[Brittany’s Review]: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.

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.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Let me start off by saying I am a HUGE fan of the “fake dating”, “fake relationship”, really fake anything trope. It is one of my guilty pleasures. This book did such a great job at creating a fake relationship!

In this book you meet Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith. A twenty something year old woman who is a graduate student at Stanford. I really liked Olive’s personality. She is sweet and funny and would do anything for anyone. You don’t get a ton of background on her, except a little bit of information about her mother, which you’ll appreciate due to certain reasons. Olive wants her close friend Anh to date her ex-boyfriend Jeremy, and finds that the only way to get Anh to not feel guilty, is to pretend she is dating someone else. In comes our hero….

Adam Carlsen is a well-known scientist and professor at the school. He is known for being brutal and not holding back his opinion on student’s projects. After getting kissed out of no where by a graduate student (ahem, Olive), he is thrown into a fake dating spiral. While in the book Adam is very blunt and has a dry sense of humor, you see that he is much kinder to Olive. I love how he treats her and once again—his dry humor is everything! He is dark and brooding and well… that is another weakness of mine.

There are issues along the way, as the couple comes up with a plan on how to carry on their dating life style. Olive is frequently thrown into awkward moments with Adam due to Anh. And there is some drama, though not much in my opinion.

I really enjoyed this book. I was hoping we would get a little more background information on Adam and Olive, but it didn’t go too deep. The entire book is set around them being a student and a professor. There was also some steam—not much, but a chapter or two had me fanning myself a little.

This book is definitely going to be a comfort read for me. I think it is perfect if you’re wanting something a little bit lighter.

Brittany

Hello! My name is Brittany. I’m a newbie nurse by day and an avid reader 24/7. I am a proud romance junkie and will read just about every genre as long as there is some romance. I love to spend my time with my 9 cats—yes, you read that correctly—and posting on my bookstagram account (@_darkreadings if curious). I’m also a hardcore JLA fan.