4/5⭐️
2.5/5🌶️
thank you netgalley and macfarlane lantern publishing for this arc! this book was released on september 15th, 2022.

this book was such a pleasant surprise. this rom com follows two nerds, liz and tom, who i found really relatable because of their love for science and anime. it did have similar vibes to the love hypothesis, so if that’s a book you enjoyed, this is definitely one to check out!! it had some tropes i really loved (forced proximity, enemies to lovers, guy falls first) that really hooked me from the beginning. my only complaint with this book was that i felt like the second half of the book dragged on a bit it terms of plot. besides that, i found the banter between liz and tom very entertaining and i definitely did not expect the spice to be what is what, so both were a nice surprise! if you’re looking for a rom-com with characters who are in STEM, this is definitely a good one to pick up!

“i never knew how much i was waiting on you until i met you”

This book has a fun, compelling reading. I loved the Scottish setting, and honestly want to move into Tom's house. Even though this story had some tropes, I thought they worked well!

Stayed for the drama. He was super immature and toxic. She was just as bad. It was entertaining enough to keep me to the end. Their parents also married. Crazy read. Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for a review.

I was unable to finish this book - apologies to the publisher and to #Netgalley - I found the characters unlikable and the writing very hard to get through ; unfortunately I could not continue - 41% DNF

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of “The Unbalanced Equation” in exchange for my honest review! Some people compared this novel to The Love Hypothesis and The Hating Game so I requested right away! This book was similar in some areas but also unique enough that it didn’t read like a rip off.

The book had good chemistry between the two leads however they did act a lot younger than their ages which threw me off a little.

It was an fun read however it didn’t stand out to me like some other books did so for that reason I am giving it three stars.

Thankyou for allowing me a copy of this book. I enjoyed this, i liked the plot and the way everything played out, i liked the writing style, it was so easy to read i flew through it. And i loved Liz and Tom and their relationship. I will definately be reading more from this author.

Received an ARC via Netgalley

I'm a sucker for enemies to lovers book ,I will read anything with this trope so was looking forward to the reading this book .

However this was an okay read for me. I felt this book was lacking, I wasn't in love with the main character and felt they weren't well developed and book seemed rushed towards the end.

I do like the writing of the author and it had some great banter and side characters.

Overall was a decent read.

The male protagonist is extremely unlikeable and unhinge, I could not enjoy this. The girl protagonist deserved better.

I had heard that this was similar to The Love Hypothesis and The Hating Game. While there are a few similarities, but I wouldn’t say similar, more influenced.
It wasn’t a bad story, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. The author did a great job with the chemistry between the two characters and there were also some funny scenes. But the characters felt a bit childish and Tom especially behaved a bit toxic. It was also a bit more steamy than I anticipated, but that is more of a personal preference I guess…
The story idea is really great, but my expectations where a bit higher than the outcome. It was an entertaining read but that’s all it was for me.

But I really want to thank you for the e-arc!

For fans of Ali Hazelwood and The Love Hypothesis. Here's what you need to know: The Unbalanced Equation follows Liz, a postdoc, and her grumpy and possessive former PhD assessor and soon to be step sibling?!?!, Tom, who has been pining for her for years. Featuring tropes like enemies to lovers, age gap, STEM workplace, he falls first, and forced proximity. Don't worry it's not an inappropriate workplace romance or power dynamic.

Toms falls into instalove with Liz basically the moment he meets her, cheesy adaptation of a Jane Austen prologue included. The problem she runs out on him during a party and then the very next day he finds out he is now her Ph.D. assessor after her's retires. So obviously she is off-limits for the time being. Too bad Tom decides to be a dick to her rather than just telling her they have to be professional until she graduates. They are brought back together when their parents spring the news that, surprise, they are getting married. *bomb drop* And Tom ends up in the same lab as her. Liz decides to pay him back for making her Ph. D. hell with a series of pranks. Little does she know, Tom has been in love with her years and he's enjoying the games. Tom does some pretty juvenile meddling of his own to keep her close. Which leads us to the ultimate conflict. Given the juvenile behavior from them both, I found the conflict pretty meh. And I think Liz gets over it so quickly that it was just kind of an annoying couple of chapters. Also her dad really annoyed me. But oh well, overall it's a fun, easy, steamy read. Wit, games, pranks galore.

