The Love Simulation Review

By Etta Easton

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice rating: 🌶️🌶️

Pub date: 3/4/2025

Blurb

 A passionate vice principal and a guarded science teacher compete for a grand prize, only to realize their budding relationship might be the real jackpot.

Brianna Rogers has been told a time (or six) she needs to stop jumping into things head first. But when the principal rescinds his approval for a library upgrade, deciding to spend the money on a football field instead, she sees red. Literally. Brianna throws her hat in the ring and joins a team of teachers who will spend their summer in a Mars simulation. As the sister of an astronaut, this should be easy, right? What she didn’t count on was the last-minute addition to the team—Roman science teacher, son of the principal, and too handsome for his own good.

Roman and Brianna have been hot and cold all year, and living in close quarters intensifies their animosity and attraction. Brianna is sure he’s been sent by his father to sabotage them, foiling their chance at prize money that will cover all of the school’s actual needs. But each day, Roman proves himself to be a dedicated teammate—and Brianna finds herself falling harder and harder. While it’s clear the feeling is mutual, she can’t shake the sense that he’s hiding something. As the simulation nears its end, Brianna realizes she may have to make an impossible choice, between the school she’s dedicated herself to, and the man who has won his way into her heart.

Category: Contemporary

 

Read if you Like:

🪐Forced proximity

🪐Black MCs

🪐Workplace romance

🪐Finding yourself

 

My Thoughts:

The Love Simulation is such a fun new twist on the forced proximity trope! I really enjoyed watching Brianna and Roman learn to trust each other and see their struggle to have a personal and professional relationship without crossing any ethical boundaries.

Brianna's love for books is something that I think a lot of readers will relate to. Would I go to pretend mars for a new library? Maybe? Depends on how needed and nice... I also think readers will relate to Brianna's struggles with finding the right career she is passionate about. You can know what you love and still struggle to find the correct job.

This is a story that focuses more on Brianna's development. It might have been fun to see Roman's POV and how he grew over the story but it would have been tricky with this story so I understand why Etta Easton chose not to include it.

Thanks to Berkley Romance for providing me with an ARC. All opinions are my own.