Title: The Love Hypothesis

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Year of Publication: 2021

Genre: Romance

Number of Pages: 352

Summary: From Goodreads: 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.

Review: The Love Hypothesis was my first romance novel of 2022, and it was such a great romance to start the year off with. This book was fun, full of great characters, and very memorable.

As usual, I want to start my review off by talking about the main characters. Olive is a third-year Ph.D. candidate who gets herself into an awkward fake dating situation. Olive is a great friend, super caring, very awkward, and smart. I loved that Olive went into her Ph.D. with a specific question that she wanted to research, and I thought she was amazing for having enough drive to tackle that question. Adam Carlsen is a professor known to make students cry; he is the grumpy character in our grumpy/sunshine dynamic. However, underneath his grumpy exterior, it’s clear that he really cares about science and about Olive. Together, this fake couple makes a great pair, and they were really enjoyable to read about.

As far as the side characters go, I loved Malcolm, and I thought he was a fantastic friend to Olive. I thought Professor Holden was an absolute Cinnamon roll, and I would not be opposed to having him come up again in future books. I didn’t mind Olive’s best friend, Anh, however, she did have some moments that left me slightly annoyed and uncomfortable, and at times I felt like she only existed to push the plot forward. I was not a fan of Tom from the start; there was just something about him that did not sit right with me from the get-go.

One thing I enjoyed was that this book featured women in STEM. Olive is brilliant, she’s doing amazing things, and her research shows potential to be revolutionary and life-changing. Her best friend, Anh, is also amazing, and I love how much outreach she does for women, specifically women of colour, in STEM. I am definitely looking forward to reading more books by Ali Hazelwood if they feature women in STEM.

One thing that bothered me a bit about this book was how often Olive brought up that she was Adam’s fake girlfriend. I understand that Olive is a bit of an awkward character, but after a while, I got a bit annoyed with that. However, I will say that as far as fake dating goes, this is one of the better books I’ve read.

I loved the romance in this book. I am a sucker for a male character calling the female character sweetheart in a romance book, and this book did not disappoint on that level. This book had a decent amount of spice in it, even though there were a few moments during the spicy chapters that made me do a double-take because they were a tad bit awkward.

Overall, this book was a lot of fun. The romance was cute, the spice level was decent, and I think it is worth all of the hype.

Rating: 4 Stars!

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