The Love Hypothesis
Ratings766
Average rating3.9
four stars for the actual book itself + one star for the indescribable and intense squealing, flailing, fangirling, literally running laps emotions this made me feel
4.25!! he fell first AND he fell harder :,) the only reason it's not 5 stars is because the phrase “known ass” is used one to many times for my liking
E-BOOK & AUDIOBOOK
It was cute. Cute love, little lies that grew, and the academic grind.
I had a grand old time reading this book, it hits a ton of tropes that I love. However, you MUST know going in: if you are not into the miscommunication trope in particular, you will hate this book.
I happen to love that trope, so this was totally my jam. Love the fake dating, love the pining, love the academic setting, love the way Adam is described. He's honestly my favorite part of the book. The big tall brilliant grumpy-grump with the pumpkin-spice guzzling elfin grad student (fake) girlfriend? So fun. So deadpan.
It's a quick read, and it's satisfying, no complaints. Except maybe about one specific line in the spicy scene. It was definitely unintentionally hilarious.
Es un cliché con patas, pero la narración es divertida e ingeniosa.
P.S. Apúntenme como simp de Adam Carlsen.
inhaled this in 2 sittings. my expectation was on the floor but i had a great time.
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!
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.
Sí eres fan de los fanfics románticos probablemente te gusté The Love Hypothesis.
Es una historia,con tintes de slow burn, fácil y disfrutable de leer. Pero, no es diferente a los miles de libros de comédia romántica que salen al año.
Todos los problemas presentados son a causa de la falta de comunicación de los personales, lo cual a medida de que iba leyendo se volvia agotador. Personajes como Ahn terminan siendo de relleno.Tiene motivaciones propias pero termina siendo utilizada unicamente cómo razón para que los personajes esten juntos ( aparte de las situaciones super incomodas e irrazonables que generaba).
Pero, no todo es malo. Creo que una cosa a resaltar de este libro es su realismo en ciertas areas, como lo que pasan las mujeres que trabajan en el STEM. Siendo sincera creo que esta autora tiene potencial, solo necesita mejor en ciertos aspectos narrativos.
understanding almost all the scientific and pop culture references in this book made me feel warm
I don't know what to think of this book. I liked it but I also really didn't. It was really weird at some points. The spicy scene was even a bit gross, and not in a good way. Coming from someone that reads spicy novels like it's a romcom.
(I never saw any tiktok videos about the book, that must be why I read it with less expectations than the others) (I read it for you, Camila, I loved it)
It was a light and short romance book, I needed something like this to regain my taste for romance books. I'm not saying that the construction of the characters was the best, but the theme of “fake relationship” entertains me too much not to enjoy it.
It was good! I enjoyed it and some parts had me blushing and giggling and kicking my feet. It's not the best thing ever but to me it's like literary comfort food. There were a couple of issues I had with this book though. It felt like a fanfiction, which isn't an inherently bad thing. I think had I found this as a reylo academic au on AO3 or Wattpad i would've loved it and talked about how good it was for forever. The issue is, Wattpad and AO3 are free. Some of the dialogue felt clunky or unnatural expecially in the smut chapter! I also think it's strange how normalized teacher-student relationships are in this book. I obviously expected there to be one considering the synopsis but the fact that absolutely no one questioned if Adam was abusing his power, and Olive's friend ends up in almost the same situation which once again raises no questions actually concerns me. I also kinda wish that Olive was fleshed out more. I feel like I barley know her which is a problem when she's our main character. I really wish we could've learned more about her past, expecially because she uses it as an explanation for her actions.
I really enjoyed this book, the romance was so good and I loved the dynamic between the two love interests.