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For Valentine's Day, six romance novels set in academia
A selection of some academia-themed romance novels. Librarians do not judge.
Emily miller / the daily princetonian.
Content warning: The following piece includes reference to sexual assault.
Sometimes, I take a break from journal articles and dusty, jackettless Firestone tomes and read fiction. However, as an occupational hazard of being a social scientist, I stumble upon my research — which is focused on the transition to adulthood, marriage — everywhere in fiction. As much as I find themes that relate to me, it’s surprising how often there are characters who live my lifestyle — graduate students. This Valentine’s Day, I encourage you to put down the dissertation, thesis, or p-set and pick up one of these romance novels featuring an academic protagonist.
My first foray into this micro-genre was “The Kiss Quotient” by Helen Hoang. This novel follows Stella, who got her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and finished her postdoc by the age of 25. She should be on the tenure track; instead, she is five years into a middle management role at a marketing firm, approaching thirty with a mother who wants her to get married. It’s okay, Stella — I am also approaching thirty and live in a dorm. Stella, like many real-life PhD students , has invested in her education and delayed marriage. As a result, she is worried she is only good at one thing, research, and has fallen behind in other aspects of her life, like romance. So, she hires an escort, Michael, to help her gain confidence, and eventually the two fall in love. Stella and Michael remind us that it is never too late to branch out, that sometimes things do not go according to plan, and that love can come from unexpected places.
Next up is “Take A Hint, Dani Brown” by Talia Hibbert. Dani, an English Ph.D. student, is devoting herself to her dream of being on the same panel as her academic inspiration. With her busy schedule, she just wants a friends-with-benefits situation. Zafir, an ex-rugby player who runs a non-profit to teach young men about the dangers of toxic masculinity, awkwardly rescues her from an elevator during a fire drill. It is caught on video, and the hashtag #DrRugbae goes viral. A beautiful relationship is born in the ensuing chaos. I love this book because it is the reversal of the hypergamy trope where women couple up with men with higher educational attainment. At one point, Zafir essentially Google Scholars Dani’s articles, so he can better understand her research. Swoon . This novel is an important reminder that communication and support are the foundation of a healthy relationship.
No piece on academia-themed romance novels would be complete without “The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood. Opinions on this book seem polarizing: On Goodreads, “The Love Hypothesis” has a 4.2, but all my friends in academia detested it. Lesson one of academic life: read sources before you cite them. I needed to unearth the truth for myself.
This book follows Olive, a third-year Ph.D. student in biology at Stanford. To prove that she is in fact capable of having fun, she lies to her best friend she is on a date. In actuality, she’s in the lab. Relatable . When her friend almost discovers the truth, Olive responds by grabbing a random man and kissing him. Turns out, he is the professor in her department who everyone hates. They agree to fake-date because ~reasons~. This book feels like it should be a PSA about why rules about professors dating grad students exist, but somehow the novel’s characters are onboard with the romance. Suspension of disbelief is important in romance novels, but while I had no problem rooting for Dani and Stella, I could not do it for Olive, since the novel’s characters behaved in truly incomprehensible ways. For example, at one point Olive sits on the professor’s lap...during seminar.
I wondered if this book is a satirical take on the trope that PhD students can be brilliant but socially incompetent. I felt insulted. Furthermore, consent and power dynamics are treated as an afterthought at best and played up for laughs at worst. Hazelwood has a series, but I will not be reading the rest.
The next book, “Never Tell,” is a romantic thriller by Selena Montgomery, the pen name of politician and activist Stacey Abrams. This book follows a PhD student turned criminal profiler, Erin Abbott, and journalist Gabriel Moss, who reluctantly team up to track down a serial killer in New Orleans. This book contains the most outrageous archetypes of an abusive academic advisor and evil teaching assistants. It serves as a reminder that you, like Stacey Abrams and our protagonist, can build an identity out of more than just your primary profession.
