The Love Hypothesis

“The Love Hypothesis“ by Ali Hazelwood is a STEM based, fake relationship rom-com that came in around two stars for me. It started as a one star and then ended around three.

I do love me some trauma, so the emotional stuff in the second half got me. However, I think the cringe was turned up a bit too high for my tastes. Olive acts like a high schooler even though she’s supposedly a phd student. And I can justify some stupid choices for the sake of rom-com plot, so I can get behind the dumb decisions that led to the fake relationship in the first place. It’s the subsequent lies and dumb decisions that are too much and kept pulling me out of it (all while she claimed she didn’t lie). Or maybe I would be fine with one or two of those if it hadn’t started the way it did. It felt like the story was racing to finish checking all the boxes on a rom-com checklist (while also referencing said checklist).

I think the book is fine. I can absolutely see myself recommending it to certain people. But for me, having read this and a novella, I don’t plan on reading any of her other works.