cahn

(In this post I do discuss the endings of the books, because, come on. They're fluffy romances, you know what's going to happen.)

The Love Hypothesis (Hazelwood) - 3+/5 - A RL friend (who is undiagnosed but pretty definitely on the spectrum, as is her daughter) read The Rosie Project on my recommendation, and the library (because she'd read that) then recommended to her The Love Hypothesis, which she then recommended back to me with the caveat that it was not as charming as Rosie. She was right about that, but it's still a fluffy cute romance. Olive, a grad student at Stanford, because she has watched too many romance movies and decides she needs to convince her best friend Anh that she's not hung up on the boy Anh likes, ends up fake-kissing and fake-dating Adam Carlsen, the young hotshot professor in her department. (Adam is, natch, wildly attractive, though widely regarded as a lab tyrant.)

I'm sure you can take it from there. Aside from the inevitable, there's also misunderstandings and poor communication (okay, maybe that's inevitable too), impostor syndrome, and over-the-top sexual harassment (not from Adam, who of course is awesome about it all). Also hot sex and a happy ending!

I ended the book thinking I wanted to say to Olive, idk, I'm not sure if it's good for your impostor syndrome for you, a grad student who are unsure of your abilities, to date the world-class hotshot professor in your same field, even if your department is OK with it if you're not his student (she's not). I really think you could have a hard time of this in the long run! Buuuuut I guess that's beyond the scope of this book.

A Civil Contract (Heyer) - 4/5 - Another Adam, Viscount Adam Lynton, finds after his father's untimely death that his father has many debts and that he might have to sell the ancestral home. He reluctantly finds it's his duty to marry a plain, common, and very rich girl, Jenny, instead of the beautiful high society girl Julia whom he is in love with.

Okay, so, there are things I didn't love. I kind of disliked that part of Jenny's appeal is that she practically waits hand and foot on Adam, though I did like that being a good housewife was something she enjoyed, and I certainly liked that Adam was always very courteous to her. And I loved Adam's sister Lydia and found his long-suffering mother, who will tell you All About how long-suffering she is, hilarious. All told, I really loved this book, and people who enjoyed Perilous Gard for its discussions of drainage and water-meadows (*cough*calling melannen and sophia_sol!) will love Adam's excitement over agriculture and estate management -- in fact, this book has a lot more discussion of drainage and other estate management matters than Gard does :)

And then I got to the ending and while Adam, as you would expect, eventually realizes that Julia is not All That, I really, REALLY wanted Jenny's dream ending where he falls in love with her and I Did Not Get It. (Or at least in lust! Canonically they have sex -- she has his baby during the book.) I am Put Out that Heyer did not oblige me. Had she only obliged me, I would love this book as much as Cotillion. Since she did not, this is only my second favorite Heyer of those I've read.

(Why isn't A Civil Campaign about Miles having to make an arranged marriage? That would be really quite interesting! Also, I would totally read that fic. Okay, I guess Aral would never. But still!)