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The Love Experiment (Stubborn Hearts Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Ainslie Paton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 71 ratings
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Can you fall in love in thirty-six questions?

The closest rookie lifestyle writer Derelie Honeywell gets to megastar reporter Jackson Haley is an accidental shoulder brush in The Courier's elevator. That is, until the love experiment: a study designed to accelerate intimacy using thirty-six questions and four minutes of sustained eye contact.

As far as Derelie is concerned, Jack Haley has always been a man best imagined in his underwear. He's too intimidating otherwise. But participating in the love experiment is her make-or-break chance. With another round of layoffs looming, Derelie knows holding on to her job means getting the story no matter what. Even when the what is kissing Jack like a maniac.

Jack Haley has zero interest in participating in a clickbait story. He didn't plan on finding Derelie smart and feisty and being mesmerized by her eyes. He certainly had no intention at all of actually falling in love with her.

The conclusion to this experiment? Thirty-six questions might lead to love, but finding the answer to happily-ever-after is a lot more complicated.



This book is approximately 92,000 words



One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you're looking for with an HEA/HFN. It's a promise!
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  1. Print length
    274 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Carina Press
  5. Publication date
    October 2, 2017
  6. File size
    2360 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

The Love Experiment is the best new release I've read this year. It's a smart, engaging, funny, and authentic look at two journalists learning that when it comes to people, headlines don't always tell the whole story. I loved this book and I recommend it without reservation.All About Romance - Desert Isle Keeper
The Love Experiment was supposed to be a light and fun read. Instead it turned into a story with depth and meaning, and of course, those pesky thirty six questions on how to build intimacy between strangers. I could not put it down. Delightful. Stunning. Deep. Simply magical. Deanna's World
My favorite thing about The Love Experiment has to be that the reader is allowed to explore the new relationship with Jack and Derelie. Their love story doesn't just stop once they figure out that they love each other...
Fiction Vixen
The Love Experiment is a sexy, funny, thoughtful romance with a couple who get the best possible outcome. Straight Shootin' Book Reviews
Jack has a bit of grovelling to do at various points throughout the book but to his credit he does give good grovel. And when he's in, he's all in. Dear Author

About the Author

Ainslie Paton always wanted to write stories to make people smile, but the need to eat, accumulate books, and have bedclthes to read under was ever present. She sold out, and worked as a flack, a suit, and a creative, ghosting for business leaders, rebel rousers, and politicians, and making words happen for companies, governments, causes, conditions, high-profile CEOs, low-profile celebs, and the occasional misguided royal. She still does that. She also writes for love.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0746MRF8V
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Carina Press (October 2, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 2, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2360 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 274 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 71 ratings

About the author

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Ainslie Paton

Ainslie Paton

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Ainslie Paton always wanted to write stories to make people smile, but the need to eat, accumulate books, and have bedclothes to read under was ever present. She sold out, and worked as a flack, a suit, and a creative, ghosting for business leaders, rabble-rousers and politicians, and making words happen for companies, governments, causes, conditions, high-profile CEOs, low-profile celebs, and the occasional misguided royal.

She still does that. She also writes for love, and so she can buy shoes, and the good cat food.

More here: www.ainsliepaton.com.au and on Twitter @AinsliePaton.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
71 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lisa M.
5.0 out of 5 stars SO GREAT!
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2017
Verified Purchase
Derelie Honeywell and Jack Haley cannot be more wrong for each other. Derelie (“rhymes with merrily”) writes light-hearted, lifestyle pieces (that Jack snottily refers to as “clickbait”) for the online version of the paper they both work for, while Jack’s the star of the print version and has been dubbed the Saviour of the City for all the investigative reporting that he’s done. It took a while for them to get in sync (especially since Jack really did not want to do the experiment) but they just worked so well with each other.

