Loathe thy neighbor or love thy neighbor?Everything about the guy in the apartment next door drives Esther to distraction: his hipster beanie, his movie and food opinions, and the fact that he won’t. Stop. Talking to her. As far as she’s concerned, they’ve got nothing in common.Until she realizes he’s exactly the hipster hottie she needs…to distract her best friend from a bad-news ex. Lucky for … bad-news ex. Lucky for Esther, Jonathan needs help with a sci-fi script, and she’s exactly the rocket scientist to do it. So they strike a deal. He’ll ask out her friend, and she’ll work with him on his script. Perfect, right?
Only the more time Esther spends with him, the more loathing turns into attraction—and attraction into something even deeper. Before she knows it, he’s broken down her carefully constructed defenses and thrown her well-ordered life into chaos.
Will loving her neighbor be her undoing or her salvation?
”I loved Esther and Jonathan’s journey from awkwardness to comfortable friendship to love.” —Smart B*tches, Trashy Books
”If you’re a fan of geeky romances, you need to pick this one up. It’s geek-rom at its finest.” —Pervy Ladies Books
”Entertaining, often hilarious, relatable, intelligent, realistic romance at its absolute best.” —Fic Central
THE CHEMISTRY LESSONS SERIES:
BOOK 1: Remedial Rocket Science
BOOK 2: Intermediate Thermodynamics
BOOK 3: Advanced Physical Chemistry
BOOK 4: Applied Electromagnetism
BOOK 5: Experimental Marine Biology
BOOK 6: Elementary Romantic Calculus
Each book features a different couple with their own happy ever after and no cliffhangers.
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I love all Susannah’s books, but this one was my favorite.
After a brief intro to Johnathan in the previous book, I couldn’t imagine how he’d make a good hero, but he did!
I love a hero who pines, and Jonathan pined for Esther for a long, long time. Of course she was clueless….and he pretty much was too.
It took a long time for the two of them to get their acts together, but once they did, sigh.
Loved this one so hard!
Utterly charming with a scary-bright heroine who was too dumb to see she was falling in love.
“I received a free copy from the author, and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.”
Take a girl who is over powering and likes to fix things
Add a best friend who just broke up and don’t know if she wants to go back to her sleazeball boyfriend
Have the girl bribe a boy to go out with her best friend
Then have the girl realize that she loves the boy
Throw in her telling the truth, breaking the boy’s heart and her best friend not talking to her anymore
Top it with a bit of advise from her older brother
Will it work out???- Get the book and find out
Another smart and funny romance from Susannah Nix! I couldn’t put it down!
This is almost like a remake of “You’ve Got Mail”. Two very introverted people who are sorta at odd with each other begin talking and a relationship develops from there. I can relate to both Esther and Jonathan – Esther, because I am a bit of a geek; and Jonathan, because I can be so hopeless at the thought of talking to someone I like. This particular comedy of errors is sweet and poignant and so realistic when it comes to two people bumbling their way into love.
A cute story of apartment neighbors who connect through their love of movies.
Esther and her friend Jinny always spend time at the pool at Esther’s place even though Jinny lives in a more modern apartment but without the pool. Esther and Jinny both worked as engineers in L.A.. Jinny liked Esther’s neighbor Jonathan she thought he was cute. Jinny was also thinking about going back to her ex who treated her badly and insulted her in front of others and Esther hated him but Jinny seemed so desperate around him. Even though Esther hated Stewart she was not sure about Jonathan she didn’t really know him either, but she knew she didn’t like him. She got an idea when he came over and ask her for a favor. Esther was playing with fire but she just couldn’t mind her own business where Jinny was concern. So she struck a deal with Jonathan who was not into the deal as she would have liked but he agreed as things went along and she helped Jonathan and began to talk to him when she realized that he was not as bad as she thought she liked him. Things get out of hand and Esther finds herself in some trouble with her friends and Jonathan. I Purchased this book. I am providing an honest review.
a bit more sexual than i would like but not your typical romance. i also liked the main character and the resolution of her issues. (plus i was a rocket scientist too)
I liked the characters. They were different than the usual rom-com characters but still with the happy ending!
This was a delightful story of a aerospace engineer who does not want to be in a relationship, but her best-laid plans to go awry. She finds out that with family, friends, and love not everything can be predicted and planned.
characters work at it (unusual in itself) and evolve into better people and therefore stronger connections
Intermediate Thermodynamics is the 2nd book in the Chemistry Lessons series by Susannah Nix.
