Hey Besties, So this is my somewhat review of The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. So, for starters, I really did this like some kind of book report for school, but I think it was quite organized. On my platform, I have discussed my dislike of student x teacher relationships, but what I mainly had a problem with was relationships with underaged kids, basically pedophilia.
Yes, I do know that this book has themes of student x teacher relationships but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt since the Main female character, Olive I believe is 24. Google did say the age gad is 8 or 9 years placing Adam at 32, 33 and that Is If Olive is 24.
One last thing, I wrote this as I read something in the book. This means If I had something to say about what I'm reading I would write about it at the same time, causing me to write down my thoughts in the present and not after I was done reading the book. So this is basically a record of my feelings as I was reading the book and not after. Anyways let me shut up and get into my thoughts. I would love to hear your thoughts If you've read this book and this is also your Spoiler Alert warning.
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
^Good Reads page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56732449-the-love-hypothesis?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=7ZfnwTsrzF&rank=1
Book Description:
As a third-year Ph.D. 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 abs.
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.
Characters:
Olive Smith (Adam calls her smart ass, Anh calls her Ol )
Adam Carlsen
Ahn
Jeremy
Malcolm
Tom
Holden
^ I don't read prologues ever, but I decided to stick it out for this one. It was basically about Olive being in a male bathroom of Stanford and crying because her eyes are burning her because she decided to wear expired contract lenses. She had met a man in the bathroom and they began talking, mainly about Stanford's grad school program or something along those lines. I wouldn't really know what happened after that because I barely read the rest, breezing through it. I found the bit quite boring if I'm being honest. But you can't follow me, I get bored easily.
^ CHAPTER 1
Chapter 1 starts of with Olive describing the kiss she shared with the supposed stranger as she quickly asked for permission but didn't wait for a response as the kiss was for show, to show her best friend that she has a "boyfriend". After kissing the person she realized it was Dr. Adam Carlsen who she described as an ass. She also went on to recall situations that would make any student hate the professor.
"Dr. Carlsen might have been a young academic rock star and biology's wunderkind, but he was also mean and hypercritical and it was obvious in the way he carried himself, that he thought himself the only person doing decent science within the Stanford biology department." - The Love Hypothesis
Based on what the book said after the kiss, we could say Adam Carlsen was puzzled, surprised and in a dazed state. Basically, he was shook and probably needed time to process the fact that a student, where he works had just kissed him. I guess you could call what she did assault since he did not give her consent to kiss him, I really don't know why books dislike consent so much but I digress.
And I stand correct in my thought of assault as a few words later when he asked why she had kissed him and to put in plainly, she told him that it was none of his business, so he said he was going to fill out a 'Title IX complaint'. After them going back and forth Miss Gurl olive finally decided to explain the reasoning behind the sudden kiss.
Olive randomly and irrationally kissing someone she didn't even see the face of was very foolish but hey at least it led to the blossoming of a love story. Some people on TikTok have expressed their annoyance with Olive and I would have to read further to see if I agree. I mean imagine you're in a situation in which your best friend likes a guy you "dated" < I say quote on quote dated because based on how Olive described her relationship with Jeremy, it could have been a quick fling > what would you do? Some would imply "Girl code" or "Guy code" and say it’s not acceptable but you can't really help who you like. And to give the best friend the benefit of the doubt, she was honest with Olive and repressed her feelings in case it would hurt her best friend.
^ CHAPTER 2
So basically chapter 2 starts off with Olive fretting about the whole situation between her and Adam, and hoping that she would not see him again, which I think is normal when you do something embarrassing and irrational as what she did but I try not to dwell on things that are out of control.
She has to do a 500 slide presentation that is due in 2 weeks so she goes to do some research but not before some emails suddenly become interesting to her as she doesn't want to do her work. She then begins to look through, I think 26 emails, she labels them as Junk and marks them off as read but a reply from a Harvard professor has gained her attention. The replay basically states that the professor would be going to Stanford in about 2 weeks and he wants to discuss a project of hers. She gets excited about it like a normal person but then becomes insecure if she can get him to allow her to use his lab to carry out her pancreatic cancer research as the lab she's with doesn't have the resources to do so.