I love Derelie with all my heart. She is such a nice person, full of kindness, very soft, I want to protect her forever. She has this innocence about her but she’s not naïve or a pushover. Jack was a straight-up A-hole in the beginning of the story, and naturally I love him too. He has a problem with feeling (he doesn’t do feelings) and his main coping mechanism for anything is beating the stuffing out of other people and had the stuffing beat out of him in an underground boxing gym.

Seriously, dude felt bad he was mean to Derelie, and he went into the ring to fight so he would be hurt in return. Unhealthy, man. Unhealthy.

Ms. Paton’s writing is so lovely and awesome; I have so many quotes highlighted in this book because the whole thing is just so quotable. I adore the banter exchange between Derelie and Jack, and I love how they grew closer together with every (much invasive, much deep) question they answered. I have a soft spot for heroes who fall head over heels for heroines and start worshiping the ground their heroines walk on. Jack comparing Derelie to sunshine and acknowledging her strength and power over him (“He wasn’t going to be allowed the luxury of acting the big man and saving her. She would save herself.”)? Mama, I love one (1) man and his name is Jackson Haley.

Also, did I mention that Jack has a cat?
Yep. He named her Martha.

Did I also mention how much I love Derelie? She left the small town she grew up in because she wanted more and moved to a big city where she had to work hard every single day to survive in, and I felt her loneliness and yearning in my gut. But Derelie is so brave, and I admire her grit and determination to make something more of herself. That strength played an important role in teaching Jack about life and love, and it’s wonderful to watch.

I could go on and on about this book and its characters, really. Jack and Derelie’s romance is so great it makes me, a cynical old lady, swoon buckets. The last chapter made me cry and I unashamedly admit that. This book has definitely landed itself into my favourite reads of the year list.
2 people found this helpful
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Nick @ The Infinite Limits of Love
4.0 out of 5 stars Unique, romantic & sexy
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2017
I heard about this book from Lucy Parker when she retweeted a link to it. I read the summary and was immediately intrigued. As much as I adore romance, there's no denying that there's sometimes a lack of creativity in the genre. So, the concept of The Love Experiment was a breath of fresh air. I just loved the idea of two people who would otherwise never connect falling in love through a proven survey experiment, and I thought Ainslie Paton  worked with the concept beautifully. 

One of the reasons why this book stands out is because of how well-developed the characters are. When authors take their time to build up their characters and flesh them out slowly over the course of the book, it makes any book a 1000 times more enjoyable. I loved what Ainslie Paton did here with our two protagonists, Derelie and Jack. Both could not be different from each other in terms of personalities, but we get to see growth and progression in both their personalities. Derelie was a lovely character. I think what works so well about her is that she's a normal girl working at a normal job, so it's easy to relate to her. You'll find bits and pieces of yourself in her, and I love that she was so authentic. She's hardworking, bubbly, kind and overall has a very pleasant personality. Jack, though, is the complete opposite of her! He's a buttoned-up grump, who is very hard to get a read on at first. But then, we slowly see his personality emerge as we get to know him better, and argh! I loved him so much. I mean the guy may be stoic, introverted, but he also loves hopelessly and has a cat, so very hard not to adore him!

So you'd think, how would these two even work together as a couple? In comes the love experiment, which though does not start off the strongest for this pair, develops into a romance and relationship that had my heart racing and toes curling. Through the questions that Jack initially wants nothing to do with, the two form a connection, get to know each other intimately, and obviously fall in love. I just loved how slow-burn the whole thing was, and add to that all the sexual chemistry between the two, I couldn't resist this pair. Seriously, folks, you all need to read and experience this romance on your own. I'm smiling like a dork just thinking about it! I also really loved how deeply Ainslie Paton goes into the lives of Derelie and Jackson as reporters. They are both in different fields, and we get to see both of them in action, which added another dimension to the story.

