Title: The Love Hypothesis
Author: Ali Hazelwood, narrated by Callie Dalton and Teddy Hamilton.
Length: 11 hours, 51 mins, Hardback: 397 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance. Sub-genres: academia, stem, fake dating.
Is this part of a series? Yes, this is book one of a duet along side Love on the Brain. Fun fact: we also have a cameo in Deep End.
I discovered this book… browsing in Walmart
Published: September 14th, 2021- special edition: June 10th, 2025
Summary (courtesy of Goodreads)
As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships—but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor—and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. And when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding. . . six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.
My thoughts:
Spoilers ahead
This book was the start of my obession with Hazelwood’s books. Two things to bear in mind will be: this is in reguards to the special edition with the bonus chapter, and this was my second read-through of the book. Also, I will most likely be discussing both the visuals for my “trophy” edition and the choice of voice actors. Let’s get started!
First, I loved these characters! Olive is the smartest stupid person ever (expired contacts- multiple times?!?) I was enthralled by her humor, and I wanted to pop popcorn and sit back to see what cringy situation she would dive into next. Adam was always a favorite male lead for me- seriously, I measure other leads to him now. I was so excited to see that he got a chapter in his narrative… it wasn’t how I thought it would be, but it was amazing (and filthy). I will say, I feel like Teddy Hamilton was maybe not the best voice for Adam, or at least not how I heard him in my head. I love that voice actor, he did great with Pacey from Meghan Quinn’s series…. but it was… off here. The hardback has new inner art, stenciled sides and foil art on the cover as well as Adam’s chapter. It is beautiful!
The layout for the book was interesting- a fluid story going from the first meeting to the first kiss and beyond. I liked the chapter headers that give a slight nod to what’s going to happen in the book, while being adorable. (An example “Chapter Three. Hypothesis: a private conversation with Adam Carlsen will become 150 percent more awkward after the word “sex” is uttered. By me.”) I kind of loved how Adam leaned into every crazy scheme- fake dating, kissing, Coffee Wednesday, every single idea that involves touching- while trying to be respectful of every line that Olive drew. To me, these two were a quirky pairing, but the chemistry was unreal- not the spice level- though there is some, and Adam has an absolutely filthy subconcious. I just loved them together and celebrated every instance where they had cameos in other books. For me, this will always be a five star read.
As far as adult content goes, there is some abuse of power, language and sexual content- mild until the last fourth of the book. I would say level three spice.
The book is out! Have you read it?
Happy reading! See you next time!
Gwen
