The Statistically Unlikely Rebound: A Grad or Die Romance, Book #1

by Parker Elling

392 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 14, 2026

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ate this up in a day. Did I have a meal of beets and crackers just to avoid making an actual dinner so I could keep reading? Yes. Yes, I did.

The fake dating trope is one of my absolute favourites and this delivered. The banter? Fun. The tension? Delicious. The emotional payoff? Fully earned.

And the MMC… oh my goodness. Was I googling “Norwegian accent” so I knew exactly what he sounded like when he says, “Stop me if anything I do makes you uncomfortable”? No shame.

Grumpy on the outside. Completely gone for her on the inside. He falls first, and hard. Supportive, attentive, quietly obsessed in the healthiest way possible. The kind of fictional man who makes you stare at the ceiling after finishing and forces you to reconsider your standards.

What I loved most is that the fake dating setup actually mattered. It pushed both characters into vulnerability and forced them to confront what they really wanted. It wasn’t just a cute gimmick, it had stakes.

If you love:
• fake dating
• grumpy MMC who falls first
• spice with emotional substance
• tender but strong romantic growth

This one’s for you.

Grateful to Parker Elling and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early.

[Sabrina (Tousled Reveries) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m calling it: We've found Sophie Kinsella’s heir, and she comes armed with math jokes, group chat gremlins, and a Norwegian heartthrob who could make even Becky Bloomwood abandon a designer sale rack for a differential equation.

The Statistically Unlikely Rebound by Parker Elling is a fun, chaotic, heartfelt rom com with a brainy twist.

The protagonist is math prodigy Daisy, who, after being unceremoniously dumped by her long-term boyfriend, flees to Cambridge for a fresh start… only to end up living directly above a man who looks like he should be modeling Scandinavian knitwear but instead terrorizes chalkboards for a living: the infamously intense Dr. Lars Berg Anderson. Yes, the very same Lars her ex always said was “impossible.”
Spoiler: He is actually impossible. Impossible not to notice. Impossible not to banter with. Impossible not to accidentally flirt with over board games, proofs, and shared takeout.
Before she can even process her breakup, Daisy finds herself in the middle of a fake dating plan she absolutely did not think through, adopting a dog whom she names The Dog, board game flirting so intense it should count as foreplay and a chemistry strong enough to violate several lab safety protocols.
As equations turn electric and their “totally harmless” partnership gets increasingly less harmless, Daisy starts to wonder if the universe is nudging her toward the statistically unlikely rebound… that just might be the real deal.

So… so many good things in this book.

Let’s talk about the group chats! The book is sprinkled with actual text message chat threads between Daisy and her chaotic best friends — the kind of “Grad or Die” group chat where productivity goes to die and emojis go to be abused, and which absolutely makes the story feel like the funniest group project gone-feral you’ve ever been part of. Picture a chat of smart women devolving into gremlins the second they get behind a keyboard. It feels exactly like watching your group chat derail at 2am. They mirror how many of us actually navigate modern life: through group chats that know way too much about our love lives.

About Daisy, what to say? She’s the kind of protagonist you cannot not love: she catastrophizes at Olympic level, accidentally creates chaos wherever she goes, tries very hard to be a functioning adult and is smarter than she gives herself credit for.

In short, read it—it’s the STEM romance you need! You won't regret it!

Forever laughing at this quote:
“I once went home with two pounds of not on sale thickly sliced smoked turkey because, by the time I figured out how to tell the deli lady she’d grabbed the wrong meat, it felt too late to scream ‘roast beef’!”
“There’s an appropriate time to scream ‘roast beef’?”
“No, but she was pregnant.”

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a little bit to get into this book, trying to work out how the large number of characters thrown into the first few chapters fit into Daisy's narrative (particularly the whole MIT/Harvard setup). Once she and Lars started their neighbourly relationship, however, I was pulled in by the sharp banter and chemistry between them, plus I always enjoy a scenario where one character is clearly smitten and the other (narrating) character takes a while to catch up. Daisy is nuanced, relatable, and has a humorous, sometimes self-deprecating voice; I liked how she tries to deal with the situations she finds herself in, particularly around Ethan and the 'Chinese filial guilt' triggered by her mother, while working out who she really wants to be outside their wishes and expectations. Lars is steadfastly supportive of her, while also grappling with the onset of feelings he's never had to manage before. This is most definitely Ali Hazelwood-coded, as others have mentioned, and leans quite heavily on the academia side with a lot going on, but it's definitely recommended for those who like a STEM romance with a variety of well-developed characters and plenty of (slightly chaotic) humour and spice.

[Terri McCarrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read from a first time contemporary novel for Parker Elling. The STEM romance sub-genre is increasingly popular thanks to authors like Ali Hazelwood, and this one kept pace well with that style. The banter was excellent, The side characters were developed enough to keep us interested for the remainder of the series.
I thought the spice was well-written and contributed to the plot, instead of being a placeholder as often can happen. Lars was an A+ MMC, and usually when I really love a MMC, the FMC is a letdown. Not in this instance. Daisy was compelling and flawed and relatable.
I fully appreciated a contemporary romance without a third act breakup! So very refreshing. There was plenty of conflict and plot development without it. It's such a crutch that is very overused. Big kudos for not doing so in this one.
Thank you to Parker Elling and BookBuzz.net for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own, and I am happy to recommend this book. I look forward to the next installment in the series.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daisy Zhang-Wainwright is dumped by her boyfriend Ethan only a few weeks before she was due to join him from California at MIT, she'd even shipped some of her belongings to his place.

