A huge thank you to PRH International, Berkley Pub and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

You know that feeling when you start a book and you just know you’re gonna love it and a few chapters in, you already know it’s gonna be a 5⭐️ read? For me, it’s this book. I missed that giddy feeling of just enjoying every second of reading and this book gave me that!

CW: cancer, parental death, bullying & sexual harrasment

I still can’t get over how GOOD this book was! From the cute hypotheses on every chapter heading to the engaging writing, it was no surprise that I devoured this within a few hours!

This had the perfect mix of tropes that all worked together so well such as fake dating, “I hate everyone but you”, slow burn friends to lovers, grumpy/sunshine and a bit of student/teacher without being scanadalous since she wasn’t directly under his supervision but it still added that excitement of being together in campus.

I love Olive and Adam with a burning passion!!! They perfectly complemented each other and the fact that they’re both STEM nerds made their friendship more genuine as they connected in so many ways! All the scientific talks they had were both informative and adorable. The banter between them as well as with their friends had me constantly laughing! Their chemistry was so natural and the build up in their relationship with all the pining and longing made my heart swoon so hard!! The sexual tension they had was just *wipes tear* so good! The smut scenes were surprisingly spicy and comfortingly real given the openness between them.

Their backstories and current lives were so interesting, making me invested in them individually as well as together! Olive is endearing, relatable and intelligent and same goes with Adam! I loved seeing his walls slowly crumble everytime they’re together and when he *lovingly* calls her “smartass” when she playfully teases him makes me wanna convulse EVERY TIME. Eventually seeing the lovable gentle giant and his true intentions behind the douchebag persona he exudes made me love him more than I ever could!

The academia setting was very eye opening and I found myself getting excited just reading about it and what goes on in the lives of those who are a part of it. It’s definitely something not explored much, less so in romance books, so it was a very refreshing topic.

Also, a special mention to Holden and Malcolm for being such fun side characters!

Alsoo, this cover, guys! I’m completely in love with the character illustrations!!!!

Overall, this book immediately became one of my faves for this year and I will not stop screaming about it and recommending it! If you love nerdy heroes and an academic romcom premise, then this book is for you! This was such a stunning debut from Ali Hazelwood and I’ll be closely watching what else she has in store!

Adored Ali Hazelwood's THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS. Adam Carlsen is your modern day Mr. Darcy devoted to doing science the right way, regardless of the mental health of his grad students. Olive Smith is a sweet and awkward motormouth PhD students who pretends to be dating Adam in order to convince her friend Anh that she is not still interested in Anh's crush, even though he and Olive had been on a few dates. It's one of the more believable reasons for fake dating I've read in a while.⁠
⁠
If you loved the description of Stella learning how awesome kissing can be in The Kiss Quotient, I feel like you'll appreciate the sex scenes here. Olive is demisexual and not very experienced when it comes to sex, but Adam is fully ready to show her a good time.⁠
⁠
Some of the academic context is sped up for story purposes (show me a conference that only lets presenters know they're presenting two weeks before! impossible!) but the stress of academia felt very real.⁠

Let it be known that Ali Hazelwood does "fantastic, out of this world, laugh out loud bed shaking, can't put this book down at 3am that you're afraid you're going to wake up your nursing infant" swoon. Holy Crap! The Love Hypothesis was EVERYTHING! I swear to God this is one of the BEST debut novels I have ever read, if not THE best. First I would be remiss if I didn't mention that if you are a Kylo Ren and Rey fan...you will die at the cover. This cover is SO unbelievable and yet so simple that you WILL in fact die. Because I'm dead. I'm physically not present in this world because Hazelwood killed me with the amazingness of her book. 

Anyone who knows me knowssss that romcoms are NOT my thing. Enemies to Lovers/Bullies on the other hand are. But The Love Hypothesis is the exception. The level of sarcasm in this book is so hysterical. I might have cackled like a maniac while reading (see the above mentioned fear of waking my infant child LOL.) This book was INSANELY good. It was heartfelt and honest and so real I wanted to just dive deep and immerse myself in Adam (hello Kylo Ren in real life) and Olive. Their budding friendship, banter, awkward dates and connection gave me life!! I am OBSESSED and never wanted this story to end. The women in Stem stories, the amazing friendships and cast of characters was just the cherry on top. 

Hazelwood has legit put me in the deepest of book hangovers that I just want to re-read my favorite parts all over again. This story was smart, sexy, compelling and a solid and strong debut from a brilliant writer. I loved everything about this story and can't wait to read more from this author in the future!

