The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. Photo: Sarabeth Pollock
Ask any book lover and they’ll tell you that it’s a magical thing when you stumble across a book that you didn’t know you needed to read and you can’t imagine how your life would turn out if you hadn’t read it. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood is that book for me. Read it. You will fall in love with it.
I’d gone to the bookstore to purchase one of those trendy dot journals to help me keep track of my writing for NaNoWriMo because every little thing helps. I ended up with said journal, more journals that feature pictures of the Bodleian Library on them and a red felt holiday tote bag that loudly proclaims “My holidays are booked!” Because they totally are. (And the slogan was totally apropos…)
When I spotted The Love Hypothesis I was immediately drawn to the cover. I know, I know, covers aren’t the only thing you should think about when buying books, but the thing is that I’d heard about The Love Hypothesis but my TBR is about to topple over, if you know what I mean, and I have so many ARCs to read that I’m falling behind.
Naturally, I bought The Love Hypothesis anyway.
Two scientists kissing with Bunson burners and Erlenmeyer flasks in the background can’t be a bad thing, right?
As soon as I lugged my purchases to the register, the clerk saw the book and told me it was phenomenal. Everyone loved it. Naturally, my curiosity was more than piqued at this point.
I didn’t plan on reading it right away because I have a long list of books to read…but I ended up devouring it the following morning while waiting for my car to be serviced at the dealership.
352 pages flew by in what seemed to be the blink of an eye, just like a freshly ignited ribbon of magnesium.
I couldn’t help it. I had to keep reading to know what happened. Trust me when I say that this book is that good.
The Love Hypothesis follows the story of third-year PhD candidate Olive, who would rather spend her free time in labs than out on dates. When she tries to convince her friend Anh that she is in the middle of a healthy relationship, she panics and kisses (with permission) the first guy she comes across – Dr. Adam Carlsen, one of Stanford’s most respected and feared researchers.
Olive hastily explains what led her to this precarious predicament with her friend, and to her astonishment she learns that Adam is all too willing to play along with the fake relationship to help advance his own agenda.
Olive starts to realize that fake dating her department’s biggest “ass” has its downfalls, but it also has some big benefits. What she didn’t count on was for the line to start blurring between her fake feelings and her real ones.
Olive and Adam are very well developed characters whose chemistry is undeniable. It’s there in the pages of the story before the characters even see it. Adam truly is an “ass” but it’s not for the reasons that other people might think. He lets Olive into his world and she starts to see that he’s just as complicated as she is.
Hazelwood, who holds a PhD in neuroscience, seamlessly blends the science with the story. It’s not overwhelming, even when Olive and Adam lapse into science-speak. (If you’re a science nerd like me – I read physics books about string theory for fun – it’s actually really refreshing to see)
I couldn’t help but think of how The Love Hypothesis would play out as a movie. In truth, I also couldn’t think of a romance or romantic-comedy out there that blends science and love together. We need more science in romance. And we need The Love Hypothesis to become a movie.
There’s no question in my mind that I will read The Love Hypothesis again, slowly, so that I can really savor every moment of it. It’s a charming book that’s refreshing and quirky and fun, and it’s exactly the kind of story that the romance world needs more of, in abundance.
