I really enjoyed these 3 novellas, and i think they work well packaged as one book as they are interlinked through the friendship group. For as long as Ali Hazelwood continues to write women in stem novels, I will keep reading them. Every time I read one of her books I am once again reminded why I love the STEM field and I love it being represented in books.
I do hope that in further books she does begin to use new plot lines for her stories though because by the third novella it was pretty predictable in how the story would go

I really loved both Love on the Brain and The Love Hypothesis so I was really excited to read this.
My ratings for the short stories are:
Under one Roof - 3 stars
Stuck With You - 3 stars
Below Zero - 4 stars
So while I did enjoy them I just didn't find them as good as the authors previous work.
I definitely think I prefer full length novels by Ali Hazelwood.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Sphere for an e-arc of this book. All opinions are my own.

I loved Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis, so I was so excited when I got an arc of Loathe To Love You. It's a collection of three stories, all with women working in STEM. How often do you see that? Mara, Sadie and Hannah are three friends who met during grad school, and years later, although they live in different parts of the countries are still best friends. They are highly intelligent women who have to work against maschilist coworkers so don't have too much hope in love. But Liam, Erik and Floyd make them see a different POV. I really appreciated how the author didn't write the male characters as 'alpha males', but actually made them sensible and a little bit awkward as their female counterparts. I can't wait to read more of Ali Hazelwood's novels.

Full of Ali Hazelwood's trademark banter and miscommunication, this collection of novellas was delightful. There was enemies who didn't realise they'd turned to lovers, second chances, and even a daring mountain rescue. This collection was fun, sweet, and a love letter to love!

The first story was my fave, but the other two felt a bit more of the same in a different way - get me? Overall a good read as I've finished the 3 stories in under 24h.

The problem is, i am finding her writing too repetitive, seems it's the same narrating voice over and over again and it gets quite dull after a while.

Under One Roof -
At first I was just annoyed, because Mara has just moved herself into some guy's house without him having any say in the matter, and then just been, to be honest, a bit of a dick. The pettiness was too much for me. Like? Obviously he's going to be annoyed if you come in changing everything? Also just her assumption that he couldn't *possibly* be a decent man (the photos on the walls? OBVIOUSLY he wouldn't have taken them...)

Stuck With You-
The absolute ignorance of Sadie - I cringed SO hard when she just assumed that Erik couldn't speak English, and when she would NOT accept that the cafe were out of croissants for the day. The world doesn't revolve around you!

Below Zero - Hannah's complete lack of regard got anyone else's emotions beside herself is infuriating. Describing her friendships as "an experiment", and her blunt "nah." when Ian suggests actually getting to know each other... is not for me.
I think I'm about done with all of these characters and their exhausting self depreciation.
I know they are just short stories but the endings all felt a little hurried. Everything I've read of Ali Hazelwood's is all just very samey. Really intelligent women that have no common sense when it comes to relationships, always assuming that the love interest despises them. Also what's with the deal with their absolute need to not wear a condom? Like was there a need for this to be specifically mentioned in every story?
These were quick, easy reads and I do enjoy Hazelwood's writing style, but I wouldn't rush to pick up her next book, as I just feel I'm reading the same story with a little twist each time.

I loved The Love Hypothesis and Love On The Brain so I was really excited to read these novellas. While I did enjoy them, sadly they didn't live up to Ali Hazelwood's other books for me.

Under One Roof - 3.5 stars
I liked Mara and Liam together - the bickering and the slow burn of the romance were great and I was really enjoying it but then the final scene before the epilogue felt really uncomfortable and unnecessary and made me lower my rating.

Stuck With You - 3 stars
I liked the scenes in the past with Sadie and Erik getting to know each other and their date but I really don't like miscommunication and the entire plot of the chapters in the present was miscommunication. I was also kind of uncomfortable with Erik's perspective of the miscommunication.