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley Romance for this amazing read! 5 Stars! ~Ratula

i. am. IN LOVE.

okay but you don’t understand, this is the best romance i’ve read in a long time. the FEELINGS i had while reading? indescribable.

we need to change the star system honestly because The Love Hypotheses would get 20 big ⭐️ from me.

where can i find myself an Adam Carlsen? and Olive’s relatability was heart warming AND heart wrenching. I LOVE THEM.

i’ve seen people say this story is the equivalent to Darcy’s Hand Flex™️ and honestly…yes.

one of my absolute favorite reads of 2021. one of my favorite books ever. gonna go preorder now because i need to have my own copy so i can put it on my shelf where i can stare at it lovingly until the end of time. sorry for the dramatics … i just really love this book.

i wish i’d written it because it’s just SO FUN AND FLIRTY (belly swoops and everything) but i thank Ali’s amazing brain for it (her mind!!)

Goodness me I loved this book! I loved reading about Olive in the STEM field that is mostly dominated by men and her fighting her way to prove herself.
The romance was amazing and I loved the fake dating aspect of it. I def need more from this author ASAP.

I absolutely LOVED this romcom. The Love Hypothesis follows graduate student Olive navigate love and being a woman in STEM. When her bets friend falls HARD for the guy Olive was dating, Olive decides to find a man to fake date, so that her best friend believes she's truly over Jeremy and gets together with him. When Olive kisses a man she later finds out if a professor at her school in front of her best friend, they find themselves in a mutually beneficial fake relationship.

This book is trope-y, but very self aware. The narrator is familiar with the rom-com genre, and constantly cracks at the hilarity of their unrealistic situation. The love interest, on the other hand, is not familiar with... pretty much anything pop culture and you can watch him fall in love with her in real time. His lack of self-awareness definitely lends itself to how quickly his feelings for her develop.

The chemistry between our two leads is /absolutely everything./ Theres miscommunication, which definitely isn't usually for me, but I didn't mind it too much in this book because the angst that comes out of it is so electric. Watching them fall for each other while vehemently denying the other returns feelings is super fun to read.

Now.. I technically read this book for the first time about three years ago. This book was originally published as a fanfiction (Head Over Feet on AO3) and it took me over half the book to realize! It felt.. very familiar but at the same time much improved from the original. Head Over Feet has always been one of the most popular works in the Star Wars fandom, and the original was fantastic, but The Love Hypothesis is definitely a step up. If you were unfamiliar with the original characters and fandom tropes from this universe, you would have no clue this was written originally as a fan fiction.

Overall, I think this book is outstanding. Maybe I'm a little biased because I was technically mentioned in the acknowledgements😏😏 but I absolutely loved everything about it. If you're looking for a book about women in STEM, a fun romcom with charismatic leads, of if you just want to delve back into 2018-era Star Wars fandom, this book is for you :))

*important note: the love interest has never been and never will be the professor of the main character. He just works at her graduate school. So... technically a teacher-student trope, but without the gross power imbalances.

I can’t stop thinking about this book. Smart, steamy, and feminist? This is what dreams are made of! I will read anything by this author!!

I'm obviously very much in the minority here, but this book was just Not For Me. (Not, I hasten to add, because it's fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off and a cover by a fan artist with characters resembling the originals, because I'm a huge supporter of fanfiction and fanfiction authors going mainstream and fanfiction being re-released as original fiction--my reaction is just due to this specific story and author's writing style here not being the right fit for my personal tastes, rather than anything to do with the book's origins as Reylo fic). But I do think a lot of other readers will enjoy it much more than I did, and I'd still buy it for that reason, and because in general this is the kind of title I want to support by having in our collection regardless.

Finally, a book that ranks up there as high as The Hating Game. Olive has spent much of her life alone and wrapped up in academics. She has a couple of good friends for who she'd do anything. Anything including kissing a random guy in a hallway late at night and starting a fake relationship with him. Unfortunately, the random guy Olive has decided to make her fake boyfriend is, Adam Carlsen, the most reviled professor at Stanford.

But as Adam and Olive spend more time together (you have to be seen having fake dates for people to believe your fake relationship, after all) Olive starts to let her walls down a little around him. And Olive gets the feeling Adam isn't only the mean, hard-to-please professor everyone says he is.

While not exactly an enemies-to-lovers romance, this might just fit the bill if that is what you're looking for. The dynamic between Olive and Adam is great. There is a lot of humor and the dialogue feels real. This will get added to the list of books I read at least once a year. Highly recommended!!

