4.5 STARS

Olive Smith has devoted everything to attaining a biology Ph.D at Stanford not for the academic glory, such as it is or is not, but because of a life alternating event that she wants to find a method for early diagnosis. Olive has a hard time living in the cut throat world of those striving to attain the golden ticket. Olive has two friends who are very important to her and when one of them, Anh, needs a boost to date Olive’s former boyfriend, Olive takes one for the team and ambush kisses none other than wunderkind Dr. Adam Carlsen, a man whom many students fear and even hate.

Olive can’t believe she put her academic career on the line with that crazy outburst. She is even more surprised when Adam agrees to go along with the subterfuge to be her fake boyfriend. Olive is amazed at how her lowly 3rd year grad student cred takes a big leap when the gossip machine hits campus. She finds much of the attention cringeworthy but is determined to keep up the ploy. It is no big surprise when late along in this very slow burn romance, fiction becomes more like fact.

Adam Carlsen is something of a dark, broody enigma to Olive and his students as well. He seems oddly taken with Olive’s quirky sense of humor, non-sequiturs, and abysmal taste in nauseating, at least to him, Starbucks faux coffee drinks. Adam has time and energy only for his work, but as Olive begins to get hints that there is more to him that all work and no play, she sees in him emotions that no one else has because of his prickly exterior. When Olive’s career looks to be in jeopardy, Adam steps up offering a support than amazes Olive especially since she has trouble with honesty around him when it comes to her true feelings. Although their whole relationship is based on a lie, initially, Olive’s continual prevarications about her feelings for Adam drag the story at times.

Anyone familiar with graduates studies will know that grad students are treated like mushrooms: they live in caves and are fed…unpleasant things. Ms. Hazelwood has done a fine job of exemplifying that life in the rarefied air, male dominated world of teaching and research at a well renown school. The combination of women’s fiction, rom-com, and STEM works very well in this engaging, enjoyable, and for the most part, well written book.

Such a charming, sexy, smart book! There's nothing I love more than the "grumpy character is a marshmallow inside for love interest" trope, unless it's the "man Hulks out to defend his love interest" trope. And this STEM heroines trend can continue for as long as it wants as far as I'm concerned.

OHHH MY GOD. This was…. incredible. Grumpy hero. Sunshine heroine. Fake dating after she kisses him to show her best friend she’s moved on from her past relationship. Super nerdy/set in STEM and academia. She’s the only one he’s soft with AND he’s crushed on her for years!!! AHHHH.

If you couldn’t tell, I loved THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS so much! I started it last night and stayed up late reading it. When I woke up I immediately went to finish the rest (but I definitely could’ve finished it in one sitting if I started it earlier in the day, it was that good.) The writing is fresh and fun, the romance is the SWEETEST, and the whole cast of characters is amazing! Olive and Adam are dorky and endearing and I just adored them. And hello Adam was able to move a car with a dead battery all by himself with his bare hands (and muscles)??? I’m going to be thinking about that for…. a while.

This was a fantastic debut and I already can’t wait for more from Ali Hazelwood!

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley, and Ms. Hazelwood for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

Here's the deal:

-I'm not a Reylo person. So I really could care less about Kylo Ren and Rey supposedly making out in lab coats on the cover or whatever people think is happening there. (Don't tell anyone but Adam Driver is not, repeat, not, my cup of tea. ! )

-The premise is, ok, it's a little ridiculous. The original meet-cute? The second (and extremely-over-the-top) meet-cute? Yeah. Uh-huh *rolls eyes*

-The constant internal and eternal word-vomit coming from Olive, yes, I said it, the girl needs to take some deep breaths and meditate once in a while.

-The miscommunications. Abundant ones.

... all of these things SHOULD HAVE conspired to create a book I read, rolled my eyes at now and then, and forgotten. and yet. AND YET.

