As you know, I am an avid reader of contemporary romances. I put off reading The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood for the longest time because of how popular it was on bookstagram, but I am SO glad I finally caved and checked it out from the library because…
I can say with absolute certainty that this is my FAVORITE romance I have ever read.
The premise of this book is that Olive, a grad student at Stanford, wants her best friend Ahn to feel comfortable dating her sort-of ex, who she clearly really likes and who Olive is very much over. But knowing that Anh won’t go for it without knowing she is totally okay with it, Olive decides she needs to convince everyone she is in a happy new relationship. Which, obviously, she accomplishes by kissing the first person she sees when her friend Anh walks into the lab. What she doesn’t realize is that she kissed notoriously grumpy Dr. Adam Carlsen, of her department. Oops.
One of the best parts of this book was that as an avid rom-com watcher, Olive was entirely aware of the tropes she was falling into during her entire fake relationship with Adam. She even verbalizes her worries to him quite often (which he does not understand). Her self-awareness was so funny to me- she’s one of us!! The book did have a lot of classic rom-com tropes (fake dating, grumpy/sunshine, one bed, etc.) which of course we love to see.
I cannot even express how much I love this book. I JUST DO!! I originally borrowed it from the library, but went out and bought it as soon as I finished (sorry, wallet). Reading The Love Hypothesis was the first time I ever felt like a character in a romance novel was genuinely similar to me. Olive’s vulnerability when talking about relationships and love, and how she just doesn’t feel the same about it as most other people seem to, really resonated with me. Most romances have a main character who is looking for love, or finds it unexpectedly but welcomes it with open arms. Olive doesn’t really know what that feels like, she feels like something doesn’t click for her like it does for other people. I feel like that so often, and Olive’s love story with Adam was the first time I 1) saw those feelings put into writing and 2) realized that was exactly how I felt. Olive is also a goofy nerd, which I can obviously identify with as well.
And don’t get me started on Adam Carlsen. Like wow. He is the perfect book boyfriend. He is so sweet and loving to Olive even when he is just her ~fake boyfriend~. You can clearly see how much he cares about her even when she is always completely blind to it (ugh). He was so willing to take things slow and would go to any means necessary to help her (like agreeing to be her ridiculous fake boyfriend) and see her succeed (like at the conference). They really don’t make them like that in real life.
PS did anyone else picture him as Adam Driver the whole time, only to realize Adam Driver as Kylo Ren actually inspired Adam’s character? Just me?
Anyways, I could gush about this book all day but I won’t put you through that, so please just promise me you’ll give it a chance.
Rating 5/5 pumpkin spice lattes
xx, Lauren
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