Scan barcode
A review by heartscontent
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
5.0
You can find this review of Love, Theoretically on my blog Heart's Content!
There may be quite a few story-arc spoilers or character-arc spoilers, so if you haven’t read the book and want to not be spoiled, do not venture further, my friend.
When I started this book, I was sure it was going to be like all the other Ali Hazelwood books I’d read so far; AKA Love Hypothesis 2.0, then 3.0 and then again. Truly for a bit I was sure that’s where it was heading because the hero was once again big, big, muscles, big and the heroine was small, quirky, struggling. Nothing wrong with any of these things, except that’s all we ever see in all the other books too.
However, to my pleasant surprise, the book took a turn to different quite soon and I think this book has been the most successful in attacking my emotional centres. In my opinion, this book delves more into the personal lives of the characters than their professional lives—even though that’s certainly a part of the story. The fact that the characters don’t work together during the course of the book (like in the previous AH novels) helps in making the book feel more itself than like its predecessors.
One of my least favourite tropes is the miscommunication trope and I’m quite happy this book doesn’t feature it. Also, while the synopsis calls them “rivals” and the setup matches the description, the story doesn’t follow an enemies to lovers arc. The characters fairly get along even when they ‘hate’ each other. Also, the love interest is a typical AH hero, so… *shrug* expect devotion and obsession.
This book is, interestingly, mostly about Elsie finding herself. Yes, I know the other books also feature this aspect; but this is the book that does the most justice to it in my opinion. Elsie (as we’ve seen in some of the previous AH books, I think?) struggles to say no. She also often becomes the personality that she thinks the person in front of her wants her to be—which, given her fake-girlfriend gig is great, but personally not so much. Even if you don’t relate to this particular aspect of her, there’s something very heart-moving, raw and exposed about the book; especially in those moments when Jack (the love interest), sees right through her pretences and calls out her lies.
There’s a moment in this book when the heroine makes a momentary mistake that I thought was a very natural response to pain and societal conditioning. I like that she internally struggled, apologised and spoke about it and I personally respect the author more for having had her character make that slip. It’s that conditioning we need to fight, even at our weakest not just at our strongest.
The female friendship in this book is lovely, I love that her friend has a distinct personality and she’s known to drop the odd gem. There’s a particular moment when she gives her opinion about Elsie’s (and the reader’s) idea of something and calls it what it is.
Talking about friendships, I’m super happy to say the hero of this book, Jack, had fantastic friendships. Bless his soul. After the past few books being all about the love interest’s best friend being the main antagonist of the story, I’m super happy to see an AH book with a hero with heathy platonic relationships and a family in friends. All these interactions were so lovely.
Jack was a bit of a surprise. He was introduced a certain way and then revealed to be very different from that. My favourite part of how his character is written is how up-front he was about his feelings. Usually the confession in Hazelwood’s books are towards the end to solve the miscommunication trope (*bombastic side-eye*). But in this book the confession happens at exactly the perfect time. (SEE! STOP MAKING MISCOMMUNICATION A TROPE PEOPLE. ITS TIME IS OVER IN THE BOOK WORLD, LET IT RIP.) However, being the person that constantly watches out for Elsie’s wants and needs, it often feels like he’s overlooking his own OR he’s taking decisions that warp the natural flow with which something would happen. This too, was addressed and I enjoyed that it wasn’t overlooked and the hero wasn’t perfect. Heck, the heroine calls him out on something and he behaves exactly the way he would expect Elsie to when she’s called out.
The diabetes rep was definitely one of my favourite parts of the book. It wasn’t thrown in as an add-on and was given importance. I personally loved it, however since I haven’t lived with the condition I can’t attest for how accurate it was. So I apologise if I’ve missed something important that wasn’t done right.
There’s a lot of strength, vulnerability and determination in this book and it’s closest to being my favourite Ali Hazelwood book so far (and no, Love Hypothesis never was my favourite; *hides from thrown stones coming her way*).
Four stars! Only knocking off a star because as different as the book was, the characters were quite the same and the general task the MC has to achieve is fairly the same. Also, the book kiiinda reads like a mild fan-fiction of The Hating Game. Happy reading!
