Emily Adrian’s Seduction Theory pries into the mess behind closed doors—both at home and on campus. Two married professors are already tiptoeing around temptation when a grad student, Robbie, uses their private lives as raw material for her MFA thesis. Her choice to fictionalize their relationship isn’t just bold; it’s a grenade tossed into their marriage, blowing up secrets and forcing everyone to confront what’s been lurking under the surface.

Adrian’s characters aren’t easy or tidy. The professors’ marriage veers between affection and resentment, while Robbie’s relentless drive to tell her “truth” blurs the line between art and invasion. The novel doesn’t flinch from the sticky power struggles that crop up in both romance and academia, and it’s never afraid to ask uncomfortable questions about loyalty, ambition, and consent.

The writing itself is quick, clever, and never self-serious. Adrian nails the awkward humour of academic circles, serving up sharp dialogue and sly observations without tipping into melodrama. There’s a freshness here—even as the book nods to other campus novels, it pulls off its own blend of wit and insight.

What really stands out is Adrian’s talent for character work and her ability to capture the politics of both marriage and university life. Some readers will be hooked by the metafictional twist—Robbie’s thesis as both art and betrayal—while others might find it a little too close for comfort.

Seduction Theory is a smart, daring novel about love, betrayal, and the fuzzy line between art and reality. If you like your fiction messy, funny, and a little bit dangerous, you’ll want this one on your shelf.

Oh my gosh I finished this last night and could not get enough of it!! At the beginning, you're unsure who the narrator is and it feels very meta. How do they know the things you're reading about? Can you trust their POV? WHO is the narrator? As it goes on, you get a deeper look into all parties involved and the plot develops so fluidly. It was written in true MFA fashion and made me think throughout. I loved/hated the ending though. I loved the though invoking nature of it - which affair was worse? Was any party innocent? But I didn't love the actions the narrator took. They felt vindictive and not true to the narrator, but I still loved the writing to overcome that. 5 stars all around!

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this one! If you liked Conversations with Friends or Vladimir, you’ll probably enjoy this sharp, magnetic look at marriage and messy boundaries. Two married professors get a little too close to crossing the line, and things blow up when a grad student turns their secrets into a scorching thesis

Welllll doneeee my gosh what have I just read here in these pages when I say cheating at its best yeah lol this was a great fast paced book kept me up because I needed to see this messy book through it was good and I am recommending this on release because it was juicy

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Such a twisty novel about infidelity and navigating relationships, this book really shows the intricate parts to attraction and the grey area between love and heartbreak/betrayal. This book was easy to follow and had a really good flow. Love the way this book makes us reexamine how we think of infidelity and love overall.

4.5 rounded up. Creative writing professors Simone and Ethan have been together forever, but that doesn't stop Ethan from lazily falling into a short affair with his secretary. At the same time, Simone is spending a lot of time with poor boundaries towards her grad student and our narrator, Robbie. Robbie tells us of their hard-to-define but definitely crossing some lines relationship, as well as the fallout from Simone finding out about Ethan's affair. The whole book takes the form of Robbie's MFA thesis, which comes off as a bit of literary revenge porn from Simone's rejection. It reads sometimes as the final project, sometimes as a draft complete with revisions, and sometimes as Robbie's stream of consciousness. I loved the play with structure, as well as Robbie's observations and machinations. It's compact but detailed. It doesn't get into the weeds of academia but includes stuff that feels authentic. And personally, I'm enjoying critiques of other forty-somethings behavior, so cheers to millennial analysis. I can imagine that some folks will not really like many of the characters, but that feels besides the point to me - how imperfect people deal with their imperfections and move forward in the world is the story.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

Adrian's prose is crystalline: sharp, clear, without extraneous components. Her narrator, Robbie, is consistently (yet not gratuitously!) funny. Several phrases stuck in my mind like little fish bones: Robbie, beset with pleasure in her own creative power, describes feeling "alien or felonious"; "Ethan and his brother resented one another for having been born. Who could love all three of them? It was an impossible task"; "A person does not want to know if her mother likes her." Upon further consideration, the novel's cutting insights, however beautifully articulated, often revealed themselves to ring not quite emotionally true. But the role of a novel is not to deliver platitudes equally applicable to any person's life; the role of a novel is to allow a reader to briefly experience the perspective of a fictional person. On this count, Adrian succeeds.

If I didn't have to go to work, I would have easily read Seduction Theory in one sitting. It was a quick-moving story about a husband and wife that worked in the Creative Writing department at Edwards University. Ethan had a brief fling with the department's secretary, and his wife, Simone, had a improperly close relationship with one of her graduate students, Roberta ("Robbie"), who also happens to be the book's narrator.

If likeable characters are important to you, this book probably isn’t for you. They're all horribly flawed people with poor judgment. However, I enjoyed peering into the messiness of their lives, even though it was often uncomfortable and occasionally toxic.

The format of the book was most intriguing to me. It wasn't written in a typical way where A happens, then B happens, etc. Instead, it was more nuanced and meandering, which I appreciated.

In Seduction Theory, we meet Ethan and Simone, husband and wife duo lecturing in the same creative writing department at Edwards University. We witness Ethan’s affair with the department’s assistant, Abigail, and Simone’s increasingly close relationship with her advisee, Roberta “Robbie”. It’s messy enough without Robbie using the situation as an opportunity to fictionalize her advisor’s life and turn it in to an MFA thesis.