Thanks to Netgalley for a free early arc in exchange for my honest review.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Unbalanced Equation was pretty easy to devour. The only problem for me was finally finding the time to sit down and write the actual review. Did I have to skim through it for a little bit just to get the creative juices flowing? Yes, yes, I did, and I have zero regrets about it.

In this, you will meet Tom and Liz. At first glance, I guess you could say that they were enemies. It truly doesn't help that he ignored her email years ago or that she held a teeny tiny grudge for it either. So, when they finally cross paths, no one knew what to expect. Well, other than the mimosas that is.

Sure, they were attracted to one another but it kind of felt like right person wrong time. All the time. They just clicked and had this vibe that I couldn't help but get along with either. Yet, they would mess up by saying or doing something wrong. It completely frustrated me, but it also made them a bit more realistic.

In the wise words of Hannah Montana, nobody's perfect.

It didn't take long for sparks to finally fly between these two. Then the drama came right around the corner and smacked me. Some of it was okay and interesting, but the snark, sarcasm and banter are what I came here for. It didn't disappoint me one bit and I'm so happy with what I read.

In the end, I really enjoyed these two doing a slow awkward dance around one another. I also hope that she does go with Jerry for the kitten's name.

I'll start saying that, due to the physical appearance, the clothes and the name of the MMC, I awfully suspect this book was originally a Tom Hiddleston fanfiction, which could explain to a certain level the quality of this work. I like and respect fanfiction but some pieces should stay in the fanbase and not be published.

In the Unbalanced Equation by H.L. Macfarlane, Elizabeth has suffered under her PhD assessor, Tom, for four years and is finally free. When circumstances place them both in the same lab... at the same bench... for three months... Elizabeth is not even sure she can survive it.

If you love seeing both character's POV, this book takes care of that with both Liz and Tom's side of the story. Their banter and tension moves the story along, although the characters can be a bit manipulative.

This book was written for you if:
1) You love a good enemies to lovers romantic comedy
2) You liked The Hating Game or The Love Hypothesis
3) You're looking to start a trilogy of standalone but connected rom-coms

I really enjoyed TLH and was looking for more stem novels- this really fed my itch! Thank you for the arc!
I found myself jumping up and down when the characters looked at each other, the tension was well drawn out, plus the main character was incredible likeable.
Definitely recommend if you were/are a fan of Ali Hazlewood and you’re looking for more tension filled, science packed romance books!

This book fell under the “just okay” category for me. Nothing about it really sucked me into the story and it took many times of coming back to finally finish.

I generally liked this steamy science romance, though I did have a few issues with it, which caused me to edit this review as I pondered the book further over time....

I’m absolutely on board for a romance between two molecular biology/genetics/genomics Ph.D. scientists, written by an author who has her Ph.D. in molecular genetics. As someone who was a molecular biology undergrad and genetics grad student in the distant past, I greatly enjoyed all the technology references; restriction enzymes, gels, pipettes, Eppendorf tubes, Miniprep kits, autoclave bags, buffers, and the debate over whether Drosophila or E. Coli is a better model organism all get mentioned here, among other science-y things. I didn’t think these references were too heavy-handed to lose non-scientist readers.

I liked Liz and Tom, the leads, and was definitely rooting for them (even though Tom was perhaps just a little *too*perfect--did he really have to also be wildly rich in addition to super hot, smart, good in bed.... ) I was glad to see two childfree-by-choice people depicted positively. The supporting characters—friends, coworkers, parents—were also likable.

