The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood – Book Review

The Love Hypothesis was so ubiquitous in Bookstagram when it was released last year and to be honest, I was afraid of picking it up because I thought it’s just a hype. But I’m glad to be proven wrong. The Love Hypothesis is everything that I want in a romance book.

I have many reasons why I love this book so much and it is something that holds a special place in my heart because my boyfriend is a PhD candidate so all the academia talk is way too familiar to me already. Not to mention that when we started dating he was a teaching assistant (TA) to a capstone project that I had to take to graduate. And though it’s not quite the professor-student relationship that you see in this book, the experience is still all too familiar to me! 

SUMMARY

Olive Smith is a third-year PhD candidate at Stanford University working on pancreatic cancer research. When Olive’s best friend Anh gets a crush on an ex-fling of hers, Olive assures her that she’s moved on and that she’s doing well with her dating life. So in a panic, Olive kisses the first man he sees who is none other than Adam Carlsen, a hotshot professor who everyone knowingly hates. Adam has a reputation for being a grumpy, ill-tempered professor who gives a lot of students a hard time. Which is why it baffles Olive when he agrees to keep up with the fake-dating charade. But as they both get deeper into their charade, Olive realizes that there’s more about Adam than people give him credit for.

MY THOUGHTS

The Love Hypothesis checks off everything that I want in a romance book. I’m not much into the fake dating trope, but this book had me smiling so much! Olive and Adam are just so perfect together. They have good chemistry. Adam is such a gentleman, very protective and supportive of Olive, a sweetheart but also has the right amount of spice! I mean, can we talk about that spicy scene? I just love him.

HOT TIP: If you subscribe to the author’s mailing list, you can get access to a bonus chapter which is told in Adam’s POV!

I love that this book centers around a woman in STEM. I love all the science talk and the nerdy banters. I love how it describes realistically the life and struggles of a grad student. I love how this book talks about the struggles we go through as a woman in a man’s world. My favorite quote of all:

“Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man”.

I love it. This author gets it!

The only reason why I’m not giving this a full 5 Stars is because I was slightly annoyed at Olive. I wish she didn’t have to mention ‘fake dating’ like every minute. I also find her motivation for the fake dating to be a little shallow. I totally understand Adam’s reasons for it, but Olive’s reason just didn’t make too much sense to me. She should’ve just come clean with Anh to begin with!

MY RATING

READ IT OR SKIP IT?

100% recommend this book! If you like fun, cheesy rom-coms then this is the perfect romance book for you.

I would especially encourage anyone in academia to read this. I myself am not in academia but my boyfriend is and I made him read a few paragraphs. We were both so entertained about how realistic and familiar this is to a graduate student’s life!

CONTENT WARNING

Sexism, Sexual Harassment