So, this was a new one for me.
Romance.
And not “the world is ending and I’m a dark and tortured soul entranced by your sunshine” kind of love.
I mean a real-world, friends to lovers, fake-dating turned real love, bumbling, slightly cringey, miscommunication-filled romance.
A romance that was so sweet at some points I had pain in my back teeth.
But despite my instinctual rejection of all things lovey-dovey in books, I…
…Will admit that I actually really enjoyed it.
Curse you Hazelwood!
The story follows a Ph.D. student, Olive, who with one simple little white lie to her best friend, suddenly finds herself in desperate need of an emergency boyfriend.
So, what’s a girl to do? Grab the first man that comes her way and plant quite the kiss on him.
Then grovel, apologize, and die of embarrassment.
As you do.
I really liked Olive. She’s insanely smart, unbelievably awkward (did someone say relatable?) and it helps that she’s adorable too.
Then you’ve got emergency fake boyfriend, Adam.
Tall, dark, and oh so brooding.
So, I lied a little bit earlier; I don’t reject all things romance.
I’m a sucker for a relationship where person A is a human ray of sunshine and person B is so grumpy that they need a cartoon cloud over their heads. It’s made even better when grumpy is kind of an asshole to everyone except the sunshine person.
I’m not saying it’s the ‘healthiest’ of relationship forms, but I eat that shit up for breakfast when it’s written well.
And Ali Hazelwood writes it really well.
Another plus in this story is it actually covers some serious topics among the cute and cringe.
Discrimination that women face in STEM fields, the severity of academic pressure, sexual harassment, and fallout.
Hazelwood does a great job of blending the cute with the serious, the deep with the downright laughable.
CONTENT WARNING:
If you are prone to immature reactions to sex scenes in film and/or books (like my good self) then brace yourself because The Love Hypothesis gets a little, teeny-weeny bit steamy.
And by little-teeny-weeny bit I mean DO NOT READ THOSE SCENES IN THE PRESENCE OF SMALL CHILDREN OR PARENTS IF YOU ARE PRONE TO BLUSHING.
Overall if you’re looking for a fun read that doesn’t completely go overboard with an EVERYTHING IS AWESOME attitude then Love Hypothesis does the job.
It’s sweet, it’s silly, it’s serious in all the right proportions and allegedly it started out as a Rey/Kylo Ren fanfiction which makes it a hundred times better because *clears throat - Adam Driver.
That’s the end of the sentence.
Adam. Freakin’. Driver.
I cannot guarantee that that is true though. Ali Hazelwood, can you confirm or deny?
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