However, I thought the book was a little too long and grew repetitive in places. The detailed anime references (of which there are many) left me cold, since I know nothing of the shows referenced, and Tom and Liz got into somewhat specific discussions of the plots of particular shows at times without any attempt to explain for those of us unfamiliar with those shows. Honestly, I think this is a problem with most pop culture references in any novel. They will cause the novel to seem dated at some point (unless you're writing historical fiction and this is your intent) and will also leave some readers confused and feeling excluded. I understood from the afterword that the author loves anime, and there's nothing wrong with writing a book just for yourself, but once you put it out there into the world one might have to consider one's potential audience beyond just "it's what I like, and that's that."

While I liked both leads, I would have identified with them even more if they weren’t constantly describing themselves and each other as basically the hottest people to ever walk the earth. I have never seen anyone that hot in a genetics lab, let alone two people….why aren’t they out pursuing modeling careers somewhere? Giving them flaws, however minor, would have made them even more relatable. And yes, I get that the story is the author's fantasy (as she also discusses in the afterword), but something can still be a fantasy and. be grounded in reality.

I thought there was a little too much coincidence at play in the beginning of the story. If I had to pick one coincidence, I would pick Liz being forced to live with Tom and their parents over his lab burning down and them having to work side by side. One form of forced proximity would have been more than enough.

Also, I wanted more concrete examples of how exactly Tom was such a jerk to Liz when he was her Ph.D. advisor, which is mostly described generically as him being really hard on her (though it sounds like she graduated in four years, so he can’t have been *that* hard on her—where I went to school, closer to seven years is the average time to Ph.D…). What did he say? How exactly was he hard on her? I wondered if this omission was because to be more detailed might mean the audience wouldn’t sympathize with him in the end, but I think with care it could be pulled off.

Thanks very much to NetGalley and publisher for the eARC!

This book is a hilarious read. It has a lot of tension, hilarious banter and honestly when it all comes crashing down, it just gets better.

When Tom first meets Liz, they flirt shamelessly and things between them seem promising. Then he learns that he is tasked with acting as her PhD assessor, so he convinces himself it was just a crush and tries to keep things focused on work. She clearly thought he was just drunkenly flirting and seems to have spent her subsequent time moaning about him to everyone. Of course, two adults having a conversation would curtail the book somewhat…so this pattern of the pair of them not talking continues.
Fast forward a few years. Tom’s lab burns down so his best friend offers him space to work with him. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realise that the postdoc who’ll share the bench with Tom is the same Liz. Cue awkward moments, and everyone around them watching the sexual tension simmer.
That scenario alone could have been entertaining. Thrown into the mix is the fact that their parents have somehow fallen in love and are going to get married. Again, nobody spoke about this beforehand and they don’t address the elephant in the room immediately so the miscommunication is dragged out longer.
The whole book focuses on these two working out their feelings for each other. Their behaviours would immediately have you running a mile if seen in real life, and reading about them doesn’t make them any more appealing. There’s a couple of scenes that hint at something real, but too much of it felt clichéd. The bumps in the road were signposted a mile off and, as expected, resolved eventually. The supporting cast had some entertainment value, though a few were drafted in to do very little. Still, all worked out fine…as you knew it would.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this before publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Thank you to Net Galley, H. L. McFarlane, and the publisher of “The Unbalanced Equation” for an advanced copy of this book. Sadly for me, it was a DNF. I was excited to read this woman in STEM book that had an obvious nod to “The Love Hypothesis”, sadly this book did not live up to meet its requirements. This author has potential and you can see from this, but they just missed the mark. It felt disorganized and complete chaos.

After 4 years of scrutiny from her PHD assessor, Elizabeth thinks she's free of him, until he turns up in her lab after his undergrads set fire to his lab. For 3 months they have to share a work space, and when his mum and Liz's dad announce their marriage, everything couldn't get worse.
Is Tom's attitude hiding his true feelings? Or are they truly just enemies?

I really did want to enjoy the story but I found it weird that step siblings were getting together, and the story felt so stuck on the hatred of the main characters that everything else didn't truly feel completed throughout the story.