A review by kenzieburns
Down to a Science by Haley Cass

funny medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a cute fluffy read! At first, I thought it moved too fast, but as the plot developed I actually felt that it was reasonably paced. Definitely wasn't "high literature" by any means, but was a cute sapphic romance that had a good amount of entertainment value. For what I'd call a "fluff" book, I was surprisingly invested in the characters and found myself getting quite frustrated by them (really just Ellie) at points.

Like, half the story could have been resolved if she just actually spoke about her feelings for Mia like an adult. But then I guess it would have been a much shorter book.

As a PhD student and a lesbian who came out during grad school, I related to a lot of the emotions Ellie felt regarding her discovering her sexuality, as well as her dedication to her work and the challenges if balancing grad school/science work with personal life. I would have loved to see Ellie's character develop a bit more outside of the relationship aspects

kind of like it did a bit with Gianna and their friendship. It would have been cool to see Ellie go through the realizations of "oh other people are actually okay/it's nice to have friends."

But, I think that might have made it more deep than a traditional romance....