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A review by ruthypoo2
Stuck with You by Ali Hazelwood
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
As with the other books in the STEMinist romcom novella series, this one started off with a somewhat admirable female main character, Sadie, who has a clever inner monologue and interactions with the secondary characters in the story, namely her best friends from university, Mara and Hannah.
Early in the book the reader is presented with a meet-cute for the quirky Sadie and future love interest, Erik, and it has some really funny bits. Unfortunately, it ends up being an awkward and unusual encounter as the day progresses with Erik being weirdly buttoned-up and stoic, and Sadie, who has a doctorate in engineering, behaving like a silly, flustered schoolgirl instead of the educated and accomplished woman she is.
The story has a bit of a jump forward to a point in time when Sadie and Erik are estranged and work for business adversaries. Then as luck would have it, the story turns into a close proximity trope when they find themselves stuck in an elevator together. Sadie is cold toward Erik who is typically lacking in any emotional expression, so I guess she can't read whether or not his words and emotions are authentic as they hash out the reason why Sadie is angry at Erik.
I was not a fan of how Sadie conducted herself and Erik's personality was flat as a pancake, so I really didn't get any vibes that they had an amazing physical and emotional connection either on the first day they met or later on in the story as they work out their differences. Sadie's emotions run way too high and for a woman who's been a scientist for years, her critical thinking ability is abysmal. Also, her persistently negative self-talk was annoying and honestly didn't seem to fit a woman who'd worked so hard to achieve a doctorate in a normally male-dominated field like civil engineering. But in the book, she does concede:
<i>I blink, confused, suddenly remembering why I went into engineering: logarithmic derivatives are so much easier than this relationship shit.</i>
I listened to the audiobook edition, and I liked the way the narrator, Meg Sylvan, voiced Sadie. But love interest Erik sounded like he had a stick so far up his butt he'd be propped on top of a flagpole, and best friend Mara sounded way too deep and caustic for how her character is written in the first book of the series, Under One Roof.
NOTE: After reading the entire STEMinist romcom series, all the female main characters are small-framed, petite women, and their love interests are wealthy, educated, professionally successful men that stand over 6 feet tall, are described as intensely attractive, and have extremely large penises. It would've been nice if there'd been some physical and ethnic diversity amongst all the characters because by the third book it starts feeling like the same couple in a different setting, with only the last book in the series, Below Zero, offering a serious and introspective look into the STEM-related education and career of the female main character, and the hard work she had to do in order to achieve her educational and career goals. In the first two books, the STEM field was more so a component of the FMC's background, a commonality with her best friends, and perhaps a bridge to explain how she meets or gets to know her future love interest.
Early in the book the reader is presented with a meet-cute for the quirky Sadie and future love interest, Erik, and it has some really funny bits. Unfortunately, it ends up being an awkward and unusual encounter as the day progresses with Erik being weirdly buttoned-up and stoic, and Sadie, who has a doctorate in engineering, behaving like a silly, flustered schoolgirl instead of the educated and accomplished woman she is.
The story has a bit of a jump forward to a point in time when Sadie and Erik are estranged and work for business adversaries. Then as luck would have it, the story turns into a close proximity trope when they find themselves stuck in an elevator together. Sadie is cold toward Erik who is typically lacking in any emotional expression, so I guess she can't read whether or not his words and emotions are authentic as they hash out the reason why Sadie is angry at Erik.
I was not a fan of how Sadie conducted herself and Erik's personality was flat as a pancake, so I really didn't get any vibes that they had an amazing physical and emotional connection either on the first day they met or later on in the story as they work out their differences. Sadie's emotions run way too high and for a woman who's been a scientist for years, her critical thinking ability is abysmal. Also, her persistently negative self-talk was annoying and honestly didn't seem to fit a woman who'd worked so hard to achieve a doctorate in a normally male-dominated field like civil engineering. But in the book, she does concede:
<i>I blink, confused, suddenly remembering why I went into engineering: logarithmic derivatives are so much easier than this relationship shit.</i>
I listened to the audiobook edition, and I liked the way the narrator, Meg Sylvan, voiced Sadie. But love interest Erik sounded like he had a stick so far up his butt he'd be propped on top of a flagpole, and best friend Mara sounded way too deep and caustic for how her character is written in the first book of the series, Under One Roof.
NOTE: After reading the entire STEMinist romcom series, all the female main characters are small-framed, petite women, and their love interests are wealthy, educated, professionally successful men that stand over 6 feet tall, are described as intensely attractive, and have extremely large penises. It would've been nice if there'd been some physical and ethnic diversity amongst all the characters because by the third book it starts feeling like the same couple in a different setting, with only the last book in the series, Below Zero, offering a serious and introspective look into the STEM-related education and career of the female main character, and the hard work she had to do in order to achieve her educational and career goals. In the first two books, the STEM field was more so a component of the FMC's background, a commonality with her best friends, and perhaps a bridge to explain how she meets or gets to know her future love interest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content