Synopsis

Millie Oaks has never followed the expected path. Her childhood love for bugs and science led her to entomology and to her job as a curator at a natural science museum, where she inspires visitors every single day. Her dream is to run her own department, so when a director position opens up, she is determined not to let anything distract her. Least of all Finn, her grumpy coworker with the permanent scowl, the electric blue eyes and the endless collection of astronomy ties. Not that she has noticed any of that, of course.

Finn doesn't mean to glare at everyone, but he is juggling his role at the museum, the grief of losing his sister, his attempts to make his nieces smile and trying not to ruin dinner for the fifth night in a row. He can't afford to let anything slip, and the last thing he needs is Millie literally stumbling into him with her bright smile and unshakable optimism.

She drives him up the wall. He thinks she has her head in the stars. They want nothing to do with each other. But with Finn on the committee that will decide who gets the job, avoiding each other is impossible. And Millie soon learns that risking a job is one thing, and risking her heart is something else entirely.

The protagonists

My review

Friends, I enjoyed this book so much 🦋 Millie and Finn are an absolute delight from start to finish, and I closed the last page with a smile from ear to ear 🩵

Millie works with bugs 🐛 at the museum (yes, haha, she's an entomologist and she loves it) and she's about to apply to become director of her department. In that same museum works Finn, director of the astronomy department and our official grump 🌝 What Millie doesn't know is that Finn has had a crush on her since the day they met, but he's kept his distance because he has to take care of his two nieces 👧🏼👧🏼 after his sister's death. Until life starts pushing them together more and more, and the chemistry between them simply can't be denied 😳

The problem? Finn is on the committee that will decide whether Millie gets the new position or not 😱😱 and crossing that line would be anything but professional 😓 That tension between what they feel and what they should do gives the story a delicious slow burn, the kind that has you waiting for every run-in in the museum hallways.

I loved that Finn isn't grumpy just for the sake of it. Behind that stern face is an exhausted man who is learning to be a dad overnight and who wants to get it right with all his heart. And Millie, with all her sunshine, carries her own baggage too, a past relationship that dimmed her light and an anxiety the author handles with so much care. Watching them heal together, without either of them having to stop being who they are, was beautiful.

And Finn's nieces... the sweetest 🥹 The twins steal every scene they're in, and it's precisely through them that Millie starts to see the man behind the scowl. I'm honestly such a fan of romance stories with kids involved 💕 and here they're written so naturally, adding to the story instead of being filler. Add to that Millie's family, their group chat (which made me laugh way too much 😂) and a supporting cast that feels like found family.

It has some really good steamy scenes 🔥, no third-party drama between them and a happily ever after they truly earn.

Content warnings: death of the hero's sister from cancer and grief, suddenly raising orphaned children, the heroine's past emotionally abusive relationship, harassing and threatening messages from her ex, the hero's emotionally abusive parents and childhood neglect, anxiety and explicit sexual scenes.

So if you loved The Love Hypothesis, this book has a lot of that vibe, but with better character development 😌

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Where to buy it?