of interest bc he’s not her advisor so it’s okay for them to date, he just couldn’t be on her thesis (dissertation?) committee
Ground rules
Deadline: Sept 29th, A will know if he has his funds by then
They will do things together every once in awhile
Meeting Weds for coffee so people can see them out and about together
Malcolm is still mad at her
A had him throw out a ton of his data last year and redo half his study so there’s bad blood there for M
She tells him it’s fake
He’s not mad anymore lol
First fake Weds coffee date
Oh it’s cute
Tom Benton scheduled the meeting w her!
Second fake date, he’s grumpy bc they still won’t release his funds
Omg Tom fucking Benton walks up: HES FRIENDS W ADAM
He’s like okay let’s meet now, come with Adam
They’re looking at each other like wtf do we do
They sit down together: asks for her pitch
T: what’s cool abt your research
She freezes
A: wtf what kind of question is that
T: well wtf would you ask
A: supplies several detailed questions
O: aces it 😎
T: I’ll need a complete write up in two weeks
O: okay! (*Internally panicking*)
T: great, in the meantime I will see you around since Adam and I will be joined at the hip for a few weeks. And I’m staying w A, so I’ll see you at his place
FUCK YES U WILL TOM
Forced proximity 😍
Speaking of, has to sit in his lap during Tom’s lecture 😏
Anh: go kiss him
O: omg wut
They kiss
Anh: he is so into you, I can tell by the way he stares at you
Greg blows up at O bc A failed his proposal — excuse me sir she is separate from him
She texts Adam like wtf y r u so mean
A: it’s not my job to be nice
O: fuck u Adam
Three days later, faculty picnic
Anh is SPF-obsessed: my girl!
Makes her put sunscreen all over A in front of everyone 😂
Opens up about how her mom died when she was 15yo
Gabbing, teasing each other
She made to stand and leave indignantly, but he grabbed the sleeve of her shirt and gently tugged at it until she was sitting down again, next to him on the narrow couch—maybe even a little closer than before.
She’s like why don’t you want/have a gf to real-date
“Olive.” He took a deep breath. “You should know that—“
Then fucking Jeremy interrupts 😫
Tom read her report, wants to review it, asks her to come over to Adam’s to meet w him
ITS OFFICAL SHES GOING TO HARVARD NEXT YEAR TO WORK IN HIS LAB TO COMPLETE HER RESEARCH YES!
Anh: you’re both crazy in love, and over the moon about it
O: wut! No! *panics*
Pours her heart out to Malcolm
Adam overheard the last part of their convo
Then Holden joins them. Friends for decades. He doesn’t like Tom.
O: “it wasn’t about you. I just have a thing. For a guy”
A: Olive you are extraordinary. You should tell Jeremy how u feel
Shit he thinks she’s in love w Jeremy
Also is Tom going to be the bad guy here?? (Yep)
Adam, Tom OOT for the week
A texts her abt a pumpkin spice latte (inside joke)
He texts her: Wish you were here, then.
😭🥹😍
Runs into Holden again, this time in the lab
Finds out A has been wanting to ask her out for YEARS OMFG
“Yep. I’m so glad he finally scrounged up the courage to ask you out. He’d been going on and on and this ‘amazing girl’ for years, but he was concerned about being in the same department, and you know how he is… I’m glad he finally managed to pull his head out of his ass.”
Olive’s brain stuttered… and it took her several seconds to process that Adam had been wanting to ask her out for years. She couldn’t wrap her head about it, because… it was not possible.
Then he warns her about Tom, says “Watch your back w him” 🙃
Her proposal was accepted as a talk!!
She’s terrified to speak in public
Anh and Malcolm are staying w others at the conference… Anh is like well yeah bc we figured you’d be staying w Carlsen
I THINK WE ARE ABOUT TO HAVE A ONE BED SITUATION HERE PEOPLE
Lol fake out, the room really does have two beds
They’re only overlapping for one night
He’s been helping her prep her talk
O: are u still coming to my talk? It partially overlaps with the keynote address
TURNS OUT HE IS THE FUCKING KEYNOTE SPEAKER
A gives her a protein bar, it’s chocolate 🥹
This man hates chocolate and clearly brought that for her
She did it!! Completed her talk!!
Feeling happy, giddy, relieved
Omfg Tom fucking Benton is coming onto her WHAT THE FUCK
I fucking knew it
He’s being SO cruel to her omg
And also threatening to take her research and replicate it himself
Holy fucking shit
She’s, understandably, bereft and crying in their room
Adam comes back:
She startled when she found him kneeling in front of her. Right by her chair, his head level with hers, studying her with a worried frown. She made to hide her face in her palms, but his hand came up to her chin and lifted it up,until she had no choice but to meet his eyes. Then his fingers slid up to her cheek, cupping it as he asked, yet again, “Olive. What happened?”
She’s like do I tell him? No I can’t.
So she tells him that she heard “people” criticizing it
He’s like give me names
His fingers shifted on her skin to weave through the hair behind her ear. “Your work is brilliant.”
This hug omg 🥹
He’s like come on we’re skipping the dept social and going out together
“Adam.” She grabbed his wrist, and he immediately turned to look at her. “Adam, you can’t skip those events. People will say that you—“
His smile was lopsided. “That I want to spend time with my girlfriend?”
Olives brain stopped. Just like that. And then it started again, and—
The world was a little different.
When he tugged her hand again, she smiled and simply followed him out of the room.
*side note, she finds her phone and it’s almost dead and she thinks “probably bc she had forgotten to turn off the recording after her talk”
How much you want to BET that it captured the sexual harassment from Tom!! (I was right!!)
Gives her his tshirt to sleep in
“And the work you presented is important, rigorous, and brilliant.” He took a deep breath. His shoulders rose and fell in time with the thudding of her heart. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.”