Instead, this: I didn't care. I didn't care about the meet-cutes, I ignored Olive's blathering, I skipped past the lies and omissions and misunderstandings, because this book was AMAZING. Just, amazing.

Olive is a twenty-something Canadian grad student (I think?) working in cancer research, with a truly unique study based on original work for which she's trying to find a better-equipped and funded lab. In the course of a series of fairly silly miscommunications and dumb decisions, she ends up "fake dating" (I love that this trope is completely poked and prodded and ridiculed by Olive, who repeatedly teases Adam for not watching RomComs or knowing anything about it) Dr. Adam Carlsen, a notoriously hard-assed Professor who is famous department-wide for being difficult, antagonistic, impossible to please, and irascible.

Watching Olive soften Adam, and Adam imbue Olive with confidence, was absolutely charming. And it's abundantly clear that the author is VERY familiar with the world she's writing about. I'm not that hip to the world of academia so I can't vouch for veracity but it seemed eminently believable to me. Don't misplace the multichannel pipette! lol. Anyways. The chemistry between Olive and Adam was palpable from the beginning, and by the conference, it was so steamy I was absolutely glued to my seat in suspense. They were so freaking charming together I felt my grinchy little heart growing at least two sizes. And, whoa, that scene in the hotel was so hot my contact lenses fogged up, LOL.

It's not a perfect story, especially if you can't overcome the preposterousness of the beginning, but it was perfect for ME. I've got a feeling I'll be revisiting Adam and Olive again soon. To be honest I'll probably purchase a copy for my overcrowded book shelf, which should tell you something ...and I'll be on the lookout for anything Ms. Hazelwood writes from now on.

This was one of my favorite books of the year! I loved the banter between Adam and Olive. I hope she writes another book set in academia soon because I ate this one up in one sitting.

Olive is a third-year PhD candidate. Her passion is science and she has no interest in relationships. To ensure her best friend stops worrying about Olive’s non-existent love life, Olive kisses the first man she sees right when her best friend walks by. Who is that man? Only the famous and arrogant Dr. Carlsen. Surprisingly, the known lab tyrant agrees to fake date Olive and even support her when a science conference goes awry. Can Olive continue the charade without actually falling in love?

As a graduate student in science, I was really excited about this book. I definitely enjoyed seeing the dynamics of grad school on the page. It was a nice change of pace having some snarky comments about the hell of academia and the long, unforgiving hours of working as a PhD student.

The fake-dating trope was done well and I liked the progression of Olive and Dr. Carlsen’s relationship. At times, it did feel a bit unrealistic. The characters joke about this being a Title IX issue and in reality, it probably would be. Even so, the plot worked and had me rooting for their relationship. To me, this is the sign of a successful romance.

The side characters and the antagonist were also written well. It was the climax of the story and plot twist that had me not enjoying the story as much. There was some development leading up to what would jeopardize Olive and Dr. Carlsen’s relationship, but it all happened very quickly and without much warning. The resolution to it all worked out, but Olive was a bit frustrating as she grappled with what to do.

Overall, I really enjoyed this fake-dating romance. It was a new spin on the concept that I haven’t seen before and very relevant to my current life as a graduate student. I enjoyed the conversations about women and POC in STEM too and hope this will start some necessary conversations!

The hook is beyond delightful. I found so much to love about the cover, the main characters, the setting, and the supporting cast. I think I'll always love a romance featuring women in STEM, especially when the MC is both awkward and a smart-ass. So relatable!
When I found out this was rooted in fan fic, I was so excited. My nerdy heart loves so much that it's fundamentally Reylo.
I didn't particularly love one of the main hurdles Olive experiences. I felt a tad blindsided even though it shouldn't have been a surprise based on the clues I recognize with my hindsight 20/20.
Ali's writing is entertaining and I know she'll be on my author-to-watch list. Her next novel sounds great!
I did read this with multi-media via e-book and audio. The narrator, Callie Dalton, is one I have enjoyed in the past, however, I feel like her voice was not a good counterpart to Olive's personality.
Steam: Grab your spray bottle a la Blanche or it can be skippable
Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced copy and PRHA Audio for the alc. All thoughts in this review are my own.

