#stem romance

[chaoticneutraltee]

[quillthrillswriting]

what if jack & elsie from love, theoretically met as rival undergraduates, and were forced to co-TA a first-year physics class?

˗ˏˋ fic summary: ˎˊ˗

elsie hannaway, famed people pleaser, hates jack smith turner with a burning passion. since the very moment she looked up the cute boy in her first year physics class excitedly, only to realize that he had been behind the paper years before that had single handedly reduced her future field of study to a subject of mockery, elsie has taken every single negative emotion that she usually keeps locked behind a carefully curated version of herself and funnelled it into unadulterated loathing. now, in the fifth and final year of her undergraduate degree, the only thing standing between her and an acceptance into her program of choice is a spot TA-ing the university's introductory physics course. unfortunately, jack smith turner will be standing beside her as her co-TA. in theory, this is an impossible arrangement, but jack and elsie are soon to discover that things are never as they seem. elsie can be a million versions of herself simultaneously, an electron can be a particle and a wave, and perhaps jack smith turner can be both a scourge on theoretical physics and the best thing that has ever happened to her.

˗ˏˋ sneak peak: ˎˊ˗

As she stormed up the stairs to the TA coordination overseer’s office, Elsie thought to herself that this was perhaps the most anger she had ever allowed herself to feel in all twenty-one years of her life thus far. Worse than her flare of irritation at Ceecee months before for allowing her evil spikeball to eat the rare cheese collection Elsie had sprung for as a self-gifted birthday present, certainly worse than that time when that same spiny ball of fury had taken a midday nap on the seat of her office chair,  and somehow, worse than the fateful publication in Annals of Theoretical Physics that had undermined her future field of study entirely for years to come. 

Yes, all of that certainly paled in comparison to the events that had been set into motion only days before when she had, naively and idiotically, she might add, assumed that becoming an undergraduate TA in the last year of her degree could lead to nothing but good things. A boost on her grad school applications? Check. The ability to endow the incoming freshmen with a lifelong love and passion for physics? Double check. Co-TA-ing with the absolute blight on theoretical physics that was Jack Smith Turner? Who also happened to be six and a half feet of unfairly cruel gorgeousness? Who also also had sealed his fate as her sworn enemy since the faithful day he’d taken the last first-row seat in their Physics 110 class?

Unfortunately, quintuple-check, which is why she was currently storming up the stairs to the TA coordination center, only footsteps behind said long-legged perpetual thorn in her side. 

“It isn’t too late to give up and turn around, Jack,” Elsie huffed, mentally making a note to join Cece on her early-morning runs more often as she charged forward, propelled by pure indignation alone. “This is my TA spot, and we both know it.”

“Elsie, for the last time, there is no reason why we can’t just do this together,” Jack sighed, unfairly calm and unbothered-looking for someone who had remained several steps ahead of her since they’d begun climbing four flights of stairs ago. “The class is too large for one TA. You can’t run labs by yourself, an-”

“Oh, I can’t run labs by myself?” Elsie seethed, her rage peaking more steeply than a displacement verses time graph with increasing velocity- a concept that she could certainly teach better than this elitist theoretical-physics-invalidator-robot masquerading as a science undergraduate. Typically, she would never allow herself to snap at anyone the way she was now, but there was something about Jack that single-handedly managed to unravel every last one of her meticulously curated alternate personalities, and she hated him with the fire of a thousand Wolf-Rayet stars for it. The logical part of her brain knew that more likely than not, Jack was only intending to point out the obvious- that a class of two hundred plus only one TA would undoubtedly lead to disaster regardless of said TA’s competence- but something about his tone, so smooth and careful and goddamn patronizing was enough for her to allow her irritation to show quite plainly. 

“Elsie, you and I both know that’s not what I meant.” Jack groaned, halting in front of her to hold open the door, and Elsie had to bite her tongue to hold back her thanks. As she stormed through ahead of him, she thought that she saw his eyes lock onto her face for a moment, his gaze rapt with attention. His next words were a bit softer, more likely than not an attempt to placate her into not begging the coordinator to remove him from the course. “You’re smarter than deliberate misinterpretations.” 

