I reviewed Ali Hazelwood's previous scientist romances here. All her books share some plot elements: brilliant, insecure heroine trying to move up in her male-dominated career, unnaturally hunky hero who is a few years ahead of her in the science field and who sees the heroine and gets her in a way she doesn't get herself. Although I enjoyed Hazelwood's previous books, Love, Theoretically was next level.
Generally when I read a romance I hope to like the heroine. If I don't, at most I'll hate-read the book. Best case, I like her enough that I imagine that we're friends. But I never really relate to romance heroines. I never really believe in them. And I'm certainly never like, oh my god, she's me. (Contrast this to, say Lord of the Rings. I am Frodo, trudging through Mordor. Literally, I tell myself that when I'm on backpacking trips that are going on for too long.)
Elsie, the heroine of Love, Theoretically, is different from other romance book heroines. I completely recognized myself in her, as will many women who grew up as the overlooked appeaser in a dysfunctional household. Elsie has the superhero power of reading a room, figuring out exactly who people want her to be, and taking on that role. Who she wants to be is irrelevant. If she revealed her true self, she would be rejected.
So as an adult Elsie stays in touch with her family and performs her role as necessary, but she has an entirely different life -- a life where she is successful but in which she has serious struggles -- that her family knows nothing about. When she bothers to talk about herself to anyone in her family, all they hear is static. As far as they're concerned, she doesn't exist when she's not in front of them.
Along comes hero Jack. I like Jack the best of Hazelwood's heroes. The heroes in her previous books are awesome but they also have a stalker-y quality. They've been silently in love with the heroine for years, even though they barely know her. Jack is different. Yes, he's in love with Elsie before he really registers with her -- but not for that long, and the circumstances make it okay. He gives an entirely plausible -- lovable -- explanation of how he was able to see through her performances from the first time they met. And I really appreciate that Elsie calls him on his shit: He wants her to be honest with him, but he's not honest with her about something really, really big.
A sidenote: My Elsie-ness is one reason why I love writing smut. I have to write under a pen name, which means I can reveal my true self because nobody knows it's me.
