Elsie Hannaway is a physicist living a double life. By day, she is an adjunct professor struggling with low pay and a lack of health insurance; by night, she earns extra income through a fake-dating service by adopting whatever personality her clients desire. Her worlds collide when she interviews for a dream tenure-track position at MIT, only to find the hiring committee includes Jack Smith. Jack is an experimental physicist who once dismantled the career of Elsie’s mentor and, more complicatingly, is the brother of her favorite client. Elsie must defend her theoretical research against Jack’s skepticism while maintaining her professional facade despite his ability to see through her social masking.
Readers who enjoy academic settings and the enemies-to-lovers trope will find value in this portrayal of the precarious labor market in higher education. This book appeals to those interested in the cultural divide between theoretical and experimental physics and the specific challenges women face in STEM fields. Readers walk away with a depiction of how professional people-pleasing impacts personal identity. It serves as a study on the intersection of academic rivalry and emotional honesty, showing how setting boundaries is necessary for both scientific integrity and romantic intimacy.
Insights from Love, Theoretically
“I am a chameleon. I am whatever you want me to be.”
Being a people pleaser makes you a professional liar. Elsie loses her own personality just to make strangers comfortable.
“I want to see you. The real you.”
Jack sees right through every performance. He refuses to let Elsie hide behind her polite masks.
Academia feels like a rigged game for women in physics. You have to work twice as hard for half the respect.
Hating someone is exhausting when they keep being decent. The rivalry between theorists and experimentalists is mostly just ego.
- Published
- 2023
- Publisher
- Hachette UK
- ISBN
- 9781408725801
- Language
- EN
