The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood Review

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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.
-Summary from Goodreads

I don’t typically choose to read much romance, except once every February (and I was disappointed with my last attempt at reading a romance novel with Talk Bookish to Me). But I have seen this book all over bookstagram, and after having a particularly rough time lately, I wanted something light-hearted and fun to read, and that is exactly what I got with The Love Hypothesis.

Was it predictable? Were the characters cliché? Was it a bit unrealistic? Was there a ridiculous amount of miscommunication?
Yes, to all of the above.

But I still loved it.

Maybe it’s because I usually don’t go into romance novels expecting much. Since I don’t read many of them, I usually expect them to be like the rom-coms and chick-flicks I watch…a cutesy love story with familiar tropes and lots of miscommunications, dumb choices, some cringey awkward moments, predictable plotlines, cliché characters, complete with some sort of reveal then reconciliation and then happily-ever-after.

What I liked about The Love Hypothesis was that even though the characters were a bit cliché, they weren’t terribly overdone. When I read Talk Bookish to Me, it seemed like every character had this gift of being incredibly witty ALL THE TIME, and while it was funny at first, it was just way too unbelievable that it was annoying. But I liked how natural the banter between Olive and Adam was, and I was laughing throughout a lot of it. I also loved the relationship between Olive and her roommate, Malcolm.
I liked all of the characters, even if they were a bit cliché. I also liked the academia setting.
Overall, it was an easy read that I breezed through, and if you like rom-coms and chick-flicks then this is a fun, light-hearted read.

The Love Hypothesis on Amazon