Name: Molly
Grade: 11th
Title: The Love Hypothesis
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Published in: 2021
Pages: 384
Rating: 5 stars
“The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood, set in academia, follows Ph.D. student, Olive Smith, and Professor, Adam Carlsen, on their fake-dating journey. Olive’s best friend, Anh, has an interest in Olive’s ex Jeremy, but won’t make any moves because she’s a loyal friend. Olive tries to prove to her that she’s over him and has gotten back into dating and to do this, she does the only rational thing she can think of in her panic and kisses the first guy she encounters. This happens to be Adam Carlsen, the professor known for being uncompassionate and rude, whose students leave his room crying. This kiss turns out to be an opportunity for them both, as they can both gain something from a relationship. Adam Carlsen proposes a fake-dating plan, and from then on, the book follows them through their journey of getting to know each other, and the hardships that come from fake-dating someone you believe doesn’t have feelings for you.
I really liked this book. It held my attention the whole time and I was able to read it in a day. I really liked the academia theme because it was different from most books I’ve ever read and gave me a chance to learn about academia. My favorite character was Adam Carlsen because you are able to see how he changes throughout the book and how Olive is able to get him to open up to her. There is a lot of character growth and Olive and Adam’s relationship is really cute. This book made me feel every emotion and had me putting it down just to react to what I read.
I would recommend “The Love Hypothesis” to everyone. It has quickly become one of my favorite books. The book has two distinct tropes, fake-dating, and grumpy/sunshine, two of my favorite book tropes, so if you like these tropes, I definitely recommend giving this book a read. If you like YA romance, this is the book for you. This book started as a Reylo Starwars fanfiction, so if you are into that, read this book as it was based on Rey and Kylo Ren’s fanon relationship. It reminded me of the book, “The Upside of Falling” by Alex Light because of the fake-dating trope and its start as fanfiction.
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