She has to find a new apartment in a hurry, then discovers that her downstairs neighbour is Ethan's bête noir Professor Lars Berg-Anderson who apparently got caught in a compromising position with an undergraduate in one of the labs, excluded Ethan from a project he had worked on, and is generally a bad egg. But when Daisy actually meets Lars she discovers he might be a bit taciturn but he is also very kind, and the more she gets to know him the less likely it seems that he did all the things Ethan suggested.

Then she discovers at a faculty drinks party that Ethan had been cheating on her with another woman, her first reaction is to pretend that she and Lars are now dating ... and Lars agrees!

I loved this fake dating STEM romance, devoured it!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the most refreshing, delightful, witty & insightful book.

The ping pong dialogue, the witty banter, the slow burn zingy chemistry... I loved it so much!! I can't wait to read it again, slower & more intentional to better absorb it.

I'm not a huge academic & always unsure about books about academia/STEMinists... but I am SO glad I didn't miss this one!!

A little bit of fake dating.... a little bit of "let's try this for a night,... a weekend...a week...,, a month....til the end of the semester..."

I loved the characters... and Daisy's reasoning for a rebound not being a bad idea.. Love their names... and the stories behind them.

I can't wait to read the next book in the series!!! (This is book 1 in the Grad or Die Romance series.)

Thank you to the author (Parker Elling), publisher & Netgalley for the ARC read. All opinions are my own.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC!

Ok so these STEM romances are most definitely a favorite of mine. Just absolute cinema all the time.

The characters: Not necessarily complex but had some background and definitely had some stuff going on that could have made this one deeper, but I don't think it was needed or necessary. The ex and mother drove me CRAZY and I'm hoping that was the point. Also WHAT was Sloane's deal??? But love her name!

The friends: ICONS, LEGENDS, THE STANDARD. a google alert for gossip for stuff her friend is interested in?? YES! However the way they texted with acronyms was SO NOT NEEDED and was confusing.

Loved how the chapter title was mentioned in every title.

Was kinda confused on the insta-love aspect but honestly we need more men yearning.

10/10 recommend for an Ali Hazelwood type reader.

[Chiara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a digital arc from the publisher via netgalley.
I was positively blown away by this! As a super-fan of the queen of romance aka Ali Hazelwood I was reminded of her books in the best way. The combination of a STEM-setting and a mmc down bad from the start just always work for me. There were a hint too many pop culture references for me personally, especially considering I (a younger millennial) didn't get all most of the oldies quips. I also felt really upset part way through the book because I had my suspicions about what had happened with the misplaced Moleskine (that part stressed me out). All in all I really liked both the main characters and found their relationship with each other really cute and wholesome. I would recommend this to any fan of Ali and any sucker for the he falls first/harder trope.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hooked from the first kiss and not even sorry about it. I live for a smart heroine with a bruised heart and Daisy absolutely delivers. She gets dumped, moves to MIT anyway, and then fake dates her ex’s rival because why not cause a little chaos. What I did not expect was how much I would fall for Lars. He starts off cold and calculating, but the more time he spends with Daisy the more cracks show, and I ate it up. The banter is sharp, the tension is real, and the slow burn had me grinning like an idiot. If you love brilliant characters who are way too logical for their own good but completely helpless when feelings enter the equation, this book is for you. Read it. Trust me. 🔥📚

[Emerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so I did really like this. I found both Daisy and Lars to be very sweet and tolerable. I loved almost all of their interactions together! What I didn't like was all of the academia stuff. I do like books that are set in academia but there were 3 straight chapters about a conference that didn't move the story along really at all. I also finished the book with some unanswered questions. There were a couple things brought up throughout the book that seemed like they were being set up to be brought up later but then they never circled back around to it.

[deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐/ 5⭐

Thank you so much to Parker Elling, BookBuzz and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC.

It's been so long since I've enjoyed a romance book like this although I will admit I'm not cultured enough to understand or remember all the popular culture references in the beginning of the book but I loved the book and the writing it was a fun time reading this

‼️‼️‼️SPOILER ALERT ‼️ ‼️ ‼️


My only problem is the way the plagiarism issue was handled and Ethan's redemption arc felt anti climatic and underserving respectively.

[Abigail L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up for the fake dating and stayed for the emotional payoff. After Daisy gets dumped right before starting her dream job at MIT, she ends up fake dating her icy neighbor who just happens to be her ex’s rival. What starts as a spur of the moment kiss at a party turns into a slow burn romance filled with awkward run ins, academic tension, and real vulnerability. I loved watching Daisy rebuild her confidence and seeing Lars slowly soften. It was funny, swoony, and surprisingly heartfelt, and I genuinely enjoyed spending time with these characters.

[Aidyrah · Rating 5 out of 5]

fake dating with a lot of cute academic background

This is a forced proximity romance (they’re neighbors) where she thinks he’s a jerk (her ex worked with main lead) and where they initially agree to fake date.

There’s a lot of found family (her grad school friends), some academia type of politics and a stray dog.

The banter is cute, characters are fun and it’s a quick fun read.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for rating.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really charming nerd romance. I loved Daisy, and was rooting for her from the start. Her friends (the Grad or Die girls) are also great.

[Aeoluscmc · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC—quick and fluffy

[kenny g · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an easy, fun, and little bit of a spicy read. Definitely recommend if you are a romcom enthusiast!!!