Trying to be a matchmaker for her best friend and her ex-boyfriend, Olive finds herself in a difficult situation, when she starts a fake relationship with a young professor to prove she has zero feelings for her ex, but will this experiment be worth it?
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Ali Hazelwood is an Italian neuroscientist, a romance writer that features women in STEM and academia as her protagonists. “The Love Hypothesis” is Hazelwood’s debut novel, which became the Instant New York Times Bestseller and Tiktok sensation. It was released in September 2021. I saw this book in my Instagram fyp and without a second thought I had bought it.
The Love Hypothesis is a sweet but shaky romance story between a Standford PhD candidate, Olive and a distinguished young professor, Adam. When Olive tries to matchmake her best friend, Anh and ex-boyfriend, Jeremy, she kisses Adam to convince Anh that they were dating. Thus, began the fake dating fiasco. Olive had always thought that she would never fall in love with Adam, but the swoon-worthy man he is, she falls in love with him and becomes distressed at how he would react to it. To top it of, a horrifying experience at a science conference ruins her future plans of her career.
Through this book, Hazelwood throws light on the reality of people in academia and STEM. The low wages, unreasonable deadlines, working 24/7, poor mental health and many more harsh realities are portrayed through Olive and her friends.
Mind you, it is not your normal romcom with two white people and other white side characters. Hazelwood, has perfectly defined inclusivity in this book and how women are treated in this field. Adam, on the other hand is a perfect gentleman with a perfect brain, a perfect body and the ability to treat his woman right.
I was a bit disappointed with the storyline as it was somewhat predictive. There were some parts where I knew I didn’t have to read the coming chapters to know what would happen next. Besides a few predictive plot-lines, the book is an amazing read.
Overall, I would rate this book a 3.9 out of 5. Regardless of what I rate this book, I highly recommend this to everyone who has a soft spot for romance novels.
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