There may be quite a few story-arc spoilers or character-arc spoilers, so if you haven’t read the book and want to not be spoiled, do not venture further, my friend.
When I started this book, I was sure it was going to be like all the other Ali Hazelwood books I’d read so far; AKA Love Hypothesis 2.0, then 3.0 and then again. Truly for a bit I was sure that’s where it was heading because the hero was once again big, big, muscles, big and the heroine was small, quirky, struggling. Nothing wrong with any of these things, except that’s all we ever see in all the other books too.
However, to my pleasant surprise, the book took a turn to different quite soon and I think this book has been the most successful in attacking my emotional centres. In my opinion, this book delves more into the personal lives of the characters than their professional lives—even though that’s certainly a part of the story. The fact that the characters don’t work together during the course of the book (like in the previous AH novels) helps in making the book feel more itself than like its predecessors.
One of my least favourite tropes is the miscommunication trope and I’m quite happy this book doesn’t feature it. Also, while the synopsis calls them “rivals” and the setup matches the description, the story doesn’t follow an enemies to lovers arc. The characters fairly get along even when they ‘hate’ each other. Also, the love interest is a typical AH hero, so… *shrug* expect devotion and obsession.
This book is, interestingly, mostly about Elsie finding herself. Yes, I know the other books also feature this aspect; but this is the book that does the most justice to it in my opinion. Elsie (as we’ve seen in some of the previous AH books, I think?) struggles to say no. She also often becomes the personality that she thinks the person in front of her wants her to be—which, given her fake-girlfriend gig is great, but personally not so much. Even if you don’t relate to this particular aspect of her, there’s something very heart-moving, raw and exposed about the book; especially in those moments when Jack (the love interest), sees right through her pretences and calls out her lies.
There’s a moment in this book when the heroine makes a momentary mistake that I thought was a very natural response to pain and societal conditioning. I like that she internally struggled, apologised and spoke about it and I personally respect the author more for having had her character make that slip. It’s that conditioning we need to fight, even at our weakest not just at our strongest.
The female friendship in this book is lovely, I love that her friend has a distinct personality and she’s known to drop the odd gem. There’s a particular moment when she gives her opinion about Elsie’s (and the reader’s) idea of something and calls it what it is.
Talking about friendships, I’m super happy to say the hero of this book, Jack, had fantastic friendships. Bless his soul. After the past few books being all about the love interest’s best friend being the main antagonist of the story, I’m super happy to see an AH book with a hero with heathy platonic relationships and a family in friends. All these interactions were so lovely.
Jack was a bit of a surprise. He was introduced a certain way and then revealed to be very different from that. My favourite part of how his character is written is how up-front he was about his feelings. Usually the confession in Hazelwood’s books are towards the end to solve the miscommunication trope (*bombastic side-eye*). But in this book the confession happens at exactly the perfect time. (SEE! STOP MAKING MISCOMMUNICATION A TROPE PEOPLE. ITS TIME IS OVER IN THE BOOK WORLD, LET IT RIP.) However, being the person that constantly watches out for Elsie’s wants and needs, it often feels like he’s overlooking his own OR he’s taking decisions that warp the natural flow with which something would happen. This too, was addressed and I enjoyed that it wasn’t overlooked and the hero wasn’t perfect. Heck, the heroine calls him out on something and he behaves exactly the way he would expect Elsie to when she’s called out.
The diabetes rep was definitely one of my favourite parts of the book. It wasn’t thrown in as an add-on and was given importance. I personally loved it, however since I haven’t lived with the condition I can’t attest for how accurate it was. So I apologise if I’ve missed something important that wasn’t done right.
There’s a lot of strength, vulnerability and determination in this book and it’s closest to being my favourite Ali Hazelwood book so far (and no, Love Hypothesis never was my favourite; *hides from thrown stones coming her way*).
Four stars! Only knocking off a star because as different as the book was, the characters were quite the same and the general task the MC has to achieve is fairly the same. Also, the book kiiinda reads like a mild fan-fiction of The Hating Game. Happy reading!