HELLO MY NEW FAVORITE BOOK AND THE SOLE REASON WHY MY SEROTONIN LEVEL IS SO DAMN HIGH!

Being part of the bookstagram community, I have seen this book pop up on my feed numerous times. I‘ve seen people obsessing over it, I‘ve seen the hype. And somehow decided to stay away from it. However, after one long day at work (which happens to be a bookstore) with one of my best friends (which happens to be my colleague at work), we decided we need a good light, heart-warming read for the weekend, and thought „why not buddy read something?“. So during a quiet moment in the store, we roamed the shelves, and both of us were pulled like magnets toward the two copies of The Love Hypothesis on the shelf. This lead to an impulse buy on both our ends, and me discovering a new favorite book mere hours after the purchase had been done.

As a teenager, I very often found myself reading waaaay after bedtime, but I never minded the lack of sleep. Even as an adult and despite the looming task of adulthood, books kept me awake until 1 or 2 am. However, I was always aware of the hours, and always knew when time had come to finally get some rest. On this fine Saturday night, though, I started the book, laughed immediately when the „expired contact lenses“ debate started (because oh damn, I feel you, Olive. But you really need to get some new ones), and kept going, reading and reading - until I heard some birds chirping outside of my window, and realized it was 5 freaking am. The last time I had stayed up this late for a book was because of Cassandra Clare‘s Clockwork Princess. Though that one had wrecked my heart, while The Love Hypothesis had only boosted my serotonin, and made me the happiest.

This book just came at the perfect time in my life. The prior two months had been stressful, busy, full of dreading tasks and unnecessary drama. I was very close to falling into a slump, my motivation to participate in the bookish community reached negative numbers. And then the story of Olive and Adam came, and I felt like reborn.

Ali Hazelwood‘s debut novel is filled with moments of laughter, some second-hand embarassment, and lots of tension. It‘s one of those books where you get easily addicted to the storyline, turning the pages like a maniac to see whether one of the protagonists is finally making the move, and cheering on them. I must truly say I have loved every single chapter, page, scenes between Olive and Adam. I enjoyed these two protagonist and their whole fake-dating deal so so much. Adding to that, we also had a hilarious cast of secondary characters (I‘m still laughing just thinking what Anh had put Olive through), and the academia setting was so refreshing and fit the story so perfectly that I‘m in a mighty need to see it more often in contemporary novels.

I don‘t think I can add anything to what has been already said about this book. The hype is totally justified, and I‘m joining it loud and proud. Do I want everyone to read this? Hell yes. Has Ali Hazelwood now become an auto-buy-autor for me? Absolutely. Will I be rereading this book a billion times until her next novel comes out (and even after that)? You can bet on it.

So if you‘re looking for a romance book that has the tension, the fun, a cool setting and amazing characters in it, then read THIS. Oh, and the spice? It‘s *chef‘s kiss*. (I have or have not reread it more than once hehehe)