Below Zero - 4 stars
This one is definitely my favourite of the three novellas! I loved Hannah and Ian together and their chemistry in both the past and present chapters was so good! I wanted this novella to be longer as I'd love to know more about them!

The bonus chapter was nice and seeing how all of the couples ended up and overall I liked all the characters, but the first two novellas weren't that good to me.

First of all, massive thank you to NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read this arc❤️ Now, let me tell you what I thought about each of the novellas included in this book.

Under One Roof:

I read this novella before, but I gladly reread it to find out if my feelings about it are still the same. Well, kind of. I really liked the premise of this novella and enjoyed the bickering between two characters. I liked how the relationship between them changed over the course of the story and how they managed to resolve their issues with each other and realise both of them are incredibly annoying people. My problem is with the ending. I think it took a bit too long to get to the part where they starting to like each other and because of it the very very ending scenes felt like a cliffhanger where you really need to know what happens later.

And we do get the answer, just not in the novella.


Stuck with you:

I hate miscommunication trope. I despise it.

And somehow I love it every time Ali Hazelwood uses this crap. I’m devouring this shit like a starving raccoon in winter. I’m coming back craving more.

So, that being said: I loved this novella. Was it enjoyable? Absolutely! Predictable? Obviously. Did I get butterflies every time Erik Nowak spoke ? Oh hell year😏 Was the spice good? As always with Ali Hazelwood: go big or go home right? RIP that 😺

I probably should criticise the main character for being dumb and gullible, but who am I to judge?! I mean, I said yes to staying overnight in a hotel with a guy I met literally the day before. You can call me Sadie from now on 😂 just like every female character in Ali Hazelwood books- I scored a boyfriend by making decisions like that 😂


Below Zero:

Whyyyy was this novella so short?!😭 Don’t get me wrong, I still loved this story and I think it’s worth reading. Unfortunately, it felt rushed and didn’t give us enough time with the characters to feel any kind of connection between Hannah and Ian ‘after’ their five year break. Also, the situation Hannah found herself in in Norway- why wasn’t this more developed ?! I want a bit more suspense, more drama!

Ugh, it’s very hard to review this book without spoiling anything. I liked it but…. The but is big and visible from space and makes the book less enjoyable. It’s like coming back home from Norway after almost dying and realising you have only broccoli in the fridge. It is something, but it’s not exactly something we wanted.

Bonus chapter:

This by itself raised my rating of this book by one star. I absolutely loved how the author decided to write the future of the characters and I’m so happy for our main lead ladies: Mara, Sadie and Hannah. I think the bonus chapter really gives the readers closure on how the life of the couples has changed since starting their relationships and all three of their happy ever afters are beautiful ❤️

Another win for Ali hazelwood! 3 books I have read and loved! Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for access to this book!

Loathe to love you - Ali Hazelwood

This is a set of three novellas based around the friendship group of Mara, Hannah and Sadie. Honestly there was nothing to dislike, all three stories were great fun and had the perfect amount of smut! Totally recommended this book as I did not want to put it down, bring on more books form Ali Hazelwood! Thank you very much Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for the e-arc in return for my honest opinion.

Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood is a collection of 3 novellas set within their STEMinist series which follows Mara, Sadie and Hannah in their first jobs outside of their degrees and their inevitable conflict/romances with Liam, Erik and Ian.

Pros.
- I enjoyed the stories and found the relationships between the MCs and their love interests cute and the smut scenes steamy
- Writing these 3 stories as novella length was a good call as they were just as long as they needed to be
- Appreciated that the 3 female MCs all work in different STEM based jobs/fields

Cons.
- some of the plot scenarios are a little farfetched and are clearly not for folks who work in STEM fields who know how unlikely these situations would be.
- Ali chose to write the novellas non-chronologically, where it starts just before their relationships hit its apex, then jumps back to show the lead up to that moment. Would have rather they started chronologically so there was more tension and build up (like, we all know the MCs will get together in the end but humour us in making it seem like they might not, y'know?)

