I absolutely loved this book!!

Olive plants a giant kiss on a random person in the hallway and she had no idea it’s the moody Adam Carlsen, whose a young hotshot professor. Olive is a third-year Ph.D. candidate, and she only kissed Adam because she wanted to convince her best friend Anh, that she’s dating and Anh is ok to date Olives ex. Olive is floored when Adam agrees to the fake dating , and he has own reasons he wants to get enough funds to finance his own research. They begin this fake relationship by meeting every Wednesday at the student Starbucks for a coffee, so the students body can see them. This moody professor begins to show his softer side and Olive begins to fall hard. Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close and Olive is worried she may have bit off more than she can chew, is she brave enough to come clean and when lines are crossed is she able to face her future with or without Adam?

So cute! Saw this on the Novel Neighbor tiktok and zipped right through it in a day. I tell everyone to read it.

Interestingly enough, I avoided reading this book due to the hype around it. It’s so rare that I see a highly hyped up book that I end up loving. But the cover was so dang cute and the blurb sounded so good, that I decided to cave and take the chance. Sadly, reality won out, and I ended up feeling like I read a different book from everyone else. Such is my life. *Deep sigh*
It started out so strong. I was immediately hooked by the quirky and awkward Olive and the super grumpy professor Adam Carlsen. I love me a good fake dating trope, so there was that going for it. And quite honestly, I was riveted to the pages for the first 20% of the story, with a goofy smile on my face thinking I’ve found the book. Sadly though, that giddy feeling didn’t last for me. And while I didn’t necessarily dislike it, I just didn’t love it either. For me, it felt like a book a novice romance reader who’s just dipping their toe in the genre might enjoy. Now take that with a grain of salt. This is coming from someone that generally just doesn’t gravitate towards cute contemporaries, so this could very well have been the case of just me. And going off of reviews and just how many absolutely adored this book, I definitely feel like the black sheep here. But alas, it is what it is.
So let’s go with a good ole’ feedback sandwich here. I loved the STEM representation and the way it was written. I was afraid that the academia and science aspect of the story would bore me to death, but the author wrote it in such a way that it added to the story and kept even non academia readers engaged. I loved that about this. I also loved the trope and the quirky heroine meet grumpy professor aspect.
What was missing for me was the chemistry. I just didn’t feel it between these two. This is very much a slow burn, but the more time these two spent together, the less I felt it. The way they were thrown together into awkward situations by Olive’s friend Ahn, the more it felt that way…awkward. I also struggled with the way it was written. It was third person POV in Olive’s perspective, but it read like it should have been first person, if that makes sense. I still struggle to have a visual in my head on what Olive or any of the secondary characters looked like, there was almost no physical descriptions of them. As it was, all of the secondary characters just came across flat, rudimentary, and two dimensional. And it didn’t take long before the main characters came across that way too.
I did enjoy the ending and seeing Olive finally, FINALLY, stand up for herself and truly show growth as a character. I also loved seeing Adam’s fuzzy and soft side. There was some steam at the end that added, though not much for me, to the chemistry. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need steam to enjoy a book. But when the chemistry is already lagging for me, it just felt super lacking here.
So did I dislike it? No. Did I love it? Also no. Would I recommend it? Sure! It’s a cute, slow burn romance that I think plenty would love. I just wish I was one of them. So while it was an enjoyable read, it also won’t be anything I remember or come back to after finishing.

Hazelwood's books are about people in STEM, academia, and research, which I absolutely love, and she has the chops to pull it off. In addition to romance, she is the writer of peer-reviewed articles about brain science. Pulling a strong power imbalance relationship between her protagonists off as a debut book takes courage, and Hazelwood has it in spades. The heroine is a graduate student in the same department as the hero who is a professor. He is not her advisor nor is he on her PhD thesis committee, but it is still a power imbalance situation. With clever and yet seamless plot and character maneuvering, Hazelwood employs a cracking pace, witty banter, and fully accessible complex people to make it easy for the reader to take the leap and believe that this is a healthy, solid relationship. Highly recommended.

Review will be published on Cogitations & Meditations later this month at http://keirasoleore.blogspot.com.

