Ali Hazelwood

Olive Smith is a third-year PhD candidate at Stanford who, while trying to convince her best friend she's seeing someone, spontaneously kisses a random guy late at night in the biology lab and is mortified when she realizes that said guy is Dr. Adam Carlsen. As a known asshole, she can't imagine how poorly he'll react to the whole situation but is entirely surprised when he's totally fine with it and offers to be her fake boyfriend to help Olive. The situation will also help Adam as he's show more trying to convince Stanford he's not a flight-risk so that they'll unfreeze some of his grant funding. Appearing to be in a relationship will go a long way to making Adam's case with the faculty. However, fake dating isn't quite as simple as it seems, particularly when those around them keep expecting things from the "couple." At the same time, an approaching academic conference will have the potential to change everything for Olive and Adam, both personally and professionally.

This novel is so damn cute. Having finally read it, I'm not surprised that it was such a sensation when it debuted last year. Hazelwood is a neuroscientist herself and her descriptions of academia are highly accurate. In addition to good science details, Hazelwood is also just great at fluffy romance writing. She manages to joyfully include many of the best romance tropes into this novel (fake dating being the most obvious), while making them feel completely feasible. The banter between Olive and the taciturn Adam is wonderful and the slow burn of their romance is thoroughly rewarding. Highly recommended for fans of the genre. show less

Hot for Slayer is one of the Scared Sexy eBook series released for Halloween. I’m not much of a fan of scary reads and Halloween isn’t that big in Australia, but I do like Ali Hazelwood’s writing. I figured that if anyone could get me interested in a vampire story, it’s her. This novella is quite funny but of course, there’s a lot of blood and knives because of the topic.

Aethelthryth (Ethel) has been around for centuries as one of the few vampires left of her bloodline. She’s show more also been dodging the vampire slayer set up to kill her, Lazlo Enyedi. They keep meeting at concerts (both have great music taste) and historic events. But Lazlo is there to destroy her at every chance. Now in the modern day, Ethel is living a quiet life in New York with her sudoku puzzles as an ethical vampire (what that means is quite a chuckle). But a rogue vampire wants her out. A tussle leaves her in trouble, and who should appear but Lazlo, who has lost his memory. Suddenly, they could be friends or maybe even more…

The novella is surprisingly funny and not as dark/brooding as I expected. Ethel’s penchant for sudoku is amusing (what else do you do if you don’t sleep?) as well as the other vampire traits, such as not needing to eat (and therefore not knowing how to cook). Her fictitious explanations of how she and Lazlo met are also worth a giggle or two as they grow increasingly ridiculous. It’s super fun and clearly doesn’t take itself seriously. Also, it wasn’t as scary as I expected which was a nice revelation. The story moves at a fast pace, but still develops quirky, fun characters who aren’t afraid to poke fun at each other before falling for each other.

I don’t think this story will convert me to paranormal romances, but I’m open to vampire romcoms when Ali Hazelwood writes them!

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Puntuación: 10.00 / 10.00

Un omegaverse heterosexual de wattpad 2016.

Es una lectura ligera y dinámica, con una narración ágil e ingeniosa. Una comedia romántica y paranormal.

El tema general es un clásico de matrimonio arreglado, con todas las características propias de un omegaverse. Desde la información sobre los compañeros, hasta la marca y el nudo. Todo está muy bien pensado e investigado, tanto la lógica del mundo como sus reglas y las situaciones problemáticas que llevan show more lentamente al desenlace. La idea principal se sostiene, se complejiza y se enriquece a medida que avanza el libro.

Los personajes gozan de una notada personalidad, incluso los que tienen poca relevancia. Cada uno está escrito con un fin que cumple. Especialmente los protagonistas, cuya forma de pensar se ve reflejada en sus acciones y emociones. Hay coherencia, y eso es algo que valoro mucho. Son personajes que me hicieron reír, enojarme, sorprenderme y emocionarme en cada una de sus escenas. Lo cual me encanta. Soy particularmente fan de Misery, puesto que amo que diga las cosas de forma directa y honesta. Lowe también, pero si me molestó bastante que no le preguntara a Misery sobre sus sentimientos. Como si su destino fuera ser un mártir y nada pudiera cambiarlo. No me gustó la forma en que sobrellevó esa parte de su relación, pero entiendo de donde viene y por qué actúa como lo hace. Me gusta que no sea perfecto.

La relación entre los protagonistas es, principalmente, divertida. Si bien pueden rozar la dependencia emocional, equilibran esa intensidad con comentarios casuales y relajados que son igualmente memorables. Tienen una química excelente. A lo sumo fomentarán el consumismo de omegaverse y dejarán una vara alta de estándares con su historia, pero nada grave.

Durante la lectura me sentí absorbida. Estaba obsesionada con querer saber más y ver como se desenvolvia todo. Podía intentar predecir por dónde iría la historia, pero muchas veces me encontré con giros en la trama que me tomaron por sorpresa. Me encantó.

Algunos de los momentos que destaqué fueron:
• La descripción del Nido. (Las ventanas siendo un lujo que denota poder). Y el comentario de Lowe al final trayendo de vuelta este dato.
• La idea de que los latidos del corazón son como huellas dactilares.
• Los cambios de tipografía para denotar sorpresa y entendimiento. (Ah, Ah).
• La angustia que sintió Lowe al momento de entender que Misery pensaba que él ya tenía una compañera y era Gabi.
• El "papi" al final del discurso de Owen.
• La primera vez que intentaron matar a Misery en territorio de los licantropos y Misery se ponga irónica al contar lo que sucedió.
• El reencuentro de Owen, Misery, Gabi y Lowe.

Y el sin fin de momentos y comentarios románticos. No puedo escribirlos todos, me dolería la mano. Pero se hacen una idea de cuales son.

Por último, antes de leer el libro yo hice un salto de fe y lo compré. Movida por el impulso, las ganas de gastar plata, y la buena recomendación de mi mamá.
Lo leí, y lo recomendé antes de que pudiera terminarlo.
Estoy feliz de haber hecho esa compra.
Fue una buena corazonada.

Lógicamente, es de mis mejores lecturas. show less

Read this like I ate a delicious cookie... And I want a dozen more please! Love the quirky, flawed main character and the concept of a relationship in the competitive world of chess (you could substitute poker or any other male dominated sport or competition). Most of all I loved the feminism and how the gender expectations may be the same but the characters experiences was opposite of expectations. Also love the acceptance of same sex relationships by the characters. In Ali Hazelwood world, show more the main characters are all progressive and accepting of lgbtq+ and it's a nonissue. She develops some good assholes that you love to curse. The only thing I didn't like is that I didn't get to witness the final competition- I was ready to be there watching all 12 games of chess lol. show less