First off, I admire anyone who can write novels. I know it isn’t easy and it takes a lot of work.

That said, from the second page, I was bored. And after reading the first chapter, I could not being myself to trudge through the rest of the book.

The writing needs more editing. It’s wordy, missing commas, and the intention behind every action is spelled out instead using nuance and body language to guide me along. I see you’ve written many other novels, I’m sure you have a fantastic fan base. I’m just not one of them.

I did appreciate the trigger warnings, and the disclaimer about this being written in British English.

Very fun read! I love nerdy and unique characters. The sexual tension and chemistry was sizzling. A few odd repetitive word choices (the characters "huffed" way too much), but otherwise I enjoyed it. Not a huge fan of the manipulative and inexcusable behavior, but for the sake of the plot I guess it worked. Would read this author again!

After reading the description of this book I was intrigued. Academic enemies to lovers is a genre that I love and I just knew I had to read this.

For the most part, it was everything I wanted it to be. I read the entire story in a day and I struggled to put it down as tropes like forced proximity, age gap and a good slow-burn romance all come together to make the MC’s chemistry and tension undeniable.

But, and this is a big one, Tom’s actions and choices had me unsure whether I really supported their relationship.

His ‘justified’ actions were not at all justified, and I feel like he was forgiven way too quickly. It made some scenes in the book painful to read and at times I considered dnf’ing it. I’m glad I didn’t though, because although Tom displayed a lot of petty behaviour, the rest of the story was well developed and loveable. The side characters, relationships, setting and resolution in this book were a lot of fun to read and have me excited for any possible future books the author may write in this genre.

After reading this book I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a slow-burn rollercoaster of a romance set in the world of academics.

The Unbalanced Equation offers a second chance at love / enemies to lovers with deliciously doubled forced proximity, after the dreamiest of male leads falls for and loses our—equally well educated and whip smart—heroine within the very first chapter.

I’m a sucker for a romcom with STEM based / academic settings, so I downloaded an arc of this book on a total whim. When I tell you I could not put it down—H.L. Macfarlane will have you hooked and swooning within mere minutes and then you’ll wonder where your whole night went!

If you adored and devoured the Hating Game and the Love Hypothesis, you simply must read this book… but, do note, that Unbalanced Equation offers more steam (and pop culture references) than those two books combined. You were warned and you’re welcome!

Forced proximity
Enemies to lovers-esque
He's nice to everyone but her
Tension
Some decent spice
Scottish main characters - I really hope they do an audio version of this book with proper Scottish narrators because that would be amazing!

This is about a couple in STEM but I think that is where the love hypothesis similarities end.

Tom and Liz were equally endearing and annoying. There was a lot of anime talk in the book (which was way over my head). Tom had some pretty big red flags which I am choosing to overlook.

Jenny and Jim were so lovely together, they made my heart happy.

"Even if it's bad it's still sex. And trust me...it won't be bad."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I've liked you for so long I have your entire damn body memorised. So let me take the lead, if that will ease your nerves."

Thank you to the Author, Publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and Netgalley for this Arc.

The unbalanced equation was a short and cute book. My favourite part of the book was the warning at the start that it's written in British English. IDK why but it was so funny to me.

The unbalanced equation followed Dr Elizabeth Maclean and her old PhD supervisor turned lab bench buddy, Dr Tom Henderson. Read this for fun enemies to lovers in an academic setting. It's cute and not something to take too seriously. A beach read if you will!

But there are some questionable and slightly worrying things in this book. I can move on from him being her old advisor because they did meet before that but their parents getting married?? their parents who met in a support group for people who recently lost spouses...why did no one bring up how odd and unhealthy that was?

I really didn't know what to expect with this book and that sometimes turns into an utter delight. That's exactly how this book went for me.

Pure attraction at first sight brought Professor Thomas and a PhD student, Liz, together at a university mixer. Thomas had already made up his mind to ask Liz out when they got separated for the evening. As luck would have it, early the next morning, Thomas is asked by her superior to be Liz's PhD assessor for the next several years. What can Tom do except accept the assignment? He is trying to get his career off the ground anyway.

So Tom does what he feels he needs to do over the next few years - he is a complete jerk to Liz and he is harder on her than he has ever been in his life. He does it all under the guise of wanting to keep his distance and make her not flirt with him, but it just makes her hate him with a passion.

When she graduates, they run into each other again and are thrown together in some very unique and hilarious situations. Can Tom live with what he has done to Liz? If she finds out the truth, can she forgive him? This book is worth reading to discover the answers.

I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions stated above are mine without biases.

Tom has nursed a hidden crush on one of his PhD students since the moment he met her. After a fire at his lab, and his mothers sudden news, Tom finds himself engaging with Liz more than he thought possible. Meanwhile, Liz can’t believe her luck in being stuck with her harsh colleague.

I loved the forced proximity trope and the slow burn element of the books as well. At first, I was worried that it was going to be longer than necessary but the development of the storyline and the characters were built up perfectly. The writing made it so easy to fall in love with the characters and the storyline as well. The wit and banter between Liz and Tom was so naturally written, I could have read an entire series on it.

The main critique was that the slow burn was potentially too slow at times, which took up most of the book, which then lead to the relationship being quite short and I think I would have enjoyed seeing more of the relationship, after the slow burn was written brilliantly. But other than that, I don’t think that’s a massive criticism to change as I still thoroughly enjoyed the book.

At first, I definitely thought that the book was going to be fairly similar to Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis but I couldn’t be more wrong. The only similarity here was that the heroine was involved in S.T.E.M so Hazelwood’s influence was definitely evident, but that goes for all romantic fiction and this representation that is making its way up the book charts.

