"Hazelwood has the winning formula for steamy STEM-y romcoms in these three short stories"
Fans of Hazelwood will be delighted to hear that these three stories are variations on the same theme as her bestselling novels: quirky engineers have historical misunderstandings with hunky rivals, then have mind-blowing sex which alters their otherwise orderly lives. They can definitely be read standalone, though they are very loosely interconnected in that the heroines of each novella are friends who chat a little during the stories.
If you like your men supernaturally smart, hot, and specifically obsessed with you, then you are going to REALLY enjoy these sex scenes. As there isn’t as much chance for prolonged character development in a short story, these are more about the immediate spice than comedy, though there are a few jokes thrown in for good measure (I particularly enjoyed a thread about lucky lilac underwear). There were a few moments where the intersection of science and sexuality was I think unintentionally funny (for me at least!). In one of the stories, mid-sex, the hero compares her body to the topographical features of Mars…! I am not sure this would have the same sexy effect on me as it proceeds to have on them, but hey, no kink shaming here.
You don’t need to be a science geek to enjoy the themes of these — I confess I sometimes skimmed the details of the science plot-lines (which seemed to mainly involve professional subterfuge of applying for grants) in favour of getting to the emotional and sexy stuff more quickly. Sue me.
I would recommend reading these stories separately, as I made the mistake of reading them consecutively which did make the similarities perhaps more overt. If you’re new to Hazelwood I would personally recommend starting with one of her novels instead (I adored Love on the Brain and my review of that is also available on this website.) However, if you – like the rest of TikTok – are a massive Hazelwood fan, then these three stories will give you a hit of that familiar genius-enemies-to-hot-lovers goodness.
| Primary Genre | Romance / Relationship Stories |
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