Elsie couldn’t quite think of a sufficiently snappy response. She settled on, “You don’t know that,” which was admittedly not exactly her best scathing retort. 

“I’d like to think I do.” 

Elsie paused at the note of sincerity, her eyes flicking back to meet his, which hadn’t left her since she’d passed him at the door. “If I have even a little bit of luck, which unfortunately seems unlikely considering that I’ve been assigned to TA a year-long class with the guy that tried to delegitimize my entire field of interest when he was seventeen, you’ll never know me well enough to confirm or deny that.” Elsie’s voice was cold now, any hint of teasing gone, and with that, she pivoted sharply. If she had cared enough to see his response, she would have seen his face falling for a fraction of a second before he re-composed himself, steeling his expression once more. 

After bickering back and forth for some time in the hallway outside the heavy oak door over which of the two would plead their case first, the TA coordinator on duty (who happened to be a very underpaid and understandably irritated graduate student volunteer) eventually shouted through the door that the two of them could come in together or flirt somewhere she wasn’t. Shuddering at the thought of seeing Jack in any sort of romantic light, Elsie had pushed open the door first, with Jack hot on her heels. 

After only five minutes of the pair repeatedly cutting off one another and glaring vehemently at each other, the coordinator cut through their chatter with a single raised finger and a glare that entirely silenced both of them more effectively than the mute button on a remote. 

“Enough, please.” The coordinator, whose name according to her desk sign was Ashley, slid her head into her hands in exasperation, her irritation evident. The beads at the end of her blond braids clicked against the thick wooden desk and then her chair as she straightened, facing the two head-on. Her British accent had been more subtle when she had welcomed the pair in, but its increased intensity seemed to be directly correlated with the length of time she spent with the pair. She couldn’t have been any older than twenty-four or twenty-five, but she looked as tired as if she had been dealing with the two for years. “I can’t shuffle the first-year’s TA’s on a whim just because of some…petty rivalry.” 

Both Elsie and Jack surged forward, their words overlapping urgently as they attempted to communicate that no, this was very much more serious than a petty rivalry, but both shut up upon seeing the single finger Ashley raised in anticipation of their protest. “It’s not my job to understand the distinction between a petty rivalry and whatever layered conflict the two of you have going on, nor is it my job to mediate said conflict, but it is my job to make sure that this class is staffed. The two of you will be working together, whether you like it or not, so I would suggest making your way to the counselling office instead.” Ashley’s eyes slid between the two of them, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe they can help you two sort out all this… tension.” 

Elsie and Jack, understanding all at once that they had managed to push Ashley to the end of her rope, rose from their seats and shuffled to the door as if they had been put in time-out. 

As they began down the hallway, Elsie’s ballet flats clicking sharply against the navy-tiled floor, Elsie swore she heard Ashley add under her breath, “...Or, you two could just hook up already and stop subjecting the rest of us to your weirdo version of flirting.”

-ch1, quantum entanglement, by quillthrills on ao3

[weaponised--soul]

I just saw you praising Ali Hazelwood and I've been considering reading some of her works because I want to M/F Romance. But they're always such a hard read because they tend to get very cishet-gender roley. But hearing someone I share Brain Worms with say they like some of her books gives me hope. So like, which ones are good? I need some potential vacation reads.

hey yes!

Ali Hazelwood is known mostly for writing M/F romance novels about women in STEM, and I'd go to bat basically for all of them. The Love Hypothesis was her first published novel (originally a Reylo AU that was discovered by her agent or publisher on AO3 and had its serial numbers filed off, absolutely insane) and it's fantastic, fake dating enemies (sort of?) to lovers with bonus male yearning. I actually just started a re-read of Love on the Brain which may be my favourite, it's also a not really enemies to lovers switcheroo with very delicious male pining lol. Love, Theoretically is great too, good demi representation. She's fantastic at writing horrendously down bad men who are so incapable of expressing or dealing with their down badness that it twists back around to look like they hate the FMC, which is a delicious flavor imo. The STEMinista novellas are a cute like tryptic of novellas as well.

I haven't read all of her stuff but she also is a fan of age gap and some more "grey" tropes, I keep meaning to read her latest, Problematic Summer Romance, but it's not grabbing me quite yet.

