The Love Hypothesis

Read for Swoon Sisters Book Club Live Discussion: January 2022

I really loved the writing and the representation of women in STEM. The romance was well done but I noticed if I took a break from this book for even a day I would start to forget what happened in the book so I think it'll be a bit forgettable for me. 

I didn't know I liked contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia, and yeap, I do! This was fun and light-hearted! Just what I needed to get out of a sudden book slump at the end of the month. I empathized with the characters, their academic struggles, and their self-doubts. The romance was adorable, I just wanted a happy ending for all the characters!??

This should have worked. It has ALL my favourite tropes! The fake dating, the “who hurt you”, forced proximity.... But Olive was insufferable. The amount of times she “must have imagined it” GIRL! Get an MRI then bc something isn't right. Not to mention she couldn't speak to save her life. The sheer amount of times she just “I....what—?” “No that's not—“ was astronomical. She went on and on about how “she wasn't like this” “this wasn't her” “she wasn't a crier” but was exactly that. The. Whole. Time.
Insufferable character! Ugh!
But there were moments that made me happy giggle, and laugh. So it's not a one star.

Not a 5 star for me and that was surprising. I thought this would probably be one of my top 5 of the year and I'm sad it wasn't.
I enjoyed it a lot, it was super entertaining BUT the miscommunication trope is tricky and it annoyed me in a very specific moment here.
Miscommunication isn't blatantly lying. Olive lied to Adam's face when he overheard her admitting she had feelings. That scene was unnecessary, the author could've done it differently. If this was a YA book, I'd get it, it would be typical YA behavior: scared to admit feelings, leading to lying just to save face. But this is an Adult book. So, I was not a fan of that.
Anyway, despite that annoying me and the steamy scenes having a few weird sentences that I didn't quite enjoy and found awkward (it needed a little editing), I was soooo invested in the romance.
Loved the STEM environment and the slow burn. The banter between Olive and Adam was fantastic and they were adorable together.
I'm curious about what AH will write next.

I went into this book blind and it became pretty clear in the first half of the book that it was originally a reylo fanfiction. Although I'm sure the name ‘Adam' and the cover illustration helped in clicking that link though.

Honestly though it vives better if you're thinking of it as a fanfiction. It's quite a clumsy read as actual novel, requires suspension of disbelief of quite a few scenes to make sense.

OK, WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN? If I could give this book 1000 stars, I would give it. It deserves all the stars in the world. What a beautiful, amazing debut for Ali Hazelwood. She is going to be a great author, I'm sure of that. I mean, she already is. And I've made it my personal mission to make everyone read this book, because it's so good. I can't stop thinking about it. I finished it last night at 1 AM and I went to sleep thinking about it and I woke up thinking about it. That's when I know it's an amazing book.

If you're a fan of the fake dating trope, you're going to fall in love with this book. I'm not a huge fan, but this book made me love it. The dynamic between the characters is pure perfection, the friendships and the relationships are so good. The main character, Olive, is such an amazing and strong woman, she overcomes so many of her fears throughout the book and I found her to be very inspiring and a very good motivation. As a woman in STEM myself, I felt for her in so many ways. And oh, don't get me started on Adam Carlsen. The broody, mysterious professor who makes his students cry, who is such an intriguing figure... and who happens to become Olive's fake-boyfriend. I love him so much, I CAN'T EXPLAIN. His character spoke to my heart, the tenderness underneath that tough facade was something that managed to melt my heart.

Olive and Adam are made for each other and I was so happy to see their fake relationship become a friendship and then evolve into something beautiful.
Also, this book is going to break your heart, I WARNED YOU! It's going to break it into a million pieces and then put it back together in such a beautiful way, you'll forget you had it broken in the first place.

What more can I say? If I haven't already convinced you to read this book, JUST...WHY? You have to give it a chance, it's A-MA-ZING!

This is the first rom-com book I've read in a long time that I can honestly say is great.

I think what sold this story for me was the fact that we are in a “mature” setting and that we are dealing with legitimate young adults. Therefore, we get to experience their successes/failures in their professional lives while also contrasting it with their personal ones, and the way the characters are handled to contrast one another gave way to a lot of effective humor as well as (putting it in simple words) “Awwww” moments.

Also, the fact that the author is incredibly self-aware of the usual rom-com tropes as well as including inconspicuous pop culture references made this a joy to read.

It feels weird to say, but I actually found the “romance” aspect of the book to be very...healthy. What I mean by this is that, especially in recent books/movies of this kind (looking at you Twilight, 50 Shades, To All The Boys, Kissing Booth and the rest of Pandora's Box Demons), the romantic aspects always thread the line between toxic/abusive/manipulative or you at least could get aspects of a relationship that are really negative but that was “romanticized”.

