By: Ali Hazlewood
Blurb:
As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding… six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.
Review:
The Love Hypothesis started out as Kylo Ren/Rey(Reylo) fanfic before it was made into a novel. I’m not much of a fanfic reader, but I was informed of this on TikTok and because of that I couldn’t not see it the entire time I was reading. That is not a ship I sail, but it in no way impeded my enjoyment of this book.
I’ve read a book a day this month and this was by far my favorite. I love the trope of pairing the grouch with the sunny person, but only when the sunny person isn’t an idiot. Olive is definitely not an idiot. She’s a PhD student with an inferiority complex.
Adam also doesn’t kill his father in an effort to prove where his loyalties lie. He’s an asshole, but only because he wants people to do their bests. His misunderstood.
There’s a great meet cute. Lots of cute and funny scenes and the “villain” gets what’s coming to him. It also seems to be a standalone story. I loved it.
It would be amazing if this was made into a romantic comedy movie staring Adam Driver, but, considering some of the scenes in the book, I would understand if he wouldn’t want to do it. It is incredibly clear who is being lusted after in this story.
5/5
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