Love and Gravity

by Rebel Carter

When Grace imagines her dream man, there’s only one person she thinks of.

Anton Kovalev.

Anton is everything Grace dreams of. Smart, funny, supportive of her best friend’s work... He makes her heart race.

Too bad they’ve never met—at least not face-to-face. Emails and the occasional phone call are their only contact.

Until finally they do meet. And it blows. Because the funny, sensitive, and thoughtful man she thought she knew vanishes in the blink of an eye, replaced by a condescending jerk who believes she’s little more than an errand girl.

And the worst thing?

They have to work together.

Can she make it through her daily job of caring and wrangling an entire science tribe that look to her to keep the peace with her professional dignity intact? She’s their Lab Queen. The one with an even head.

But the one thing Grace just can’t stay cool about is the man she thought she knew.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Audiobook, Enemies To Lovers

310 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 17, 2019

About the author

Rebel Carter loves love. So much in fact that she decided to write the love stories she desperately wanted to read. A book by Rebel means diverse characters, sexy banter, a real big helping of steamy scenes, and, of course, a whole lotta heart.

Rebel lives in Colorado, makes a mean espresso, and is hell-bent on filling your bookcase with as many romance stories as humanly possible!

Reviews

[Taryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite part of this book was the setting--I have never read a book set at the CERN supercollider! Grace is a lab assistant who loves taking care of her science nerds--she’s always anticipating everyone’s needs and her job gives her a sense of purpose. Her orderly world is thrown for a loop when Anton, a scientist she hasn’t met in person but has developed a bit of a crush on over the course of many email and phone exchanges, shows up in Geneva in the flesh to work with her research team. Unfortunately, before they can be introduced, Anton orders her to fetch him coffee and is generally a self-important jerk. I loved this initial conflict because as someone who works in an assistant role, I place a high value on how people treat others, especially people like secretaries, receptionists, waitstaff, etc. who are perceived as “the help.” I was very curious to see how Grace and Anton would be able to move past their disastrous first meeting.

[Blair Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rebel Carter is a one-click buy for me. She has been since Heart and Hand and she will be for the next how many ever novels she cranks out. Love and Gravity was a love story, but it was also a story of brilliant women who lift each other up. The friendship in this book captured my heart the most. But, the romance. Oh boy. That was some swoony romance. It’s funny, it’s light, it’s low-angst, and it’s badass women in STEM.

[Kanra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and slow-paced, couldn't really get into characters

[Emmi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, light, angst-free read. There are moments when the science lab hijinks go a little over the top, but at the same time, the main characters spend zero time on nonsense such as drawing out disagreements that could be solved with a conversation or pretending they don't like each other. There's not a lot of conflict, but the hero and heroine have just enough baggage to make them interesting. This is a good choice for those days when you need a carefree little snack of a book.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, but the ending seemed very rushed

[Sini · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had really good potential - Geneva, science and romance, but it didn't really click for me :/

[Brenda Moser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written friends to lovers romance with strong characters and an entertaining storyline. The author brings tons of humor along with the romance. The story moves fluidly with her descriptive and detailed scenes and delivers a great romantic comedy.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own and freely given.

[JEDKEN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Efter att hans data har blivit snott börjar han jobba tillsammas med ett gäng galna vetenskapsmän. Som den kvinnliga huvudkaraktären är drottning av (ger dem kaffe).
Deras komunikation börjar i endast mejl och telefonsamtal men när de träffas ansikte mot ansikte blomstrar deras relation på typ en sekund efter att vara enemies i en halv sekund (miscommunication, hade kunnat lösas med ett snabbt sms).

3,5
🌺🌺

[Marianna Luquette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooooo sweet

Rebel Carter does it again! She’s a one-click author for me and this book shows why. Anton and Grace are hilarious, flawed, sweet people who I fell in love with right away! This book is witty, fun, and emotional. And it has ladies killing it in STEM! I really hope we can continue to follow the science horde or even just Lou!

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great recommendation from Taryn over at Reading With Hippos to round out my Summer rom-com #booklist! Not too terribly racy (we're all aware of my prudish ways by now, I'm sure) and chock-full of snark, humor, & enough romance to curl your toes.

[Drache.... (Angelika) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing dnf @39% because of:
- the h and H and others were between 24-30 years and older, world-known scientists (and their assistants) but didn't behave like adults, but really childish
- the writing style was not flowing
- there was zero chemistry between h and H
- the h's behaviour and reasoning was just strange, (again:) childish and without logic

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to like this book, because it's a different setting (CERN) with nerdy characters. The whole story felt a little frantic to me, though. I kept wishing the author would slow down and spread out a bit. Also, I don't like it when allegedly grown people behave like children, so there's that, too.

[TabReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF - 40%

I really wanted to like this one as it is advertised on my favorite podcast. However, I just didn’t click with the characters. The writing was fine but this one just wasn’t for me.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

this just really was so messy and unstructured,, I feel like the concept had such good potential I love a stem romance but it just felt like a loosely strung together series of one shots

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

- I will start this review by saying that the audiobook was quite hard to listen to- it would glitch, skip chapters and restart. I think I saw some other reviews saying the same thing. So as a warning if you’re planning on listening to it, I think that this is an issue on multiple platforms (I used Bookbeat).
- This was a cute and easy read. The characters were well written and the story was good, there was a good mixture of the romance as well as things outside of this in the science setting. I love a science romance so this was a good addition to what I have already said.
- I will say that the MC’s getting together was relatively fast. They have had a friendship over emails and phone calls but we didn’t really see this in the book so them getting together did seem to be very fast.
- I did really enjoy that any conflict between the MC’s was resolved quickly and I liked that anything caused by miscommunication was actually explained and spoken through and they didn’t break up because of this.
- Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a fun and cute read, and was nice to read after reading quite heavy fantasy books as there was no need for extravagant world building. I would recommend but like I said the audiobook was jumpy so was a little bit difficult to listen to.

[Brittany Steminist Booknerd]

STEM MMC: astrophysicist. FMC: lab manager... so not a scientist? it was never clear.
DNF at 47%
It's very repetitive, especially inside of a chapter. A character's inner monologue will say the same thing three times in a row, just talking in circles.
The language the FMC uses is super odd. She calls on Odin or Odin's beard a lot. Some of her verbiage is antiquated like "verily" and some of it is super young like "feeling some type of way"... gave me a bit of whiplash.
The FMC is super immature. She throws hissy fits. She also treats all of the scientists in the lab like unruly children and withholds their caffeine when they've been bad... what is happening? Lab wars?! What are we 12? Meanwhile the MMC is a spoiled billionaire playboy brat and is used to getting whatever he wants from women or the world or whatever else. He literally didn't even think about apologizing to the FMC to make things better, like seduction made sense but not a simple I'm sorry... what?
I couldn't make it any further.

[Donna Sutay-Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine The Big Bang Theory and a romance novel had a baby and then insert Minions humor. That is this book in a nutshell. I found it walked a thin tightrope for me on the humor side of things, where I was often left unsure if my best friend, who is a lab manager in real life, would find extreme humor in the depictions of the shenanigans that the lab scientist get into or would be absolutely horrified by how they were described. I finally walked away feeling as certain as knowing the result of a coin flip to the answer to that question. The romance itself was adorable in the best cheesy way. Resolution of the book’s side story mystery was frustrating, rushed and unsatisfying. I really wanted to love this book, but it just fizzled out as a 2.5 star read for me.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lab Queen meets her King?

At least that's what Grace has believed about Anton over the many months she corresponded with him! Then they meet! Let the fun begin, laughs, tears, and everything in between!

If only life inside a science lab was as entertaining as Rebel Carter describes this in this book, we would think we were in heaven!

The only thing left to consider is found in the pages of the book - a book well worth reading! I'm looking forward to the next book and hope you will join me.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so cool for me as a fellow science nerd. I loved that Grace was ok with being a nerd and was so good at taking care of the people around her. She took pride in meeting the needs of everyone. She has forged a relationship with scientist Anton, even though they have never met in person. When they do meet, he treats her like an assistant and basically puts her down before they can ever be introduced. Watching how they move beyond that disastrous first in person meeting is fun. This book is fun and pretty light for the most part.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. I’m all over a little science and STEM in a novel’s setting. The whole cast of characters were quirky and fun, and the basic romance premise was believable. That being said, I sometimes felt I was reading the text portion of a graphic novel without seeing the pictures. I found myself checking back a few pages to assure myself of the setting for the current scene, or to double check who was right there at the moment. It’s the only way I can describe how it felt to me.

[Mel DG]

DNF. I started this book in the hopes it would be exciting. But first up the angst was next level. Over a freaking email!! And the dialogue was so bad. He called her and she spends the whole time tapping on her phone check her calls, txt and emails. And he is meant to just hang there while she does all this 1-handed because she’s juggling coffee tray and her office pass lanyard. It’s annoying and I can just tell the rest of the book would annoy me.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anton is everything Grace dreamed of. Smart, funny, supportive of her best friend’s work... He makes her heart race. Too bad they’ve never met—at least not face-to-face. Emails and the occasional phone call are their only links. This was a fun & entertaining read. And am voluntarily leaving my review.

[Zanette Easton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots going on

The comedic aspect was throughout the story and made for some frantic and sometimes absurd points in the story. The scientific setting was interesting and appreciated.

[Misty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! Loved the friendship between the two MC and her BFF. It hit pretty close to what science research types are like (okay, a little exaggerated, but not soooo far off). This may be my favorite Rebel Carter book.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting storyline with good characters made for a delightful read. I liked the setting which was interesting and fit the storyline. I liked the characters who were likable and somewhat relatable. A nice story.

I received a copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Nicole Reads Romance]

Had to DNF the audiobook version as it was extremely glitchy (tried both Hoopla and Kobo, both were the same). Chapters would restart and skip, missing chunks of the book. I gave up around chapter eight.

[Kayla Buss]

DNF audiobook kept skipping so unable to finish

[Danny Kearl]

I'm soft DNFing this at 20% as I was listening on Bookbeat and there was a techincal fault on the audiobook as kept skipping chapters

[Maddz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ali Hazelwood’s little sister

[Michaela Kenkel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried and tried to finish this book. Got 2/3 through and gave up. I hate not finishing things but wow. Life is too short. DNF.