The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

The Love Hypothesis
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Expected Publication Date: September 14, 2021
Check it Out: Goodreads

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.

This was one of my most anticipated romance releases. I have to admit that it had cute moments but won’t become a new favorite.

What dragged my rating down was the miscommunication (one of my most hated things) and Olive’s unwillingness to grasp that Adam would be attracted to her. There isn’t much to say about the miscommunication. It sucked and I wish they would have come clean to each other about the misunderstandings long before they did.

Olive’s character was hit and miss for me. I liked her but she did irritate me at times. I can understand her reasoning behind some of the things she did, but it was so obvious that Adam liked her! Maybe that’s what was so frustrating because the only other thing he could have done was write it on his forehead. Everyone saw it but she was unwilling to even think it was a possibility. Times like these make me wish for a dual POV. I would have loved to read about what was going on through Adam’s head throughout the whole fake dating scenario.

As far as the characters together, I think they made a good couple. The best part about them was the banter. Goodness, I love good banter and they had it waves. Even though their personalities were quite different, it worked for them. Also, this was quite steamer than I expected! I love some steamy scenes and was so glad that this wasn’t fade to black. Adam asking Olive for her consent every step of the way made me so happy. I will say that I wish we could have gotten more moments with them as an actual couple though.

As you can see, my thoughts are all over the place with this one. It had its cute moments and I liked the couple together. However, that couldn’t erase all of my frustration. All in all, even with the issues, it was written well and I’ll be looking to read more from this author in the future.

*I received an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

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