The Love Hypothesis was my first romance novel of 2022, and it was such a great romance to start the year off with. This book was fun, full of great characters, and very memorable.

As usual, I want to start my review off by talking about the main characters. Olive is a third-year Ph.D. candidate who gets herself into an awkward fake dating situation. Olive is a great friend, super caring, very awkward, and smart. I loved that Olive went into her Ph.D. with a specific question that she wanted to research, and I thought she was amazing for having enough drive to tackle that question. Adam Carlsen is a professor known to make students cry; he is the grumpy character in our grumpy/sunshine dynamic. However, underneath his grumpy exterior, it’s clear that he really cares about science and about Olive. Together, this fake couple makes a great pair, and they were really enjoyable to read about.

As far as the side characters go, I loved Malcolm, and I thought he was a fantastic friend to Olive. I thought Professor Holden was an absolute Cinnamon roll, and I would not be opposed to having him come up again in future books. I didn’t mind Olive’s best friend, Anh, however, she did have some moments that left me slightly annoyed and uncomfortable, and at times I felt like she only existed to push the plot forward. I was not a fan of Tom from the start; there was just something about him that did not sit right with me from the get-go.

One thing I enjoyed was that this book featured women in STEM. Olive is brilliant, she’s doing amazing things, and her research shows potential to be revolutionary and life-changing. Her best friend, Anh, is also amazing, and I love how much outreach she does for women, specifically women of colour, in STEM. I am definitely looking forward to reading more books by Ali Hazelwood if they feature women in STEM.

One thing that bothered me a bit about this book was how often Olive brought up that she was Adam’s fake girlfriend. I understand that Olive is a bit of an awkward character, but after a while, I got a bit annoyed with that. However, I will say that as far as fake dating goes, this is one of the better books I’ve read.

I loved the romance in this book. I am a sucker for a male character calling the female character sweetheart in a romance book, and this book did not disappoint on that level. This book had a decent amount of spice in it, even though there were a few moments during the spicy chapters that made me do a double-take because they were a tad bit awkward.

Overall, this book was a lot of fun. The romance was cute, the spice level was decent, and I think it is worth all of the hype.