I’ve not been one to add romance books to my tbr list unless there are other elements to the stories that I know I will be interested in, such as a historical fiction setting or fantasy world full of rich detail, characters, and cultures. Reading contemporary romance is a once in a blue moon thing – or it was before I picked up The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. This book has been popular since its publication and I have been avoiding it as much as possible, in part because I don’t know if I can trust bookish social media’s popular reading lists anymore and in part because I just didn’t read much romance to begin with. I guess starting a PhD has changed things.

As a third-year PhD 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. But 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. 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.

You got me – there is an ulterior to this read, though in my defence, I didn’t pick The Love Hypothesis up strictly because of the university setting. I also didn’t pick this up because of the PhD environment, or the fact it started off as Reylo fan-fiction. I have had my eye on Ali Hazelwood’s stem romance series for a while, but I didn’t want to read it in the wrong personal season. I am very happy I put it off because when I read it in a day, only split across two sittings because I had to eat lunch and socialise.

Olive is such a fun and interesting character, and while I don’t agree with her on everything, I can certainly see parts of myself in her. She is a relatable character in more ways than one and she made this book feel lively, raw, and grounded the romance in a real-life adult world where actions have consequences, the earth keeps on spinning, and no matter what, there will always be things that obstruct your view of a situation. Adam, equally, is a fantastic character who is both shrouded in mystery we slowly get to see unveiled as the story unfolds and someone we know the heart of from the beginning. He is not without his flaws, but honestly are any of us? These two make fake-dating entertaining, drama-worthy, and wholesome all without trying.

The scientific postgrad setting is new to me, as it would be for many readers, but the ideas and images created paint a pretty reliable picture: academia is not always aesthetic and pretty, and is often times incredibly taxing. I am keen to read more of her STEM romance books to see what other insights she shares into the world of academia. From what I have seen so far, there is a lot of truth shining through in this book. It is part of the reason I enjoyed reading it so much. As this is set in Stanford, I can only assume the faculty would be much bigger than anything I can envision at a New Zealand university, but the sentiment stands. PhD students, candidates, and other academics, are severely overworked and funding is incredibly scarce. There is a reason why “Why do you want a PhD” hits so hard – it is a real question we must ask ourselves almost daily. The Love Hypothesis may be a little cheesy, dramatic and a touch unrealistic, but it got it right in so many ways.

The Love Hypothesis is such a light-hearted, joyful read with its heavier threads woven through, and overall it was a pure delight to find someone in the contemporary romance space that I genuinely loved, would read again, and would recommend. If you were like me, putting off The Love Hypothesis in fear of Bookstagram or BookTok doing you wrong again, I hope this is enough to persuade you that they have done right by this rec. Moreover, I will be diving head first into the rest of her adult romance books over the New Zealand summer, so I will be able to shed light on the others in her catalogue in due course.