14 of the Best Nerdy Romance Books for Pi Day – or Any Day, Really
And I don’t mean that in a negative or disparaging way. In fact, I myself am a bit of a nerd about certain topics (I mean, I’m definitely a book nerd after all), so I guess I can relate.
Nerdy or geeky characters are some of my favorites to read about, especially when they include an opposites attract trope angle.
To celebrate Pi Day, I put together a list of my favorite Nerdy Romance Books, but these are so good that they should be enjoyed year-round!
In no particular order, here are 14 of my favorite nerdy romance novels. I hope you find a new geek romance to add to your TBR!
The Best Nerdy Romance Books
1. Dating-ish by Penny Reid
About the Book
1) She’s fed up with online dating, 2) She’s so fed up, she’s willing to forego the annoyance and consider more creative alternatives, and 3) She knows how to knit.
After the most bizarre first date in the history of dating, Marie is looking for an alternative to men. With the help of her friends, she quickly identifies a few possibilities: Need a cuddle? Use a professional cuddler. Need affirmation? Get yourself a life coach. Need an orgasm? Try orgasm meditation! Why does she need the hassle of a romantic partner when she can meet all her needs with paid services?
But then her irritating date resurfaces. And he’s not at all the person she thought he was. And he suggests a different—and crazier—solution to her dilemma . . .
Several of Penny’s books fit the bill for nerdy romance, but one of my favorites is Dating-ish.
Marie is a journalist looking for love in the modern age and Matt is a scientist working in artificial intelligence.
After the worst first meeting in the history of meet-cutes, Matt and Marie explore the world of alternative human connections, both intimate and simple companionship.
This book is also featured on my Smart Romance Novel list, so be sure to check that out!
2. The Simple Life by Tara Sivec
About the Book
Brooklyn Manning thought her life was perfect in every way, until it crumbled down around her and turned into a dumpster fire. With her pride wounded and her tail tucked between her legs, she leaves New York and goes back to her tiny hometown of White Timber, Montana.
No more twenty-four-hour taco trucks, no more shopping at the best designer stores within walking distance, no more giving taxi drivers the finger when they angrily honk at her. She didn’t think it could get any worse. But then Clint Hastings walked into the room and insulted her.
Her arch nemesis from high school is no longer a nerdy computer whiz, masturbating to pictures in PC World magazine in his free time (allegedly). He’s grown up to be a hot-as-hell cowboy, and she has no other choice but to be a smart ass right back to him. After all, it’s what they do. It’s what they’ve always done, and twelve years apart hasn’t changed anything.
Only this time, getting under each other’s skin is a hell of a lot more fun than it used to be.
I love a good hero with a big brain and an even bigger heart, and Clint definitely has both.
He’s also a nerdy guy who is good with computers and uses them to improve operations on his family’s pumpkin farm.
If you like enemies-to-lovers romances set in a small town, The Simple Life is for you!
3. The Guy on the Right by Kate Stewart
About the Book
Strike One-My mother named me Theodore after her favorite chipmunk.
Not cool, Mom.
I‘ve spent most of my life answering to Teddy, because I couldn’t make Theo work.
Except for here. College. The place where all bets are off, and I’ve managed to redeem myself.
There’s only one problem, my new roommate, Troy, is football royalty and looks like he stepped off the set of an Abercrombie shoot.
Doesn’t matter, I cook a mean breakfast for his panty parade, and we get along well.
And anyway, this year I got the girl. And she’s perfect.
That’s right. Theodore Houseman, former band geek, now marching band rock star, has finally landed the girl of his dreams.
Everything is perfect.
That is until Troy takes a good look at her.
I’m not going down without a fight. As a matter of fact, I’m not going down at all. As glorious as these days may be for my all-star roommate, Laney is my end game.
I may not know much about play strategy, but I’ve been the good guy my whole life. I’ve been listening and I know exactly what women want. Framed in a picture standing next to me, Troy may seem like Mr. Perfect, but he’s underestimating the guy on the right.
Spoiler alert: In this story, the underdog is going to win.
Nerdy hero meets quirky heroine in The Guy on the Right, one of two college romances on the list.
Theo is a band geek who is stunned by a recent break-up. Laney is out of his league, but they forge an amazing friendship that eventually leads to more.
