The Love Hypothesis

By: Ali Hazelwood

Rating

★★★★★

Steam

★★★★

A while back I signed up for the Book Of The Month subscription so I could find books I normally wouldn’t look twice at and this book is another reason why that was a great decision. Normally I read fantasy books but lately I have been choosing romance books. This isn't one of the romance books that I usually don't like, this ones STEAMY. I wasn’t expecting a book about a PhD student fake dating the notorious hard ass professor to be so steamy, funny, and at times gut wrenching. I was a little worried at first about not understanding some things, since it is set at Stanford, as someone who barely got through high school science class but it was actually pretty easy to follow and kind of interesting.

In The Love Hypothesis Olive is a PhD student and all of the hours and hard work working in STEM is definitely worth it to her. She loves to make hypothesis so when her best friend Anh doesn’t want to go out with her barely ex-boyfriend (they went on one date, which I guess counts as dating) she makes a new one “if she thinks I am in a relationship she won't feel bad and finally just go out with him” and kisses the first, and only, person in the hallway that her friend is about to walk down. After kissing the guy in the hallway she realizes that it was actually Adam, a professor. A professor that makes undergraduates cry to be exact. They make a deal and decide to fake date so that she can convince Anh that she’s over her ex and so that Adam can convince the school that he is not planning on leaving so they will give him more research money.

I read a lot of enemies to lovers books but I think this is only my second or third “let's fake date but somewhere in the middle we are going to actually fall in love” book. As soon as I finished it, which only took two days, I looked up more and added them to my TBR. The banter between the two was just amazing.

“Did you… Did you just kiss me?” He sounded puzzled, and maybe a little out of breath. His lips were full and plump and… God. Kissed. There was simply no way Olive could get away with denying what she had just done. Still, it was worth a try. “Nope.” Surprisingly, it seemed to work. “Ah. Okay, then.” Carlsen nodded and turned around, looking vaguely disoriented. He took a couple of steps down the hallway, reached the water fountain - maybe where he’d headed in the first place. Olive was starting to believe that she might actually be off the hook when he halted and turned back with a skeptical expression. “Are you sure?”

Everyone thinks that Adam is a hard, calloused, asshole that hates everything but with olive he's completely different. As they go one their fake dates Olive sees just how nice he can be, he buys her a drink at the coffee shop they have their fake dates at every time even though he makes fun of the crazy drinks she gets. While at one of the school's presentations, the theater is so packed that Anh suggests that Olive sits on Adams lap. I don't know what it is about the whispering in Olives ear that Adam does, him moving her around to sit comfortably, and her leaning on his chest but it is just so…

Even though Adam is always seen as mean he is never like that to Olive. Throughout the book Olive is getting ready to speak at a conference for the first time and as she's freaking out, Adam offers to help go through her presentation with her and it just shows how much he cares about her and wants her to be able to do her best.

This book touched on a lot of interesting topics that I was not expecting. Aside from the struggles of being a women in STEM the book also touched on abusive professors, asexuality, and sexual assault. While I did appreciate that the author is bringing light to these subjects I feel like the asexuality and sexual assault plot points were kind of pushed off to the side after being mentioned or happening. Yes we were given a happy ending with the assaulter being fired, but after it happened Olive went to her room and cried for a bit then went out with Adam to get sushi. I know people deal with thing in their own ways but to me it seemed like a quick "gotta add this in" decision.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone that likes fake dating rom-com trope books that also gets a little spicy. I know I'll definitely be grabbing more of them my self because I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this book and how fast I finished it because i couldn't put it down.Overall this was a great book and I will definitely be looking out for more books from Ali Hazelwood.