Name: Maggie Hotmer's review of Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood
Item: Below Zero
Rating: 3.5
Author: Maggie Hotmer

Ali Hazelwood

It will take the frosty terrain of the Arctic to show these rival scientists that their chemistry burns hot.

Mara, Sadie, and Hannah are friends first, scientists always. Though their fields of study might take them to different corners of the world, they can all agree on this universal truth: when it comes to love and science, opposites attract and rivals make you burn…

Hannah’s got a bad feeling about this. Not only has the NASA aerospace engineer found herself injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station—but the one person willing to undertake the hazardous rescue mission is her longtime rival.

Ian has been many things to Hannah: the villain who tried to veto her expedition and ruin her career, the man who stars in her most deliciously lurid dreams…but he’s never played the hero. So why is he risking everything to be here? And why does his presence seem just as dangerous to her heart as the coming snowstorm?

To read Mara and Sadie’s stories look for the novellas Under One Roof and Stuck with You available now from Berkley!

The STEMinist Novellas #3

Below Zero

Sophia

He’s still staring at me. Like he’s found his long-missing house keys and is afraid he’ll lose them again if he looks away.

The following day, our kiss is on the front page of the New York Times.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new steamy, STEMinist novella… It will take the frosty terrain of the Arctic to show these rival scientists that their chemistry burns hot. Mara, Sadie, and Hannah are friends first, scientists always. Though their fields of study might take them to different corners of the world, they can all agree on this universal truth: when it comes to love and science, opposites attract and rivals make you burn… Hannah’s got a bad feeling about this. Not only has the NASA aerospace engineer found herself injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station—but the one person willing to undertake the hazardous rescue mission is her longtime rival. Ian has been many things to Hannah: the villain who tried to veto her expedition and ruin her career, the man who stars in her most deliciously lurid dreams…but he’s never played the hero. So why is he risking everything to be here? And why does his presence seem just as dangerous to her heart as the coming snowstorm? To read Mara and Sadie’s stories look for the novellas Under One Roof and Stuck with You available now from Berkley!

Even though this wasn’t my favorite Ali Hazelwood book, I did love Ian! He was kind of giving Spencer Reid. 🤓

Ivory Flores

“Is that why you came to rescue me?” I tease. “Because you were thinking about it? Because you have been secretly pining for years?” He meets my eyes squarely. “I don’t know that there was anything secret about that.”

nanafark

I swallow and nod. Push the weight in my chest to the side for an unspecified 

My first instinct is to bristle and push back. Something within me rejects being known, because being known means being rejected. Doesn’t it?

that’s what you’ve been taught your whole life 😔

He’s a way better person than I’ll ever be.

“Shh, it’s okay.” He kisses my temple. It’s wet from the slide of my tears. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not. You could be working with your team, or asleep in your own bed, but you’re here because of me, and—”

“Hannah, there is nowhere else I’d rather be.”

Because being honest with them would first require me to be honest with myself, and I’m too angry, tired, disappointed for that.

missed opportunities! yes, you are an idiot Hannah, dear!

I stuff my hands in my pockets while my body is still thrumming with what I left behind, and wander slowly back to the Caltech campus, thinking about red hair and missed opportunities.

Okay. This is no first kiss. This is a fucking 

Hot Guy, Ginger, Massive. I saw about four people check him out on our way here, but he apparently has no idea that he could be fancast to play the hot Weasley brother. Absolutely zero awareness of how glorious he is.

“It’s . . . uncommon. For me. To like someone this much.”

“I like you, too.” I shrug. “Shouldn’t we hang out, then? Isn’t that good enough?”

He looks away. Down, to his shoes. “If I spend more time with you, I’m only going to like you more.”

“Nah.” I snort. “That’s not the way it usually works.”

Caring what others think is a lot of work, and—with a handful of exceptions—I’m not a huge fan of work.

Julia <3

but he apparently has no idea that he could be fancast to play the hot Weasley brother.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new steamy, STEMinist novella…

It will take the frosty terrain of the Arctic to show these rival scientists that their chemistry burns hot.

Mara, Sadie, and Hannah are friends first, scientists always. Though their fields of study might take them to different corners of the world, they can all agree on this universal truth: when it comes to love and science, opposites attract and rivals make you burn…
 
Hannah’s got a bad feeling about this. Not only has the NASA aerospace engineer found herself injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station—but the one person willing to undertake the hazardous rescue mission is her longtime rival.
 
