Sweet Treats
May. 24th, 2024 03:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lucymonsterBooks
I tore my way through Love, Theoretically and Love on the Brain, both by Ali Hazelwood. Conveniently, I can cover them both in a single review! Our heroine is a brilliant but impoverished young scientist trying to find her footing on the academic career ladder. She has a zany best friend, a chronic health issue she manages badly enough to give an attentive suitor plenty of occasions to rescue her but well enough to skate under everyone else’s radar, and due to painful past baggage, she’s determined never to fall in love. A professional opportunity forces her into close contact withAdam Driver a senior colleague who is big and aloof and big and well off and academically acclaimed and big, who she hates because she thinks he hates her, because of how aloof he is. But - shock! twist! - as soon as she has to spend time with her colleague, she finds he’s actually a good guy in general and goes out of his way to be good to her specifically. Nevertheless, she will continue to think of him as an asshole for most of the novel, while periodically wondering why she can’t stop noticing how big he is. A bit over halfway through they start having passionate sex, and the colleague reveals he’s been slavishly, pathetically, consumingly in love with her since the moment he first became aware of her existence. This doesn’t really land with the heroine, who’s still pretty sure he hates her. In the antepenultimate chapter we learn that a misogynist has been plotting against the heroine, and the colleague finally proves his love by helping her overthrow him. Her career dreams all come true, she realises she’s in love as well, and the happy couple ride off into the sunset talking about all the science they’re going to do together.
It’s safe to say that Hazelwood has a formula. But honestly, I’m eating it up with a spoon. It’s witty and tropey and sexy and demands absolutely nothing of me, and sometimes that’s what you want, you know?
Food
Husband bought us a tasting box of single origin chocolates after watching a YouTube video about it. You guys, omg, did you know cacao beans are kind of like wine grapes? Mass manufacturers blend a whole bunch of different sources together and process them for uniformity, but left to their own devices, they actually taste SO DIFFERENT depending on where they come from! I tried fruity ones and nutty ones and an extra-bitter one I hated and a sweet, kind of tangy one I could eat forever, and they were all made to exactly the same recipe: cacao beans, sugar, cocoa butter.
I’m in love. I can’t do wine tastings any more because my liver and/or stomach have it out for me, but frankly, I think chocolate tastings are an even better substitute.
I tore my way through Love, Theoretically and Love on the Brain, both by Ali Hazelwood. Conveniently, I can cover them both in a single review! Our heroine is a brilliant but impoverished young scientist trying to find her footing on the academic career ladder. She has a zany best friend, a chronic health issue she manages badly enough to give an attentive suitor plenty of occasions to rescue her but well enough to skate under everyone else’s radar, and due to painful past baggage, she’s determined never to fall in love. A professional opportunity forces her into close contact with
It’s safe to say that Hazelwood has a formula. But honestly, I’m eating it up with a spoon. It’s witty and tropey and sexy and demands absolutely nothing of me, and sometimes that’s what you want, you know?
Food
Husband bought us a tasting box of single origin chocolates after watching a YouTube video about it. You guys, omg, did you know cacao beans are kind of like wine grapes? Mass manufacturers blend a whole bunch of different sources together and process them for uniformity, but left to their own devices, they actually taste SO DIFFERENT depending on where they come from! I tried fruity ones and nutty ones and an extra-bitter one I hated and a sweet, kind of tangy one I could eat forever, and they were all made to exactly the same recipe: cacao beans, sugar, cocoa butter.
I’m in love. I can’t do wine tastings any more because my liver and/or stomach have it out for me, but frankly, I think chocolate tastings are an even better substitute.