I definitely swooned when the underdog finally got the girl.
4. Smut by Karina Halle
About the Book
What happens when the kink between the pages leads to heat between the sheets?
All Blake Crawford wants is to pass his creative writing course, get his university degree, and take over his dad’s ailing family business. What Amanda Newland wants is to graduate at the top of her class, as well as finally finish her novel and prove to her family that writing is a respectful career.
What Blake and Amanda don’t want is to be paired up with each other for their final project, but that’s exactly what they both get when they’re forced to collaborate on a writing piece. Since Amanda thinks Blake is a pushy asshole (with a panty-melting smirk and British accent) and Blake thinks Amanda has a stick up her ass (though it’s a brilliant ass), they fight tooth and nail until they discover they write well together. They also may find each other really attractive, but that’s neither here nor there.
When their writing project turns out to be a success, the two of them decide to start up a secret partnership using a pen name, infiltrating the self-publishing market in the lucrative genre of erotica. Naturally, with so much heat and passion between the pages, it’s not long before their dirty words become a dirty reality. Sure, they still fight a lot, but at least there’s make-up sex now.
But even as they start to fall hard for each other, will their burgeoning relationship survive if their scandalous secret is exposed? Or are happily-ever-afters just a work of fiction?
While Smut is classified as a romantic comedy, this isn’t slapstick humor—it’s nuanced humor and nerdy humor and sometimes, just plain ol’ laugh-out-loud humor.
Amanda is a closet dork, and she is spunky and sassy with a hint of vulnerability. I just loved her! (and Blake isn’t too shabby, either, honestly).
5. Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen
About the Book
You’d think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You’d be wrong.
For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity. I don’t know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard.
When Rebecca gets hurt, I step in to help. It’s what friends do. But what friends don’t do is rip off each others’ clothes for a single, wild night together.
Now she’s avoiding me. She says we’re too different, and it can never happen again. So why can’t we keep our hands off each other?
As an office romance and a sports romance, Brooklynaire was already a winner in my book.
Throw in a nerdy computer tech company owner and well, that just takes it to a whole other level.
Nate and Becca have been friends and co-workers for over seven years, but once they get together… oh, my.
6. Motion by Penny Reid
About the Book
One week.
Home alone.
Girl genius.
Unrepentant slacker.
Big lie.
What’s the worst that could happen?
Mona is a smart girl and figured everything out a long time ago. She had to. She didn’t have a choice. When your parents are uber-celebrities and you graduate from high school at fifteen, finish college at eighteen, and start your PhD program at nineteen, you don’t have time for distractions outside of your foci. Even fun is scheduled. Which is why Abram, her brother’s best friend, is such an irritant.
Abram is a talented guy, a supremely gifted musician, and has absolutely nothing figured out, nor does he seem to care. He does what he feels, when he feels, and—in Mona’s opinion—he makes her feel entirely too much.
Penny Reid is back for her second appearance with Motion.
This brilliantly written smart romance features an insanely gifted yet quirky heroine, an adorably responsible musician named Abram, and metric tons of slow-burning yet piping hot chemistry—my absolute favorite!
7. Dark Wild Night by Christina Lauren
About the Book
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
But what didn’t happen in Vegas seems to follow them everywhere.
Lola and Oliver like to congratulate themselves on having the good sense to not consummate their drunken Las Vegas wedding. If they’d doubled-down on that mistake, their Just Friends situation might not be half as great as it is now.
… Or so goes the official line.
In reality, Lola’s wanted Oliver since day one—and over time has only fallen harder for his sexy Aussie accent and easygoing ability to take her as she comes. More at home in her studio than in baring herself to people, Lola’s instinctive comfort around Oliver nearly seems too good to be true. So why ruin a good thing?
Even as geek girls fawn over him, Oliver can’t get his mind off what he didn’t do with Lola when he had the chance. He knows what he wants with her now … and it’s far outside the friend zone. When Lola’s graphic novel starts getting national acclaim—and is then fast-tracked for a major motion picture—Oliver steps up to be there for her whenever she needs him. After all, she’s not the kind of girl who likes all that attention, but maybe she’s the kind who’ll eventually like him.
