I ruined myself staying up all night to read The Love Hypothesis and don't regret a single minute. It's a flat-out phenomenal book. It schooled me on science and also on thirst. Hazelwood evokes the academic setting deftly and lightly but doesn't shy away from showing its dark side. There's hilarity on almost every page, and also complexity, depth, real pain, and real warmth. I loved Olive for her intensity, her awkwardness, her hard-won emotional intelligence, and I loved the way the tension built between Olive and Adam. And how the friends in the novel saw and supported each other! The writing is superb. The sentences just kept attaching themselves to the receptors in my brain and making me want more. I don't know how I'm going to wait for Hazelwood's next book!

Oh my gosh, this book. I loved it from the moment I saw the cover. Also appreciated the Matt the Radar Technician reference. Truly one of the best romantic comedies I have read in a long time.

Make way, make way!!! We've got a new romance author in town and I AM A FAN!! 👏 This was absolutely AMAZING! I literally want to fangirl SO hard over how much I loved this book. It's a new fav for sure.

It starts off with such a fun meet cute which leads to two scientists fake dating. My heart about swooned right out of my chest with their cute banter. Adam was a hotshot, grumpy, Professor with a gooey cinnamon roll center. I couldn't get enough of him and adored how he was so grumpy to everyone BUT the main character, Olive. She was so fun and spunky!!! They had the best chemistry. 🥵🔥🙌 Things got HAWT!!!

This story was EVERYTHING I wanted in a light hearted romance. 🙌 My only wish is that it came out sooner because I want everyone who loves romance to READ THIS!! I am dying to reread this AMAZING story already! I can't wait to see what Ali writes next

This book is so so so sweet and wonderful. A lot of fun tropes that I love spun together in tale set in STEM academia! I need more science in my life even if I don’t understand a word these people are saying to each other about their jobs!

Things I loved about this book:
-Women in STEM!
-Fake dating trope pulled off soooo well and so sweet and tingly
-Fun banter and blushes and smiles
-TWO BEDS. I love a good romance book that also pokes fun at romance books. Hysterical.
-Great steam. Thank you for the steam!

I also want to point out that I love books that have the Schitt’s Creek vibe in it. If there’s gonna be LGBT representation, I love it when everyone is cool with it and there doesn’t have to be any conversation about homophobia. Yay for no homophobia!!!!

Great book! I love love loved it!

‘The Love Hypothesis’ is a really delightful one. And I’d thought that this would be a 5-star read throughout from the start when the fake-dating trope takes off under somewhat unusual circumstances. Done in the sole context of academia (surly, hot professor and somewhat timid and meek grad student), it’s also an irresistible one…to me at least.

There was a tad bit of implausibility that ran throughout the whole story—suspend the disbelief here in this rom-com—but once it takes off, the slow burn between Olive and Adam was impossible to ignore. I loved Olive’s character from the start: her words, actions and thoughts were gently funny and endearing and while I definitely found myself at sea with the academic processes or the science that lay behind the stuff mentioned in the book, Ali Hazelwood brings her entire cast in with aplomb and personalities that did seem larger than life.

But while Olive was 3-dimensionally fleshed out, the other half of the pairing, Adam Carlsen, remained a half-formed, unreadable protagonist in my mind, with my only recollection of him seen through the veil of Olive’s eyes as disapproving, distant, sharp and lacking in words…but also stoic to the point where you needed to shape him through what other characters say.

While it was all well and good as a narrative device here, it did however, come to a point where it stopped being enough because Adam needed to step through that veil on his own, which he didn’t. Usually, in books where single POVs are maintained throughout, there is typically a moment when the other protagonist says something, or makes a confession or a grand gesture that tips the bucket of emotions that you have been inferred of or ‘put’ onto the characters themselves the whole time, finally resolving what you’d triumphantly thought you’ve known all along. There wasn’t such a lightbulb moment with Adam, sadly. Where I finally expected grandiose speeches, he simply ran out of words and steam and the whole picture building up to a climax that was supposed to be glorious (in my head) turned out flat instead.

In all, the geeky angle appealed immediately but I knew however, it could have sent me further into the stratosphere with a few tweaks with POVs and character development, more so as we came to the final quarter of the story. Instead, my clay feet stayed rooted to the ground, while Adam/Olive seemed to be lacking a lot more serious, clear-up-the-air-type conversations that the reader needed to be privy to.