Lastly, and the main source of my griping - having read Ali Hazelwood's first book (The Love Hypothesis) it's very clear that the author can only write one type of MC and love interest and changes up their appearances and their one token quirk to make them appear different. This is more apparent in this novella collection as the previous stories are all there and fresh in your mind.

The female MCs:
- all are very clever (IMHO - almost too clever for their age and position in life) and are physically incapable of not drop scientific references in their everyday dialogue at every single opportunity. All other dialogue in comparison comes across as rather immature and they make some really childish choices despite their own intelligence
- don't really have any hobbies or other interests outside of their STEM jobs (or have one hobby/interest and that's it)
- are all just freshly graduated and in their first jobs/research placements
- emotionally vulnerable with an unhappy family/romantic life which means they either don't date at all or don't enjoy sex (until they have sex with the Male MCs as they have the one magic D that cures them)
- are physically tiny and fragile compared to Male MCs
- have a 3rd act misunderstanding with the Male MCs that could have been avoided if the Female MCs didn't jump to conclusions and just communicated with them like adults

The Male MCs:
- all physically massive, are strong enough to pick up the female MCs with one hand and have massive *ahems* which barely...fit the female MCs.
- broody and grumpy, but are actually nice guys once the female MCs get through their defences
- all are older than the female MCs and in more senior jobs/positions in the same company or rival company to the female MCs
- all are instantly in love/lust when they meet the female MCs for first time and are just barely in control of their urges, they're SO horny

All in all, I enjoyed these short reads, the smut was great - just don't think too hard when reading: 3/5

Such a unique book, I loved the plot and oh my god the characters we're so amazing!! I definitely will be recommending it!!

I can't anymore. I loved The Love Hypothesis and I kind of enjoyed Under One Roof, but the sex scenes and the repetitive of her dialogue and how similar every single one of her characters are has just kind of ruined it for me.

Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood is a collection of 3 novellas set within the STEMinist series which follows three friends Mara, Sadie and Hannah in their first jobs outside of their degrees and their inevitable conflict/romances with Liam, Erik and Ian.
I requested the ARC of Loathe to Love You as I really enjoyed the previously released ‘The Love Hypothesis’ by the same author, hoping that Loathe to Love You would release me from my reading funk!
Whilst the individual novellas were fun and easy to read, by the third I became a little bit frustrated by the similarities and theme, which probably wouldn’t be as apparent if they weren’t within a collection together. Essentially our female lead although clearly intelligent and successful in her university career must be poorly thought of or not respected by her male colleagues/peers in her new STEM role therefore fighting to find her place in a male dominated world whilst struggling to make meaningful relationships to her insecurities/vulnerabilities with unsupportive family relations. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to have an intelligent, strong female character who is well respected, encouraged and loved by her family dominating the STEM world and not requiring a large man with large hands to emotionally (and physically in Hannah’s story) save her?

It’s not that I loathed Love to Love You, I just feel Ali could have shaken it up a little bit. In truth instead of three novellas running alongside each other I would have preferred one normal length novel exploring not just the individual relationships but also the friendship between the three girls. It’s quite tricky to truly connect with a character when its all over and done with so quickly. Nevertheless, I’m out of my reading funk!

These couples and characters have had my heart since the beginning. It was cheesy, fun, loving and so enjoyable that I couldn’t seem to put it down unless i finished it!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I wanted to read these novellas because so many people love Ali Hazelwood, and The Love Hypothesis was only my second romance book after years of not reading them, so I thought... maybe I didn't like it because I wasn't used to the romance genre.

Well, I have read a lot more romance novels since then and after reading these novellas, I know that Ali Hazelwood is just not for me.
It's hard to enjoy a romance when you're not into the love interest, and since all of the author's love MMCs are basically the same but with different names and jobs, it is very hard for me to enjoy these books. Same goes for the FMCs, they're just not for me.