I loved this book so much!! I sort of figured I would like it since this was originally published as Star Wars fan fiction and even though I had not read this specific story, I've read a ton of Star Wars fanfic. Thus, I was highly anticipating this one when Ali Hazelwood announced it and it did not disappoint.

I'm going to list my main critique here as I believe it is important. Olive often refers to her lack of sexual attraction in the past as something she thought was "broken" about her. This seems harmful to the asexual community. I see why the author wrote it this way as plenty of Star Wars fan fic has Rey believe that she is different/broken due to her isolating childhood, but in this novel that is not the case as Olive grew up with a parent and her isolation was 15 to graduate school. This topic comes up at least twice in the novel and I don't think it was handled well. Olive is probably demisexual, but that word is not used and it is not discussed. I personally would have the author change the wording a bit more to make it less ace phobic, especially since this wasn't a huge part of the plot. There is nothing wrong or "broken" with someone because they don't want to have sex or experience sexual attraction.

That being said, I adored everything else about this novel. There are so many fun tropes and Hazelwood leans into them, but they never feel overdone or forced. Olive and Adam have the perfect grumpy/sunshine dynamic that was so much fun to read. Of course we have fake dating and it was just perfectly done here. We have the meddling friend pushing them along and everything. Olive and Adam also have amazing chemistry and banter. I highlighted so much of the dialogue in this.

Even though there are so many tropes, Olive is aware of them. She is fully expecting only one bed when they go away together and is happily surprised when she was wrong.

There is also a subtle hand touch moment a la the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film which was excellent.

This also is a novel about women in STEM and their is mentions of the struggles women in STEM face. I also loved the academic setting and how it meshed with the plot. There are also discussions on what professors have to deal with, which is often not on page.

I thought this novel is so well plotted. It reads so quickly because stuff keeps happening. This is a slow burn and it almost does not feel like it because stuff keeps happening.

The parallel moments between Adam and Olive. She will think something and then he says the same thing out loud. But also the moments where they are opposites. Like his favorite cover is black and hers is white.

My only other minor critique is that their is a lot of lying, which I am not a huge fan of. I thought it worked in this novel and the characters apologized faced consequences for their actions which I appreciated.

This book was an absolute delight from start to finish! I seriously could not put it down, and read the entire thing in one sitting. Ali Hazelwood is a fresh new voice, whose wit, charm, and energy radiates from the page. Her characters are unique as they are loveable, and the way she plays with tropes in a meta, tongue-in-cheek way, had me laughing out loud. If you love a classic grumpy/sunshine, this is definitely the book for you. I loved that the story was completely steeped in the world of STEM, and explores the difficulties women experience in academia. It's clear that the author has as much passion for science as her heroine, the incomparable Olive, and her expertise is evident. Olive is a quirky heroine with spunk and drive, and her messiness makes her all the more relatable. But it's Adam, the young genius love interest, who is definitely going to remain in my heart forever. There is so much depth behind his "grump" exterior, and it's his quiet stoicism and intense passion that sets him apart from similar characters, and Hazelwood does a fantastic job of weaving in his backstory. The pacing is absolutely perfect in this slow burn. And the LONGING! The YEARNING. Ugh! It is simply to die for. Beyond the hilarious banter and real issues in this book, there is a truck-load of warmth and heart, as well as some of the steamiest steam I have ever read. (Seriously, BRING YOUR SMELLING SALTS!) I am counting down the minutes until Ali Hazelwood's next romance is released. I am a fan forever!

Oh my goodness. Where do I start?

I adored The Love Hypothesis. The pacing was fantastic and there was never a place where I felt bored or like the romance lagged. I am not sure how she did it, but Ali made this very scientifically ignorant woman feel included and intrigued by the STEM aspect of the book. And never once did I feel like the scientific side plot overshadowed the romance plot.

I was deeply invested in Adam and Olive's love story. It was funny. It was intelligent. It was well-paced. It was everything I want in a romance! And Adam....oh goodness. I love a good mysterious book hero, but especially one who takes such good care of our heroine. And the side characters were a blast. I want to be their friends in real life!

This one pulled me out of a book slump!

Content: Steamy, open-door romance. Adult Language.

I loved this book so much. I couldn't put it down.

The Love Hypothesis features one of my favorite tropes (fake relationship isn't fake at all) but in a new way that I absolutely adored.