Ugh this book is perfect. The diversity. The female STEM icon that is Olive. The grumpy, broody, brilliant human that is Adam Carlsen. I loved every single page of this book. Olive’s anxiety felt perfectly real and well represented. The realities of being a women in any workplace are represented so well, and dealing with the academia world for the past 6 years ( just not STEM) I feel like this really was handled well and with great care. This book is wonderful and I think everyone should read it.

cw: cancer, sexual harassment, death of a parent

i read "the love hypothesis" in a day and i loved every minute of it. it was that good. i haven't loved a romance book in a while so this is monumental for me. i am shocked this is a debut novel.

the book deals with academia and how hard it is to be successful as a woman, besides the romance, which is an aspect the author handled so well. the romance was soft and it's basically grumpy × sunshine. the two MCs, adam and olive have amazing chemistry and i actually laughed at some parts of the book. their banter gave me life.

the cast of side characters were so loveable and diverse. i just adored everyone. the relationship between holden and malcolm was adorable. her best friend, anh was such a badass, strong character.

i loved this one with my whole being because it's a book about a woman in STEM written by a woman in STEM. so it's done well and it's very relatable. olive is a ray of sunshine thar tries so hard to do well and help her friends, which gets her into some funny situations. i loved these awkward moments with adam, they were so bloody funny.

adam is the embodiment of "grumpy". he's blunt and sarcastic, but he turns soft when he's with olive. i melted like butter when he got all "fool in love" around her.

this book will definitely turn into one of my comfort reads because i just cant stop thinking about it.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Who hasn't accidentally roped the local lab grump into a fake relationship? When lab student Olive Smith kisses Dr. Adam Carlsen in a moment of desperate need, she doesn't anticipate the lab's meanest member to agree to convince her friends they're dating. But as they get into closer and closer quarters, they find there might be a shot at a real relationship. The fan fiction roots are here, with blurbs before each chapter that read like an authors note. Fun, quick and cute.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I loved this book! Olive is the most wonderful character- funny and smart, but also nervous and bumbling and oh-so relatable. The fact she can’t see how wonderful she is only makes her a more endearing character. And Adam is the perfect love interest- brooding and complicated but with that twitch of a smile that makes your heart melt. And the chemistry between the two characters is off the charts!

Ali Hazlewood has created a plot that is smart, moving and so much fun, but she also manages to make some serious points about the world of academia, sexism and harassment. I tore through this book in two sittings, and I’m bereft to finish it. The Love Hypothesis is a phenomenal debut, and I can’t wait for more books from this author!

This was such a lovely, heart happy book. It has an interesting and fun premise and both characters are incredibly lovable and relatable. I wanted to immediately pick it up and start reading it again as soon as I finished.

The Love Hypothesis was nothing short of adorable! The characters, the story, the chemistry (both literal and figurative).... all of it! I love the relationships between the characters and the friendships they share. Olive is a female in STEM and her voice is so authentic because author, Ali Hazelwood is also... a female in STEM! Even if you're not science/mathematically minded (um, hello... that would be ME!) this book is still for you! I never felt bored or out of touch with the "shop talk" - Hazelwood does an excellent job of making the information accessible without "dumbing it down" for lack of a better term.

This is every rom-com/contemporary romance lover's dream book. It's equally parts steamy, swoon worthy, and hilarious! Olive is such a fun and unique character. She deals with the universal issues of anxiety, loneliness, and fear that we can all relate to - no matter our area of expertise. Adam is.... *sigh* just the right amount of strong and sweet, caring and compassionate, a modern day (brooding) Clark Kent if you will. ;-)

I requested this book after one of my favorite authors gushed about it on instagram, and I'm so glad I listened! I would have been sad to have missed out on Olive's story - it's quickly become a new favorite!
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

MY HEART IS SO HAPPY! Oh my goodness - let me start by saying the fake-dating trope is not my favorite. But holy cow - I WAS HOOKED INSTANTLY. This book has amazing chemistry, humor, sex, and does include my ultimate favorite trope of all time: ONE BED. I will be adding this to our library's collection and insisting that patrons check it out. Adam is my new favorite book boyfriend. ❤

I absolutely love this book! It was the first book I read with the fake dating trope and I'm in love. The tension between the characters is absolutely intriguing. I'm addicted!!!

I loved this book, there were some inconsistencies and it wasn't perfect, but it was super enjoyable. The banter between the main characters was solid and, even though I didn't understand most of the scientific terms, I didn't need to in order to thoroughly enjoy the plot and overall book itself.

