The Love Hypothesis (Love Hypothesis #1), by Ali Hazelwood
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
STEM Ph.D. candidate Olive meets Adam Carlsen, Ph.D., fake-dates him, inevitably falls in love, almost loses herself in the web of lies she spins – until she finally gets a grip and starts telling the truth. Happily ever after begins.
Sounds familiar? Of course. The fake-dating trope is a road very often taken. And, yet, I’ve rarely – if ever – enjoyed the story this much.
Not much is new in this story – even the primary conflict is something you might have read about before and, sadly, it’s not uncommon in either academia or industry.
Olive is nerdy, insecure, impostor syndrome-prone and, looking back, very, very relatable in many ways. She’s also intelligent, witty, a tease and always trying to treat people fairly.
Adam – our dark, brooding hero – has been pining for Olive since he first met her years ago and, thus, quickly agrees to help both Olive and himself by taking part in their fake-dating charade. Meanwhile, he makes his students cry and is widely considered “an ass”.
So, it’s all in the execution; the way Hazelwood tells her story and that is where this book takes flight: The writing is engaging – I really didn’t want to put this down. The characters, mostly Olive and Adam but also her friend Malcolm and Adam’s friend Holden are hilarious and the “chemistry” between all of them is great.
Also, the night Olive and Adam spend together at the conference… Very nicely written, sensitive and forthright… Ah, well, perfect smut!
At times, of course, as with pretty much any romance, I rolled my eyes at the inability to actually talk to each other and just plainly state the truth which would have spared Olive and Adam a lot of crap.
When I found myself whisper-shouting at my Kindle “Finally go tell him, stupid!” I knew, though, I really enjoyed this book.
Recommended to anyone reading romance and five out of five stars for the enjoyment this novel brought me!
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