Esther was an aerospace engineer, smart and efficient at her job, loyal and caring to her close friends and family. Her take-no-bullshit attitude sometimes came across as being aggressive and blunt. Beneath that tough exterior, she was an introvert, closed off, afraid of love and commitment.
Jonathan was Esther’s neighbor, a graduate student in a screenwriting program, sweet, kind, and sensitive. As he was struggling with his assignments, Esther helped him read and critique his scripts; in exchange, he needed to go on three dates with her best friend to distract her from falling back to her cheating ex. And the more time they spent together, the more they couldn’t resist their burgeoning attraction…
As a woman in the STEM field, I love reading about STEM women in romance. I feel like Esther is a mirror image of myself, from her straightforward personality to her work politics and struggles, well… except that I don’t enjoy horror movies like Esther did .
A 4- read. This is a slow burn romance, going from hostility to friendship to love. The characters are real and relatable, and the writing has a nice flow and is quite pleasant to read.
Great story, likable characters, realistic situations. I wanted to hurry and finish to learn if the heroine achieved her HEA but I loved the writing and characters so much I did not want it to end. Esther was a realistic but flawed heroine with neighbor, friend, family and work life problems that I could relate to. Her fear of becoming vulnerable and facing rejection led her to some shaky decisions. Good thing she had a supportive brother and friends to help her make some hard choices and help jet confront her fears. I loved it and highly recommend Susannah Nix and her novels. I received an advance copy of this book from the author; this is my voluntary and honest review.
While I liked the first book in the series, I didn’t connect with the characters all that much.
Imagine my surprise and delight at getting to know somewhat-prickly and assertive Esther, who – at least in some regards – is absolutely my spirit animal (well, at least one of them). I rooted for her from the start, and I especially loved to follow her developing friendship with Jonathan.
Bonus points for bestie Jinny – the girls make a great team, and I had so much fun reading about them!
Even contemporary novels need world building – especially when the heroine is a rocket scientist! Nix’s STEM series is terrific, and Ester’s character arc is particularly enjoyable.
I’m so crazy glad that I finally started this series! I had the first book, Remedial Rocket Science, on my Kindle for a few months. For shame, waiting so long! Thankfully I’ve remedied that, as I’ve of course finished it AND this one (book 2), and just downloaded book 3. Phew.
I haven’t taken the time to review many books (I read a lot), but I really felt like I needed to leave some comments for this series. If I look at reviews myself, I typically skim through them, trying to avoid the ones that detail the entire plot. Ssh, I didn’t read it yet! I won’t do that to anyone who chooses to read this. Instead I’ll stick to a few generalities.
I think this book was actually better than book 1, but it incorporated a lot of the aspects I enjoyed – a smart and interesting cast of characters that were ALL well-developed and deep; but also real. There’s no insta-love here. The characters don’t have the Hallmark movie meeting, and the friendships and choices made by some of the lead characters may raise the hackles of the more judgmental crowd; but we’ve all been there. Don’t lie! The struggles (romantic, social, and workplace) are both relatable and funny, which is not that easy to pull off. Spoiler-alert (the only one I promise, and this is the end, so avert your eyes if necessary), there’s a HEA, but they have to WORK for it. Yay!
This is a great series
Please Move From LA,
Please Ms Nix. You are a bang up writer. I read your books for your writing. Because your characters are crap. Who looks at these two people and thinks they should be together? She is so out of his league they aren’t even in the same sport. He’s playing hacky sack, and she’s in the US Open with Serena Williams. He drives a Lexus and his parents pay for his apartment. He’s going into one of the most competitive fields in the world and he can’t handle critique. He’s a hipster douche man-child. Why would I ever want him to exist. She is an expert in her field, takes care of her mother, and lives on her own, with no assistance, in the most over-inflated real estate markets in the world. I don’t care if she’s emotionally stunted. She will always do the heavy lifting in the relationship, and that’s disgusting. If your partner is a burden and will always be then you don’t need him/her.
I’m always a sucker for a heroine who is a scientist of engineer – being one myself. A cute, satisfying story of a faculty member becoming a technical expert for a movie and the star sh falls in love with.
Characters a little too intense. Glad they finally got their s___ together.