If you have read any list of the top books of 2022, you have probably seen “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus. This is barely a romance, but it is on this list because it appealed to my interests: family demography and food. This book follows chemist Elizabeth Knott as she struggles to prove to the patriarchy that she is a scientist, and yes, can still wear a dress. The only person who seems to understand her brilliance is her coworker Calvin Evans. They eventually move in together but do not get married, which was considered scandalous in the 1960s California. “Lessons in Chemistry” is marketed as “laugh out loud funny,” but it deals with serious issues that are still prevalent in academia , such as sexism and sexual harassment. Knott does not pursue a PhD because her master’s thesis advisor sexually assaults her. She gets called horrible names, her ideas are stolen by her lab manager, and she does not appear as an author on papers she wrote. It’s a visceral look at some of the real problems in academia.
The last book I read was “Honey Girl” by Morgan Rogers, which features astronomer Grace Porter, who has spent the last 11 years trying to become “the best.” Now, she is Dr. Porter, and she is in the throes of searching for a job. She is constantly belittled and questioned about her Black and queer identity in a field that is very much neither Black nor queer. Porter’s experience reminds us that it is important to understand the intersectionality of identities to better understand the systemic forces that affect outcomes and life trajectories. Porter’s romance enters the picture after a particularly bad interview, when Porter makes her way to Vegas, gets drunk, and marries a woman whose name she does not know or remember. Porter decides she needs a break and goes to New York City to spend time with her new wife. A quarter-life crisis hits; Porter then finds a therapist and begins to discover what being the best actually means. This book speaks to the challenges of wrapping your identity with your research, finding a grand plan for life and career, and dealing with your family’s high expectations.
These books in one way or another reflect themes not only in my work but also in my time thus far in academia. I enjoy reading about characters with similar doubts, banter, journeys, and questions as me. For some, these books might be too close to home — especially at this time of year — but I like to lean in and appreciate the connection and ultimate triumph, even if it is fictional.
Emily Miller is a staff writer for The Prospect at the ‘Prince.’ She can be reached at [email protected].
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After I Dropped Out Of School, I Lost My Love Of Reading — Then I Discovered Sophie Kinsella
My first day on campus as a PhD student was filled with orientations: for the English department, for the graduate student associations, for new teaching assistants. When I met my professors, my cohort, and my fellow first year writing teachers, I talked about my recent move from Boston and how I planned to focus on depictions of education in transatlantic women’s writing. I didn’t realize then that just a few months later I would give up on these plans, drop out of the program, and move back to Boston — and I definitely wouldn’t have believed anyone who said that Sophie Kinsella’s romance novels would become the most important books I’d read that year.
During first few weeks on campus, it became clear that the program wasn’t the right fit. The classroom felt too disconnected from the rest of the world, and the first year writing administration mocked student essays as a teaching tool. I didn’t feel challenged or supported; I felt disheartened.
A month and a half into the school year, I was certain that my fundamental beliefs about teaching writing conflicted with the program’s guidelines; I knew the place and the program wasn’t for me. I thought more and more that maybe academia wasn’t, either. Two weeks later, I withdrew from the program, and my boyfriend and I broke our new lease.
Packing up my belongings was painful. I meticulously wrapped and taped anything that could prove breakable—pictures, dishes, candles, cutlery. I dismantled piles of books with the intention of sorting through what I might still need, but instead I threw everything — anthologies, novels, books for school — in boxes. I didn’t wrap or arrange the books, because I wasn’t sure when — or if — I would use them again.
I was a reader before I was a student. But after years of making a study out of stories, these identities were interwoven and central to how I saw myself and how I hoped other saw me. Uncertain of who else I would be or how I could reclaim these parts of me now that I was a Ph.D. drop out, I just stopped reading.
I was a reader before I was a student. But after years of making a study out of stories, these identities were interwoven and central to how I saw myself and how I hoped other saw me.
I searched for a job and tried to figure out my next steps, but I was in desperate need of a distraction. Normally, I would have found this through reading. Books had always offered a connection and grounding that I had come to depend on, and I felt rootless without stories to enter or characters to consider. But I couldn’t finish any of the books I picked up. Though I’d go through the motions of reading a few pages, the words wouldn’t catch and my thoughts would inevitably wander. Did I just make the biggest mistake of my life? Who am I without school, without an academic pursuit? Will I regret this? Disheartened and weighted with these concerns, I abandoned the books and turned my attention to job applications.
At some point, I picked up a Sophie Kinsella book. I'm not sure why I picked it up, but considering the amount of movies I was watching at the time, it’s likely I saw Confessions of a Shopaholic and decided I would try to read a similar book. Equally likely is that I picked one up off a shelf while I was staying with my boyfriend’s parents. Either way, I started reading the book… and I finished it. Even more, I read another. And another. I spent the entire winter — the winter I was meant to be in the thick of my PhD program — working my way through Sophie Kinsella’s ouvre.
Books had always offered a connection and grounding that I had come to depend on, and I felt rootless without stories to enter or characters to consider. But I couldn’t finish any of the books I picked up.
Romances are, by definition, predictable. This predictability isn’t limiting: the genre allows for an expansive range of characters, settings, subplots, and styles. But regardless of the particulars, romance novels all promise two things: A central love story and a happy ending.
Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella, $11.11, Amazon
Sophie Kinsella’s books are no exception to this rule. When marketing assistant (and anxious flyer) Emma Corrigan’s first solo business trip erupts into a client-losing mess in the opening scenes of Can You Keep a Secret? , she is understandably stressed. But her day gets even more chaotis when her flight home hits a patch of turbulence and she nervously shares every single one of her life secrets with a handsome man in the seat next to her. The catch comes later when that handsome man arrives at Emma’s work — and is introduced as the owner of the company where she works.
The catch is key in this genre. Kinsella’s Remember Me? follows Lexi Smart, who wakes up hospital with retrograde amnesia and learns that she has an amazing career and is married to a ridiculously successful, ridiculously good-looking real estate developer. Seems awfully tidy to be the whole story, right? (Right.) Of course, there's a catch — but I won't give it away.
Romances are, by definition, predictable. This predictability isn’t limiting: the genre allows for an expansive range of characters, settings, subplots, and styles.
While both stories focus on the romance, there's a subplot in both that I found particularly relevant: Both women are trying to find their way professionally, too. Emma, for instance, jumps from real estate agent to aspiring photographer to marketing assistant in a quick succession, but she's never quite figured out what she's good at or what she wants to do. In Remember Me?, Lexi wakes up to discover she's the head of her department at a flooring company, but she's not exactly riveted by the job. In both books, the women figure out their romantic lives... but they figure out their professional ones, too.
Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella, $11.82, Amazon
This career-focused subplot standard throughout most of Kinsella’s books is just as inviting as the romance: it promises an obstacle, antics, and, most importantly, a happy ending. I took me a while to notice the pattern, and by the time I did, I already grown to expect and enjoy this part of these stories. I probably wouldn't have been able to sit through any heavy, serious meditations on vocation and identity at the time without shutting down or freaking out. But charming characters grappling their professional identities in a light, enjoyable story? That snuck past my radar — for the better.
When I began reading Sophie Kinsella, I had lost my love of reading. In grad school, I analyzed books, I studied books, I talked about books— but I treated books as texts, not stories. Sophie Kinsella asked me to be a different kind of reader. She asked me to be a reader who sits with the book, enjoys the antics, and roots for main characters to end up together. And maybe sometimes it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
Cozy Critiques
A place for book reviews and cozy bookish things
10 Must-Read Romance Books featuring Women in STEM
It’s the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and I want to share some statistics with you.
As of 2022:
- Women made up only 27% of the workforce across all STEM industries.
- On average, women still earn 18% less than men across all STEM industries.
- Women only make up 36% of enrollments in university STEM courses
Women are underrepresented in the fields of hard science. I experienced it every single day in my chemistry courses in college. I experience it now in my tech-adjacent job as a contractor. I even experienced it to a certain extent when I worked as a forensic scientist, which as STEM fields go, is one of the more gender-balanced ones.
This is why today I want to celebrate steminist heroines with 10 must-read romance books featuring women in STEM.
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood (and anything else she writes) New Adult Romance Ph.D Biology Student
As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding… six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.
The Kiss Quotient (The Kiss Quotient #1) by Helen Hoang Adult Romance Mathematician
Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.
It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position…
Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he’s making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic…
Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers Adult LGBT Romance BIPOC Astronomer
With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that.