Hazelwood writes fun and exciting romances and I can' t wait to read future ones. You didn't need to say more than smart woman in STEM to get my attention!

Olive is a graduate student working towards her Ph.D. in the STEM field at Stanford. She’s in the lab late one night when she bumps into Adam. Her best friend Ahn has just spotted her, and she asks if she can kiss him – and thus, a whole fake dating situation is born. Olive just got out of a short relationship with Jeremy, who she isn’t really interested in, but realizes Ahn has feelings for. She lied and said she was on a date that night, so when Ahn saw her in the lab, Olive had to make it seem like she was there with a romantic partner. She didn’t even think about who it was she was asking to kiss, and kissing Adam was certainly controversial. Not only is he a professor, but he’s known for making his students cry or even drop out because of how harsh his criticism can be! He’s never been one of Olive’s advisors or teachers and though they’re in the same department, won’t be at this point, so their romance is acceptable at the university. Better yet, a continued relationship with Adam will convince Ahn she can date Jeremy. And for Adam, dating someone will convince Stanford that he has roots in the area and is less likely to accept a position at another university, hopefully leading to them releasing funds for one of his projects that they currently have frozen.

It’s all convoluted, but Ali Hazelwood does a great job of making the academic world just *make sense*. My interests lie in the humanities, and I’ve tapped out at my Masters degree, but I still totally understood what was going on throughout this novel. The author also does a great job of showing just how sexist and racist academia, especially in the STEM fields, can be. Ahn works on committees and teams to involve more BIPOC women in STEM, and ultimately Olive has to deal with sexual harassment that she struggles to report.

I gotta say, this was the deliciously slowest of slow burns. And when these two finally give in to their feelings, OOF it was hot. Probably the best cunnilingus scene I’ve ever read. *fans self*

If you are a Star Wars fan with a crush on Adam Driver, the hero in this one is literally Adam Driver as Ben Solo. He’s grumpy, six-foot-something, and HOT. And Olive is a stand-in for Rey, though I love how the author fleshed her out. She’s both shy and spirited, loving but guarded. Olive is also demisexual, and the representation is done really well. (On that note, Ahn is Rose, Malcom is Finn, and Holden is Poe. And yes, we get a Finn/Poe romance in the background.) Ultimately, this was a lovely read about two people fake dating, except… of course, it means something more to both of them! My only issues were how I felt the first few pages were just like, “THIS IS ADAM DRIVER.” And also, the use of “clean” to describe someone who doesn’t have STDs. 4 stars!

I really enjoyed this romance. I loved the smart women in grad school. Fake dating is one of my fav tropes and this romance does it great!

A splendid and nerdy Enemies to Lovers that is smart, absolutely adorable, and thoroughly deserving if its huge splash in the world of romance. Hazelwood presents believable characters and chemistry and never once falls into the pitfalls of the trope she is writing: rather presents a deeply vulnerable and human experience most wonderfully set apart by its placement in the world of academia.

Also, what an arresting voice! The chemistry sizzled and sparkled and the pages kept turning. Will definitely be reading more by Hazelwood!

An amazing book! Loved how Ali Hazelwood was able to bring STEM into romance! When you read romance, science not usually a forefront that lends itself to the plot/setting, but the way she combined the two was incredible.

I received a copy of the Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood for free from NetGalley. I enjoyed the fake dating and the snark of Olive and Adam. Olive is a graduate student who is not in Adam's lab or classes. Adam is the hot shot tenured professor. They can date because it doesn't interfere with Stanford's dating rules of student and professor. Adam seems amused by Olive but in a good way and Olive's friends seem to push the two together. I would recommend this book to others who like fake dating tropes.

This book gave me all the feels! From feeling for Olive who has been through a lot, to the hot and steamy romance between her and Adam. I wanted a happy ending for Olive and I was rooting the entire time!

This was such a fun read and even better because it's such a different setting than what I'm used to reading in a rom com. I LOVE that the main character is a STEM female academia as it was refreshing. There are some awkward scenes when the fake-dating troupe had to interact with each other, but it was also kind of endearing in a sense.

And Adam! UGH! SWOON-WORTHY!

Loved this science-focused love story! :)

Thanks Netgalley and Berkley for providing me with this earc for an honest review.