Ian has been many things to Hannah: the villain who tried to veto her expedition and ruin her career, the man who stars in her most deliciously lurid dreams…but he’s never played the hero. So why is he risking everything to be here? And why does his presence seem just as dangerous to her heart as the coming snowstorm?
 
To read Mara and Sadie’s stories look for the novellas Under One Roof and Stuck with You available now from Berkley!

Keira 💫

“Guys,” I tell them, shaking my head, “maybe I was wrong in approving of your relationships. Maybe you can do better.”

			Mara snorts. “Excuse me? Is that a slice of pepperoni on Ian’s shirt?”

			Sadie clears her throat. “Hey, guys, it’s great that you’re having fun, but we should really get going if we want to make our flights—”

			They groan in a chorus. Like ten-year-olds asked to clean their rooms.

			“I just . . . can’t believe they actually like each other,” Mara says, befuddled.

			Sadie nods. “I don’t know how I feel about this. Seems . . . dangerous?”

			I cover my mouth to muffle my laughter.”

This material may be protected by copyright.

Oh… a resolution… in two pages… yay. 

“I am sorry. About what I said to you back in Houston.”

			“And that I’ve put you in danger—”

			“Shh, it’s okay.” He kisses my temple. It’s wet from the slide of my tears. “It’s okay.”

			“It’s not. You could be working with your team, or asleep in your own bed, but you’re here because of me, and—”

			“Hannah, there is nowhere else I’d rather be.”

			I laugh, watery. “Not even—not even literally anywhere else?”

			I hear him chuckle just before I fall asleep.”

He’s always been in love with you. That’s unfair. 

“He smiles, and the thought that I could have died—I could have died—without being smiled at like this, by this man, has my lips trembling. “I don’t mind carrying you.” A dimple appears. “Do try to contain your love for crevasses, please.”

			I glare at him through the tears. As it turns out, it’s exactly what he wants from me.”

He’s afraid you’ll get hurt. This is your big enemies moment when he doesn’t even hate you? Are you kidding me??

“Because he was there when I explained my objections, at length and in detail. Did he omit that?” I press my lips together. Which he seems to interpret as an opening. “Hannah.” He leans closer. We’re nose to nose, I smell his skin and his aftershave, and I hate every second of this. “Your project is too dangerous. It specifically asks that you travel to a remote location to drop off equipment at a time of the year in which the weather is volatile and often totally unpredictable. I’ve been in Longyearbyen in February, and avalanches develop out of the blue. It’s only gotten worse in the last few—”

			“How many times have you been to Longyearbyen?”

			“I’ve been on two expeditions—”

			“Then you’ll understand why I take the opinion of someone who has been on a dozen missions over yours. Plus, “we both know what the real reason of the veto was.”

			Ian opens, then closes his mouth. His jaw hardens, and I’m finally sure of it: he’s mad. Pissed. I see it in the way he clenches his fist. The flare of his nostrils. His big body is just inches from mine, glowing with anger. ”

I’m sorry, where’s the enemies part??

“What team have you been assigned to?”

			“You don’t say.” He sounds pleased. Which is . . . new, mostly. My parents reacted to the news that I was hired by NASA in their usual way: showing disappointment that I did not go into medicine like my siblings. Sadie and Mara were always supportive and happy for me when I got my dream job, but they don’t care enough about space exploration to fully grasp the significance of where I ended up. Ian, though, Ian knows. And even though he’s now a big shot, and A & PE is not his team anymore, it still makes me feel warm and tingly.

			“Yeah—this random guy I once met told me it was the best team.”

			“But I’m not going to start with the team right away, because . . . I’ve managed to get them to pick me for AMASE.”

			His smile is so unabashedly, genuinely happy for me, my heart leaps in my throat. “AMASE.”

			It is. AMASE is the shit, and the selection process to take part in an expedition was brutal, to the point that I’m not quite sure how I made it in.”

Proud moment, I know one out of four programming languages mentioned here. 

The section is in C++. Which happens to be the very first language I taught myself back in high school, when every single Google search for “Skills + Necessary + NASA” led to the sad result of “Programming.” Python came after. Then SQL. Then HAL/S. For each language, I started out convinced that chewing on glass would surely be preferable. Then, at some point along the way, I began thinking in terms of functions, variables, conditional loops. A little after that, reading code became a bit like inspecting the label on the back of the conditioner bottle while showering: not particularly fun, but overall easy. I do have some talents, apparently.

yes Im reading this at work and yes Ive laugh so hard everyone is looking at me 

valentina 🕯️

"I was wondering if you two know each other?" "No. No,I. Just in passing. Once humped his leg. It was fantastic. "Barely.