If you're in STEM like I am though, she's a former professor in an unnamed STEM field and while she's never written about my specific sub specialty, she has written about an adjacent field very accurately, and to me all of the science in her books reads true, which is really great in a world where that just really never happens.

ps - I would also go to bat hard for Book Lovers by Emily Henry and Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren if you are looking for M/F romance novels that don't pander to cis het norm grossness. PARTICULARLY Book Lovers because it's centered around an FMC who, as she would put it, is more the evil big city gf in the Hallmark movie than the girl in the small town who runs a Christmas tree farm she gets dumped for, and I love her for that.

[jessread-s]

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

✩🧠🥼Review:

If you are a fan of STEM rom-coms, reading Brohm’s debut is a no-brainer!

“Love and Other Brain Experiments” follows two rival neuroscientists—Dr. Frances Silberstein and Dr. Lewis North—who are forced to pretend they’re dating at a New York conference, leading to unexpected chemistry.

I’m an absolute sucker for STEM romances like this one that feature characters that love science as much as they love one another! Brohm’s leads are complex, flawed, and very relatable. Both face many challenges in their field, especially Frances as a woman in a male-dominated industry. There were several moments where I wanted nothing more than to help her get out of her own head. I adored Lewis, who is there for Frances when she needs him and is incredibly supportive of  her career. I love how he had secretly been pining for Frances for years! Miscommunication was a big theme throughout the first half of the book, which contributed greatly to their initial rivalry. I like how their fake relationship ultimately forced them to work through their conflict so they could keep up their charade. 

The banter and spice paired with Frances and Lewis’ intense chemistry had me swooning uncontrollably! Brohm’s debut is spectacular and I can’t wait to see what she releases next! 

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

[authorette69]

I contain multitudes.

[urfavsim]

Hogwarts Legacy AU

Muggle University Hogwarts Legacy AU

SebastianX Female MC

Chapter One: A Rude Awakening

*Buzz* *BUZZ* *BUZZZZ*

“Oh shit not again.” I look at my phone alarm and see 7:50am. “Damn it.”

I wake up with a blaring headache to my alarm letting me know I slept in Big Time. I rush to put on clothes and get ready before I am flying out of my on campus apartment towards the Biology Building.

I can’t be late. Not after last time. I need to measure my experiment at exactly 8:30 or I am screwed big time. My entire week thrown off. I can’t be late I just can’t.

It’s 8:07 when I get to the Biology building and quickly swipe my card to get in. I rush up the stairs and run into my lab bolting it to the bio safety cabinet (BSC). When I walk in with my lab coat half on I see that my efforts had all been in vain.

Sebastian was working in the BSC and clearly threw my overnights away. The overnights I needed to have grown. The overnights I needed to measure the OD of at exactly 8:30am or my entire week would be ruined. In the f*cking trash.

“Fucking Bastard” I say not thinking he would hear me but as though he was expecting it he turns around with that smug smirk I’ve grown to hate.

“Oh Violet, I didn’t expect you were coming. You were so late I thought you had well… given up on your silly little experiment” he says with a look that tells me he did it fact know I was coming but decided to throw my stuff out anyways.

“Of course I was, you know I was” I respond.

“Oh really, what am I supposed to expect when it’s 8:15 and you’re no where to be seen. Am I supposed to just wait around while you stake claim on the only BSC available for an experimental you’re going to sleep through anyways.” He proclaims angerly.

“It was hardly 8:15, I know for a fact that I entered the lab at 8:09 at the latest.”

“Oh big f*cking whoop. A six minute difference” He scoffs and rolls his eyes.

“Yes big f*cking whoop. I had enough time before 8:30 and you knew that. You just wanted to screw me over.” I retort back.

“And what if I did. Not much you can do about it now. You were late. Deal with it” he says turning back to the BSC.

“You knew I needed to do this today.”

“You aren’t the only one on a time scrunch sweetheart. Better luck next time” he turns one last time “And nice lab coat” before turning back again and putting in his headphones.

“I hate you” I respond, with silence in return. He doesn’t seem to hear me or at least if he does he doesn’t dignify it with a response.

I walk away looking down at my pink lab coat I was gifted. I never usually wear it because of Sebastians teasing but I was running late.

