Big Hearts and Body Parts

I had so much fun doing a book compare and contrast that I decided to do it again!  What's under the microscope and magnifying glass this time?  Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis and Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead.  I read The Love Hypothesis on my own, and Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead was my sister's book club selection (as you may recall, my sister got us started on this series with Finlay Donovan is Killing It.) 

The Love Hypothesis is a romcom about Olive Smith, a dedicated but mistrustful-of-love Stanford scientist who embarks upon a fake relationship to help her best friend find true love (and yes, that premise is as farcical as it sounds and not something I'm getting into).  Olive's playacting paramour?  Biology department alpha Adam Carlsen, a gorgeous and brilliant specimen of a man who's awful to everyone except Olive.  With her, he's funny and charming, protective and tender, and so respectful it's an aphrodisiac.  Not that Olive falls for him right away.  Oh no, she fights Cupid with every fiber of her being, so intent on denying herself happiness that sometimes I wanted to shake her.  Still, I understand that she has her issues (her mom died of cancer when she was a teenager), and that surrendering to love can be scary.  But when her smarmy Harvard mentor crosses the line, she hits rock bottom and learns that the only way out is to open up and ask for help.

Then there's Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead, which isn't at all romantic unless you count Finaly's love triangle with a callow law student and a seasoned detective.  Which I don't, because the number one relationship in Finaly's life (after the one with her kids, of course) is her friendship with partner Vero.  Not only is Vero an ace accountant and nanny; she's also Finlay's ride-or-die when it comes to tracking down the killer contracted to end Finaly's ex.  That's right.  The sod farm king is now the quarry, with the Russian mob lurking in the background making sure the bodies stay buried.  And it all started in a chat room masquerading as a safe space for wives to swap cleaning tips and trash their husbands.  The whole domestic-life-as-a-front-for-illegal-activity thing reeks of Good Girls -- in a very good way.  And I do mean "reek," given that fish, visitors, and bodies start to smell after three days.

So, yeah, these two books are different.  Even if both have blue covers and represent the seemingly safe fiction genres of romance and mystery or, as I like to call them, sex and violence.  I enjoyed both.  The Love Hypothesis is a classic slow burn love story, and its characters have great chemistry (even if they are biologists).  I heart a hero who can honor the heroine's independence while also being chivalrous.  And Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead is just so clever and funny.  If it weren't funny, then I wouldn't be able to read it, because it's also pretty gory.  But as with everything else, the jokes set the right tone for me, reducing even the darkest scene to a merely macabre comic strip.       

Still, I preferred The Love Hypothesis.  

Knights in shining armor over armed robberies.