Look, I tried not to dnf this one, I really tried. At one point I came to read the reviews, saw that people liked it, and decided that I needed to give it a better chance. However, the FMC is just too juvenile, and getting me riled up, so I am dnf'ing at 80% (with a lot of skimming through to this point).
First of all, this is NOTHING like The Hating Game and The Love Hypothesis.
Second, "enemies-to-lovers" can someone explain how? We're told he's horrible to her, but nowhere we're shown that. She (apparently rightfully) is always angry towards him, but she just comes across as bitchy for no reason.
Third, all the anime references? Especially when it goes on for pages? For someone who is not the least bit interested in anime, this took me out of pages of the story. A casual reference would have been okay, but here it's more than that.
Another point, his invasion of her privacy! Big red flag!
Also, I hate it when one character rages against the other for something, while they have been doing the same thing to them!
Sorry, I tried, but it's just not for me.
Thank you to the publisher and author for the ARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Enemies to lovers is my favorite trope so I know I would like this. It's in an academic setting and both characters are SMART so it's another plus. Love the chemistry between the characters and it's fun to see how they come together. All the other characters are so much fun too. :) The entire book makes me smile and giggle and laugh! A terrific rom-com!

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

When I saw it compared to the love hypothesis, I was so excited. But then I read Tom, and Adam Carlsen would never!

There was mainly only one thing that spoilt this entire book for me, Tom. He was so childish and annoying that he didn’t let me enjoy the cute parts either. The way he blatantly didn’t acknowledge his awful behavior towards Liz, and constantly shifted the blame, made me so mad. Don’t even get me started on how he invaded Liz’s privacy on several occasions.

Although there were some good parts too, like Liz and Jim’s father-daughter relationship. They were so cute together, and it was hilarious whenever Tom noticed similarities between the two when they were angry. I also liked Liz individually a lot.

I enjoyed the smut scenes. I might have liked the book if Tom wasn’t the love interest, honestly. It had everything I liked: enemies to lovers, forced proximity, STEM environment, and amazing banter. So I would definitely check out the author’s other works, because only one aspect of the book soured the whole thing for me.

I was intrigued by the cover of this book, because it reminded me of The Love Hypothesis, which I loved. This was sort of similar, at least in setting (academic science research lab). I was initially a little worried about the premise because I don't like power imbalances in relationships. I was soothed pretty quickly, however, because except for a single chapter where Liz, the protagonist, is technically in a student position, the rest of the book takes place four years later when Liz and Tom (the love interest) are colleagues. Their banter is fun, the sexual tension is spicy, and the plot, while a little silly and unrealistic, is entertaining. There was a little bit of power imbalance further on in the book, which made me uneasy, but both characters recognized it and addressed it. Maybe their resolution wouldn't fly in a real-life situation, but hey, this is a fun romcom world, and I can buy it. I don't think The Unbalanced Equation is going to usurp The Love Hypothesis or The Hating Game, but its written in a similar vein and people who love those books should enjoy this one.

I had problems with this book from the beginning and was close to dnf-ing.

The whole relationship was built on a breach of trust and privacy it was gross, and I don't like that. To explain my opinion, I might have to add a few spoilers so stop reading here if you don't like spoilers.

Tom - the main male character decides to sabotage Elizabeth - the main female character from going on tinder dates by going into her phone (which he knows from 'accidentally' seeing her enter) and blocking them. He then also sabotages her efforts to find an apartment by helping other students find apartments using her search conditions and in other cases speaking to the realtor for her or sending the apartment she wanted to another student. Elizabeth also decides to play games, manipulating each other for most of the book. Nothing I've read makes me think the two should've ended up together.

In my opinion, they both suck; the best characters are on the sidelines like Tom's mother and Daichi - the professor. Sure it was cute in some parts, but as soon as the foundation of the relationship was breach of trust and privacy, I was out.

Thanks to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial, as I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book #169 of 2022.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a ok read for me. I think it's too long. I was so bored sometimes. Some scenes were unnecessary. I didn't like that it was kind of second chance romance.

Have you tried shutting the fuck up?”
“Not yet.”
“Then add it to your list of things to do today,”

God this scene was so funny. I actually at some point thought that there parents were going to opposed as they are gonna turned step siblings, but there was very little drama about it.

This book kind of reminded me of The Love Hypothesis.

4✨

I actually adored this. The Unbalanced Equation follows Liz, a postdoc, and her grumpy and possessive former PhD assessor, Tom, who has been pining for her for YEARS. It has all my favorite tropes, including

Enemies to lovers
Age gap
Forced proximity
STEM workplace

Tom is oh so hot and Liz was such a fun female main character. Their banter was top tier and the tension was SO. GOOD.

My only complaint was the conflict, but the resolution was super cute.

If you loved The Love Hypothesis and want another fun, steamy academic workplace rom com, pick this up when it comes out on September 15th.

First of all, I‘m thankful that I recieved this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review..anyway this book so cute. I haven‘t been able to put this book down at all. Honestly it kind of reminded me of „the love hypothesis“ BUT I have to admit that I like this one more. This book is such a cute love story that has so many good tropes in the book. But not only the main love story is amazing, also the side stories are amazing as well. I don‘t think that there is even one character I didn‘t like in this book, apart from Eli…fuck Eli. This book is so good and I can only recommend this one, everyone should read this once it‘s released.

Enemies to lovers. I knew this when I picked up the book. However, I couldn't like the characters (again, I know it's an ememies to lovers romance and there would be all the angst and the initial discomfort/hatred) and the writing in some parts made me uncomfortable.

I hope the characters reached my heart and soul with something to adore about them. They seem a little too distant for me.

Thank you, BooksGoSocial, for the advance reading copy.