You know that old trope from 80s movies where the nerdy girl lets down her hair and takes off her glasses and is miraculously transformed into the hottest girl in school?

Forget That Noise.

In THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS, the hottest grad student at Stanford is sweet, adorable Olive who is an unmitigated force of nature. This smart alek academic STEM hottie is too busy saving the world from cancer to care whether or not she should let her hair down, but to help a friend find happiness, falls into a fake-dating relationship with the reviled Professor Adam Carlsen. Olive theorizes she can figure out anything - even love - with the help of an electron microscope, but unfortunately for her, Adam is my book boyfriend now.

Ali Hazelwood's THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS is smart and goofy and sexy fun! If I could give this fantastic romance more than 5 stars, I would. And now I really need to go watch Star Wars and drink a Unicorn Frappuccino.

I loved that our lead was in STEM. I loved the spotlight on challenges for women in STEM. This was a fun new twist on contemporary romance, and I am totally here for this.

4.6 - ADORABLE. It's VERY similar to one of my favorites of Sally Thorne's - The Hating Game, with just a slightly different setting. Instead of work enemies, it's set in a university lab. It definitely plays on the popular trope of fake-dating to falling in love, but at least they acknowledge it and make no pains to hide it. Olive and Adam are a joy to follow, and their chemistry is a nice slow-burn. Adam is the ideal guy - antagonistic and unapproachable to everyone but Olive. I love those big, intimidating guys that are actually so tenderhearted. Olive is nerdy, adorable, and always dealing with insecurity. Her 2 best friends are amazing and they've got a great dynamic. This book gave me all the good feels and I would definitely recommend!

You know how books come along and like, it's just Really Only For You and you don't want to share it with anyone else in the world and you hide the library's copy and buy all the other copies until they're ceiling high in your apartment and you can just 𝓵𝓲𝓿𝓮 in the book? That's the kind of book this is.
It killed me and I died but then it resurrected me like Frankenstein and his monster-- but like, in a sexy way. Because whewwwwwwww was this book steamy. Like "maybe don't read it in public because you'll be full body blushing" type of steamy (aka: the best kind).
I'm buying my own copy, obviously, because I will absolutely be rereading this one. It's Very Not Unlikely that I'll reread the eARC in a few days, if we're being entirely honest here.

I know we all say The Hating Game is the pinnacle of the contemporary romance genre, but I'm going to be bold and say that The Hating Game walked so The Love Hypothesis could run. 50 billion stars/10, absolute winner, give it all the awards including an Oscar and a Nobel.

I had to sit on this review for a week, to be honest. I almost didn't love this book (I thought I "got" it but I don't think I actually "get" it) and it wasn't living up to my expectations for those two particular space wizards, BUT once I just read the damn book, I loved it. Ok, maybe I wouldn't have named him *****Adam***** but I can get past that!!!!

It was SO genuinely fun and hilarious and heart-warming and so well-damn-done. An actual woman in STEM! The chemistry!! I've never *loved* a fake-dating plot and yet here I am!! because it was believable and swoony and it delivered! I thought Olive was a relatable character with relatable struggles, even if you are not yourself a woman in STEM/academia.

A cute and intelligent rom-com with a very fun main character, Olive, who's just trying to make it in STEM academia. The meet cute was adorable, and everyone loves a convoluted fake dating trope (and the awkwardness that ensues). The plot is pretty delightful, though it is hard in the beginning to reconcile Adam's behavior with Olive and his reputation amongst the other grad students as an all around jerk and killer-of-dreams. But not to worry, all will be revealed! The side characters are super lovable. I needed something lighthearted and fun to read, and this certainly fit the bill.

This book is fantastic!

The perfect, feel-good romance, with a dash of women in STEM! I read this book in one day and it did not disappoint.

I laughed, I cried, I got a warm fuzzy feeling...and it made me want to go to grad school?

Olive Smith is such a wonderful MC who shows the cutthroat world of a woman in academia. Trying to stand out and prove yourself and find confidence in your own capability I think is a struggle we can all relate to no matter our field. Dr. Adam Carlsen is the perfect broody boyfriend who only has a soft spot for the MC.

Give this book a chance when it comes out in September and you will not be disappointed. Will be pushing my book club to read this one!

This book has skyrocketed into my all-time favorites and I am really excited to see it out in the world and in the hands of readers this year!

Truly, it’s been a long time since a book kept me up late, but I found myself staying up until 2am to read this because I just couldn’t get enough of these characters, I have fallen absolutely head over heels in love with them.

