Review: The Love Hypothesis (The Love Hypothesis #1) By Ali Hazelwood

The Love Hypothesis

When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman’s carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.

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.

If you would like to read a list of content warnings for The Love Hypothesis (warning for mild spoilers), please click here. 

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What I thought about The Love Hypothesis

I've tried to write this review at least three times now and all I can think to say is... The Love Hypothesis is one of the most interesting romances of this year and I loved it!

There was a lot I could relate to in this story. Being a thirty year veteran of academia myself and in a STEM field, it was refreshing to read a romance between two characters in research. It's not something I've seen before so I was eager to read this, and I'm so glad I did. This book surprised me in a good way and I haven't stopped thinking about it.

The story is told from Olive's point of view. To help out a friend, she enters into a fake dating arrangement with the most unapproachable researcher, Adam Carlson.  When he agrees to it, Olive gets surprised by the outcome of the fake dating.

Adam has a few secrets he's been keeping to himself too. I don't want to spill them because that's part of the charm of this story.  Adam just seems like a prop for the first part of this story, until he explodes on the pages and had me falling for him right along with Olive.

 

I really liked this story and I adored how it was presented to me via the writing.  I liked getting to know Adam through Olive's eyes and found that to be very interesting (although I loved the bonus scene on the author's site in Adam's POV which was the icing on the proverbial cake here).  Olive and Adam are just so good together.  

The Love Hypothesis is definitely in the running for my favorites of 2021.  I'm going to be looking for more romances set in academia from this author. I think there are some important things to say about what goes on in that environment, and it's refreshing to have an author put them out there, especially what it is like for a woman in STEM. Can't wait for more!

About the Author

I'm Ali, and I write contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia. I love cats, Nutella, and side ponytails. I'm also currently learning to crochet, so as you can tell I'm a super busy gal with an intense and exciting life! 

My favorite thing in the world is to explore traditional romance tropes—and to picture how they’ll play out in academic settings.

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