The Love Hypothesis | Ali Hazelwood | Book Review|

When you want to read a noteworthy and captivating story about women in STEM, look no further than Ali Hazelwood’s books. The Love Hypothesis is one of those stories that did not fail to impress me. It’s plot revolves around fake dating and academia and it absolutely nailed it by blending emotions with the coldhearted and competitive world of academia.

Genre: Romance

Plot: 4/5

Writing: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Summary of The Love Hypothesis

The story centres around Olive, a PhD candidate in biology at Stanford. She is meticulous and excellent at her work. She, however, is not too social and stutters and falters when asked to speak in public.

In order for her best friend to date her ex-boyfriend without any hesitation, she tries to convince her that she is dating someone else. The someone? The first person she encounters in the hallway and ends up kissing when her best friend Anh passes by. That person was fortunately or unfortunately, Dr. Adam Carlsen, a brilliant but broody and unapproachable professor. She thinks that he would be filing a sexual harassment case on her, but to her surprise (and Relief) he agrees to fake date her. Obviously, he had his own reasons. His current lab was withholding his research funds because of the suspicion that he would leave and he had to convince them that he had a strong enough reason to stay. So they set a timeline for fake dating and agree on an endpoint just like proper scientists.

The fake dating, initially forced and awkward slowly begins to blossom into something tender and heartfelt. It brings two people together who otherwise don’t waste any time on romance and dating. Olive starts liking the somewhat cold and uptight Adam as she starts to understand him. The attraction she feels towards him starts to grow. She starts to see his rare soft side that actually cares for her and their relationship grows. The entire trope is an easy going one with minor hiccups.

Positives

Relatable: This love story is simple and fascinating, isn’t something that seems too good to be true. The characters are quite relatable. Specially Olive, being  an excellent scientist but socially awkward and even broke is something that many in that area will relate too. Same goes for Adam, broody single professor in his thirties is a spot on description for many in this field.

Academia: The portrayal of Academia is perfect. With the cold behaviour of peers and the competition. Harassment and spreading rumours about women. The realistic situation of being underpaid is mentioned in the book.

The storyline:The development of the story is very appreciable. How a friendship begins and then blooms into something more makes your heart melt. However, there are some mature scenes that make it an above eighteen read.

Emotions:The emotional scenes are well written and fill the heart with sympathy for the protagonist. There is also the portrayal of Olive’s support system  who are non other than her friends, Anh and Malcolm. Their friendship adds a charm to the story.

Flow: The flow of the story, its easy language, makes it a fast read. Although there are more than three hundred pages it does not seem to be dragging on forever.

Negatives

Common plot: Although the story plot is endearing, it is still a cliché and a common plot. This makes it very predictable and leaves little to guess. There is barely any climax and that was the only drawback that I found in The Love Hypothesis.

Misunderstandings: Sometimes the misunderstandings are a little too much and you are left questioning how they came to that conclusion in the first place. This could of course be a drawback for some.

Other books: Love, theoretically