THIS KISS!!! 😍
FINALLY 🌶️🌶️🌶️
“I want to go down on you until you pass out.” His lips were so soft against her skin.
.. “Can I fuck you?”
“Mmm.” Her palms came up to cup his face, and she began to trace his cheekbones with her thumbs. They were red, and hot. “What?”
“Can I fuck you?” He sucked the base of her throat. “Please?” He breathed it against the shell of her ear.
.. “You’re so big.”
He groaned into her neck. His entire body was vibrating with tension. “You can take it.”
.. “I like it.” She reached up to fist her fingers in his hair. To catch his eyes, make sure he was paying attention as she said, “I love it, Adam.”
His control poured out. He made a crude noise and shuddered, pumping hard and muttering nonsense into her skin—how perfect she was, how beautiful, how long he’d wanted this, how he would never, could never let go of her.
I love this man
😍😍😍
She returned the empty glass and sat up. “I should move to my bed.”
He shook his head with an intensity that suggested that he didn’t want her to go, not anywhere, not ever. His free hand closed tight around her waist, as if to tether her to him.
🌶️🌶️
🫑🫑
A: I’m actually going to interview at Harvard
O: *internally panicking bc he doesn’t know what Tom did it her and how it completely changes her plans to go there as well*
Oh and Malcolm hooked up w Holden!
O suddenly realized it’s Sept 29: A’s frozen funds have been released
A invites her to come get dinner w him at Harvard
Her laugh sounded fake. “I’ll have to put them on my CV. Fake girlfriend with extensive experience… Available immediately, only serious callers.
“Not immediately.” He looked at her curiously. Tenderly. “Not for a while, I’d say.”
She can’t bring herself to tell him abt Tom
So she ends things
When he pressed his lips against her forehead one last time, she felt her love for him swell fuller than a river in flood.
THIS IS SO SAD WTF
Cries, avoids her friends
She’d decided to put Adam’s well-being first, and she didn’t regret it. But she’d be damned if she let Tom Fucking Benton take credit for a project she had worked on for years.
I WAS RIGHT SHE UNINTENTIONALLY RECORDED THE HARASSMENT FROM BENTON
Anh, Malcolm: you have to tell A abt this
They finally come clean to Anh abt the fake dating
Anh shook her head, as if suddenly appalled at her own actions. “I just—you guys looked so good together! It was so obvious from the way Adam stared at you that he was wild about you. And the opposite—you looked at him like he was the only guy on earth..”
Malcolm: we could ask Holden if we should tell A or not
Holden: it always seemed like Tom was sabotaging A
Also, A has been courted by a ton of institutions, offered money, power, prestige etc
But this is the first time he’s agreed to interview. And he only agreed after you decided to go work in Tom’s lab.
“Make of that what you will, Olive.” 🥹
She goes to find him
So many lies she’d told, so many true things she could have said but never did, all because she’d been too scared of the truth, of driving the people she loved away from her. All because she’d been afraid to lose them. All because she hadn’t wanted to be alone again…
Time for some truth.
He’s literally in the middle of interviewing w the Harvard team
She’s going to wait until he’s done
But he spots her, immediately leaves the interview to go to her 🥹
Tom tries to intervene in their convo
So O just starts playing the recording out loud
Adam exploded so fast, she didn’t even see him move. One moment he stood in front of her, and the next he was pinning Tom against the wall.
“I’m going to kill you,” he gritted out, little more than a growl. “If you say another word about the woman I love, if you look at her, if you even think about her—I’m going to fucking kill you.”
..Adam ignored [Harvard dean who was yelling at him], and everyone else. He headed straight for Olive, and—
He cradled her head with both hands, fingers sliding through her hair and holding tight as he lowered his forehead to hers. He was warm, and smelled like himself, like safe and home. His thumbs swept through the mess of tears on her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know, and I’m sorry.”
.. “I am going to take care of this,” he told her. There was something determined, earnest in his eyes. Olive had never felt safer, or more loved. “And then I’ll come find you, and I’ll take care of you.”
😭🥹
Back in CA
She gets FOUR emails from other cancer researchers who agreed to meet w her abt working in their labs next year! 🎉
Finally reunited w A at the airport
Double date W Malcolm and Holden
Holden: Adam was into Olive for ages
Olive burst into laughter… “We only just started hanging out. At the beginning of the fall semester.
“Yes, but you knew each other from earlier.” Holden was frowning. “You two met the year before you started your Ph.D. here, when you came for your interview, and he’s been pining after you ever since.”
😭😍
A walks her home
Omg
They were so close, now. She could smell his scent and his warmth, and his hands were cradling her face, thumbs swiping back and forth to dry her cheeks.
“Sweetheart,” he murmured. “What is the second thing?”
She was still crying, but she’d never been happier. So she said it, probably in the worst accent he’d ever heard.
“Tells him she loves him , in Dutch 🥹
Epilogue
Ten months later
She’s going to start working at a cancer lab at Berkeley in less than a week!
Recreating the moment of their first kiss
“May I kiss you, Dr. Carlsen?”
My kindle duped me again!!
It told me I was at 90% but the book just finished! wtf!
I loved this book 📚
🚨 WAIT OMFG A HIDDEN BONUS CHAPTER ALL THE AT THE V V END OF THE BOOK 😍
ADAM’S POV 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Omg the YEARNING! This man is SO DOWN BAD FOR HER 🥵
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I did not like this book. I don't like age gap romances (I don't like it when a book continues to state they have an age gap...like 8 years is fine but the fact they kept repeating that he's older just annoyed me). This book is definitely overhyped and it was just a let down. I did like when Adam beat up Tom...I think that was all I liked.