When we step out of the TSA area of the Houston airport, there is a sign in the crowd, similar to the ones limo drivers hold up in movies when they’re picking up important clients they’re afraid they won’t recognize.

hannah arroyo, it says. And underneath: who almost died and didn’t even tell us. also, she always forgets to replace the toilet paper roll. what a little shit.

It’s a pretty big sign. All the more because it’s held by two not-very-tall girls, a redhead and a brunette, who are very obviously glaring at me.

Samira

This was a pretty cute read. I did like the first one in this little novella series more than this one. It was good, but it kind of felt like something was missing. The fact that he didn't try to fix things with her when she got mad at him was kind of weird. Also, the fact that he didn't want to tell her why he was the one who saved her. It was nice to see some bonding between the boyfriends at the end though and the epilogue was really sweet. 

Maggie Hotmer

Scarlett

I Know i loved this book
Es una novela de mi autora favorita por supuesto que me iba a gustar.
Es corta, sencilla y romántica, los personajes amazing and sweet, que mas puedo pedir?
Ian es un solecito y me lo quiero comer a lamidas cual paleta de helado en pleno verano
No hay mucho que decir, ademas de ESA ESCENA de mis papis juntos conviviendo como la bella familia que son AMO

Jennifer Gosnell

This was honestly FANTASTIC. I had little expectation going into it and it blew me away. Such a fun little novella and the characters have such great chemistry.

This ressembles the remainder of Hazelwood's work the most in where it is good and it gives you some hope that the whole thing could be good - until it is not. Until she starts falling into some pretty ridiculous dialogue that is neither hot nor touching and frankly, I am not sure which one it was meant to be in the first place. And some tropes that make you wonder whether the original fanfic (her acknowledgements section in "Loathe to Love You" alleges all started as fanfic) was not tagged "no betas we die like men".

Anyways, this was really giving book 8 of historic romance series where we have seen all possible scandals so people are now starting to get shot left, right and centre. So I found that funny. Still probably the best of the three - at least there was a genuine stake in terms of Hannah's career and it was not all based just on a misunderstanding (or at least less so).

This ressembles the remainder of Hazelwood's work the most in where it is good and it gives you some hope that the whole thing could be good - until it is not. Until she starts falling into some pretty ridiculous dialogue that is neither hot nor touching and frankly, I am not sure which one it was meant to be in the first place. And some tropes that make you wonder whether the original fanfic (her acknowledgements section in "Loathe to Love You" alleges all started as fanfic) was not tagged "no betas we die like men".

Anyways, this was really giving book 8 of historic romance series where we have seen all possible scandals so people are now starting to get shot left, right and centre. So I found that funny. Still probably the best of the three - at least there was a genuine stake in terms of Hannah's career and it was not all based just on a misunderstanding (or at least less so).

aileeeeeeen

I like this one better than previous novellas from Ms. Hazelwood. loving it when the details are explained. <3

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Jade 🌷

** spoiler alert **
           It had its cute moments but.. idk. The FMC was a little too forward for my liking and she just irritated me with how it took FIVE years to make a decision. This MMC deserved better than her fr.. besides the fact that the found comparing her body to the earth hot? 

Not for me fs.

Marcy Pursell 

I love all three of Ali Hazelwood's novellas, but I so desperately want them to be longer!

alya adlina

umm okay this one is so hard to get into at first…i literally skipped a lot of pages yup and even i almost dnf this book but towards halfway it was okay and the last few chapters just didn’t work for me….i think this novellas is is just not for me but the characters are okay. i mean i love the characters… ian and hannah has a great chemistry…and again we got miscommunication…duh i had a love hate relationship with all these novellas ngl..

Ester Waclavova

I love Ali Hazelwoods books

I love it all connected 

And the bonus chapter 😩

🩷🩷🩷

honya

ok. this was my least fav in the series because it was so confusing to me, i just read half of it without understanding shit😭 but the way hannah and ian had me screaming…

Charlsy Sekyere

⭐️2.5-3

This novella is undeniably better than the other two (Under One Roof and Stuck With You) in the series. The chemistry between Hannah and Ian was evident, and I had no negative feelings toward them as characters or as a couple. They are surprisingly cute together, and I really enjoyed their interactions. Additionally, I enjoyed seeing Sadie, Mara, and their partners interact with Hannah and Ian at the end of the novella. A very nice touch. 

