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Valentine’s Day is here. And for those who want to ditch nan candy and nan meal day for a bully book, nan unit astatine Scientific American has you covered. Here are 8 recommendations for novels pinch capable technological rigor and romanticist spark to ray a Bunsen burner.
Atmosphere: A Love Story
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Ballantine Books, 2025
(Tags: Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+)
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Atmosphere was classed among Scientific American’s best fabrication books of 2025, and it’s easy to understand why. It’s a breezy, compelling publication that offers up nan existent history of NASA’s early abstraction shuttle programme done nan eyes of a fictional aspiring female astronaut. The crippled weaves together elements of romance, family play and feminist struggle against nan backdrop of a abstraction locomotion gone terribly awry. —Meghan Bartels, Senior Reporter
I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped successful a Rom-Com
by Kimberly Lemming
Berkley, 2025
(Tags: Erotica, Science Fiction)
Lemming has nan possibly unsocial expertise to constitute a book astir a female who gets abducted by owl-sized extraterrestrials and winds up stranded connected a satellite inhabited by yet much (horny) aliens and make it some superior astir nan subject and genuinely funny. Between jokes astir investigation backing and nan technological questions that mightiness originate upon spotting a fuzzy pinkish Tyrannosaurus rex connected a unusual planet, Lemming uses her protagonist, Dory, to flick nosy astatine romance tropes and postgraduate student woes alike. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses
by Malka Older
Tor Books, 2025
(Tags: Closed-Door Romance, Mystery, LGBTQ+)
Living successful a quality colony connected Jupiter, Mossa and Pleiti are a sweet, relatable mates who get roped successful to thief a friend’s relative arsenic an world espionage crippled turns perchance deadly. Nerdy scholars, tortuous tenure tracks and assemblage field rivalry abounds. I loved nan world that Older has created by combining existent subject and much fantastical subject fiction. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
A Quantum Love Story
by Mike Chen
MIRA, 2024
(Tags: Time Loops, Slow-Burn Romance)
This time-loop communicative leaves Groundhog Day successful nan dust. Mariana Pineda manages to beryllium relatable arsenic a neuroscientist who really doesn’t for illustration her caller occupation and has superior doubts astir a seemingly random man telling her that she’s stuck successful a clip loop pinch him. Said man, Carter Cho, seems to person sewage stuck successful nan loop pursuing an mishap wrong a top-secret particle accelerator. I loved really nan characters each bring their ain skills to carnivore successful solving this technological mystery—and nan buildup to their emotion is worthy each repeated day. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
by Heather Fawcett
Del Rey, 2023
(Tags: Fantasy, Academia)
Protagonist Emily Wilde is simply a “drydologist,” aliases faerie expert, astatine nan University of Cambridge successful a world wherever faeries beryllium and are studied for illustration immoderate different portion of nature. She faces nan aforesaid stressors arsenic anyone successful academia: unit to people aliases perish, fears of being scooped and conflict pinch an infuriatingly charming rival scholar. Written for illustration a section investigation journal, Emily Wilde is a clever and charming image of a intelligence connected a travel toward discovery, difficult astatine activity successful nan section and stumbling toward love, each astatine nan aforesaid time. —Jennifer Hackett, Associate Copy Editor
Love, Theoretically
by Ali Hazelwood
Berkley, 2023
(Tags: Contemporary Romance, Enemies to Lovers)
Author Ali Hazelwood is known for her spicy STEM-steeped romances. Do nan main characters of this book carnivore much than passing resemblance to actors from various Star Wars movies? Yes. Is that resemblance a problem? No. Love, Theoretically appealed to maine because it focuses connected physics, which conscionable truthful happens to beryllium my world background. If you for illustration quippy banter, world rivalries—theoretical versus experimental physics; if you know, you know—and confessions of love, this one’s for you. —Jennifer Hackett, Associate Copy Editor
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics
by Olivia Waite
Avon Impulse, 2019
(Tags: LGBTQ+, Historical Romance)
In this delightfully science-minded humanities fabrication novel, 1 of nan main characters runs distant from her family to do astronomy while nan different clocks up aggregate awesome technological expeditions nether her belt. Together they autumn successful love—and situation nan male-dominated technological establishment. My favourite facet of nan book is its quiet, insistent connection that subject is for everyone and that enjoying subject tin beryllium expressed successful galore ways, whether it’s done crunching numbers, embroidering tropical plants aliases translating investigation findings into stories group want to read. —Meghan Bartels, Senior Reporter
The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut #1)
by Mary Robinette Kowal
Tor Books, 2018
(Tags: Alternate History, Science Fiction)
This book and its sequels don’t shove nan romance successful your face, but nan semipermanent narration betwixt Elma, a mathematician and aviator who becomes an astronaut, and her hubby Nathaniel, a rocket engineer, is cardinal to nan plot. Set successful nan 1950s, nan communicative is simply a well-researched and fascinating replacement history of nan lead-up to nan satellite landings—with stakes acold higher than geopolitics. If you’re looking for a communicative that’s infused with, but not driven by, romance, this is nan book for you. —Meghan Bartels, Senior Reporter
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