Kirkus Review: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Kirkus-style Review: The Love Hypothesis (2021) by Ali Hazelwood

 

A spunky, smart PhD student pretends to date the most infamous professor in the Stanford biology department in this fanfiction turned contemporary romance.

 

Olive Smith is uncertain about whether to enroll in Stanford University’s Biology PhD program. On a fateful day of interviews, her expired contacts cause her to spend an inordinate amount of time washing her eyes out in the lab bathroom of Dr. Adam Carlsen. He encounters her there and has an impactful conversation with her, convincing her to enroll, in spite of her not being able to tell who he is (on account of her irritated eyes). A couple of years later, Olive is a rising star in the pancreatic cancer research program. On the social side of her life, she is trying to convince her friend Anh that it is totally okay to date her sort-of ex Jeremy and that it won’t bother her. To prove it, she impulsively kisses the nearest pair of lips when Anh is nearby. Those lips are attached to none other than Dr. Carlsen, who she now knows as the most infamously critical and unpleasant professor in the school. What was a single moment of stupidity for Olive quickly grows into a rumor she can’t contain, as the whole biology department gets wind that she and Adam are an item. To Olive’s disbelief, Adam suggests they concoct a fake dating scheme that benefits them both to varying degrees; Olive’s friends will stop feeling guilty about dating each other, and Adam’s research funds will hopefully be un-frozen when the chair realizes he is committed to staying in California with his “girlfriend.” They decide to pretend to date for about a month,

with a cut-off date of September 29^th, the day Adam expects his funds to be released. Hazelwood sends this duo through the hoops of classic romance tropes over and over in this sunshine-meets-storm cloud courtship, with some of them landing better than others. The characters often make unrealistic decisions or say ridiculous things, but it serves to keep the plot fast-paced and puts the “com” in “rom com.” Hazelwood attempts to avoid the uncomfortable professor/student power dynamic by having Adam teach in a different department and making him just young enough that he can relate to Olive, but it still rides a line of impropriety. Still, with some suspension of disbelief, Olive makes a fun protagonist to begin Hazelwood’s “STEMinist” series, which showcases that science can be sexy.

 

A cute, quick read, but rough around the edges.