4.5 stars rounded down.
This was so good, and possibly the perfect book to read before going back to school to get into that academia headspace. To start, I'll mention some things I loved about The Love Hypothesis. I loved that this book jumped right into the fake dating plot, and right from the first chapter, this was super enjoyable. The main characters had absolutely great banter, and I loved all the tropes in this book. The fake dating was super cute, and I also loved how obvious it was that Adam had been into Olive for a long time. This book remained me a lot of The Hating Game in that regard. My main complaint for this book is just that I didn't like that the whole conflict (to avoid spoilers, I'll clarify both the romantic conflict that starts mid book and the one involving Adam's friend towards the end of the book) could have been solved by a simple conversation. I completely understand why both characters kept secrets, and honestly I probably would have done the same, their motivations as well as insecurities were very relatable, but still, I'm not a fan of dramatic irony, and the conflict bordered a little to close to miscommunication for my liking. That being said, the conflict did help the romance remain really slow burn, which I loved. To end this review off I'll mention that I really enjoyed how this book discussed academia and the backlash (and often sexual harassment) women face in that field. Despite the constant campaigning for women in STEM, once women actually get there, they tend to face a lot more criticism than their male counterparts, so I'm glad this book discussed that. Overall, this was a super cute read. It had the perfect combination of tropes, but it wasn't reliant on them. The characters had genuine chemistry, and the book also discussed some serious subject matter. This is definitely being added to my list of romance books I always recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a fun book! I don't remember the last time I could barely put a book, so you know the book is <i>good</i> if that happens.

I loved everything about this one. The characters, the plot, the side characters, the setting... It was perfect!

The one thing that kept me from this becoming a new favorite is the miscommunication. I understand how the lack of communication made sense with the plot, but I was cringing HARD at how bad Olive and Adam were at talking about their feelings and what they were told about the other person. I became frustrated with the characters' decisions and where the plot went because of it toward the end.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood was such a delightful read. I really loved Olive, the main character, as I felt that she was very relatable and likeable. I could see people in their early twenties seeing themselves in her. The plot of the novel was very well thought out and I really liked that the author hit upon the challenges that women face not in just STEM, but in the workplace as well. I thought that the friendships between the characters felt authentic, and that the main relationship was done in a way that was slightly unpredictable compared to the trope that it was based upon. All in all, I think that this is a novel that people of all genders could enjoy!

I left this book having been thoroughly moved and entertained. It is fun, well-written, sexy and well-paced and structured and I adored both Adam and Olive. I loved how these two pushed each other to be better people and Olive’s journey to become a more confident person and scientist was everything.

My only point of criticism is that the villain in the story was over the top villain-y; had the author written this person with more nuance I would have given this book 5 stars. If you are a romance fan this book needs to go onto your fall reading list as soon as possible.

In a nutshell

Fake dating between two scientists

Grumpy henley-wearing hero (who speaks Dutch! It’s not often I come across a romance hero who speaks my language) / sunshine heroine with a love for pumpkin spice

Banter

A love letter to academics devoted to their field

Heat (open door romance)

TW for loss of parent due to (pancreatic) cancer, sexual harassment

Thank you @berkleyromance and @netgalley for the free EARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Mae for constantly reminding me to read this one. I promised Mae that I was finally going to pick this up after finishing the new Katee Robert book and hello? I did. And wow. Oh, wow. The Love Hypothesis is a treasure, a highlight of my year, one book I won't ever forget. I now have the urge to constantly reread it. Adam and Olive were spectacular main characters I loved very, very much.

