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A review by megbreyer
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
3.0
Another obviously Ali Hazelwood book.
Starting with the negative:
1. All of her FMCs are cut from the same cloth. While they have unique backstories and individual quirks, at the end of the day they are all “quirky” girls characterized by inexperience, insecurity/naivety, and a belief that the MMC cannot actually like them. While I can absolutely appreciate those types of characters, the fact that every single piece of Hazelwood’s has a lead like this is getting tiresome. It was done better with Elsie than with Bee (Love on the Brain), but Elsie straight up ignored multiple soliloquies from Jack about how obsessed he is with her to claim that he either hated her or didn’t like her romantically. It felt like she was purposely misunderstanding stuff.
2. Nothing frustrates me more than hypocrisy, and the “third act drama” screams hypocrisy. Elsie freaks out that Jack withheld information (which lying by omission is still lying but he withheld a personal story), but in addition to that, she basically admitted to not believing him and his story anyway. That pissed me off because her entire character is an extreme people pleaser that actively lies about her interests and beliefs and feelings to appease others. She also spent how long lying to Jack about Greg? Both had to reasons to withhold information, but when it’s Jack, it’s the end of the world.
3. Much more minor, but I completely re-wrote the scene where she found out about the job in my mind because that didn’t feel very on par with what we already knew about her.
4. For a book with so much detail, the ending was so incredibly rushed.
The positive!
1. I truly did love the premise. The competitive nature for the first half of the book really roped me in! I mean, I finished the book in less than 24 hours, so it held me in for the majority of the time. But the interviewing process was so much fun to read.
2. Elsie’s character really resonated with me on a lot of levels, and for the most part, I felt that she was really true to her character. I felt that Jack was really true to his character too, which is always great.
3. The side characters in this one were exceptional. Cece? George? Greg? Millicent? Dora? OLIVE AND ADAM! I absolutely loved the side characters of this book and would love to see spin offs about any of them.
Starting with the negative:
1. All of her FMCs are cut from the same cloth. While they have unique backstories and individual quirks, at the end of the day they are all “quirky” girls characterized by inexperience, insecurity/naivety, and a belief that the MMC cannot actually like them. While I can absolutely appreciate those types of characters, the fact that every single piece of Hazelwood’s has a lead like this is getting tiresome. It was done better with Elsie than with Bee (Love on the Brain), but Elsie straight up ignored multiple soliloquies from Jack about how obsessed he is with her to claim that he either hated her or didn’t like her romantically. It felt like she was purposely misunderstanding stuff.
2. Nothing frustrates me more than hypocrisy, and the “third act drama” screams hypocrisy. Elsie freaks out that Jack withheld information (which lying by omission is still lying but he withheld a personal story), but in addition to that, she basically admitted to not believing him and his story anyway. That pissed me off because her entire character is an extreme people pleaser that actively lies about her interests and beliefs and feelings to appease others. She also spent how long lying to Jack about Greg? Both had to reasons to withhold information, but when it’s Jack, it’s the end of the world.
3. Much more minor, but I completely re-wrote the scene where she found out about the job in my mind because that didn’t feel very on par with what we already knew about her.
4. For a book with so much detail, the ending was so incredibly rushed.
The positive!
1. I truly did love the premise. The competitive nature for the first half of the book really roped me in! I mean, I finished the book in less than 24 hours, so it held me in for the majority of the time. But the interviewing process was so much fun to read.
2. Elsie’s character really resonated with me on a lot of levels, and for the most part, I felt that she was really true to her character. I felt that Jack was really true to his character too, which is always great.
3. The side characters in this one were exceptional. Cece? George? Greg? Millicent? Dora? OLIVE AND ADAM! I absolutely loved the side characters of this book and would love to see spin offs about any of them.