Book Review: Loathe to Love You

Last year I saw that Ali Hazelwood had three novellas out featuring females in STEM (like her other novels) that she called her STEMicist novellas. I was going to read them on Kindle, but then I saw that a paperback was coming out with all the novellas in one plus a bonus chapter! The collection is called Loathe to Love You since they all feature an enemies to lovers trope. Obviously, I had to pre-order that! It arrived last month and I just read it over the past few days.

There are three best friends who mat at CalTech for grad school – Mara, Sadie, and Hannah. Each novella follows one of the girls.

Under One Roof
Mara is an environmental engineer who just got a job at the EPA in DC. Her mentor recently passed away and left her her family home in DC. The hitch? Her mentor didn’t own the whole house; she was only a part owner. Her nephew, Liam, lives in the house. Enemies at first because now Mara is suddenly living in his house and they are opposites – she’s an environmentalist and he’s a lawyer for an oil company. But soon the roommates learn to get along and actually start to like each other.

I liked this one and the slow burn enemies to friends to lovers. Mara was a little annoying, honestly, but I liked Liam.

Stuck With You
Sadie is an engineer at a small start-up engineering firm that specializes in environmentally friendly building. She works in the same high rise as a much bigger engineering firm. After a chance meeting at a local bakery with Erik, they hit it off. Then she learns he’s one of the founders of the big engineering firm and the client she thought she had clinched has now signed with Erik’s firm. Now she hates him and avoids him at all costs. Then, she gets stuck on the elevator during a power outage. With Erik.

I really liked this one and though there was the miscommunication trope, I think it was an understandable miscommunication. I really liked Sadie and Erik.

Below Zero
Below Zero follows Hannah, a NASA engineer who is spending months in the Arctic for a project. She met one of the chief engineers, Ian, at NASA years ago when she was in grad school. He was already at NASA and is a distant cousin of Mara. Hannah connected with Ian for a school project where she had to interview someone who has the job she wants. They hit it off, but wanted different things (she only wanted casual, he didn’t). Years go by and now she’s at NASA. The attraction is still there, but things sour quickly when she finds out that Ian denied her project proposal. She figures out a way to get to the Arctic despite this and gets injured and stranded. Ian ends up being the only one willing to come rescue her.

I loved this one the most. Hannah and Ian were both really great characters and I loved how supportive and protective of her he was.

The bonus chapter was in the point of view of the three guys and it was a nice little wrap up of their stories!

Overall, I really enjoyed the novellas. Below Zero was my favorite followed by Stuck With You and then Under One Roof. They were quick reads with steam and women in STEM!