The story starts with Olive kissing a stranger because she needs to make her best friend know that it's okay to date Olive's ex-fling. Olive didn't even like him! But she still doesn't believe her so Olive decides to show her that she has moved on... and that's why we find her kissing a stranger one night at school. But he is no stranger tho! This mysterious man is none other than Adam Carlsen, grumpy, hates everyone, Adam. Ooops....

She thinks that she just completely messed up but unexpectedly Adams follows along and now everyone thinks they're dating, so yeah, they tell everyone they're dating which of course they aren't lmao. But oh my god this book, this romance, the way it starts? Everything is perfection. I had such a good time reading this book. I seriously couldn't stop reading it since the very first page, I needed to continue turning the pages, wanting to know what was going to happen to Adam and Olive.

We have a romance hero who is obsessed with his love interest. Adam has loved Olive for years and has never said a word. And now !!! They're fake dating and it's like the world gave him a chance and he is literally so happy to be here with her. He's so tired of other people, he does not care about anyone else but her. HE IS ONLY SOFT AND SWEET WITH HER. He smiles and he wants to constantly touch her. Adam Carlsen *sighs in love* you are one of a kind, my dude.

This is also definitely grumpy/sunshine, she eats lots of sugary cakes and drinks while he prefers everything to be without sugar and he takes his coffee black please. They're so opposite of each other, but they work together so well. Literally everyone tells them "wow you love each other so much" and Olive is like ??? what??? love??? But they gazing each other is so CLEARRRR that everyone sees it too, that they are crazy for each other.

Sorry this review went for so long but I just wanted to express my undying love for this book. Highly recommend everyone to have this in your lists. Get it as soon as you see it available. Read it as soon as you have time to do it. You won't regret it. This book is going to be in many, many end of the year lists of favorites of 2021. I AM SURE.

Ph.D. candidate, Olive is determined to convince her best friend that she’s over her ex, so much so that she ends up kissing the first man she sees when she sees Anh coming down the hall. But that man happens to be professor Adam Carlsen, who is known for being an asshole. Next thing she knows, Olive is fake dating Adam to save face.

Oh my goodness, pick up this book NOW. With a strong, smart, and sassy female lead, ALL the pumpkin spice references, a romance you will be rooting for the whole time, this book quickly became a favorite read for the month of August. This book also tackles some more serious topics and handled them beautifully.

This book is perfect for lovers of science, strong women, academia, and really great romance reads. Now go read it!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed herein are mine alone and may not reflect the views of the author, publisher, or distributor.

What a fun book!

Honestly, it has all the things that I want in a romance. Smart girl in STEM who's 100% herself and doesn't put down other women. Check! Grumpy hero who's a softie inside. Check! Steam? CHECK!

Hazelwood writes like she's a seasoned novelist, and I can't wait to see what she does next. Sorry for the shorter review this time. Life is really bogging me down and it feels like a fuel line is clogged in my Motivation Machine. Anyway, this was awesome, I'd love to actually purchase a copy for myself, and I'll be following Ali Hazelwood's career with great interest!

Told completely from the female lead's POV, this one-of-a-kind romcom will leave you pleasantly satisfied. Olive is a third-year Ph.D. student who is desperate to convince her best friend that she is happily dating even though she doesn't believe in dating. Or relationships. Then in steps, the intimidating, scary, but still very attractive Dr. Adam Carlsen saves her from a mess of her own making.

What happens between these two is nothing short of adorable and quirky with just a few spicy moments to tide you over.

As for their budding romance, it is definitely among the opposites attract the line. He is grumpy and takes his coffee black. And she is sunshine and loves all things sweet. But it is the cutest. He is only sweet towards her and takes care of her and who doesn't love that in a fictional character. I was rooting for them from the very beginning.

Like many others, I am a fan of the fake dating trope and even the professor-student relationship. Two very cliché aspects of a romance novel, but Hazelwood somehow manages to make it not feel like a cliché in the slightest. I think it helped that she set this one in the STEM field which was very new for me and I liked how everything was new and not familiar.