This book was just what I needed to read, perfect for the summer, fun and easy to read! Found myself laughing out loud and wishing for more of Olive, Adam banter. Only thing that would have made this a 5 star read for me was dual povs I’m a sucker for Dual POVs especially in faking dating tropes! Love love love this book can’t wait to read the next one!

I loved this story. It was very cute with likeable characters. However that sex scene was insane. It felt completely out of character for the characters. It almost felt like the author hired a ghost writer to write those pages. Other than that it was fantastic!

It's been a long time since I've been this invested in a rom-com. I could not put this one down. I've read a lot of rom-coms recently, and this one is definitely up there amongst my favorites. This one has all of the rom-com tropes you would expect, but it does it with a tongue in cheek style. I can't wait to see what else Ali Hazelwood and her unique perspective bring us. 18+

Without a doubt, one of my absolute favorite romances of 2021. I could not believe this was a debut novel - I read it cover to cover in one sitting and was absolutely devastated when it was time to bid Olive and Adam farewell. I loved the fake dating trope, the subtle nod to Adam's Judaism (brief Hanukkah mention), Olive's intelligence and so much more. Shall we talk about the wait for the steamy scene and - oh boy, the payoff was ... chef's kiss.

I cannot wait to read more from Hazelwood in the future!

Thank you to Berkley Romance for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

4 Stars!
Nerdy Rom-Com

The story centers around Olive Smith, a 26-year-old Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University. In order to convince her best friend Anh that Olive is happy and dating, she kisses the first person in the hallway Dr. Adam Carlsen, an older, attractive professor that no one particularly likes. Olive and Adam agree to fake-date for a little over a month, both having something to gain from the experience. What neither of them expected was to fall in love.

Let’s start with the good: there were so many things I liked about this book. First it pretty much starts with the main characters getting together and the dynamitic between Olive & Adam was great. There was some diversity represented and women in STEM which was cool- though it was an academic setting, the science wasn’t boring, those details added a lot to the story. One of my favorite parts was at the end seeing Olive stand up for herself and finally be honest about her feelings.

The bad: most of their interactions were thrown together into awkward situations by Olive’s friend Ahn- I would have liked more naturally sweet moments between them, especially initiated by Adam. The worst thing was the number of miscommunications and withholding information from each other... I understand not being forward in the beginning but after a certain point the characters needed to actually talk about what's going on.

Overall it was a cute read and would make a fun movie!

Video where I reviewed this book - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vPEc6dWA90

I think I didn't read the same book that everyone else on booktube did... Because I don't understand the hype on this book.

Let's completely ignore that this is ReyLo fanfic. Honestly, if I didn't know that already I would have never guessed that was the original inspiration It was so vague and subtle, that it honestly had no bearing on the story.

Let's talk about Olive. I hated her. She was your typical "not like other girls" protagonist, trying to be quirky and dorky and honestly I wanted to punch her in the face. She got so mad at Adam for being critical of research work, but um... that means he's a good advisor. He's trying to make the students better and trying to get them prepared for the real world, where work will be torn to shreds.

The book was definitely a slow burn, but I didn't even realize it was a slow burn until I realized we were 70% percent into the book before the sex scene. The anticipation just... wasn't there? I also went back and reread the sex scene, and there was no mention of a condom or any type of protection. That's the number one cardinal rule of romance books...

Finally let's talk about the demisexuality rep. Now, I am not Demi, so I would highly recommend you seek out own voices reviewers. This is just my opinion on if she was talking about my sexuality like this, I would be highly offended. When Olive is trying to explain her thoughts on sex and why she hasn't had a lot of it she says "there is something wrong with my brain", making it seem like she isn't normal. This sentence is NEVER challenged. No one ever says "there's nothing wrong" or anything of the sort. Demisexuality is highly underrepresented, and in my opinion, this is ignorant and damaging.

Not what I was expecting. I had heard that this contained a fun quirky heroine, but she was a bit over the top. Also had some strange consent issues that were never addressed. I can see why people enjoyed this book, but it has some major issues that won't make it enjoyable for all.

Fantastic first romance novel! Loved the stem setting! The characters were funny and the interaction was great. Can't wait for the next one!