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Oh my GOD this book. Where do I even start? First of all, 5 stars. Easy. EASY 5 stars. There’s just something about the stories Ali Hazelwood crafts and the personalities she writes that hit with me. I loved The Love Hypothesis beyond words and was a bit iffy on Love on the Brain, so I wasn’t quite sure how this one was going to go, but oh my god she delivered again.

, but the way that Ali Hazelwood writes these male love interests who have such a deep and gentle like of the heroine is so…ooh she’s ruining my life. Yes it’s a romance novel so obviously they fall in love, but Jack Smith genuinely likes and enjoys Elsie as a person outside of his romantic love for her. He respects her, he admires her, he wants to hear her talk about the things she enjoys and he wants to experience them with her simply because it makes her happy. There’s a softness to the way Ali Hazelwood’s men care for their partners that just hits different.

And the academic rivals in this book? Top fucking tier. From the very get go. It’s delicious. Delectable. I’m eating it up on every goddamn page. The dynamic it engenders between Elsie - the consummate People Pleaser - and the love interest being the one person she doesn’t care about pleasing is amazing.

The story is beyond engaging, it went in some directions I didn’t expect it to go, it had me rooting for physics debates, and I could have read another hundred pages of these two.

And you know what really REALLY shows how much I love this book? If you’ve been here for a little while you probably know I hate pop culture references in books. Viscerally. This book is at minimum 8% TWILIGHT references, and it was still an easy 5 stars. No question about it.

I loved our main couple, I loved the side characters (I would read an entire novella about visits with Millicent), I was super invested in the plot, and the third act and finale is just…everything is so good.