Olive Smith, a Ph.D. student at Stanford University, wants to convince her best friend, Ahn, that she is truly and fully over her ex-boyfriend and that she could not care less if Ahn dated him. In order to convince Ahn that she has moved on, she decides to lie and pretend that she is on a date with someone else. Of course, Olive does not believe in long-lasting relationships and thinks that dating is a waste of time so instead of finding someone to go on a date with, she decides to wander the halls of her university. That is until she sees her friend walking in her direction. Olive must think fast because if Ahn sees her by herself, she will know Olive is lying, so Olive does the only thing she can think of, she grabs the person closest to her and kisses them. The someone in question is Adam Carlsen, a professor at Stanford that is best known for his ability to make students cry.

Naturally, Olive is mortified, but she is even more mortified when the reluctant and closed-off Adam makes her a suggestion, the two of them put on a show of fake dating to convince Olive’s friend that she is completely over her ex and to convince the Dean of the department that Adam works in that he is settled down in Stanford so that his department can get a larger budget. Will Olive accept the proposition and put on a show for her friend and the entire school, or will she back down and succumb to the embarrassment of lying to her friend?

If you like realistic plots, this book may not appeal to you but I would highly encourage you to read it anyways as I find that the unlikely events that take place in the book are what makes it so lovable. I am not the biggest fan of books written in 3rd person because they usually make the characters seem very bland and disconnected, but Ali Hazelwood is able to write in 3rd person while preventing the characters from being 2-dimensional, which really blew me away. I also really enjoyed how Hazelwood shows some of the injustices that women in STEM experience without taking away from the main romance plot. If you enjoyed this book and are looking for other romance novels that revolve around women in STEM similar to this one, I highly encourage you to check out some of Ali Hazelwood’s other novellas such as Love on the Brain, Stuck with You, and Under One Roof.