Immediately upon finishing this book, I seriously contemplated making this my entire review and screaming it out loud for all to hear: I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH THAT I READ IT IN 1 DAY.  WHEN I HAD TO PUT IT DOWN FOR A MOMENT, I COULDN’T WAIT TO PICK IT BACK UP. IF YOU LIKE ROMANCE NOVELS, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED WITH THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS.  But I figured that people would want to know WHY I loved this book so much so I gathered my thoughts and wrote this review in the hopes that I will convince you to read this book when it’s released.

That this is Ali Hazelwood’s first book is honestly amazing.  The cover of this book doesn’t hide the fact that this was a Reylo (Kylo Ren, Rey from Star Wars) fanfiction at some point, but the story is original and worked very well within the fake dating trope.  Olive and Adam are both unique characters and their motivations for entering into their fake relationship was realistic.  Too many romance novels try and create a situation that would never happen in real life and put their characters into situations you would only read in books. In the case of “The Love Hypothesis,” Olive loves her best friend so much and wants her to be happy that she will do anything to ensure that happiness, including convincing her she’s dating Adam Carlsen, the most hated professor on campus. How she chooses Adam takes place in a very rom-com worthy scene that is both funny and cute. For Adam, he has dedicated his life and career to science and is known as a brilliant asshole.  When he finds out that Stanford may pull his funding because they think he may leave the school, he decides that a fake girlfriend may show them he has roots in the area and has no desire to leave the school. While they are both getting something out of this fake relationship, it’s not easy to pretend to like each other, especially when Olive’s fellow PHD candidates accuse her of using her relationship to get ahead and Adam realizes he has to open himself up to someone else for the first time in a long time. The situations they get themselves into are hilarious and their banter is intelligent and witty. I really enjoyed that this was a book with 2 very intelligent people respecting each other’s intelligence and finding that attractive about each other. Their relationship, even though it’s fake, starts to develop slowly because they genuinely begin to like each other as friends and confidantes and that was refreshing to read in a romance. I don’t want to give too much away about the ending but I will say that I couldn’t have imagined a better way for this book to end and all the little side stories came together perfectly. When a romance novel ends, I’m okay with knowing that the couple’s story has been told, but not this one.  I would read a sequel about Olive and Adam in a heartbeat.

“The Love Hypothesis” manages to be a smart, sexy, and hilarious book all at the same time and the chemistry between Olive and Adam is unbelievably hot and leaps off the page.  It was a joy to read from the first page to the last and will be a book I recommend to everyone.  I can’t wait to hear what others think about it and to read whatever Ali Hazelwood writes next.

Favorite Quotes: I had to pick 2!

“‘Fun?’ he repeated, like he’d never heard the word before. ‘Yeah. What do you do when you’re not at work?’ The length of time that passed between Olive’s question and his answer was alarming. ‘Sometimes I work at home, too. And I work out. And I sleep.’ She had to actively stop herself from face palming.”

“His eyes were on her, now. There was light in them that she didn’t understand. ‘You are not mediocre, Olive. . . And the work you presented is important, rigorous, and brilliant.’ He took a deep breath. His shoulders rose and fell in time with the thudding of her heart. ‘I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.’”

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Expected Publication Date: September 14, 2021

Rating: 5 Stars

*Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*