A review by melycp
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

5.0

The Love Hypothesis was not a book I expected to absolutely love. Turns out I’m a huge fan of (slightly cringe) romance novels. It didn’t even bother me to know that this was Reylo fanfic, if anything I enjoyed it more for this reason. Every time Olive thought ‘omg this guy is huge’ I thought of that moment from The Last Jedi where Adam Driver is shirtless and it made me laugh – no hate to shirtless Adam Driver, I love him.

I absolutely love fake dating books, which I honestly had no idea that this was. For some reason I had never read the synopsis, despite this book being absolutely everywhere when it came out. 

I’m somewhat surprised by how much I enjoy Ali Hazelwood’s books. Of the two I’ve read so far both have been five stars. Not because they are the best things ever written, but because they make me feel something. Whenever these characters react I get giddy with excitement and anticipation. If a romance book doesn’t make you smile and kick your legs like a lovesick teen, is it really a romance book?

The Love Hypothesis made me do that and more. I really could not get enough of Adam and Olive. I’m not one to stay up super late to finish books, as I’m generally a sleepy girl, but I stayed up to 2 am to finish this. I literally could not put it down until I was done. 

There are a few moments that seemed a bit contrived, especially the whole “oh there are no seats and the room is so full you’ll have to sit on his lap”. I don’t think you would do this in a professional environment, no matter how full the room is. I get why it happened though and the outcome of the situation was pretty cute. 

A lot of people have said that the sex scene was awkward but I kind of liked that. It was refreshing to have both characters not be hypersexual and the fact that Olive would not want to do it unless she trusts the person made it way better. You don’t see characters like that often in romance books and it was nice to see.

Also, I really loved the chapter heads, is this what they are called? The little hypotheses that alluded to what would happen in that chapter were a nice touch and it was fun trying to guess what they meant.

The Love Hypothesis has now become one of my favourite romance novels, not something I thought I would ever be writing, and it’s a book I’d consider re-reading in the future. I liked how it didn’t take itself too seriously, well that’s how it read to me, and it had a solid storyline. It won’t be for everyone, but I really liked it.