The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood: Book Review & Annotations

I'm late to the train, I know, but I finally read this book. After seeing this book on TikTok for so long, I finally gave it a try; I have mixed feelings. I'll be sharing the pros and cons that I discovered during this book. Minor spoiler alerts ahead, you've been warned!

Pros of The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Academia

If you read my review of Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard, you know I love a story based on academia. This book follows biologists, pharmacologists, a lot of Ph.D. candidates, etc. I love the professor/student age-gap relationship (did I mention they're fake dating?) they're practically my favourite tropes. The drama that comes with academia is also a page-turner, so that's a pro in itself.

Self-Awareness

The main characters in this book, Adam and Olive have a few conversations either with each other or their peers about "the one-bed trope" or "stupid rom-com movies" and I just find that hilarious. I love how the author Ali Hazelwood faced the stereotypes of her genre head-on; the delivery was so creative, smart and unique.

Adam and Olive's Relationship

Considering the fact that they're fake dating, Adam and Olive get to know each other so well; their likes and dislikes, their pasts, and their hopes for the future. Small spoiler coming up; Adam gives Olive a protein bar at one point in the book that she forgets to eat, and it's chocolate; Olive realizes he must have bought it purposely for her seeing as he hates chocolate. The little things about their romance are what get me in the feels.

Cons of The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Academia

Yes, I know this was my first pro. It's also my first con. I love academia, yes, but what I didn't love was feeling stupid as I read scientific terms that I didn't understand. Sure, that could be a "me" problem, but I found myself Googling term after term over the course of this book and it just felt like work.

The Spicy Scenes

I can appreciate a spicy scene as much as the next person, but the way Hazelwood wrote the spice wasn't my favourite. Minor spoiler coming up; one scene, in particular, bothered me where Olive is performing a "service" to Adam and he holds her head down...it doesn't scream romance to me.

I'm unsure if I'll read Hazelwood's other books, considering I liked this one but it's definitely not my first choice. It wasn't so bad that I labelled it DNF but I also wouldn't say it's going on my list of favourite books either. I think Adam really made this book enjoyable for me, seeing as I liked his moodiness and sarcasm which kept the story comedic and relatable. It's a cute story, but nothing groundbreaking.

Did you read The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, or are you planning to? Let's have a chat here in the comments, or send me a message on Instagram, @cozyannotations.

A presto,

Melissa