Anh, olives best friend then tells her that she saw her and Adam Carlsen and accuses her of avoiding her. I agree with the best friend, At this point in the book, this is the first live interaction that is being recorded in the book of the 2 best friends. Anh then ridicules and talk about how bizarre the kiss was between Adam and Olive, then came to this conclusion - "Ol, you said you were on a date that night. You're not dating Carlsen, are you?" that conclusion is basically calling out her best friend's bluff. Olive then decides to keep the lie going and throw herself a pity party at the same time and mentions how alone she is, in her thoughts that is.
I do not know If I'm not giving this book a fair chance or what but I found it extremely boring at that moment. I was absolutely ready to just pause reading right here jump on my bed and watch some Tiktok and that is exactly what I did. I wouldn't normally read anything with fake relationships, enemies to lovers or teacher x student and basically, that's what this book is so far. So according to what I like I read, this isn't going well so far, but that's just me, right?
I went back to reading a couple of mins later after deciding that searching it up on Tiktok would make me more excited to read it and it did work. Anyways, while Olive and Anh were chatting it up, Adam decided to make an appearance. Is it possible to change your views on a book so quickly after the male lead shows some affection to the female lead? If so, that's what happened to me.
I found it amusing how he would use Anh as an excuse to do things for her. Based on what I've been seeing on Tiktok, if you remember the prologue, he was the guy in the bathroom and he apparently has had a crush on her since they met. But it doesn't seem like Olive remembers meeting him in the bathroom as her eyesight was blurry then.
Later on in this chapter it turns out that Anh and spilt the beans about Olive and Adams supposed relationship to Jeremy and he went and run his mouth like a flipping waterfall and it seems as if everyone know knows. If I was Olive I would be very angry considering I'm a private person and don't like attention and dating a professor equals attention. She told Adam and it seems Adam is fine with their "relationship" being public.
^ CHAPTER 3
To start this Chapter off Olive goes to Adam's office. He tells her that if they were to have a relation the dean says it's okay since he's not her advisor or something like that. Olive then tells him that she agrees to be in a fake relationship with him. Then they discussed the rules of their fake relationship. I had laughed a bit during reading this chapter so far so I would say my opinion of the book is getting better.
For the rest of the chapter, she explained what was going on to her friend Malcolm because he was upset since he didn't link Adam because he had been a complete dick/ ass to him. It was a chill chapter I guess.
^ CHAPTER 4
Chapter 4 starts off with Adam and Olive's coffee Starbucks "date". Then it the chapter went on about how Olive is just realizing Adam's features. So I guess she's attracted to him now. That ended she got a message from the Harvard professor saying they'll meet Wednesday. "Holy shit" is what I said out loud based on reading the end of chapter 4 and that is because The Harvard professor, Tom, is actually Adam's friend.
^ CHAPTER 5
So there's a bit of chitchat of the 3- Olive, Adam and Tom outside the Starbucks. Olive tells Tom that they're actually supposed to be meeting later as he didn't recognize her. Tom then asked if they could no their informal interview/chat then instead of later. They talked, To was impressed with her idea and told her that she had 2 weeks to write a report of what she had so far.
^CHAPTER 6
Let's just say I was dying for the beginning of this chapter. So Olive went with Anh to the seminar tom was presenting at or whatever. Okay so the room is very full, Olive get's pushed into Adam, he offers her a seat but Anh is like "No offence Dr Carlsen, but you are 3 times larger than olive. If you stand, the room's going to burst." Then the most amusing thing happened next Anh convinced Olive to sit in Adam's lap. Trust me, I was laughing like it was nobody's business.
Brooooo, Adam fricking Carlsen pushed, the secretary's truck out of the way because it broke down. Like Wtf. Then Anh basically forced her to go give Adam a kiss
^ CHAPTER 7
Chapter seven,n chapter seven, Chapter 7, ok so, I have beef with Chapter 7 because there's this dude called Greg and I think he's in one of Olive's classes, I'm not sure, but he went off on Olive because of Adam failing one of his projects or something along that path. He was like -you're okay with him being a dick to students? You're only ok with it because he's nice to you bla bla bla and he said other colourful things to her.
I understand him being angry and because Olive is somewhat associated with Adam, he can't take out his anger on Adam because he's obviously a teacher and Olive seems like the next best thing so he takes out his anger on her but I don't like that because it's not her fault that Adam is doing something. I mean you can't compare this to someone loving a murderer he's not a murderer he's just failing your projects because he finds something wrong with them so I don't see why he, Greg is going off and just like cussing out olive it's not her fault she's not even in his class it's not really her problem at all but I guess I could kind of see where he stands from like his point of view.