BRB, going to go read it again.

I truly loved everything about this! The romance was sweet (and sometimes very spicy), the banter was witty, the science was interesting and presented in a way that I didn't get bogged down in it. Olive's knowledge of romance tropes added a fun meta layer to this fake-dating scheme and I was along for the ride. Give me anything Ali Hazelwood writes in the future - she's on my radar now and I can't wait to see what she does next!

I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get to read this book and IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!! It was so fun to read a romance novel that had a big scientific focus and the cutest characters!! Olive is a PhD female student who is trying to make it in predominantly male centered world. Her focus is on her goals and those only… until Adam that is. A fake romance, some white lies, and steamy chemistry make for an awesome story that will keep you on your toes and gives you ALL the warm fuzzies!! Definitely a five star read for me! I couldn’t put it down and if you like romance, you need to read this one!

I believe in romance books with women in STEM supremacy. Olive is a perfect female lead. Inspiring, funny, and very very human. From one grad student to another, Olive felt like an old friend. Naturally, I absolutely devoured this book as soon as I had access to it, casting all other current reads aside without a second thought, and I know this will be a story I read multiple times over. Which...doesn't happen for me. The day I read a book again is the day pigs fly. But I see airborne piglets in my future. I loved every second of this, and can't wait to see what this author puts out moving forward.

Oh gosh, there aren't words to describe how much I adored this book. As in, this, alongside of 'A Dangerous Kind of Lady' by Mia Vincy, both of which I read this year, might qualify as my top two. My heart melted into a puddle over and over again, so much that I'm not quite sure how to return to normal. What a high.

Olive. Let's start with her. She's absolutely precious on every level, and a protagonist I think most will relate too. She's nervous, awkward, shy, completely self deprecating and self conscious, but lively and funny and ahhhh. Adorable. Most of all, though, a demisexual character on page was a big deal for me, something I completely relate to (for those who don't know, it means being generally unable to feel or form attraction to someone unless you form an emotional bond). Not that it's a thing that's the same for everyone, but I very much related to Olive on that front.

And Adam, for his part, was not what I expected. The synopsis touts him as an asshole, which ok yes, he is. Except also he isn't, and not around Olive. His tenderness towards her over and over is what did me in.

But this book is not without tension. I'm not going to recount the summary here, but I can say the fake dating situation very much felt like a will they-wont they, as in, every moment that they aren't wrapped up in each other feels like DYING. You can see how hard they've fallen for each other, early on especially, but there's so many false assumptions, complex situations, and wrenches thrown in their way that UGH it left me panting. But trust me, in the process of them getting together, there's plenty to keep you satiated. Banter, flirting, sparks exploding.

I also have to nod to the writing, which was genius, the issues this book tackled (women in STEM especially), and the absolutely adorable and loving best friends that surround Olive even when she felt most alone. Again - my heart.

I do have to preface this by saying I am a Reylo fan, so it was kind of a given that I would like this novel. But I ended up absolutely swooning over the sweet storyline and tender character development. The way Adam quietly pined over Olive and was always there for her just got me. I laughed out loud because of Olive's antics. I struggled so much with having to put the book down to go to work or get something else done. It was a sheer joy to read.
My only criticisms would be that I didn't really enjoy reading about the lab mice. As an animal lover, it took me out of the story and grossed me out a bit.
Also, I felt like Malcolm wasn't fully fleshed out. I would've liked to have seen Olive have more one-on-one time with him where they were just being friends (maybe not talking about their love lives?). He seemed like someone I would've liked to have learned more about.
These were minor issues, though, and I won't have any problem recommending this book to my customers.

I am OBSESSED with this title. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a romance novel so much. The characters were vivid, fleshed out, and so lovable. The plot was intriguing all on its own, but my god, the ROMANCE. I felt romanced by this book. Like I had a real life crush. And the spicy scenes were exceptionally spicy. I've already sold so many people on this title just by raving about it. Perfection. Can't wait to see more from Ali Hazelwood.

Olive has a great reason for randomly kissing a professor in the middle of the hallway at Stanford. She has to convince her best friend Anh that she is over her ex so that Anh will feel ok with dating him. Of course, Dr. Carlsen has some questions about the kiss, which then leads to Olive fake dating him to continue pushing Anh to pursue her happily ever after. Nothing can go wrong, right?

This was a fun romance. I blasted through it and laughed out loud a couple of times. Fans of a light comedy with a slightly nerdy setting (Standford Department of Biology) will enjoy this.