Book Review: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: September 14, 2021
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.
Olive, a biology Ph.D. student needs to convince her best friend Anh that she has a boyfriend. Anh is very interested in Jeremy, who Olive went on a couple of dates with but is not interested in at all. Despite Olive’s telling her to go for it with Jeremy, Anh refuses to break girl code. One night in the lab hallway, Olive sees Anh out of the corner of her eye and grabs the nearest guy and kisses him. That guy turns out to be Dr. Adam Carlsen, who is not only the most sought after professor in the department, he’s also the department’s biggest jerk. Even so, somehow, Olive convinces him to keep up the charade of their romance.
I’m not a huge romance reader but I’ve been hearing so many good things about this book, I had to check it out. And you guys were right! I love that the female protagonist has brains. It reminded me a little of Lessons in Chemistry in that it showed just how hard it is for women in STEM. Of course, that book took place in the 1960 and The Love Hypothesis is set in the present day. Not much has changed, unfortunately. Adam was a great character. He and Olive had palpable chemistry. I loved his sense of humor and his hidden sensitive side. I want him to be my fake boyfriend!
There is one spicy scene and it’s a doozy but my favorite part was actually not spicy and was towards the end- when Olive goes to the restaurant where Adam is having dinner with the Harvard faculty. I was swooning for him and had to reread it.
The Love Hypothesis is a cute take on the fake dating trope. I liked that the characters occasionally acknowledged that Olive’s situation was straight out of a rom-com – kind of giving a wink to the reader. This was the perfect summer read. Highly recommended.
