Tag: ali hazelwood

ARC Book Review: Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

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Rating: ★★★★★
Audience: NA Contemporary Romance
Length: 368 pages
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s
Release Date: November 7th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

In this clever and swoonworthy YA debut from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, life’s moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.

Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess.

Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist….

As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren’t only on the board, the spotlight is brighter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce (-ly attractive. And intelligent…and infuriating…)

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the eARC.

NEW FAV.

Alright, I absolutely adored this. Couldn’t put it down. Binge read this beauty. Ali Hazelwood definitely has a spot in the upper YA & NA category.

While at times I was frustrated with Mallory, I could honestly see how warped her thoughts had become because of her past. This felt very true to the age group as well and I liked seeing the up’s and down’s of her decisions. I ESPECIALLY loved her sisters and Mom. I love a close family, flawed and all. Not one person had it all figured out, but they had each other and I found myself misty eyed when they were all able to come together and reconnect.

The roooomance. Oh, it was sweet. Perfectly swoony. I LOVE NOLAN. He is this cinnamon roll hero that just needed someone in his corner. I loved the banter and the build. I was chomping at the bit to see them kiss. I loved seeing Mallory and Nolan argue and work together and all the things that make that fated connection last.

All of the chess things went way over my head (I have only a basic understanding of the game), but I never found it overwhelming Mallory’s character arc or the romance. It added great balance and I liked learning so much about competitions and ratings and how the whole system works.

This was a gem of a read and I hope there’s more YA/NA books in the future!

Overall audience notes:

  • Upper YA/NA Contemporary Romance
  • Language: some strong throughout
  • Romance: light innuendo throughout; one fade to black
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a father (recounted, drunk driving), cheating (recounted; side character), estranged family members

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Book Review: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

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Rating: ★★★★☆
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 400 pages
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: June 13th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?

BETTER THAN I HOPED.

After book two I went into this with low expectations, no pre-ordering, nada. And HALLELUJAH this was something I really enjoyed.

I absolutely adored Jack. He was a swoony love interest. I wish I had a physical copy to highlight many passages where he let out all the feels. I loved the way he pushed Elsie to choose herself and to see herself as someone of worth. Elsie and her super people pleasing ways hit me too. I could relate to that a lot and thank heavens she broke that unhealthy cycle. I loved watching her growth.

The academia politics and scholarly drama was all very interesting to me. It floated well in the background letting the romance shine but I still wanted to know what would happen with Elsie and her quest for a new job and the security she craves (and deserves). Truly a great rom-com. I laughed, cheered, swooned and fell in love with Jack and Elsie!

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: strong
  • Romance: 3-4 open door; high explicit
  • Violence: low
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: sexism, chronic illness (Type 1 Diabetes), death of a parent recounted

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Book Review: Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

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Rating: ★★★☆ (3.5)
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 368 pages
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: August 23rd, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new STEMinist rom-com in which a scientist is forced to work on a project with her nemesis—with explosive results.

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project – a literal dream come true – Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.

Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school – archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.

But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas… devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing.

But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?

DISAPPOINTED.

Yeah, probably my biggest let down of 2022 in regards to contemporary romances I was excited for.

Why the super heavy agenda dumping? I could write an entire list of everything that was shoved in my face over and over again. It’s cool to have opinions and to incorporate those, but I don’t want to feel like it’s overtaking the fact that I picked up a romance to read. Not the news.

When Levi and Bee were talking and hanging out in those very few rare moments, I LOVED IT. Give me more of that please. I liked them as a couple when I actually got to see the development of their relationship. There was a substantial focus on the physicality of their relationship over everything else and those scenes were plain awkward.

Bee’s friend Rocio was fun. I did like her Wednesday Addams vibes. She added the right kind of touch to the story over everything else that was happening.

The MISCOMMUNICATION. It made me think about putting it down during the first half. Some is fine, it happens. But flagrant use of eh, I’ll tell him later, when you have a chance to clear the air annoy me beyond belief.

And the end???? Did I miss what genre I was reading and we jumped into romantic suspense? That was wildly left field and clearly out of place. I had to flip the last page back and forth a few times because of the abrupt ending too.

Clearly I have (and can continue) a lot of thoughts of this one. TLH is still my golden child favorite and I’ll continue to reread that one. LOTB on the other hand convinced me to no longer pre-order Hazelwood’s books.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary Romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: three open door; med-high explicit
  • Violence: moderate
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: sexism, workplace sexual harassment mentioned, death of a parent recounted, attempted murder, gun violence

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Book Review: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

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Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 384 pages
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: September 14th, 2021
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

ABSOLUTELY ADORED.

You might have seen that this book has A LOT OF HYPE.

THE HYPE IS WORTH IT.

I feel like I should just end my review there.

But, I’ll dive in a little bit deeper. The grump and sunshine trope was perfect. Adam and Olive were off the charts in banter and forced proximity moments where you know they’re both feeling it. I couldn’t get enough of each interaction they had. Those coffee dates were EVERYTHING. Not to mention I love a good, who did this to you, moment and TLH definitely had one for the books. Adam is the grumpy cinnamon roll of my bookish romance dreams and wow would I have loved getting chapters from his POV too.

I did notice some repetitive phrasing (like how many times Adam called Olive a smart-a**), and the spice was eh for me. But those were minor complaints in comparison to the whole. This had everything I love about romance books. Combining an engaging plot that supports the romance + plenty of times where swooning was the only applicable emotion. All of my heartstrings were tugged by the last page (because who doesn’t love a good confession moment?!).

The setting in STEM was amazing and the side characters greatly supported the plot. Every single thing just worked for this book. I consumed it because it’s nothing short of one of my top romance reads for 2021.

Overall audience notes:

  • Contemporary romance
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: kisses to very open door
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: sexual harassment, sexism, death of a parent recounted

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