The STEMinist Novellas Review: For the Enemies-to-Lovers Fans!

June 6, 2022 by Jenna | 4 stars, Books, Reviews

As a STEMinist who absolutely loved Ali Hazelwood’s debut The Love Hypothesis, I knew I had to get my hands on her STEMinist novellas. These novellas were first released on audio and I absolutely devoured all three within two days (it helped that the audiobooks were all about 3 hours long!).

All three of the novellas featured female engineers with PhDs and their post-PhD professional lives. There were other similarities, including an enemies-to-lovers plotline throughout all three novellas, super tall and buff men… and the dreaded misunderstanding trope in two of the novellas.

Under One Roof

In Under One Roof, Mara has moved into a house that she inherited from her PhD advisor who has passed away… except she only owns half of the house and has to co-habitate with Liam, a lawyer who would love nothing more than to buy Mara out and have the whole place to himself. But as they spend more time together, they realise that maybe they don’t really hate each other as much as they thought…

I highly enjoyed this novella, even though the concept is a little bit overdone. I enjoyed the vibe that Mara and Liam had together before and after they came to an understanding. The only thing that I thought let it down a little bit was the middle section where it seemed to drag without much happening.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Stuck with You

Stuck with You was my favourite of the three novellas. It follows Sadie who has taken up a new job and meets Erik the morning of one of her big project pitches. The two hit it off and everything looks promising until Sadie finds out about Erik’s betrayal.

The novella uses alternating now and then chapters, which is one of my favourite writing devices. We get to see Sadie and Erik before and after the big betrayal, and unravel the story of where things went wrong. And I absolutely loved Sadie and Erik. I loved the characters separately by themselves and thought they were both really interesting. I do wish Ali Hazelwood had leaned a bit more into the whole supersition thing when it came to Sadie. That was sort of a mentioned at the beginning but didn’t carry through the rest of the novella.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Below Zero

Below Zero was sort of subpar for me. It features Hannah who finds herself injured and stranded in sub-zero temperatures but has to rely on her archnemesis, Ian, to save her. The novel is also written in alternating now and then chapters.

I found the Below Zero was a bit too similar to Stuck with You for my liking. It followed similar plot lines and I didn’t feel like Hannah and Ian had that much chemistry. I also found Hannah to be a bit dislikeable and dissimilar to what she was like in the previous two novellas. This might be down to the fact that there were different narrators for all three of the novellas.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I really really enjoyed the reading experience of all three of the STEMinist novellas. They were fun and so short that I didn’t have to expend a lot of mental energy on them, so it was easy to overlook any flaws. My only real criticism was that there were different narrators for all three of the novellas so there wasn’t a whole lot of consistency in how the main characters were portrayed across the novellas.

Bio
Latest Posts

Jenna

Co-Blogger at Happy Indulgence Books

Jenna is an Aussie blogger and reader who loves to indulge in great books and great food. She is a doctor (of philosophy) and can usually be found fangirling about something, devouring delicious food, or taking a nap. You can find her on Twitter @readwithjenna and on Instagram @readingwithjenna.