I don't really like that current trend, which most [YA] authors follow, so I was incredibly surprised that the relationship between the two protagonists was actually healthy, mature, and supportive.

You know, a “normal” relationship.
Also, since we're being adults here, the sex scenes are done better than the average standard or “frame of reference” a.k.a they are displayed in a positive and realistic light that is not often seen in similar books a.k.a hot shit.

Overall, I really liked this book and it definitely set a positive bar for romance novels in my regard. If it gets adapted to a movie, I hope it'll be done by a director and writer that actually values the essence of the story (weird opinion, but this would be an amazing 13-ep anime given the right animation studio).

If you're looking for a silly and mindless rom-com that plays into the fake-dating trope, then yes, this book is for you. If you're looking for a compelling female character, an appealing love interest, and a plot that has substance, then no, this is sadly not for you.

I wish I liked this book, but I do not. Even though it was a fairly easy read and the premise was up my alley, it was just so frustrating to read through because of how incessantly annoying Olive is. Her logic makes no sense at all, like non-consensually kissing and sexually assaulting the random person in a hallway so your friend could back off your dating life? I don't know, how about talking to your so-called best friend about that?

As an adult woman, she has zero backbone, integrity, and respect for herself. I understand how insecurities and imposter syndrome can feed our internal cycle of hate towards ourselves, lowering our self-esteem and devaluing our self-worth. Olive is supposed to come off as relatable to readers simply because she has insecurities that makes her an imperfect and flawed person. Yet, it so hard to find her likeable because she has no character development at all. She spends the entire book berating and doubting herself on whether she is worthy of a spot in academia and whether she is a likeable romantic interest (for Adam). It's just so frustrating to sit through 350 pages of a woman who refuses to grow up and take matters into her own hands, who refuses to stand up for herself even when confronted by a terrible, disgusting person. And worse yet, all of her problems are constantly resolved by a man whom she even calls her “knight in black armor”. It was such a cringeworthy and eye-rolling line.

The long-harboring crush that Adam has towards Olive was plain creepy and not cute at all. You're telling me a 31 year-old (established professor) crushed on a 23 year-old (post-undergrad, incoming grad) after one chance encounter, and kept crushing on her for 3 years? There's an underlying power dynamic here in both age and career/professionalism that can't be ignored, no matter how respectful and patient Adam is or how they're both consenting adults. Additionally, they're both emotionally inadequate to be in an intimate relationship with each other - one is emotionally stunted (Adam) and the other is emotionally immature (Olive). I also could not stand the way they spoke to each other; their banter lacked substance, continuously making the same jokes/jabs at each other as if they don't actually know each other that well. I honestly could not feel any romantic chemistry between these two.

That smut scene... I get that this was originally a fanfic and I can see this exact scene in a fanfic I'd typically read, but I am just so tired of the inexperienced young woman x experienced older man trope. It just feeds even more into their power imbalance. Also, it was so weird when Adam said “You can take it” like sir... you are not the one taking it, please wait for her to say yes or no.

Could not get enough of Olive and Adam's relationship!! Especially how careful and attentive (in his own way) Adam was with Olive from the jump. Also what's not to love about a literal anxious ball of sunshine and their snarky, broody white knight of a teddy bear. Like I ate it up lol.

It was the outside forces aka Olive's definitely well meaning yet HEAVY handed friends that brought the story down for me but they really do want the best for Olive so I can't fault them too much. But whew.

Very enjoyable read and many congratulations for Ali Hazewood on this stellar debut!

I think there are some serious pros and cons to this book. I feel as if it's a very fast ready, that you can fly through easily.

Issues:
- How being BIPOC and liking her ex was her entire friends personality
- Her friends were shitty. Like yh he didn't mean anything to the main chatting but it still felt icky how quickly she was like OKAY. I would be fine with this if it wasn't for the scene where they abandoned her with no accommodation on the trip. 1. Just because you have a man doesn't mean u should neglect friendships. If u were gunna do something with ur friends, at least have a conversation if you want to cancel! Not make her feel dumb for asking. 2. The male friend who knew was shitty because he knew that wasn't her man but continued to abandon her anyway.
- The effect of the power imbalance of the relationship led to nepotism. The MC benefitted from it, and despite all the talk of BIPOC and Women in STEM, they didn't seem to see an issue with this....
- they did not spend enough time together for this to be feasible. Luckily they met more than they planned to, but even still come on they didn't see each other as someone who was in a relationship would.