Olive get's home, she's on her bed thinking about the situation then she decides to text Adam about him failing Greg's thing. So far from what I'm reading here, I think she's going to do something stupid that could either like turn out into a fight or something. I mean he found something wrong with the project, he's the professor, he's the one that has been through all this before, he knows what he's doing, even if he's being a dick about it and just like blunt about it it's kinda not his problem. In some way I guess, I'm not really defending Adam here it's just that I think this whole thing is kind of unnecessary in a sense because you're gonna have professors that absolutely like want the best from you and so on. I don't really know.
"Well, fuck you, Adam." - Olive
Adam didn't respond to this. I'm giving Olive shit for this one. I understand that she feels the need to "defend" Greg or kind of stand up for Greg in this situation because she has a similar experience like his but Adam is really just doing his job if we're being honest and like he texted before she sent that, he said something along the lines of "I'm just doing my job it's not my job to put something pleasantly or nicely" or whatever.
So they go this picnic event thing and they arrive, they as in Olive, Malcolm, Anh and Jeremy and few mins into that, they spot a shirtless Adam. Anh keeps repeating "Holy shit". Then again Anh forces Olive to put sunscreen on Adam because she had given her too much.
^CHAPTER 8
To start this chapter off, the couple had a nice chat in the dark, in the break room. So it turns out olive is 26 at this point in life. And Adam is 34. I'm not weirded out or really dislike their age gap since he isn't like 40 or something and she isn't younger than that. Their talk was a sweet moment. She even shared about her mom died when she was 15. I have it out for Jeremy, he cut their little moment short just when Olive was gonna get a little Info out of Adam.
^ CHAPTER 9
So in this chapter, Tom invites Olive over to Adam's house to talk out Olive's project report or something, this will also be the 1st time Olive will be in Adam's house. So she will be going to Boston to Use the labs at Harvard there, Tom said yes to her proposal, project thing.
When Adam was driving Olive home they talked a bit, as well as Olive began thinking that Adam could be the man she met in the bathroom. Olive then forces Adam to get his flu shots.
^ CHAPTER 10
Okay so, in this chap, Anh walks in on Olive grinning at her phone because she's texting Adam then Anh tells Olive that she's in love with him and Olive starts to kind of freak out.
Olive then met Malcolm in the Starbucks to talk about her newfound feelings. And Adam happened to hear the last bit of their conversation.
^ CHAPTER 11
So he didn't catch who they were talking about and Olive played it off as if it was someone else. So another professor, Adam's friend, Holden saw them at the Starbucks and talked to them a bit. Holden is gay and was Adam's high school prom date because a guy Holden liked was being a dick to him, something along those lines.
It turns out that Adam thought the guy Olive has feelings for is Jeremy. Oh boy, this is messy af. I'm a bit pissed at Olive for not telling him that she likes him romantically. She had the perfect chance to when he mentioned Jeremy and complimented her calling her extraordinary.
^ CHAPTER 12
So this basically starts off with Olive missing Adam but she didn't actually say that. What gave it away is she said that the Stanford campus feels empty without Adam even though there is awfully a lot of people there. Guys most of this chapter is just Olive pining over Adam and if she doesn't tell him she likes him for real, I'm going to backhand her. Then Adam texts her a pic of a pumpkin spice drink that she likes then text something the lines of - " You think I can smuggle this on the plane? " They joke and he says something that implies that he misses her.
Later on, she's at the lab and she runs into Holden, another professor and possible Adam's oldest friend. he basically tells her that Adam has been crushing on her for years. And talks about how he hasn't been so broody lately and it's because oh her. Then she doubts, in her thoughts of course, that Adam could be crushing on her for years and thinks of her as Amazing. Holden also brings up her going to Boston, and working with Tom, then tells her to watch her back when she's with him. Maybe he's going to try and get with her, not sure what that means. but Holden hates Tom, so...
She then gets an email telling her that she has been selected for the panel thing and she's also the only student that will be presenting.
She then starts freaking out.
So she ran to her advisor cause she's in panic, they have a talk and during that the advisor asked her what does she always tell her. She beings up stuff but the one that she said that caught my eye is - " Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man. " Bitch I was cackling for this one.