I always try to be at least somewhat objective in my reviews, which is why I'm giving this novella collection 2 stars instead of 1. I guess the novellas are fun and entertaining, and me not enjoying it is largely due to my personal preferences.
However, I find it disappointing that the author sticks to the same formula for all three of these and TLH. To me, the romance genre is so great because while we know the ending of (almost) all romance novels (aka couple ends up together), the way to get there can be so different and there are so many different stories to be told and character types to be met, and I'm not a fan of authors recycling the same character again and again.

I know others enjoy the author's work a lot more, I just personally find it very hard to see the appeal.

If you've read any other Ali Hazelwood, then you've read these three STEMinest novellas.

Was there too much focus on the male lead being huge and the female lead being small? Yes. Was there weird talk of size? Yes: "The way he filled the doorway", "His fingers so long they met both on my back and above my belly button", and the bit about him being so heavy when he sat on the sofa she had to stop herself sliding towards him... Did I eat this up anyway? Yes. That is the short answer. It was soooo weird at times, but at least there was no bo*b eating this time.

Would I recommend this? Yes, if you like cheesy, cute romance to fill a void in your soul, then yes. If you like guys falls first, then yes. If you like stoic and sunshine, then yes. If you like rich and not rich, then yes.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for Ali Hazelwood and loved it.

Thank you to Little Brown Book Group UK, Sphere and Ali Hazelwood for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book# 296 of 2022

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'Loathe to Love You' by Ali Hazelwood.

'Loathe to Love You' is a collection by Ali Hazelwood that features 3 short novellas. Due to this, I will be reviewing each one individually.

Under One Roof:
This tells the story of Mara and Liam. Mara and Liam are stuck 'under one root' due to the recently deceased Helena. And to be honest, Helena sounded like a right party. She knew what she was doing. Most of this novella takes place is the past, which is great because it gives us as a reader context. I love a good tenses story. There's multiple scenes in this novella that made me go "hmm that sounds like it'd come from a cheesy contemporary movie" but I loved that about the story. The ending was boom sex, epilogue time! Which I probably should have expected seeing as it was a novella but I wasn't prepared.
I did enjoy this novella a lot and the characters and story was interesting to me.

Stuck With You:
Now we're onto Erik and Sadie's story. Again, it follows the same present to past flashbacks so that's consistent which is lovely. Erik was the highlight of this. I feel like the novellas are gonna be the same tropes over and over again but I'm perfectly okay with that if every man was like Erik. Except for when he said "I want to feel your tits. " I don't know why but my brain went to the birds and it just made me feel uncomfortable.

Below Zero:
This one feels different from the get go. We are in Norway for a bit of it! Ian and Hannah are the protagonists in this one. I liked Ian. Hannah was your average Ali Hazelwood protagonist but Ian felt slightly different to me. And imagine my shock when I finally noticed all 3 novellas are intertwined.


To conclude: the stories were repetitive and alike in most ways but I still did enjoy the novellas - especially the bonus chapter.

Ali Hazelwood does it again. Wonderful. Three beautifully written, STEM-y 😉 rom-coms. While they are three novels they are intertwined and yet, so separate.

Loved them, I think Hannah may be my favourite but only because her story involved a NASA exploration which is just so cool!

What's better than one novella? Three novellas in one book collection of course!

In Loathe to love you, you get three friends, Mara, Sadie and Hannah that work in STEM and trying to navigate the difficulties in their field and dating, the second often is the more challenging of the two and that says a lot.

💗Under One Roof

Mara and Liam are forced to live together in the same house that they inherited by Liam's aunt and Mara's mentor.


💗Stuck With You

Sadie and Eric spend some time stuck together in an elevator, and in that time they get to talk even if that's the last thing she want to do.

💗Below Zero

When Hannah is stuck in a remote research station the last person she expects to come to her rescue is Ian the last man she thought would want to save her.

This collection was very fun and quick to read, I devoured them all in no time and I really enjoyed them.