Favorite romance of the year. Felt like I was walking back in time to grad school, except my experience did not have a meet-cute and love story that won me over.. I feel cheated by my real life.

Let me start off by saying I am a HUGE fan of the “fake dating”, “fake relationship”, really fake anything trope. It is one of my guilty pleasures. This book did such a great job at creating a fake relationship!
In this book you meet Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith. A twenty something year old woman who is a graduate student at Stanford. I really liked Olive’s personality. She is sweet and funny and would do anything for anyone. You don’t get a ton of background on her, except a little bit of information about her mother, which you’ll appreciate due to certain reasons. Olive wants her close friend Anh to date her ex-boyfriend Jeremy, and finds that the only way to get Anh to not feel guilty, is to pretend she is dating someone else. In comes our hero….
Adam Carlsen is a well-known scientist and professor at the school. He is known for being brutal and not holding back his opinion on student’s projects. After getting kissed out of no where by a graduate student (ahem, Olive), he is thrown into a fake dating spiral. While in the book Adam is very blunt and has a dry sense of humor, you see that he is much kinder to Olive. I love how he treats her and once again—his dry humor is everything! He is dark and brooding and well… that is another weakness of mine.
There are issues along the way, as the couple comes up with a plan on how to carry on their dating life style. Olive is frequently thrown into awkward moments with Adam due to Anh. And there is some drama, though not much in my opinion.
I really enjoyed this book. I was hoping we would get a little more background information on Adam and Olive, but it didn’t go too deep. The entire book is set around them being a student and a professor. There was also some steam—not much, but a chapter or two had me fanning myself a little.
This book is definitely going to be a comfort read for me. I think it is perfect if you’re wanting something a little bit lighter.

There's always hype about the next buzzy romance, but in the case of THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS, the hype is absolutely true. This geeky, funny, witty, heartfelt STEM romance feels fresh and familiar all at once, in the best ways possible. It's got so many delightful tropes: a grumpy/sunshine pairing, fake dating, a colorful cast of supporting characters - so much to love!

The plot itself isn't too complicated: to prove to her friend that she's over an ex, grad student Olive impulsively strikes up a fake-dating relationship with famously grumpy, reticent professor Adam. As they both struggle with unexpected obstacles in their research, they also wind up spending more time together and growing to like one another for real.

The dialogue is always witty and clever, perfect for a cast of characters who are far too smart for their own good. It's a romantic comedy, sure, but it also touches on very real and sometimes serious issues, which make the book all the more lived-in and real-feeling, especially for anyone who's ever set foot in academia. An absolute must-read (and re-read)!

Oh goodness. This book has everything! Women in STEM, fake dating, enemies to lovers, excellent diversity. I fell in love with this book and couldn't put it down!!

I cannot get enough of this book and Olive and Adam! I just want to take Olive home and be her family - that's how invested I was in her story. She is so relatable and I felt for her so much, cheering her on. I sped through this book so fast because I really cared what happened to Olive and Adam. It's so refreshing to read a romance set in academia, and to see the struggles Olive and her fellow grad students have to make a name for themselves. And Adam was the perfect counterpart to Olive. I love that he was despised by the students, yet shows a different side to Olive. She can see underneath the gruff, aggressively critical man to the one who is caring, thoughtful and kind. I highly recommend this engrossing romance and know it will leave you with a feel-good glow long after you turn the last page.

I LOVED this book! This is Ali Hazelwood’s debut novel and It was quirky and funny and amazing! This book was so funny I laughed in almost each chapter, Olive is a refreshing break that I needed from my normal heroines; she’s smart, (she is in year 3 of her Ph.D studies) witty and charmingly adorable. And Adam, there is something to be said about the moody, brooding , hot guy scientist who doesn’t know he’s not. There story was like any other, ‘a kiss turned into fake dating’ scenario but that’s where the similarities ended with other “fake dating” books. Everything from the reason behinds the fake dating, to the slow build of friendship, then more for the two, to an ending which I did not see coming. To me. The book is set in a world of academia and science and while there was maybe one, or two words I had to sound out, 😂 the science and academics play second fiddle to the romance. I am seriously inspired to switch careers, become a scientist, and find myself an Adam…. Except I don’t really like science that much, even for the potential hot guy😆. Awesome debut novel Ali! 5 ⭐️’s