Review: The Love Hypothesis

The Love Hypothesis, by Ali Hazelwood (Jove 2021)

First line: “Franky, Olive was a bit on the fence about this whole grad school thing.”

This book has been making the rounds on the internet book world since it debuted in September, and there’s good reason. Behind this cartoony cover, there is a smart, refreshing, swoony, unique romance that will make any reader’s heart pound. I loved it to pieces.

Olive is a biology grad student at Stanford where her whole life revolves around her work in the lab. Her best friends are in the department too, as is the only guy she’s tried to date in recent years. And when it’s clear her bestie Anh and her date are more interested in each other, she’s all for it, but she has to figure out a way to convince them she’s okay with their relationship. Enter: the fake dating romance trope that turns out is super up my alley right now. When Olive sees Anh in the hallway, she’s grabs the first lips she sees and kisses them — right before realizing the lips are attached to none other than Dr. Adam Carlson, the grumpiest, most ferocious professor in her department. To her amazement, Adam goes along with Olive’s plot, suggesting there’s an ulterior motive for him as well. But if anybody can fake date without catching feelings, I’ve yet to hear about it, and by George, these feelings are delightful.

This novel offered me the perfect antidote to the ickiness The Kiss Quotient stirred up in me last month with Adam and Olive. Firstly, Adam may be my favorite kind of romantic lead, giving all sorts of Darcy and Roy Kent vibes we’ve grown to know and adore, with the dark and moody exterior and the kind and tender interior. Olive was a mess, for sure, but such a smart and driven character who held her own against Adam and was truly very funny. I loved the grad school/university setting for the love story, and not in small part because of my own love story which started in grad school and my engineering professor husband. The friendships represented in these pages were so excellent and full of deep, long-lasting platonic love. And the sexy times were HELLO CHAPTER 16. I SEE YOU. But most of all, the communication was what I found so attractive — not only do Olive and Adam communicate well with each other consistently throughout the novel, but they verbally checked in with each other throughout their sexual experiences as well, which is how it should be done folks! I mean, tell me if you’ve ever heard a hotter thing uttered by a person who’s about to ravish you:

“It doesn’t matter, what you said. You can always change your mind.”

CONSENT IS SEXY, FRIENDS. THANK YOU ALI HAZELWOOD FOR SHOWING US HOW IT’S DONE. Can’t wait to read what else she writes, and luckily it looks like she has a book deal with several more coming down the pike.