The Love Simulation, Etta Easton (Review by Shay Tibbs)
Rating: 4.5 stars
After reading Etta Easton’s debut novel, The Kiss Countdown, I was counting down to another reading adventure with The Love Simulation. Both titles can be read as stand-alone stories, but the main characters are connected, and I loved that there was a special appearance in this book.
As the vice president of the school determined to win a new school library for her students, Brianna finds herself competing alongside the enemy, the son of the principal who’s a science teacher at her school and whom she may be crushing on.
“Nine months of formality should have told me there was something more to his change of attitude. I got my hopes up, and it’s left me feeling low and sad. Like the girl who just got duped by the cool guy. This could be my villain origin story.”
Dare I say the chemistry between Brianna and Roman felt cosmic? I am a sucker for the enemies-to-lovers trope and Easton wrote this one with such a delicious slow burn, giving us the small details from their morning school routine to their public acknowledgment of each other in their professional work setting and then their forced proximity on the mission.
“But the one thing I will fight until you hear me is that I did not try to get close to you to distract you. My intentions with you have always been to make you mine. Even knowing you’re everything that’s good in this world., Earth, and especially Mars, and I don’t deserve to be with you, let alone breathe the same air as you do.”
I found their on-Earth “mission to Mars” inside the Hab so interesting, the setting providing plenty of entertainment and opportunity. By bringing Brianna closer to the co-workers she struggled to connect with as their boss, the challenges the characters face made me fall for the characters and their relationships quickly. I was cheering them on from the start (hello, of COURSE as a reader I was all about her winning a library for her school!) but I didn’t want the book to end without this group of co-workers getting what they wanted out of the mission.
The unique setting and cast of characters will keep you entertained on every page, Etta has a way of writing that is both interesting and fun and makes you want more from beginning to end and I cannot wait to read what she does next. Pick this one up if you dream of out-of-this-world experiences, if you have a love for science or have ever wanted to be an astronaut when you grew up.