This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her father’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows.
When reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.
Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner Adult LGBT Romance Doctor and Aeronautic Engineering Student A two-for-one since both female leads are in STEM
When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with.
Erin Bennett came to Family Weekend to get closer to her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a college senior. In her defense, she hadn’t known Cassie was a student when they’d met. To make things worse, Erin’s daughter brings Cassie to breakfast the next morning. And despite Erin’s better judgement—how could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything but bad?—she and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night.
What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez Adult Romance Emergency Room Doctor
After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come—the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable.
While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere” ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.
Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?
The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren Adult Romance Statistician
Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. After all, her father was never around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before her daughter was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close but working constantly to stay afloat is hard…and lonely.
But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands.
At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Peña. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get ‘to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess—who is barely making ends meet—is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond” pairing that could launch GeneticAlly’s valuation sky-high, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist—and the science behind a soulmate—than she thought.
Remedial Rocket Scientist (Chemistry Lessons #1) by Susannah Nix Adult Romance Computer Scientist
The last thing Melody expects when she accepts a dream job offer is to run into her college one-night stand again. Not only does the hunky blast from her past work at the same aerospace company where she’s just started in the IT department, he’s the CEO’s son.
Jeremy’s got a girlfriend and a reputation as a bad boy, so Melody resolves to keep her distance and focus on building a new life for herself in Los Angeles. But despite her good intentions, she can’t seem to stay away from the heavenly-smelling paragon of hotness.
As the two begin to forge an unlikely friendship, Melody’s attraction to Jeremy grows deeper than she’s ready to admit. Can the woman who always plays it safe take a risk on the man who’s all wrong for her in all the right ways?
A Lady’s Formula for Love (The Secret Scientists of London #1) by Elizabeth Everett Adult Historical Romance Secret Female Scientist
Lady Violet Hughes is keeping secrets. First, she founded a clandestine sanctuary for England’s most brilliant female scientists. Second, she is using her genius on a confidential mission for the Crown. But the biggest secret of all? Her feelings for protection officer Arthur Kneland.
Solitary and reserved, Arthur learned the hard way to put duty first. But the more time he spends in the company of Violet and the eccentric club members, the more his best intentions go up in flames. Literally.
When a shadowy threat infiltrates Violet’s laboratories, endangering her life and her work, scientist and bodyguard will find all their theories put to the test—and learn that the most important discoveries are those of the heart.
Imperfect Chemistry (Imperfect #1) by Mary Frame Adult Romance Ph.D Microbiologist
Lucy London puts the word genius to shame. Having obtained her PhD in microbiology by the age of 20, she’s amassed a wealth of knowledge, but one subject still eludes her – people. The pendulum of passions experienced by those around her confuses and intrigues her, so when she’s offered a grant to study emotion as a pathogen, she jumps on the opportunity.
Enter Jensen Walker, Lucy’s neighbor and the one person she finds appealing. Jensen’s life is the stuff of campus legend: messy, emotional, and complicated. Basically, the perfect starting point for Lucy’s study. When her tenaciousness wears him down and he consents to help her, sparks fly. To her surprise, Lucy finds herself battling with her own emotions, as foreign as they are intense. With the clock ticking on her deadline, Lucy must decide what’s more important: analyzing her passions… or giving in to them?
A Brush with Love (A Brush with Love #1) by Mazey Eddings Adult Romance Dental Student
Harper is anxiously awaiting placement into a top oral surgery residency program when she crashes (literally) into Dan. Harper would rather endure a Novocaine-free root canal than face any distractions, even one this adorable.
A first-year dental student with a family legacy to contend with, Dan doesn’t have the same passion for pulling teeth that Harper does. Though he finds himself falling for her, he is willing to play by Harper’s rules.
So with the greatest of intentions and the poorest of follow-throughs, the two set out to be “just friends.” But as they get to know each other better, Harper fears that trading fillings for feelings may make her lose control and can’t risk her carefully ordered life coming undone, no matter how drool-worthy Dan is.
Blood, gore, and extra-long roots? No problem. The idea of falling in love? Torture.
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