I really can't blame Olive for freaking out though, I don't like crowds and I definitely don't like public speaking. That is why I avoid Prizegiving when we were in school at all cost.
^CHAPTER 13
So this chapter starts off with her being in the Starbucks looking for places to stay for SBD because her friends assumed she was staying with Adam and disregarded their original plan which was to get a room together.
So, while doing that, she runs into Adam, they begin to talk and he offers her to stay with him in his hotel room. It takes a lot of convincing on Adam's part but he finally gets her to agree.
^ CHAPTER 14
So basically for this one, it starts off with her checking out the hotel room. It does have 2 beds instead of one which she desperately hoped for. Adam then comes in a few mins later, they began to talk and she finds out that he's the keynote speaker or at least 1 of the 3. She was going to wear jeans and a cardigan but that is where good ole trouble maker Anh comes in and tells her to wear a somewhat short black dress with matching black pumps courtesy of Anh's sister.
She givers her talk, which was supposed to be 10 mins but they were running late and she only had time for 1 question. To be honest, I really only enjoy the altercations between Adam and Olive, anything else is like background noise for me.
Reading a bit more into this chapter, I no longer have a blank opinion on Tom. Him a show him dutty colours. I think with this little bit that he's trying to pull off is to get Olive to not like Adam, in a way I guess.
"He does that, doesn't he?" - Tom
"Does what?" - Olive
"Outdoes you." - Tom
I think he says outdoes because he's doing the Key Note speech or whatever but I think Ole Tom is just salty and is trying to get in her head. I think I understand what Holden meant when he told her to watch Adam's back as well as hers when she goes to Boston and is working around Tom.
"I think there are a lot of things we can gain from each other. Wouldn't you agree?" - Tom to Olive
Tom gives me bad vibes. I don't know if he's going to use him giving her project a chance to try and get her to sleep with him or what but it seems likely that he's going to try something and be scummy.
A bitch was right. Tom tried something, but it was quicker than I thought. They were talking and the fucker tried to kiss her. She backed up from him and asked him what he was doing. I want Adam to beat the shit out of him. Tom then basically told her that he didn't accept her because she was smart or that he liked her project but because she's pretty and that's how things work. If I was in this book's world Tom would suddenly be found dead.
I now know why Holden doesn't like this prick and I don't either. Like If Adam's your friend why would you try to get with his girlfriend. He then said that she had to have fucked Adam, and said that she was going to do the same thing to him for the same reason. Olive obviously doesn't like this and called him disgusting. He then basically told her that she only got selected to talk was because of Adam and that her project held no scientific importance.
Adam then came in while she was crying and she tried to hide it but Adam obviously noticed. She had the chance to tell Adam of how much of a vile human being Tom is but she didn't and kind of lied to him. Her and her fucking lies. She keeps missing out on chances. Then Adam dragged her out of the Hotel to go somewhere, skipping a social event.
^ CHAPTER 15
So this chapter was chill until I read further. So Adam and olive passed through the social event then they went out in search of getting drinks on food on their was Olive saw an all you can eat buffet for $20 and dragged Adam there, they ultimately ate stale sushi and other things.
On the elevator going back to their room, Olive took off the heels because her feet were killing her. Homeboy Adam decided to carry her to their room bridal style - a sweet moment indeed.
They got to their room then decided to watch a movie. Olive then decided she wanted to take a shower then she discovered that she left her nightwear. So Adam offers her a T-shirt of his and she accepts after a little convincing of course.
Then while trying to find a movie they began talking. Adam opens up about how horrible his teacher was to him. And that we probably would have gone to law school if it wasn't for Holden and dutty Tom. Olive ant to console Adam and 1 thing led to another and they kissed. Yayyy!!!! Not because of Anh this time, but because they wanted to. After the Kiss Adam was like No and Olive was like Why and Adam is like "You're not thinking clearly" and so on and Olive was like no then Adam was like "You're in love with someone else!" then it kind of turned into an argument and Adam was like - "You have no fucking idea what I want."
It's getting intense and I really don't want what they have to turn bitter. ALI HAZELWOOD YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME…
Bitch. I did not see this coming. Olive was proposing sex. People!
^CHAPTER 16
Ya'll this chapter is the 1st sex chapter.
"You're edible, Olive." - Adam
I mean it wasn't too steamy or anything crazy. You're not getting much more from me.
