Because she is fun and he likes her, but only as a fun sex partner, not in the way that he lurrrrrves and pines for the heroine. And then to continue seeing her for a month. Frequently in adjacent rooms, since when the heroine gets back together with her abusive ex, the hero’s way of dealing with it is to revenge fuck the heroine’s roommate.

The main characters spend most of the book dating (and having sex with) other people. When they get together at the end of the book he tells her that he loves her and wants commitment with her and only with her because she is “special” and “not like the other girls” and BARF. It is a harrowingly detailed account of a woman in an abusive relationship - both emotional and physical (see mention of date rape, above), and the friend who pines for her while sleeping with a bunch of women (including the heroine’s roommate) because he’s decided to have fun while he waits for her to get over her abusive boyfriend. SECOND OF ALL, this is NOT a romantic comedy. Also, this happens in the second half of the book, which brings me to my second point. And then she convinces herself she imagined the whole thing. The heroine’s abusive boyfriend tries to suffocate her and then plays it off like he thought she was just really aroused.

If I had known about this I would never have read the book in the first place. It seems they might just complement each other outside of the lab as well.FIRST OF ALL, major trigger warning for a date rape described in explicit and horrifying detail. Hibs always held a candle for Beth, but never thought she felt anything for him until they decided to get a few drinks to unwind-and ended up examining each other in a very un-scientific manner. And she’s even beginning to see her loyal lab partner, Hibs, as more than just a lothario in a lab coat. She’s hard at work trying to prove her scientific theories are correct, no matter how unusual they may be. Six months after a painful breakup from her pushy ex, Gordon, PhD hopeful Beth is finally getting her life back on track. You can’t write a scientific formula for attraction-but when the right elements come together, it can create something wonderful.

Doctor January by Rhoda Baxter