At the end of 2021 my brain – which had read approximately 430 books – just wanted some happy ending assured reads. So I read a lot of romance books. And finally I caved to the Tiktok pressure and picked up The Love Hypothesis. This review is what follows. Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
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
TW: assault
Everyone I know on Tiktok is talking about The Love Hypothesis so I caved. This is another of the, “Books BookTok Made Me Read”. TBH so far I’ve been happy with how it turned out because The Love Hypothesis was loads of fun. To be fair, Adam was 100% only Adam Driver in my mind. Someone had told me this was Kylo Ren fanfic or something and so the image was cemented. Am I mad about it? Not really, but it did make for some VERY interesting images.
The Love Hypothesis is like a fake-dating trope lovers dream. I loved Olive from the beginning and when she said she wears expired contact lenses, my love affair was cemented. WHY WOULD I THROW THEM OUT? WHO HASN’T DONE THIS? This book was all sorts of fun – both steamy and emotionally. I loved how Hazelwood included this little ‘hypothesis’ at the beginning – it was a fun way to bring in the STEM and title. You can always hook me with STEM, academic settings, and fake dating.
Not to mention that The Love Hypothesis has serious grumpy meets sunshine vibes. I’m a sucker for a gruff, kind of grumpy, protective love interest. The Love Hypothesis just kind of ticked off all my trope boxes. Additionally watching them open up to each other, see pieces of each other no one else does? I melted. With fake dating, I always love how the line between real and fake begins to blur. The banter is chefs kiss and the chemistry is sizzling. I 100% get why the internet loves this one.
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The Love Hypothesis swept me away and I had to finish this one in basically a day. I rooted for Olive hard and it’s a perfect slump buster. Find The Love Hypothesis on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.
I finally read this one last week myself and I loved it! I also finished it in just about one day. Can’t wait for more by this author. Great review!
I immediately preordered the novellas after finishing!