Sometimes seeing what’s right in front of us takes a great leap of faith. And sometimes a dark wild night in Vegas isn’t just the end of a day, but the beginning of a bright new life…
A comic store owner and a graphic novelist start out as just friends, but a wild night in Vegas turns everything on its head.
Unrequited love is hard enough, but when you don’t want to mess up a good thing as friends, that makes it that much tougher.
Lola and Oliver are totally adorable together, so their second chance journey to an HEA is a fun one.
8. Applied Electromagnetism by Susannah Nix
About the Book
A business trip with the office hottie turns into a road trip from hell.
Adam Cortinas may be gorgeous, but he’s made it clear he can’t stand Olivia—and the feeling is one hundred percent mutual. Too bad, because in order to bring the company’s new power plant online, they’re stuck with each other for the next week.
When their travel plans go horribly awry, Olivia finds herself stranded in the middle of nowhere with Adam, AKA the bane of her existence.
He’s in her space and in her head. All the forced proximity is driving Olivia insane. That’s the only explanation for these FEELINGS she’s suddenly having.
But it doesn’t change anything. They still hate each other.
Right?
Applied Electromagnetism is the fourth full-length novel in a series of standalone rom-coms about women in STEM fields.
A forced proximity, road trip from hell, only one bed office romance with a hot nerd of a hero AND heroine? Sign me up!
Applied Electromagnetism is all of those things and more. If you haven’t read this series, it’s a must-read!
9. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
About the Book
A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.
Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.
It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position…
Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he’s making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic…
This is one of the best debut novels I have ever read!
Stella has several absolutes in her life: numbers don’t lie, everything is a puzzle to be solved, and she loves structure and routine.
Numbers comfort her, so why should she approach dating and finding the right guy any other way?
I loved this one for so many reasons, not the least of which is Michael, the hero!
10. Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
About the Book
Meg Mackworth’s hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope, designing beautiful custom journals for New York City’s elite. She has another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Like the time she sat across from Reid Sutherland and his gorgeous fiancée, and knew their upcoming marriage was doomed to fail. Weaving a secret word into their wedding program was a little unprofessional, but she was sure no one else would spot it. She hadn’t counted on sharp-eyed, pattern-obsessed Reid . . .
A year later, Reid has tracked Meg down to find out—before he leaves New York for good—how she knew that his meticulously planned future was about to implode. But with a looming deadline, a fractured friendship, and a bad case of creative block, Meg doesn’t have time for Reid’s questions—unless he can help her find her missing inspiration. As they gradually open up to each other about their lives, work, and regrets, both try to ignore the fact that their unlikely connection is growing deeper. But the signs are there—irresistible, indisputable, urging Meg to heed the messages Reid is sending her, before it’s too late . . .
An insanely talented calligrapher meets a hot mathematician and takes him on a long scavenger hunt in New York City.
Reid Sutherland is who is analytical and smart, and not your run-of-the-mill hero.
The calligraphy and Meg’s descriptive use of lettering is also a great selling point to this story.
11. Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren
About the Book
A bombshell bookworm. A chronic Casanova. And a lesson in chemistry too scandalous for school.
When Hanna Bergstrom receives a lecture from her overprotective brother about neglecting her social life and burying herself in grad school, she’s determined to tackle his implied assignment: get out, make friends, start dating. And who better to turn her into the sultry siren every man wants than her brother’s gorgeous best friend, Will Sumner, venture capitalist and unapologetic playboy?
Will takes risks for a living, but he’s skeptical about this challenge of Hanna’s…until the wild night his innocently seductive pupil tempts him into bed- and teaches him a thing or two about being with a woman he can’t forget. Now that Hanna’s discovered the power of her own sex appeal, it’s up to Will to prove he’s the only man she’ll ever need.
Christina Lauren also makes a second appearance on this list with my favorite book of the Beautiful Bastard series, Beautiful Player.
Hanna and Will are hot—let me just throw that out there first and foremost.
A dirty-talking Brit taking an inexperienced lab researcher under his wing is about all you need to know.
Just read it and you can thank me later.
12. Wasted Words by Staci Hart
About the Book
Some universal truths refuse to be ignored.
Peanut butter and jelly are a match made in heaven. Spaghetti and meatballs are best friends forever. And guys like Tyler Knight don’t go for girls like Cam Emerson.
She knew from the second she met him that he didn’t belong on her bookshelf, the six-foot-six ex-tight end with a face so all-American, it could have sold apple pie. So she shelved him next to the supermodels and rock stars and took her place on her own shelf — the one with the flannel-clad, pasty-faced comic book nerds. Most of her boyfriends have existed between the pages of books, but rather than worrying over her own lacking love life, she puts all her energy into playing Cupid, using her job at the book bar, Wasted Words, as her stomping ground.
Tyler Knight always looks on the bright side. His career-ending injury turned into a job as a sports agent. A horrible breakup led him to Cam, his quirky, smart roommate who is far more beautiful than she realizes. She’s made it perfectly clear she’s not interested in him — not like that at least — but if she ever changes her mind, he won’t hesitate. Because he doesn’t see the lines she’s drawn between them, as much as she insists that they’re there. Deep down he knows that despite their differences, they’re a match well made.
Wasted Words gets points for 1) Being a modern interpretation of Jane Austen’s Emma and 2) it’s set in a bookstore BAR. How cool would that be?
Cam works as a clerk/barista and is quite the matchmaker. Tyler is a former football star turned sports agent and he’s also Cam’s roommate.
Everything that made Austen’s novel a classic is present here: meddlesome matchmaker, opposites attract, and falling in love with the friend who was right under your nose the entire time.
13. The Chase by Elle Kennedy
About the Book
Everyone says opposites attract. And they must be right, because there’s no logical reason why I’m so drawn to Colin Fitzgerald. I don’t usually go for tattoo-covered, video-gaming, hockey-playing nerd-jocks who think I’m flighty and superficial. His narrow view of me is the first strike against him. It doesn’t help that he’s buddy-buddy with my brother.
And that his best friend has a crush on me.
And that I just moved in with them.
Oh, did I not mention we’re roommates?
I suppose it doesn’t matter. Fitzy has made it clear he’s not interested in me, even though the sparks between us are liable to burn our house down. I’m not the kind of girl who chases after a man, though, and I’m not about to start. I’ve got my hands full dealing with a new school, a sleazy professor, and an uncertain future. So if my sexy brooding roomie wises up and realizes what he’s missing?
He knows where to find me.
The first book in the Briar U series, this new adult romance features a hero who is not only a star hockey player but also a video game geek who loves art.
Colin Fitzgerald isn’t Summer Heyword-DeLaurentis’ usual type, which makes The Chase quite an enjoyable college sports romance.
He thinks she’s a spoiled drama hound, but she’s had a crush on him for ages—long before they ever become roommates.
14. Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams
About the Book
Alexis Carlisle and her cat café, ToeBeans, have shot to fame after she came forward as a victim of a celebrity chef’s sexual harassment. When a new customer approaches to confide in her, the last thing Alexis expects is for the woman to claim they’re sisters. Unsure what to do, Alexis turns to the only man she trusts—her best friend, Noah Logan.
Computer genius Noah left his rebellious teenage hacker past behind to become a computer security expert. Now he only uses his old skills for the right cause. But Noah’s got a secret: He’s madly in love with Alexis. When she asks for his help, he wonders if the timing will ever be right to confess his crush.
Noah’s pals in The Bromance Book Club are more than willing to share their beloved “manuals” to help him go from bud to boyfriend. But he must decide if telling the truth is worth risking the best friendship he’s ever had.
A hacktivist and a cat café owner decode the friend zone in this romantic comedy from the author of Undercover Bromance.
She’s the owner of a cat cafe, he’s a former black hat hacker turned knight in shining armor.
Noah and Alexis have amazing chemistry, but they are stuck in the friend zone.
Throw in a guys-only bookclub and you have yourself a winner!
Are any of your favorites here? I’d love to hear your suggestions for more nerdy romance books to add to my list, so leave me a comment below with your best reads!
Thanks for sharing this awesome list!!!! I totally agree with all of the books I had already read that were featured, and am excited to see there are a bunch I haven’t yet read. Here are some others that I didn’t see on your list:
– Off the Clock — Roni Loren
– Risky Game — Tracy Solheim
– Best of Luck — Kate Clayborn
– A Brush with Love — Mazey Eddings
– How Not to Fall — Emily Foster
– The Soulmate Equation — Christina Lauren