3 Reasons I Love Ali Hazelwood’s Writing

A meditation on Love, Theoretically, among other books.

My first Ali Hazelwood book was The Love Hypothesis. I was an instant fan and immediately read everything of hers I could get my hands on.

Then she published Bride, which didn’t look like my cup of tea, and I moved on to other authors, and now I realize I’m behind because I just read Love, Theoretically. It reminded me of why I love her writing so much. I have read enough of her books to see some of the plot twists coming, but I don’t care.

Whether you love or loathe Hazelwood’s brand of humor and storytelling, she’s got (at least) three things other romance writers should emulate.

Details that add vibrancy without clutter

I’m not just talking about the science words she throws around, though I love that, even though 99% of the physics references in Love, Theoretically, went over my head. It’s the specificity that makes her characters come alive: the Kurosawa movies  Elsie hates and her roommate Cece loves, Hedgie the hedgehog defecating on her pillow, Cece eating croutons from the bag with chopsticks and throwing them around the kitchen when she gets excited. I could see (and smell) the cluttered, funky apartment the two shared.

Beautiful language

Ali Hazelwood uses language beautifully. Elsie describes herself as “a puppet who maybe, just maybe, is a real girl after all.” Jack is the only one who sees “all the Elsies I’ve created to fit all the worlds I’ve inhabited.”

Those aren’t the most outstanding examples from Love, Theoretically, but they’re ones that stand up without context. Hazelwood is a master of vivid descriptions, funny banter, and grounding in Elsie’s emotions on every line,

Steamy sex scenes that are all about emotion

Near the end of Elsie’s first sexual experience with Jack, she thinks, “It’s not even about coming or about anything else I might have stupidly expected. This is about him and me. And the possibility of something that goes far beyond the both of us.”

Those sentences should be in the textbook for romance writers on writing sex scenes because that’s exactly it. Through every moment of intimacy, Hazelwood takes us to the molecular level so we can watch as Elsie changes because of the love and care she feels from Jack. It’s everything I want in a romance.

Love Theoretically

• Humor: satisfyingly amusing
• Spice: 3 out of 5
• Tropes: grumpy/sunshine, enemies to lovers, STEM setting, evils of academia