Olive is a PhD student who, in a moment of panic, finds herself in the middle of a fake dating scheme with none other than the notoriously broody and unapproachable Dr. Adam Carlsen. Realizing they can both benefit from continuing their ruse, Olive and Adam set out some ground rules and end date for their fake relationship, but what ensues is a hilarious series of events that leave Olive feeling like there may be more to Dr. Carlsen than everyone believes.

Needless to say, I LOVED this book so much. The relationship between Olive and Adam was so wholesome and caring, and this story absolutely hit the ‘Grumpy + Sunshine One’ trope solidly. There is just something so attractive about a character that understands boundaries, consent, and is careful and compassionate like Adam. A million thumbs up for his character.

The humor was on point (I loved Malcolm, Anh and Holden so much!), and the representation of STEM and the joys and hardships of it really made this story into a true gem and unlike any other that I’ve read.

And of course, just the knowledge that this story was inspired by two of my favorite space wizards is the cherry on top. 😉 Highly, highly recommend adding this book to your TBR!

Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing for a free review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own!

I seriously cannot gush about this book enough!! It was so incredibly amazing and I HIGHLY recommend enough that you preorder this RIGHT NOW!! I would give it an infinite amount of stars but sadly Goodreads only allows for five, so that’ll have to suffice for now. I can say wholeheartedly that this is my all time favorite romance ever! Yes, you heard that right, ALL TIME FAVORITE!! My full review will be up closer to the pub day but for now I will continue to gush about it on my Instagram and pray for September 14 to hurry up so I can have a physical copy to gaze lovingly at for the rest of my life!!!

This was an absolute blast to read. It's self aware of its tropes and it embraces them with a full heart and a heavy dose of humour. The leads have great chemistry (puns on this will no doubt abound, even though the central characters are biologists) and the quirky set-ups that drive their fake relationship amp up the heat in ridiculously fun ways. I appreciated the ways the potentially problematic student/teacher dynamic was addressed, as it so often isn't in set ups like this. The banter was snappy and joyful, giving the read a swift pace and loads of spark. I also loved the barbed and well-deserved pokes at academia, and the ways Hazelwood wove the scientific background/outlook of her lead through the prose. Readers will be flipping pages to get to the steamy scenes and they won't be disappointed. This may be the first book we're seeing from the author, but I hope she writes fast, because readers will be clamouring for more as soon as they finish the epilogue.

I ruined myself staying up all night to read The Love Hypothesis and don't regret a single minute. It's a flat-out phenomenal book. It schooled me on science and also on thirst. Hazelwood evokes the academic setting deftly and lightly but doesn't shy away from showing its dark side. There's hilarity on almost every page, and also complexity, depth, real pain, and real warmth. I loved Olive for her intensity, her awkwardness, her hard-won emotional intelligence, and I loved the way the tension built between Olive and Adam. And how the friends in the novel saw and supported each other! The writing is superb. The sentences just kept attaching themselves to the receptors in my brain and making me want more. I don't know how I'm going to wait for Hazelwood's next book!

Oh my gosh, this book. I loved it from the moment I saw the cover. Also appreciated the Matt the Radar Technician reference. Truly one of the best romantic comedies I have read in a long time.

Make way, make way!!! We've got a new romance author in town and I AM A FAN!! 👏 This was absolutely AMAZING! I literally want to fangirl SO hard over how much I loved this book. It's a new fav for sure.

It starts off with such a fun meet cute which leads to two scientists fake dating. My heart about swooned right out of my chest with their cute banter. Adam was a hotshot, grumpy, Professor with a gooey cinnamon roll center. I couldn't get enough of him and adored how he was so grumpy to everyone BUT the main character, Olive. She was so fun and spunky!!! They had the best chemistry. 🥵🔥🙌 Things got HAWT!!!

This story was EVERYTHING I wanted in a light hearted romance. 🙌 My only wish is that it came out sooner because I want everyone who loves romance to READ THIS!! I am dying to reread this AMAZING story already! I can't wait to see what Ali writes next

This book is so so so sweet and wonderful. A lot of fun tropes that I love spun together in tale set in STEM academia! I need more science in my life even if I don’t understand a word these people are saying to each other about their jobs!

Things I loved about this book:
-Women in STEM!
-Fake dating trope pulled off soooo well and so sweet and tingly
-Fun banter and blushes and smiles
-TWO BEDS. I love a good romance book that also pokes fun at romance books. Hysterical.
-Great steam. Thank you for the steam!

I also want to point out that I love books that have the Schitt’s Creek vibe in it. If there’s gonna be LGBT representation, I love it when everyone is cool with it and there doesn’t have to be any conversation about homophobia. Yay for no homophobia!!!!

Great book! I love love loved it!

