Book Review: Loathe To Love You
“Men were a mistake,” Sadie says. “Big mistake,” Hannah adds. “Huge.”
Hello hello! It has been a while and somewhat stressful and the wonderful non-fiction book that I have been sifting through just hasn’t quite cut it in terms of ‘I-need-a-relaxing-read-right-now’ so I went to a wonderful writer who writes some cracking romance novels. Only this time it's not one big novel, they're a series of short stories. Three to be exact. Three delightful short romance stories that are all wonderfully intertwined with each other. So, perhaps it is one big romance novel? But with three heroines and heart-stoppingly handsome male leads.
What Ali thrives at is writing about smart women who have their own agency, thoughts and ideas. But what's great is that these women have a tribe; a tribe that makes the heartache funny, divisive, and more importantly, adds timbre. Not layers, TIMBRE. Because romance is romance, there is a formula to romance fiction because of certain tropes. The ones that most often are: Grumpy X Sunshine, He Falls First, Forced Proximity etc etc - the list goes on. The point being, you need timbre, you need your tribe to get you through the sublime and ridiculousness of life, or, romance fiction tropes. There is an in-between.
Our three leading ladies all have PhD’s which is inspiring in and of itself, they are smart, capable, and driven to succeed. What is great is that they have all been friends since grad school. Mara, is an environmental engineer because… climate change is a real damn thing, we all love planet Earth and it does need saving! Small problem, she inherited a house that she must share with an annoyingly handsome lawyer who works for a big oil company. Uh oh – let the tension ensue! Next in our trio is Sadie, who gets stuck in a lift with her sworn nemesis called Erik, this Scandinavian giant man who she thinks committed corporate espionage to steal her clients. And then you have Hannah. Hannah doesn’t do relationships, but when the handsome NASA scientist is the only one who will take the risk to save her from a crevice in the Arctic Circle… I mean I know the polar ice caps are melting, just be glad this is fiction.
These novellas aren’t as steamy as her main books, but they are delightful all the same and just what the doctor ordered when I needed something to relax to. However, the one ongoing criticism of Ali Hazelwood is that her books follow a certain formula, plot, and direction. On the other hand, we do see different aspects of women in STEM. STEM is not one-dimensional, there are many facets to it. It is a shame that there aren’t as many facets as possible to the men Hazelwood writes. You never really get into the heads of the male leads; I mean the women get timbre and a multi-layered sassy tribe – why not the men?