^ CHAPTER 17
This chapter starts off basically describing the morning after or just after. They woke up, talked a bit then got intimate. So far from what I've read, she's now giving him a blow job. And Adam has to leave the next day because he has an interview at Harvard and he may or may not will be moving to Boston.
^ CHAPTER 18
Olive checks her phone to see like 125 messaged from Anh, she calls her and finds out that Holden and Malcolm had sex, I think.
"Will I ever step inside a pharmacy again without getting a boner?" - Malcolm
Apparently, Holden and Malcolm have a date that day, I'm glad my ship is sailing, I think Malcolm has had a thing for Holden for a while based on the fact that Malcolm has mentioned that Holden has flirted with him before.
Olive met Adam at his house later on for dinner.
Olive is a fucking idiot. Their estimated end time was September 29, which is the current date. She and Adam are talking, she brings up the funds he tells her it's now unfrozen she tells him she's happy for him and when he presents the idea of them continuing she shoots him down.
Bro this fucking scene felt like a breakup, even though technically they're fake dating. He was emphasizing the word 'You' when she said something, like - "Whatever you want."
The only kind of upside is that they kissed. A goodbye kiss perhaps.
^ CHAPTER 19
So the chapter starts off with how distressed Olive is. And I'm not sorry for her, Adam clearly wanted something real with her. I mean, since it was a goodbye that she went there to do, why not tell him about her feelings?
Do you know what I was even more irritated by? The fact that she didn't ask Adam about the supposed woman she thinks he like, that would have prevented a lot of bull shit.
So later on her advisor asks her for the recording of her talk on the panel and she realizes it's really long because she forgot to stop it. During getting ready to cut it, what Tom said that day begins to play and her friends Anh and Malcolm was there and they heard a little bit of it before Olive closed her laptop. Her friends then tried to convince her to tell Adam and report Tom. Malcolm and Olive then tell Anh about Olive and Adam fake dating to help with her getting with Jeremy. Then Malcolm and Anh were like we'll ask Holden what Adam wants since you don't know, or something like that.
Later on in the chapter Olive questions Holden about Adam and Tom's relationship as she wants to know if she should tell Adam about Tom's conniving ways. I hope she tells Adam and tells him about her feelings. If she doesn't I'm coming for you ALI HAZELWOOD :>
^ CHAPTER 20
So chapter 20 starts off with Olive looking for Adam, I really hope she isn't a big idiot. So she asked Adam's secretary I think for his location she then takes a Uber to get to the restaurant because Adam is having the Harvard interview thing btw she gets somewhat of a therapy session from the Uber driver Helen.
She found Adam and got him to see her. Tom is trying to get Adam to go back to the table where the interview is but Olive plays' the video of Top spewing his bullshit. Adam pins Tom to the wall and Tom is dissing Olive and Adam says - "If you say another word about the woman I love- if you even think about her. I'm going to fucking kill you."
When I tell you I was screaming, I was fucking SCREAMING. We stan Adam over here. I hope Tom gets the ass whopping of the century.
Unfortunately, the bastard didn't end up black and blue but I'm guessing Adam got him fired or something.
^ CHAPTER 21
So Olive got an offer, scratch that offers at a different lab to work on her project. Olive, Adam, Malcolm and Holden went on a double date. It was a fun chill chapter. 4.5 stars for me.
^ CHAPTER 22
Yayyyyyy. Olive finally tells Adam about her feelings and she said I love you in Dutch too.
^EPILOUGE
So the Epilogue started off by describing their summer and things they did over a period of 10 months. It also seems as though they are officially together now. It then ends with them talking about how it has been 1 year for them and then they kissed. The End.
SUMMARY OF MY THOUGTS
So starting off the book, I didn't quite like it but after chapter 3 It started getting better for me, I love Adam's character, I just wish he would have told her his feelings earlier on. As for Olive, she was irritating at times, but she was okay. I also wished there was more of Adam's Pov in the book. Malcolm and Anh are okay it's just that Anh is a bit pushy but she genuinely cares for Olive.
I am not exactly fond of chatterbox Jeremy and I despise Tom, he's a horrid human. Holden was sweet and I'm glad he and Malcolm became a thing. Despite this book having many tropes I'm not too keen on, I enjoyed the book and got some laughs out of it.
I rate it ⭐⭐⭐⭐
It's a solid 4 stars in my book, which isn't bad at all.
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