The STEMinist Novellas: Novellas 1-3
Publication Date: January 3, 2023
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a collection of steamy, STEMinist novellas featuring a trio of engineers and their loves in loathing—with a special bonus chapter!
Under One Roof
An environmental engineer discovers that scientists should never cohabitate when she finds herself stuck with the roommate from hell—a detestable big-oil lawyer who won’t leave the thermostat alone.
Stuck with You
A civil engineer and her nemesis take their rivalry—and love—to the next level when they get stuck in a New York elevator.
Below Zero
A NASA aerospace engineer’s frozen heart melts as she lies injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station and the only person willing to undertake the dangerous rescue mission is her longtime rival.
Loathe to Love You consists of three novellas in The STEMinist Novellas series by Ali Hazelwood, connecting the stories of three females who have been best friends since grad school and are now engineers in three different fields. We get to meet their love interests and see how they each became a couple and more.
The couples don’t want to admit to an attraction and often have trouble communicating. But when they’re in, they are all in, and there are some steamy moments. It was interesting to see their initial meetings and what brought them together. All the couples seem to be good for each other—Mara and Liam, Sadie and Erik, and Hannah and Ian. They complement each other but also see where the other is coming from. Erik especially seems to get Sadie and knows what she’s thinking and feeling before she does.
We get to know each of the characters a little at a time and really see the solidness of the friendships between Mara, Hannah, and Sadie and how they are always there for each other—no matter where they are geographically. The addition of their significant others meshes well with the group dynamics, and all are successful in their own rights.
The stories have a good flow but go from present to past and then back again over and over. There are a lot of scientific and engineering terms thrown around, especially in Hannah and Ian’s story since they work for NASA. But Mara is no slouch since she works for the EPA and Sadie works with the environment to keep things green.
Most of the characters have dysfunctional families, and crazily, Ian and Mara are cousins or something (as they say in the story) but were never close and haven’t seen each other in about fifteen years. They are all overachievers and workaholics in their chosen fields.
There are happily ever afters in the making and nice closure with the addition of the bonus chapter, which gave us glimpses into each of their lives.
I wish the books were full novels since there seem to be more stories to tell for each of them. The novella format didn’t give me the depth I was looking for. Ms. Hazelwood is a new-to-me author, and I look forward to reading more of her books.
If you enjoy contemporary romances with lots of loving, nicely matched couples and some scientific and STEM theories thrown in, you’ll enjoy Loathe to Love You.
Ali Hazelwood is the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, as well as a writer of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the US to pursue a PhD in neuroscience. She recently became a professor, which absolutely terrifies her. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her two feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).