Anyways, I'll leave this review with this: read this book if you're a lover all things romance, especially slow-burn romance. The writing is gorgeous, the characters are phenomenal, and the romance is simultaneously sweet and fan-yourself hot. Tell me that does not sound good?
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Nathália Campos
5.0 out of 5 stars A delight!
Reviewed in Brazil on March 3, 2018
Verified Purchase
I had no expectations about this book and I never heard of this author before and now I’ll read everything she wrote. This book has an amazing plot, incredible protagonists and my only complaint is that the text could be more divided, because sometimes it blends scenes in different settings in a seamless way that difficulties the reading. That’s a minor issue and nothing that could make me like the story less tho. I loved the way it discusses journalism as a serious and important matter (especially nowadays) and the way it dealt with the psych of its characters. It’s really amazing.
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Becky @ A Fool's Ingenuity
5.0 out of 5 stars I Didn’t Fall In Love In 36 Questions… It Just Took A Shirtless Man Holding A Cat
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
This book all revolves around two reporters at a struggling newspaper answering questions to an experiment to see if it can forge a connection between them. As the title demonstrates, love is definitely involved, it's classified as romance after all. Jackson Haley is a respected investigative reporter who thinks he is above such ridiculous lifestyle pieces and Derelie (rhymes with merrily) is a relative newbie hoping to keep her job and solidify her position at the paper as rumours of cutbacks continually swirl. Jackson is reluctant and is strong-armed into it all and Derelie demonstrates she is determined and not easily put off.

I adored Derelie as soon as I met her on the page, even if she did have questionable tastes when it came to Yogaboy and his man bun. She was likeable as the woman just beginning her career. Who bravely left her comfortable small town for an adventure and who was determined to succeed. You can easily relate to her as we all have had similar struggles. You want her to succeed with the story and you want her to get everything she wants because she may be sweet, but she's fun and determined and doesn't put up with crap and will ugly cry when an occasion calls for it, but only later when no one can see.

Jackson was not as easy to like. He began acting like an idiot and he continued to lash out and be a jerk, and a condescending jerk at that. He seemed like I wouldn't like him with his putting down Derelie and refusing to cooperate at every turn like he was such hot stuff. But then Derelie went to his apartment and the Jesus Jeans happened and you met Martha, his cat. I am a sucker for a man with animals and so when you met Martha the determined cat escape artist and learnt Jackson was messy and an actual human being, then I began to fall for him. He actually had all kinds of emotional issues, but he wasn't a bad person and he was so damn scared of revealing a soft underbelly that you vaguely got his dickish behaviour. It doesn't excuse it but then he cooperates with the experiment and all kinds of good stuff happens from there.

I thought as the book progressed I would love it and it would be predictable and maybe not stick with me but it kept doing things a little differently than I expected and by the end, I was in love. I even misted up a bit with the grand romantic finale (there were animals involved again, how could I not?).
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TracyReads
5.0 out of 5 stars My new Favourite
Reviewed in Australia on October 11, 2017
Verified Purchase
Ainslie Paton is one of my favourite authors and I know I'm in for a good read any time I pick up one of her books. This book is my new favourite.
It starts with Derelie and Jackson conducting the love experiment as a story for the newspaper they both work for. She's got great motivation - she wants to keep her job. He's the hot shot investigative journalist and has no time for frivolities, and it's not his job on the line.
It turns out the love experiment does create intimacy and it could be the start of something more. No spoilers though. You'll have to read it for yourself to find out what happens.
I loved these characters. They each see the other as so much more than they think they are. Derelie has her work cut out for her but she's up to the challenge of teaching Jackson there's more to life than work. And Jackson shows Derelie beauty in the city and shares his awesome lion of a cat.
There's twists and turns along the way and an unpredictable happy ever after, plus the trademark turn of phase that makes Patons work so enjoyable.
It's my new favourite book.
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I
1.0 out of 5 stars I Couldn't Get Involved
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 8, 2019
Verified Purchase
I really tried. I wanted to love this book which is just the type of story I enjoy but after 3 failed attempts at reading it I am giving up. Sadly, not for me.
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