In that regard, some clear liberties were taken, but as this is a work of fiction and the fact that the author was very clear that Adam and absolutely no influence or hold over her as a student didn't bother me. There were no unbalanced power dynamics between them whatsoever and I appreciated that.

Also, Hazelwood's managed to show us clearly and accurately what so many of us go through in higher education. The self doubt, the excitement of starting something new, and the imposter syndrome. It all goes hand in hand and she manages to get that across the page so well, I was drawn back to my own personal experiences. And it wasn't just that side of academics she does well. Even the darker side I know some like to pretend don't exist. Sexual harassment in academics is a very real issue and the author did a good job highlighting that fact and allowing Olive to confront her demons.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this love story. I recommend it for anyone related to or in the STEM field or if you're just a sucker for a fake dating trope.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

Boy oh boy did I really enjoy this book. THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS is fluffy, romantic, a little steamy, and filled with themes about academia and STEM. I really liked Olive and Adam, and had full investment in their relationship and whether or not they would figure things out beyond their initial 'fake' relationship. And I mean, I knew that they would, as this IS a romance novel, but the emotional highs and lows were still there. Hazelwood has snappy dialog and lighthearted romantic moments, but also touches on the difficulties that some people, specifically women and BIPOC, have in academia and research fields. It doesn't feel bogged down by that, though it does have weight and gives the story a little more bite than I was expecting. And did I mention steamy romantic fluff? There's a lot of that. I was a real sucker for all of it.

I'm glad that I'm finally giving more and more contemporary romance a try this year, because THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS was great, and one that I will be sure to recommend to those who love romance (as well as a certain STAR WARS fandom subgroup....).

Thank you so much to Berkley and Netgalley for an arc of the Love Hypothesis in exchange for an honest review.
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I absolutely loved this novel! It was so cute, just the right amount of quirky and I loved reading the academia side of the characters! I went into this book with high expectations after a few of my friends read arcs and it lived up to every hope I had for it. This is definitely a book I will be buying a physical copy of so that it can live on my shelf. I’m so excited to read more from Hazelwood.

Confession time: I hate science. I cried every day in AP Chemistry in high school. The experience basically scarred me for life.

So if anyone was destined to dislike a book about science, it would be me. But I can tell you with 100% certainty that The Love Hypothesis is an absolute must read book, that completely blew me away. The book pulled me in from the prologue with the most awkwardly adorable meet cute in the men's bathroom with expired contacts and kept me going through the ups and downs of the fake dating escapades of Olive and Adam.

The Love Hypothesis is a melding of some of my favorite romantic tropes - grump + sunshine, fake dating, and enemies to lovers. Their chemistry shouldn't work, but it does so beautifully. I was invested in their relationship from the very beginning. Olive calls Adam out on his grumpiness and Adam pushes Olive to be her best self, even when she is riddled with self-doubt. Their banter is perfection and Olive's inner dialogue had me cackling constantly. These two make science look sexy.

Not only is the book extra swoony and angsty, it also has so much heart. I love when characters can grow and change not only in their relationship, but also on their own. Both Adam and Olive made each other better, but I was so proud of the journey Olive went on, not only for herself, but in pursuit of her passion for finding early detection for cancer.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I absolutely LOVED this book and will be recommending it to anyone and everyone I can! Perfect for fans of fake dating, the grumpy one and the sunshine one, and I hate everyone but you tropes.

This book was such a fun read! The setting was a highlight since I hadn't read anything set in the world of scientific academia and I think it made for a fascinating backdrop to this romance. Even though there are a few classic romance tropes littered throughout, I found the way the two main characters interacted with one another was very honest. The mental health/work place themes with all of the characters was very well done, their nerds in their field and it's adorable but there are some true to life challenges. I can always appreciate a realistic relationship in a contemporary romance, instead of characters that take themselves and everything so seriously. The characters in this are flawed and funny, and the story has heart, it was a joy to be in their world for a bit.