Adrian plays with form by delivering the novel to readers as the voyeuristic thesis itself, interloped with thoughts and clarifications from the narrator, so there is a lot to love and chew on here. It felt almost meta in a way that I found fascinating.

Exacting and propulsive, Adrian seduces her readers with every page, every word. Musings on power, marriage and infidelity, desire, betrayal, and the narratives that we create for ourselves. I devoured this captivating novel in a day, unable to walk away once I started. Seemingly simplistic on its surface but full of texture and layers to be peeled back and examined. I couldn’t have loved it more.

You may enjoy this book if you enjoy Rufi Thorpe or enjoyed Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin.

Thank you Little, Brown and Company for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Available Aug 12 2025

Seduction Theory is like nothing I’ve ever read. The premise itself maybe, but how it was written was mesmerizing. I read it in one sitting. This is a new to me author and I will absolutely be hunting down more of their work. Who knew one could make a workplace affair so captivating. The whole experience was so immersive. The switching between tenses as well as the imagined and reality kept me locked in. This novel subtly explores themes of obsession, differing forms of infidelity, grief, forgiveness and so much more but it’s done in such an undercover way. I feel silly because I am finding I don’t have the words to properly explain. Moral of the story, the plot may not seem revolutionary but the writing will trick you into thinking it is.

This really worked for me! The narration structure was a big swing, and Adrian pulled it off. Didn't realize how fun and snappy and page-turny SEDUCTION THEORY would be going in, so overall it was a delightful surprise. Also loved the bonus craft tips. I'll now forever think about parties in terms of 1. scent, 2. the song playing, and 3. something someone said.

Can't wait to read whatever Adrian writes next!

If you like unreliable narrators, messy and toxic narratives, and academia scandals then you *need* to pick this up. Emily Adrian's Seduction Theory is sharp, quick-witted, and tackles infidelity, codependency, obsession, and power dynamics with incisiveness that never veers into preachiness. There’s no clear right or wrong here—just a whole lot of human nuance.

Well, the one thing that feels unequivocally true is that Simone is a complicated baddie and Ethan is a wet sock. And even then! Even though I wanted to scream at her to leave his ass, I still fully understood her thought process. Her trauma, her attachment to him, UGH. So good.

If you don’t like complicated, sometimes unlikeable characters, consider this your warning because if you still pick it up, you’ve officially forfeited your right to complain. <3

"Seduction Theory" is a literary novel that comes to us in the form of a Creative Writing MFA's thesis. The story revolves around 4 characters: Robbie, a grad student who idolizes her advisor, Simone; Simone, a rock-star professor who seems to be touched by golden light, desired by all around her; Ethan, her less successful husband who craves being wanted; and Abigail, the department secretary/single mother/sole voice of ethics in this book. Robbie is the narrator; the book is her thesis, her take on the emotional fall-out of two professors either having affairs or nearly so with those around them (a grad student and a department secretary.)

What's good: The book doesn't romanticize either infidelity or the power dynamics at play here. There are some legitimately funny moments here for academics (e.g., a therapist who has poor academic training). The ending lines really rip open some potential discussions about power in relationships, about who matters (and who doesn't).

What's iffier: It's a bit hard to tell, because the book serves both as a work of its own and a very specific lens representing the character of Robbie and her goals, her beliefs. As such, I could critique the book for its overindulgence in imagery and repetitive language (how many times do we need to talk about guilt or grief?), but then again, such failings are also the failings of our narrator, who thinks she's turned in a work of genius. Also, on a personal level, I found it hard to care about characters I found to be selfish and self-absorbed; the author doesn't attempt to hide these qualities of her characters, so this is more a personal response than a criticism.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn't put this book down. Very fun read. I love the narrators voice and will be recommending this book to others!

This was fuuuuun. Adrian’s writing is addicting, and the voice she captured with the FMC is both hilarious and awkward yet sharp and snarky. The blend of academia, betrayal, grief, and desire sucks you in until the very last page.

A very clever and uniquely structured twist on the campus infidelity plot! Very “all men, even good men, are at least a little bit terrible.” I found the 3rd person omniscient narrator/first person observational/metafictional format to be extremely effective. It raises so many questions and really makes you ponder the definition of infidelity. Some paragraphs were as close to perfection as i think you can get. 4.25 stars rounded up.

This was good, I think it’s a fun read with some escapist elements, exploring gender roles, relationships and academia. At times it felt a bit too stuffy but overall had some great things to say and a lot of wit.

Clever spin on both the midlife marriage novel and the campus seduction story. Smartly explores intimacy, consent, love and betrayal. A less bonkers Vladimir.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

Maybe autofiction is not for me? Idk. While it's hard to specifically say this is autoficiton, a quick glance at the author's bio and notes indicates that the location and protagonist closely mirror the author's own experiences as a creative writing student. Something about ambiguous auto fiction that covers emotionally fraught contexts makes it hard to separate art from artist as is were. I didn't love the free-flowing POV structure, but could appreciate the unique narrative framing structure. It makes a lot of sense that this is someone's MFA thesis, but I'm not sure I love it as a full novel.

I loved the ending and how it turned everything on its head, but found the characters pretty insufferable! Had it not been recommended by an author I love, I probably would not have finished. Will be curious to see the feedback this one gets out in the world.