Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

 Deep End by Ali Hazelwood with Thérèse Plummer (Narrator), Ben Holtzmuller (Narrator), 13 hrs. 45 min. (443 pages) 

"Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

 Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes. 

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…"--Provided by publisher

Ali Hazelwood is one of my favorite contemporary romance writers and this book's emotion-evoking storyline proves why. The open-door romance of this book can be a lot, but the emotional tether between these characters, whether they be romantic, friendship, or familial, was very well-written. 

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, 368 p.

"Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project - a literal dream come true - Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward. Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school - archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.

But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas... devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there's only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?" --Goodreads blurb 

This was a re-read for me. I wanted a fun and easy comfort read and this one popped into my head. My first review held up! "This was a fun, funny, and interesting story. Olive is a great character, and we all get to know Adam alongside her. Of course, he's not as he seems. This has a pretty basic trope, even down to the best friends sidekick, Anh, whom I loved. It having all the markers of a contemporary romance didn't make this any less enjoyable. One of my favorite things throughout the story was at the beginning of each chapter, Olive gives us a hypothesis about life and they play out during the chapters."

 

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood, 368 p.

"Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project - a literal dream come true - Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.

Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school - archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas... devouring her with those eyes. The possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there's only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?"--Goodreads blurb

Fun and easy contemporary romance. This is the second Hazelwood I've read and they are a fun escape. I liked the STEM in this book and the strong female lead. 

 

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon, p.

"Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.

In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.

Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?"--Goodreads blurb

This was a fun, quick contemporary romance after coming off a sweeping, adventurous fantasy series. I read this in one day and it while it was a typically typical, romance it was still a good, escapist read. 
 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, 400 p.

TW: Description of sexual assault 

"Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist."--Goodreads blurb

I really loved this book. Garmus is a new writer for me, and the cover of this was a bit of a mislead for me personally, as it almost looked like a contemporary romance. But this historical story of a woman chemist, and an autistic one to boot, was well-told, engrossing, and takes you places you didn't know it would go. 

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, 323 p.

"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..." --Goodreads blurb

This is the latest in the contemporary romance genre that I've recently started to enjoy. It was a very quick read, and while not as good as others in the genre I've read this summer, it was great to have a story with an autistic MC. Learning about the way her brain worked and watching her confidence grow was a great escape. I appreciated that the inevitable miscommunication that leads to the breakup in every contemporary romance didn't last that long in this story. 
 

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, 416 p.

"On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before." --Goodreads blurb

I've read and enjoyed Zevin before, so I thought I'd give this new release a try. It was a beautifully written story of friendship, maturing, and the complexities of love, both romantic and platonic. I needed this good book after being disappointed in my last several books. 

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, 624 p. 

"1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of East-End London poverty, works the legendary code-breaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter—the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger—and their true enemy—closer..."--Goodreads blurb

This turned out to be one of my favorite surprises of the year, so far. It was simply impossible to put this great story down. I read it nearly all in one day. Emotional, intriguing, and beautifully written. Five stars from me, which doesn't happen often!