I throw it on the chair at my bench and grab my things to leave. No use being in lab with no experiments to do today.

I walk to the small shoebox of an office I share with poppy and sit down. Poppy hasn’t arrived yet like the rest of the lab who usually arrive at 9. So I allow myself to quietly curse Sebastian and everything he loves.

It doesn’t really make me feel better. So I try to get my mind off of it and I start preparing for the class I TA for at 9:30.

I work on grading for about 30 minutes before realizing that at the rate I am going I might as well be doing nothing. Clearly this isn’t working as a good enough distraction. I am still fuming.

Who does that. I understand possibly using the BSC while I am not there but to straight up throw away my media is insanity. I know me and Sebastian haven’t gotten along since… well thats not important, but the point is I would never do this to him.

What sucks the most is that we used to be friends. Oh how times have changed.

Poppy finally arrives at 8:53 and I explain the whole thing.

“No way did he do that” she responds

“You can go look in the trash for yourself” I reply with a yawn. I really would have been better off sleeping in.

“No it’s fine I believe you. It just. Doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t do this to anyone else. I know y’all had a falling out but this seems extreme.” She replies.

“He’s a demon from Hell who has come to torture me specifically” I state in response while grabbing the grapes from the mini fridge under my desk and popping one in my mouth. “He knows I have my committee meeting next week. It’s like he wants me to not graduate on time. Just another thing for him to make fun of me about I guess.”

“He is just jealous that you’re on tract to graduate early and he’s not. That must be it”

“Yeah you’re probably right” I respond even though I am doubtful that is the reason. If I wanted to argue It would require giving context I am not ready to share. Talk about things I am not ready to talk about. Not now, maybe not ever.

“Well it’s 9:15, you better head to class Violet. You can’t let him get in your head where you can’t do your job” she urges.

I check the time as well and respond “Yeah you’re probably right. No more thinking about him or how much of a dick he is”

I pack my things and head downstairs to the Principals of Genetics class I help teach. Determined to not let this ruin the rest of my day.

[astrantiia]

⋆ ࣪ ⊹ 9 • Love, Theoretically

— Ali Hazelwood

I’ve wanted to read Ali Hazelwood’s books for a long time because she doesn’t just write regular romances, she writes stem romances about scientists and science.

The book is easy to read, and it pulled me in right from the beginning. I especially liked it when something about physics was mentioned and I actually understood it. It felt nice to read about my major not just in a study or a popular science book, but in a novel.

I liked how Elsie and Jack’s relationship developed gradually, first they got to know each other better and spent time together. It felt natural. And the way Jack takes care of her, and how they helped each other become better. It was really sweet 🥹

The only thing, near the end, when the spice scenes started, I didn’t fully understand the characters, their thoughts and actions, but I guess spice just isn’t really my thing. But there weren’t too many of those moments, and they didn’t ruin the impression.

Overall I enjoyed the book and now I want to read more of Ali’s stem romances.

— ★★★★,75

[lizanneyoung97]

ARC REVIEW: GIVE ME BUTTERFLIES BY JILLIAN MEADOWS

⭐⭐⭐⭐

TROPES

Workplace Romance

Found Family

Single Guardian

STEM Romance

As a museum lover, this was an instant add to my TBR. Millie and Finn work at the same museum, but in different departments. When their paths keep crossing, the two become friends, and then something more.

Millie is a great character to be in the head of. Her inner monologues are things I find myself saying, and her fears are real. She’s worked hard to find herself outside of a toxic relationship, and she doesn’t let herself fall back into it, even when her situation could encourage it. I think it’s important to see her experience documented, as she isn’t the first and won’t be the last woman to have to endure it. As someone who also doesn’t talk to their parents, I feel for Finn. It isn’t something he enjoys or likes, but he is protecting himself and his nieces, and I’m always happy and thankful to see that represented. 

I love the ease at which Millie and Finn’s relationship blooms. They just steadily intertwin their lives until they realize they don’t want to undo it. While they’ve been surviving, they thrive with the help of the other, and it’s nice to see people come together like that. Finn may be one of my favorite MMCs I’ve read, simply because of how smooth he is, even when he’s sick. 

Thank you to the publisher for an eARC of the traditionally published edition!