The Love Hypothesis, Reviewed

fake dating teacher romance oh my

I’m not big on modern romance stories. There needs to be some point of tension beyond “we work together at the office” for me to be invested. So while I knew of Ali Hazelwood, I wasn’t very interested in reading any of her work. Then they announced The Love Hypothesis is getting a movie adaptation with Lili Reinhart, one of my Hollywood crushes, and I said, okay, fuck it, let’s read The Love Hypothesis.

Thank god I did, because this book had a grin plastered on my face the whole week. I couldn’t wait to read it after work every day. It was addicting.

The Love Hypothesis follows Olive, a quirky and hardworking grad student with a bad people-pleasing problem. She wants her friend Anh to be happy with Olive’s ex-date, so she lies about having a new date and then kisses the first man she sees to prove to Anh that she’s happy with someone else. The man she kisses is, of course, the famously mean-spirited Professor Adam Carlsen. Thus begins the romcom fake-dating saga with an academic twist.

I was happy to find the university setting wasn’t just a fancy backdrop for another predictable plot, but was actually a very important part of the story. Her public relationship with a professor has real consequences. Advancing her research moves the plot forward. I was a Zoology major my first three years of college (God only knows why) and while I obviously never made it to grad school, I recognized the types of people Olive was surrounded by: competitive, gossipy, nervous, and exhausted.

Olive and Adam have an undeniable chemistry. Love in fiction is difficult to write and even more difficult to believe, especially when your only medium is words. But Hazelwood nailed the wholesome, awkward crush. The believability was in the little things: Olive smiling at his texts, hanging on his little phrases in case they meant something more, and trying to focus when Adam took up her entire mind. Adam, too, was a charming dork with an understandable reason for his asshole persona. The romance was adorable. My partner caught me smiling at my book and asked if it was cute, and I sighed and answered, “Yes, yes it is so cute.” (I’m happy they didn’t see my reaction to chapter 16 when I had to close the book and kick my feet in glee.)

I especially enjoyed Olive’s characterization. Though it’s never explicitly stated, she seems to be on the asexual spectrum, which you very rarely see from romance protagonists (or any protagonist, really). She gets anxious easily but is mature enough to calm herself down with logic. She’s closed off to others, afraid to love, and dedicated to her work, but she’s far from unkind.

As for criticisms, some of the humor didn’t land for me. It’s the age old generational divide, I think. Hazelwood is a millennial and I’m Gen Z, and her quirky humor is not the same as my quirky humor, and some of it was a little cringeworthy (like the use of crappity). It was the same type of lovable-but-awkward approach that Disney has stuck to the last few years (Tangled, Frozen, Moana, Wish) and I find that type of humor grating.

The side characters were pretty one dimensional. Olive’s best friends, Anh and Guy Whose Name I Can’t Even Remember, had two personality traits each. They’re described as ambitious but I have no idea what either of them were researching, what they were working towards, or why they were in higher academia. There’s a villain that’s introduced towards the middle of the book, and I’m still not sure what his goals were.

Otherwise, I think The Love Hypothesis was a pretty solid story.

It wouldn’t be a TLH review without mentioning that this story was originally fan fiction (by Hazelwood) of Kylo Ren and Rey from the Star Wars sequels…which is something I didn’t really mind, but I know that ship stirs some polarizing reactions. Take from that what you will. Another polarizing tidbit: the book contains one graphic sex scene in the end, so don’t read if you’re not a fan!

I’m excited to read more from Hazelwood. I’ve heard good things about her other STEM romances (Love on the Brain, and Love, Theoretically) and her YA chess romance Check & Mate. Maybe I’ll drop more reviews of her work soon, if I ever chew through my current TBR pile…

Star Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Current reads: The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem // There Is No Antimemetics Department by QNTM