Valentine’s Day has arrived. And for those who want to forgo the candy and dinner date for a good book, the staff here is scientific American Are you covered? Here are eight recommendations for novels with enough scientific rigor and romantic spark to light a Bunsen burner.
Atmosphere: A Love Story
By Taylor Jenkins Reed
Ballantine Books, 2025
(Tags: historical fiction, LGBTQ+)
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Atmosphere was ranked among scientific AmericanThe best fiction books of 2025, and it’s easy to see why. This is a concise, compelling read that presents the real history of NASA’s early Space Shuttle program through the eyes of a fictional aspiring female astronaut. The plot weaves together elements of romance, family drama and feminist struggle against the backdrop of a space walk gone horribly awry. —Meghan Bartels, Senior Reporter
Aliens have abducted me and now I’m stuck in a rom-com
By Kimberly Laming
Berkeley, 2025
(Tags: erotica, science fiction)
Lemming has perhaps the unique ability to write a book about a woman who is abducted by owl-shaped aliens and becomes stranded on a planet inhabited by even more (lustful) aliens and that is both serious about science and really funny. Between jokes about research funding and the scientific questions that may arise when the fuzzy pinkies appear Tyrannosaurus Rex On a strange planet, Lemming uses his protagonist Dory to poke fun at romance and the problems of graduate students. —Brian Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
ability to have uncontrolled impulses
By Malka Older
Tor Books, 2025
(Tags: closed door romance, mystery, LGBTQ+)
Living on a human colony on Jupiter, Mosa and Pleti are a sweet, trusting couple who join forces to help a friend’s cousin as an academic espionage plot turns potentially deadly. Idiot scholars, crooked tenure tracks and college campus rivalries abound. I loved the world that Older created by mixing real science and more fantasy science fiction. —Brian Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
a quantum love story
by mike chen
Mira, 2024
(Tags: time loops, slow-burn romance)
This time-loop story turns out Groundhog Day In the dust. Mariana Pineda seems believable as a neuroscientist who doesn’t really like her new job and has serious suspicions that a random guy is telling her she’s stuck in a time loop with him. It seems that a man named Carter Cho is stuck in a loop after an accident inside a top-secret particle accelerator. I love how all the characters use their respective skills to solve this scientific mystery – and their love building is worth rewatching every time. —Brian Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Fairies
By Heather Fawcett
Del Rey, 2023
(tags: fantasy, academic)
Protagonist Emily Wilde is a “dryadologist” or fairy expert at the University of Cambridge, in a world where fairies exist and are studied like any other part of nature. She faces the same tensions as anyone else in academia: the pressure to publish or perish, the fear of being caught, and conflict with an extremely attractive rival scholar. Written like a regional research magazine, emily wilde It is a clever and fascinating portrait of a scientist on a journey towards discovery, working hard in the field and stumbling towards love at the same time. —Jennifer Hackett, Associate Copy Editor
love, in theory
by Ali Hazlewood
Berkeley, 2023
(Tags: contemporary romance, enemies to lovers)
Author Ali Hazlewood is known for her spicy STEM-infused romances. Do the main characters in this book resemble different actors more? star wars movies? Yes. Is that similarity a problem? No. love, in theory I liked it because it focuses on physics, which is my academic background. If you like cheeky banter, academic rivalry – theoretical versus experimental physics; If you know, you know—and Confessions of Love, this is for you. —Jennifer Hackett, Associate Copy Editor
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics
by olivia white
Avon Impulse, 2019
(Tags: LGBTQ+, historical romance)
In this entertaining science-focused historical fiction novel, one of the main characters runs away from his family to pursue astronomy, while the other leads several major scientific expeditions under him. They fall in love together and challenge the male-dominated scientific establishment. My favorite aspect of the book is its quiet, insistent message that science is for everyone and that the joy of science can be expressed in many ways, whether it’s through crunching numbers, embroidering tropical plants or translating research findings into stories people want to read. —Meghan Bartels, Senior Reporter
Calculating Stars (Female Astronaut #1)
By Mary Robinette Kowal
Tor Books, 2018
(Tags: alternative history, science fiction)
This book and its sequels don’t show in-your-face romance, but the long-term relationship between Alma, a mathematician and pilot who becomes an astronaut, and her husband Nathaniel, a rocket engineer, is central to the plot. Set in the 1950s, the story is a well-researched and fascinating alternate history of the time before the moon landings – with stakes far higher than geopolitics. If you’re looking for a story that’s full of romance, but not driven, this is the book for you. —Meghan Bartels, Senior Reporter
