Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Love, Theoretically

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

72 reviews

hannalizzy's review against another edition

challenging tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I love Ali Hazelwood, but this one was just…cringe. In my opinion, the characterization of the main character was much too heavy handed. It felt like Hazelwood had a madlibs-style formula to come up with Elsie’s personality traits, since her main personality traits outside of physics are Twilight and Cheese. Yes, I said cheese. The cheese jokes were so weird, I could not stop getting tripped up over them. How is cheese a personality trait? And I love Twilight, but saying “#Bellice4evah” within the first three pages was a serious crime. The word “Smexy” also made an unfortunate appearance later on.

Also all the student emails peppered in throughout the book were so whack and unbelievable (a student asking their physics professor to check a pimple for them? Come on.) I think she was really going for the “com” in romcom and the overwhelming amount of cringe quips made me lower the star rating bit by bit as I inched my way to the ending.

Overall, the main character was wayyy too self aware to believably be so misguided about herself and the way she viewed the world. I also wish that Hazelwood wouldn’t lean so far into the misunderstanding trope for almost every conflict, it gets so exhausting and makes me want to dnf when the problem could be solved in a single sentence that everyone’s refusing to say for the weakest reasons.

All that being said, Jack is hot asf. And if you have a size kink, know that Hazelwood’s got your back. Did appreciate the aro/ace rep and the main character being diabetic (plus him being all caring about her levels was adorable)

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emmysforeverbooked's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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? Yes

4.0

I honestly don't know if I have much other to say than that Ali Hazelwood has done it again. She's left my jaw on the floor and my heart in the hands of a handsome scientist man.

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thehannahclaire's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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captbarbosa's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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wilybooklover's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

This is my first Ali Hazelwood book, and I have very mixed feelings.

First of all, if I had to hear ONE MORE TIME about how gigantic Jack was, I might have screamed. It was so repetitive and unnecessary — I promise that I won’t forget between page 35 and page 40 that he’s built like a refrigerator. Combined with how naïve and oblivious Elsie was, and how overbearing Jack was, I didn’t really enjoy the actual romance much. I found Jack quite creepy to be honest

(he keeps a photo of her in his bedside table when they genuinely barely know each other? He wants her to move in when they've barely been together for one weekend?? He wants to lock her in his room for two weeks??? WHAT).

He also came across as condescending most of the time to me, and like he infantilised the heroine. The sex scenes were so awkward and not in a cute way (although I liked the emphasis on consent). And what kind of Swedish surname is Turner? Then the villain seemed so flat and cartoonish, rather than a fully-fleshed out character, especially during the conflict. Also, this is very petty but I hate cheese and had to suffer through so much talk about cheese in this book. Enough about cheese already!!

On the other hand, there were some things I really liked. I loved Elsie’s character arc about learning how not to be such a people pleaser all the time, and how she ended up going to therapy at the end. I liked the setup for how the MCs meet (she’s fake dating his brother, and he begins to suspect something is off). I enjoyed the very realistic depiction of being a woman in STEM and how very science-y the whole book was. I really liked how much Jack just wanted to take care of Elsie, gave her space when she asked for it, and how he didn’t mess with her career even when he was suspicious of her (look, it's a low bar, but it’s disappointing how often that happens in romance). It was great how he completely respected her academic intellect and was so emotionally open with her as well... even if that openness is completely lost on her lol. I also liked how Elsie actually calls Jack out on how patronising he’s being by acting like she can’t make her own decisions. Plus, all of the major side characters besides the villain were well-drawn and enjoyable to read; I particularly liked Cece and Millicent.

One final thought: the STEMinist appellation promptly needs to die in a fire, thank you.

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laura_wild's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

there are too many typos and the Jack is really creepy sometimes

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mornthemagicdragon3867's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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blossomingwish's review against another edition

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4.0

Once again Ali Hazelwood has written an amazing romance book! I loved the science and academic pieces to this book it was really interesting. Jack is just so adorable and charming I loved all of his dialogue so much. I loved his this book dealt with the complexities of relationships and being a people pleaser it was a really important perspective.

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meggiemeggie52's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was so cute, but not a love for me. I loved Jack, the development of Elise and Jack's relationship, and how he helped her open up and be more honest with people... but Elsie not even knowing who *she* is or being able to tell her best friend she doesn't like the movies they watch together frustrated me on multiple occasions. It also annoyed me that Elsie refused to believe that Jack didn't actually hate her, even when he told her this (multiple times) to her face.

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theverycraftyvegan's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Not my favourite by Ali Hazelwood and that’s a shame because I was so excited to read this!

MFC, Elsie, is the dumbest smart person out of all of Ali’s novels. She doesn’t speak up for herself. Ever. With anyone. She moulds herself into whoever she thinks the person she’s speaking with wants her to be—dates, her mother, best friend, mentor, coworkers, her students, random people she’s meeting for the first time. This is her personality and I guess her idea of survival mode in academia? But it is cringy to read.

Elsie and MMC, Jack, have a major height difference which is such a common trope I’m beyond tired of it. She needs to crane her neck to look up at him. She needs to stand on her tippy toes and pull his face towards her to kiss. His pen!s pokes her in the stomach. She’s a small-average height woman and he’s a giant. We get it.

Elsie’s interactions with her mother felt forced. Phone calls with and memories of mommy dearest are added sporadically throughout the book. Mom calls and expects Elsie to break up fights between her two older brothers—who are adults. We never meet the mother or the brothers so, even though their interactions give examples of Elsie putting up with a lot of garbage from a lot of people, they felt like unnecessary characters.

Elsie and her best friend/roommate have an odd cheese obsession. This is focused on so much it is actually a character trait. Cheese is one of the few things they have in common, but they make it work.

Elsie does grow throughout the book with Jack’s help. She starts to tell people what she thinks and how she feels which made me proud. One of Elsie‘s dislikes is her best friend ’s taste in movies. But even though Elsie starts voicing her opinions by the end of the book, in the epilogue she’s sitting through yet another movie she doesn’t want to be watching. Furthermore, the person she’s watching this movie with told her earlier in the book that they would never watch her favourite movies with her ever again. So Elsie is expected to compromise for their tastes, but they won’t compromise their’s for her? Eww. No thank you

The ending was meh for me. It didn’t feel as climatic as it could have been.

Sorry. This storyline and the characters just really weren’t for me.

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