‘The Love Hypothesis’ is a really delightful one. And I’d thought that this would be a 5-star read throughout from the start when the fake-dating trope takes off under somewhat unusual circumstances. Done in the sole context of academia (surly, hot professor and somewhat timid and meek grad student), it’s also an irresistible one…to me at least.

There was a tad bit of implausibility that ran throughout the whole story—suspend the disbelief here in this rom-com—but once it takes off, the slow burn between Olive and Adam was impossible to ignore. I loved Olive’s character from the start: her words, actions and thoughts were gently funny and endearing and while I definitely found myself at sea with the academic processes or the science that lay behind the stuff mentioned in the book, Ali Hazelwood brings her entire cast in with aplomb and personalities that did seem larger than life.

But while Olive was 3-dimensionally fleshed out, the other half of the pairing, Adam Carlsen, remained a half-formed, unreadable protagonist in my mind, with my only recollection of him seen through the veil of Olive’s eyes as disapproving, distant, sharp and lacking in words…but also stoic to the point where you needed to shape him through what other characters say.

While it was all well and good as a narrative device here, it did however, come to a point where it stopped being enough because Adam needed to step through that veil on his own, which he didn’t. Usually, in books where single POVs are maintained throughout, there is typically a moment when the other protagonist says something, or makes a confession or a grand gesture that tips the bucket of emotions that you have been inferred of or ‘put’ onto the characters themselves the whole time, finally resolving what you’d triumphantly thought you’ve known all along. There wasn’t such a lightbulb moment with Adam, sadly. Where I finally expected grandiose speeches, he simply ran out of words and steam and the whole picture building up to a climax that was supposed to be glorious (in my head) turned out flat instead.

In all, the geeky angle appealed immediately but I knew however, it could have sent me further into the stratosphere with a few tweaks with POVs and character development, more so as we came to the final quarter of the story. Instead, my clay feet stayed rooted to the ground, while Adam/Olive seemed to be lacking a lot more serious, clear-up-the-air-type conversations that the reader needed to be privy to.

Ugh this book is perfect. The diversity. The female STEM icon that is Olive. The grumpy, broody, brilliant human that is Adam Carlsen. I loved every single page of this book. Olive’s anxiety felt perfectly real and well represented. The realities of being a women in any workplace are represented so well, and dealing with the academia world for the past 6 years ( just not STEM) I feel like this really was handled well and with great care. This book is wonderful and I think everyone should read it.

cw: cancer, sexual harassment, death of a parent

i read "the love hypothesis" in a day and i loved every minute of it. it was that good. i haven't loved a romance book in a while so this is monumental for me. i am shocked this is a debut novel.

the book deals with academia and how hard it is to be successful as a woman, besides the romance, which is an aspect the author handled so well. the romance was soft and it's basically grumpy × sunshine. the two MCs, adam and olive have amazing chemistry and i actually laughed at some parts of the book. their banter gave me life.

the cast of side characters were so loveable and diverse. i just adored everyone. the relationship between holden and malcolm was adorable. her best friend, anh was such a badass, strong character.

i loved this one with my whole being because it's a book about a woman in STEM written by a woman in STEM. so it's done well and it's very relatable. olive is a ray of sunshine thar tries so hard to do well and help her friends, which gets her into some funny situations. i loved these awkward moments with adam, they were so bloody funny.

adam is the embodiment of "grumpy". he's blunt and sarcastic, but he turns soft when he's with olive. i melted like butter when he got all "fool in love" around her.

this book will definitely turn into one of my comfort reads because i just cant stop thinking about it.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Who hasn't accidentally roped the local lab grump into a fake relationship? When lab student Olive Smith kisses Dr. Adam Carlsen in a moment of desperate need, she doesn't anticipate the lab's meanest member to agree to convince her friends they're dating. But as they get into closer and closer quarters, they find there might be a shot at a real relationship. The fan fiction roots are here, with blurbs before each chapter that read like an authors note. Fun, quick and cute.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I loved this book! Olive is the most wonderful character- funny and smart, but also nervous and bumbling and oh-so relatable. The fact she can’t see how wonderful she is only makes her a more endearing character. And Adam is the perfect love interest- brooding and complicated but with that twitch of a smile that makes your heart melt. And the chemistry between the two characters is off the charts!

Ali Hazlewood has created a plot that is smart, moving and so much fun, but she also manages to make some serious points about the world of academia, sexism and harassment. I tore through this book in two sittings, and I’m bereft to finish it. The Love Hypothesis is a phenomenal debut, and I can’t wait for more books from this author!

This was such a lovely, heart happy book. It has an interesting and fun premise and both characters are incredibly lovable and relatable. I wanted to immediately pick it up and start reading it again as soon as I finished.