As far as I was concerned, the miscommunication trope didn't bother me that much. The reason might be that I thought it made sense and didn't feel like it was used for pointless conflict and drama. This is in contrast to Stuck With You, which seemed random and unnecessary.

Let's move on to the smut. The smut was simply not it. I found it to be one of the least enjoyable of all the novellas. Out of all the novellas, in my humble opinion, the best novella has the worst, most cringe-worthy smut? That blows my mind. Why was Ian comparing Hannah's body to the topographical features of Mars? I get it. They love Mars and have that in common but why? What was the reason, Ali Hazelwood? Because of how much I liked Hannah and Ian together and their story, I was actually anticipating a decent smut. My confused and weirded out state made it impossible for me to find it funny. 

Now that I am writing this review, I can see the humour in that smut. That particular scene now makes me laugh.

I wasn't really into the NASA and Mars talk and honestly just zoned out, but other than that, this novella was fine. There is no doubt in my mind that this book is the shining light in this short novella series. 

A 2.5 out of 5 rating would be appropriate for this entire novella series. Not god awful but not good at all. For lack of a better term/word, it was just meh for me.

with this book i’d like to reflect on the afterthoughts i had. 

it’s so sad how people grow up believing that they’re not good enough, hence they don’t believe they deserve love and they actually sabotage themselves from being loved. 

it’s also sad when someone has to wait for so long for someone else!

that being said, i felt a bit emotional with this book at some point and sad that it had to be so long for something to happen, but i enjoyed it regardless. 

it’s been also quite educational apart from funny, entertaining and cute. i liked it!

with this book i’d like to reflect on the afterthoughts i had. 

it’s so sad how people grow up believing that they’re not good enough, hence they don’t believe they deserve love and they actually sabotage themselves from being loved. 

it’s also sad when someone has to wait for so long for someone else!

that being said, i felt a bit emotional with this book at some point and sad that it had to be so long for something to happen, but i enjoyed it regardless. 

it’s been also quite educational apart from funny, entertaining and cute. i liked it!



i like silly science talk but unfortunately the plots of these books are seemingly copy and paste 

erin miller

Brittany Peterson

Nash

The STEAM coming out of my ears when I finished this audiobook was unreal. The story is short and for that reason, it felt a little rushed but it is so entertaining and fun to listen to. I loved it and I’m not even mad that I listened to this before I read any of her other work. Give it a try. He is so awkwardly charming. Good lord.

loren

Sarah Pino

Not the worst book but also not the best. I loved this authors book the love hypothesis since I read that in one sitting because the writing was so well written. I thought I would like this too. However the first couple chapters in the beginning were horrible personally. It was hard to listen to because how annoying Hannah was it was almost unbearable. After pushing through the ending was decent but I probably won’t pick this again. 

Anna Cordero

victoria

It's not that bad but so far it'sthe most boring one. I loved The Love Hypothesis so I thought I would like these stories...it didn't happened, it seems the author keeps repeating the same formula as the first only in a lazier way.
All three stories were a "weird" funny girl who is insecure and likes science and a super tall and moody guy who ends up falling madly in love with her, the idea is even cool but repeating this in four different stories gets tiring. Regarding the short stories, I really liked the second one but the first and this one I found it more difficult to read, this last one had so much from NASA that it looked like a space fanfic and not a novel, maybe people who like science and space will like the book but it was not for me.
 By the way, why the characters are always super white and with blue/green eyes, the author brings female representation to STEM, she could also bring more people of color.

definitely the best book of the trinity! absolutely love the plot, my obsession with space and snowy places did feed into my awe. the crossover was one of the best things to happen. the sexy space pillowtalk? i'm obsessed!!

𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒁𝒆𝒓𝒐 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

♡ loved the sexual tension at the start

♡ red heads normally aren’t my type but Ian Floyd sure as heck is

♡ the ending brought all three couples together and perfectly tied up the novellas

Larissa Kirchberger

𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒁𝒆𝒓𝒐 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

♡ loved the sexual tension at the start

♡ red heads normally aren’t my type but Ian Floyd sure as heck is

♡ the ending brought all three couples together and perfectly tied up the novellas

Ivy X

this book reeks of pick me energy...and when Ian started comparing her tits to mars topography i wanted to kms

Samira &
Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Samira &Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Samira &
Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood