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The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

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The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood is an adult romance novel, originally published on September 14, 2021.

Trigger Warnings

• Abandonment
• Acephobia/Arophobia (internalized)
• Animal testing
• Body shaming
• Chronic illness
• Death of a parent (past)
• Emotional abuse
• Gaslighting
• Medical content
• Sexual harassment/violence
• Sexually explicit content
• Terminal illness
• Toxic friendship

Representation

An asterisk (*) indicates that the author openly identifies with that identity.

• Jewish secular main character
• Demisexual main character
• Vietnamese American side character
• Queer side character
• Fake dating
• Grumpy & sunshine
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• This page was last edited on 31 August 2024, at 19:58.
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Review: The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood

October 22, 2021

The Love Hypothesis was a fun contemporary romance new adult book . The story easily kept me entertained until the very last page! Read my review below to find out why!

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.

I received this book for free from Penguin Random House INTL in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

There are no spoilers in this review.

This blog post contains affiliate links. If you buy something on my recommendation, I will receive a small commission. Purchasing via these links will not cost you any extra and will help me cover the costs of book blogging. You will find more info on my  privacy policy  and  disclaimer  pages. Thank you!

I ENJOYED…

• The original context! I don’t know about you but I’ve NEVER read a book taking place in grad school (What is up with that? Am I living in a cave or are there really not that common?!). I loved the fact that the story took place during that both exciting and confusing time after high school and just before entering the job market. I also loved the fact that the focus was on a female scientist! Yaaayyy to female scientists! We need more of those! To be honest I was a bit scared that all the science talk would confuse me because it’s definitely not my cup of tea but it was not an issue at all.
• The relatable flawed main character . She’s this sweet, nerdy and quirky woman who tries to find the cure of pancreatic cancer. Olive is both insecure and really hard working, spending most of her time in the lab for her reasearch. I found myself easily rooting for her , getting frustrated for her, wanting her to reach all of her dreams.
• The fake dating trope! One of my favorite trope! Even if the reason behind it was a bit lame and the motivation to keep it up was a bit unconvincing (in my opinion!), I still found myself laughing out loud at all those unlikely situations. And the banter… oh yes, the banter was gold ! The dialogues were witty and snarky and I absolutely live for those!
• All those important topics that were beautifuly tackled. This book was light for sure and it will definitely make your heart melt. Nevertheless, it still tackled important issues like school pressure . It was really well depicted in this book. How hard you must work to achieve your goal. How burn-outs are quite litterally just around the corner. The public speaking anxiety was also on point! Suffering from that as well, I found myself seen and heard and it felt freaking good.

• Last but not least, this story was about women, women in a field surrounded by men . As you turn the pages, you can see how women can be denied opportunities just because of their gender. How women are having issues just getting to be believed in. How women can feel inferior despite all their hard work and talent. All those additional obstacles we encounter just because we’re young and female in a predominantly male-dominated field.

I HAD A HARD TIME WITH…

• I would have loved to see both POV! Unfortunately, Adam felt a bit bland. It was really hard for me to understand his personnality besides being constantly moody and sullen. I think that getting both POV would have made the character more lovable and the chemistry more “honest” and real.
• The sex part… I’ve got no issues with sex parts in books (beware, in case you didn’t see it up there this one is an adult book and sex is included) but I really don’t know how to feel about that particular part in this story. It felt like a lot, it was way too long for my liking without adding anything to the story.

If you’re looking for a fun, sweet and flirty read that’ll make your heart melt, The Love Hypothesis is the perfect match for you!

FINAL RATING : 3,5 drops!

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📚 Books similar to The Love Hypothesis that I’d recommend:

• For more books with the fake-dating trope , check out our recommendations of YA books with fake-dating !

Did you read The Love Hypothesis or do you want to? What’s the latest contemporary romance book you read and enjoyed? Let me know in comments!

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October 22, 2021 at 4:38 pm

I loved this book. I agree sex part was a bit long but I could overlook that as story was so amazing. Great review!

October 23, 2021 at 10:28 am

Yes, totally! Thank you so much! 😘😘

October 23, 2021 at 10:23 am

Great review! I also enjoyed this book and find it quite original and sooo funny.

October 23, 2021 at 10:29 am

Thank you so much! ☺️☺️ Yeeees, totally original and so funny 😁

October 24, 2021 at 1:29 pm

I really liked this book and ended up bumping up my rating to five stars just because of how much it cheered me up – I’m not very strict with ratings, lmao – but I definitely agree with the things you didn’t like. It would have been so much better to get both POVs! And the sex scene was extremely long – it made me feel like the author made it that long because it was the only sex scene in the book and there are usually multiple in adult romance novels. There was no need for it, tbh. Overall, this was a good romance novel, imo, but I’m a bit surprised by all the praise it’s gotten because I don’t think it’s as outstanding or unique as people have been saying. 😅

October 30, 2021 at 9:33 am

Glad to see I’m not the only one who felt that way!! YEEES! I totally agree! It was good but not THAT good 😅😅 Thank you so much for stopping by, happy reading 😘

October 25, 2021 at 4:37 pm

I absolutely adored this book! I didn’t really mind the sex part, I think it was necessary, especially since Olive is demisexual. I do wish this book had dual POV too though. Great review!

October 30, 2021 at 9:29 am

Yeees, a dual POV would have been awesome! Thank you so much for stopping by 😘😘

October 27, 2021 at 3:31 am

Have you read the bonus chapter with Adam’s POV?

October 30, 2021 at 9:28 am

Oh no 😱 There was a bonus chapter?! 😱

October 30, 2021 at 7:24 pm

Yes! You can read it via Ali’s newsletter

October 31, 2021 at 9:18 am

I need to check it out!! Thank you! 😊

October 27, 2021 at 4:44 pm

I completely agree with everything you said in this! I love that it took place in grad school, which I’ve also never read about. I also liked that she was a scientist and they talked basic science, but not enough to confuse us. While I love the fake dating trope, it definitely was a lame reasoning. I LOVED the banter, they were extremely funny. I agree with you, I’ve read sex scenes before, but I felt like this one was forced? Like it wasn’t necessarily at all, and could have been skipped over almost entirely. Great review! xx

Melina | http://www.melinaelisa.com

October 30, 2021 at 9:32 am

YES, YES, YES! I agree with all of your points! 😁 Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! 😘😘

October 31, 2021 at 3:48 pm

As a woman in STEM, I was looking forward to this book so very much and it didn’t disappoint me! There were so many relatable aspects of Olive’s experiences that were just so affirming to read about. And personally I really enjoyed the way Adam absolutely adored Olive and would do anything to make her happy. I understand your point about him not being the most fleshed out, but I did feel like we got to see different sides of him when he was with Olive or his friends, versus when he was in a professorial role.

But ultimately this book just made me so happy that I gave it five stars! It might not be an all time favorite, but it is a temporary favorite for the way it made me smile and perked me up during a stressful point in my semester!

Great review!

November 1, 2021 at 9:51 am

That’s awesome! 😊 Thank you so so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! 😘😘

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The Love Hypothesis

Quick recap & summary by chapter.

The Full Book Recap and Chapter-by-Chapter Summary for The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood are below.

Quick(-ish) Recap

Three years prior, Olive Smith talks to a guy when she's in the bathroom fixing her contacts (and can't see) after her Ph.D. candidate interview. She tells him about her passion for her research. She doesn't catch his name but remembers the conversation distinctly and wonders about the guy she met.

In present day, Olive is a biology Ph.D. student researching early detection methods for pancreatic cancer. She kisses a guy randomly in order to trick her best friend into thinking she's dating someone (so that her best friend Anh won't feel bad about dating Olive's ex). That guy turns out to be Dr. Adam Carlson , a young, handsome and highly-respected tenured faculty member in her department. He's also known for being hypercritical and moody.

Meanwhile, Adam's department chair is worried that he's planning on leaving for another university and has frozen some of his research funds. So, Adam he agrees to pretend to be in a relationship with Olive in order to give the impression he's putting down "roots" here, in hopes they will unfreeze the funds.

As Olive and Adam fake-date, they get to know each other. Olive sees that Adam is demanding and blunt towards his students, but not unkind or mean. Olive confides in him about her mother getting pancreatic cancer, which is why she's doing her research.

Olive soon realizes that she has feelings for Adam, but she's afraid to tell him. When he overhears her talking about a crush, she pretends it's about someone else. Olive also hears someone else refer to a woman Adam's been pining after for years and is surprised at how jealous she feels.

In the meantime, Olive needs more lab space and has been talking to Dr. Tom Benton for a spot at his lab at Harvard. When Tom arrives in town, it turns out he's friends with Adam. Adam and Tom are friends from grad school, and they have recently gotten a large grant for some joint research that Adam is excited about. After Olive completes a report on her research for Tom, he offers her a spot in his lab for the next year.

Olive and Adam's relationship continues to progress until they attend a science conference in Boston. Olive's research has been selected for a panel presentation, while Adam is a keynote speaker. There, Olive is sexually harassed by Tom, who makes advances on her. When she rejects him, he accuses her of someone who sleeps around to get ahead. He also says that he'll deny it if she tells anyone and that they won't believe her.

While Olive does finally sleep with Adam at the conference, she soon tearfully breaks things off since she doesn't want to complicate things with Adam's joint research project with Tom. Adam is also in the process of applying for a spot at Harvard.

Olive is certain no one will believe her about Tom until she realizes that the accidentally recorded the conversation where he made advances and threatened her. Meanwhile, Olive's roommate Malcolm has started seeing Dr. Holden Rodriguez, a faculty member who is a childhood friend of Adam's. Olive and Malcolm turn to Holden for advice, who encourages them to tell Adam about the recording. He points out that he thinks the main reason that Adam is considering a move to Harvard is because Olive is supposed to be going there.

Olive finds Adam and shows him the video. He is incensed at Tom and reports it to their faculty. When Adam returns from Boston, he reports that Tom has been fired. Meanwhile, Olive has been reaching out to other cancer researchers for spots at other labs, and she's gotten promising responses. Olive tells Adam that she loves him and that she never liked anyone else. Adam admits that he remembered her from the day he met her in the bathroom and that she's the one he's been interested in for years.

Ten months later at the anniversary of their first kiss, Olive and Adam re-create the kiss to mark their anniversary.

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Chapter-by-Chapter Summary

Olive Smith is an applicant for Stanford’s biology Ph.D program. After the interview with Dr. Aysegul Aslan , she ends up in a bathroom nearby unable to see and trying to wash out her eyes because she put in expired contacts.

She meets “The Guy” there, who she assumes is a Ph.D student there. As they strike up a conversation, she tells him that her name is Olive and talks about why she’s applying to the program. She tells him that she wants to do it in order to research a specific topic.

A few weeks later, Olive is accepted into the program.

Years later, Olive is now 26 and a Ph.D. student in Dr. Aslan’s lab. Olive has just kissed a random stranger (in order to trick her best friend, Anh , into thinking she’s on a date) — only to realize that the “stranger” is actually Dr. Adam Carlson , a 34-year-old tenured and highly-respected professor in her program with a reputation for being notorious moody, mean and hypercritical.

After they pull away, Adam accuses her of assaulting him. Olive insists she asked him and he said yes, but he says he merely snorted. Finally, she explains that her friend Anh had hit it off with a guy she’d been dating, Jeremy. Olive broke things off with Jeremy, but Anh felt too bad to go out with Jeremy. To make Anh feel better about it, Olive lied to Anh about dating someone and being on a date tonight. When Anh showed up at the lab, Olive needed to kiss someone so Anh would believe she was on a date.

Finally, Olive apologizes and leaves. She doesn’t notice that Adam had called her by her name (which she hadn’t brought up in this conversation).

A few days later, Olive is still embarrassed by what happened. However, she figures that she’d never crossed paths with Adam before then, so perhaps she wouldn’t cross paths with him again. Meanwhile, Olive is preoccupied with needing to find more lab space for her research on early detection of pancreatic cancer. Today, she also finds out Tom Benton , a well-known cancer researcher and an associate professor at Harvard, is interested in potentially allowing her to carry out her research at his lab at Harvard. He’s going to be in town in two weeks and wants to meet with her.

When Anh sees her, she confronts Olive about kissing Adam Carlson. Olive thinks back to how they met since they were the only two non-cis-white-male students in their class. Beyond that, Anh was her biggest support and best friend.

Today, Anh demands to know why Olive is dating Dr. Carlson. This conversation is interrupted when Adam walks in. He plays along and pretends that he and Olive are together. After they make formal introductions, he tells her to call him Adam, in case her friend Anh is around. Later, when Olive talks to Anh again, Olive continues to pretend she’s dating Adam, and she once again encourages Anh to date Jeremy.

On campus, Olive starts to notice that people are treating her differently and with some level of curiosity. When her roommate, Malcom , demands to know why she didn’t tell him about dating Dr. Carlson, Olive realize that everyone know about her lie. Olive goes to Adam’s lab to tell him what’s going on, and she apologizes to him for it.

Olive notes that he seems very at ease with everyone believing that they’re dating, and she wonders why. Finally, he admits that Stanford considers him to be a “flight risk” (that he wants to leave them for another institution) and that they’ve frozen some of his research funds because of it. Part of the issue is that he’s recently gotten a large grant with one of his collaborator’s at another institution, and the department is worried he’s planning on moving there. He hopes that the dating rumors will make them think he’s more likely to stick around since he’s dating someone here.

A few days later, Olive goes to Adam’s office and tells him she wants to proceed with pretending that they’re dating. Olive notices that she’s been treated much better by everyone since the rumor started. (Apart from Malcom, who dislikes Adam Carlson, and has been shunning her.) Adam explains that he’s looked into it and there’s no issue with it, though he can’t serve in any supervisory capacity for her or serve on her thesis committee or be a part of any decisions if she’s nominated for a fellowship or other awards.

They decide to set some ground rules for their fake-dating arrangement. They decide to be fake-dating while on-campus only, so no personal engagements. Olive stipulates that there’ll be no sex. They also agree not to date others in the interim, since it will make things messy. And they agree that they should get coffee or something regularly to make things believable.

They plan to continue their fake-dating until September 29, roughly a month from now, which is the day after the department’s budget review. Their first coffee “date” is planned for Wednesday at 10 AM.

Later, Olive talks to Malcom, who is still upset with her. Malcom comes from a long line of well-known scientists, and he dislikes that Adam Carlson’s criticism of his research had made his life so difficult. Olive confides in Malcom that they’re merely fake-dating and that she barely knows Adam. She says that he’s just helping her out with the Anh/Jeremy situation (and she doesn’t mention Adam’s reasons for participating).

On Wednesday, Olive and Adam have their first fake-date at the coffee house. They ask each other some basic questions, and Adam pays for her order.

The next week, they meet up again, though Olive is running late since she was getting ready for a meeting she has with Tom Benton later that day. Meanwhile, Adam is a little moody because his department chair has still not agreed to release his research funds. They discuss attending the fall biosciences picnic together so that his department chair can see that they’re together.

They’re interrupted when a friend of Adam’s walks in and greets him warmly. Adam introduces the man to Olive as his friend and collaborator — who turns out to be Tom Benton.

Dr. Benton reveals that he’s heard about Adam’s romantic exploits all the way at Harvard, and he’s surprised to hear the rumors about Adam’s new girlfriend being true. Olive also awkwardly tells Dr. Benton that they have a meeting planned for later that day. Tom is delighted to find out that his meeting is with Adam’s new girlfriend.

The three of them sit down to chat. As Tom asks her about her research, Adam rephrases it to help Olive organize her thoughts when he sees that she’s struggling to come up with an answer. Olive then tells Tom about her research on biomarkers in order to more easily and cheaply diagnose pancreatic cancer. As Tom inquires about her reasons for doing her research, Olive reluctantly admits that it’s because her mother had pancreatic cancer.

Finally, Tom asks Olive to spend two weeks writing up a report on the current state of her research. He says that he’ll make a determination of whether to give her the lab space and cover her research expenses depending on what he reads in that report.

When Tom steps away, Olive and Adam discuss that if she decides to go to Harvard then she needs to keep it a secret until the end of their arrangement, otherwise it’ll make Adam look worse. They also agree not to tell Tom that they’re only fake-dating.

The next day, Olive attends a well-attended talk that Tom is giving on campus. The auditorium is so packed that there’s no space anywhere. Anh convinces Olive to sit in Adam’s lap for the duration of the talk.

Afterwards, Olive and Anh head back to the biology building. Olive talks about the report she’s preparing for Tom and the presentation she needs to work on for a conference (the “SBD Conference”) coming up in Boston. Meanwhile, Anh is working on organizing an outreach event for BIPOC women in STEM for the conference.

As they walk back, they see that there’s a traffic jam involving a stopped car blocking an exit. Then they see Cherie , the department secretary, talking to Adam. Adam then proceeds to physically push a car out of the way to relieve the jam. Anh encourages Olive to go over and give him a kiss for his efforts. After some awkward negotiation with Adam, they kiss.

Olive is working on her report for Tom when Greg Cohen , one of Dr. Aslan’s other Ph.D. candidates, barges in, clearly agitated. Chase , another one of their lab mates, walks in uneasily after him. When Olive asks Greg what’s wrong, he angrily responds that Carlson is on his dissertation committee and he failed his proposal. They ask Olive whether she knew he was going to fail Greg, and Olive insists she didn’t know. Greg then yells at Olive and calls her selfish for not caring how Adam makes everyone’s lives miserable. Greg then storms off.

Later that day, Olive texts Adam. She asks him about failing Greg. She argues that he should be nicer, but Adam is unapologetic. He insists that his job is to make sure that students produce useful research. Olive gets frustrated texts profanity at him, and he doesn’t respond.

A few days later, Olive is on her way to the biosciences picnic, where she’ll be seeing Adam after their tense exchange. She, Anh, Jeremy and Malcom go together and are quite late. When they arrive, they see Adam playing Ultimate Frisbee shirtless, showing off his six-pack. Olive is surprised to find herself “viscerally attracted” to Adam.

As they put on sunscreen, Anh gives Olive way too much sunscreen. Meanwhile, the frisbee from the game lands near her. When Adam comes over to retrieve the frisbee, Anh offers Olive’s excess sunscreen to Adam. He accepts, and Olive rubs the sunscreen on him. Olive also apologizes for what she texted him the other day.

Tom then comes over and brings up that Adam will be going to Boston soon for a few days.

Olive is in the break room at night when she runs into Adam next. Olive is working on her report for Tom, but there’s a section she’s having trouble with since her lab equipment seems to be messing up. They chat and share snacks. Olive finds herself wondering why he’s single.

Olive also finds herself telling him about her mother and her death. She describes how, when she was 15, her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer too late and only had a few weeks left to live by then. Olive also says that her father was never in the picture and her grandparents were deceased, so she was sent into the foster system until she was emancipated at 16.

When she mentions needing to get back to work, Adam offers to let her use his lab equipment if she needs it. He also gives her some advice on the Western blot she’s working with to make sure she’s doing it correctly. Before Olive leaves, she asks Adam why he’s single, but before he can really answer, Jeremy walks in and interrupts them.

On Saturday, Olive sends in her report to Tom. He responds by asking her to meet to talk about it at Adam’s house (where he’s staying) on Tuesday before he leaves for Boston. At Adam’s house, she and Tom chat about her report for about 20 minutes. Before she leaves, Tom offers her a spot at Harvard for the next year, and Olive is thrilled.

Adam gives her a ride back to campus. He talks about how excited he is about the research he and Tom are working on. As they chat, Adam says something that The Guy she’d met in the bathroom all those years ago had said to her. Olive realizes then that Adam was The Guy she’d met. She marvels at how she’d wondered about The Guy for years. Olive then suggests that go celebrate her lab spot and him and Tom’s grant.

They agree to get coffee. Before then, she convinces him to go with her to get flu shots at the setup on campus, all the while she teases him for his fear of needles.

On Wednesday, Olive and Adam are texting and teasing each other when Anh comes in and comments on how in love with Adam she is. Anh says that she feels better about dating Jeremy, since she sees how much Olive likes Adam. As Anh leaves, it dawns on Olive that Anh is right.

Olive soon texts Malcolm asking to talk. When they get together, she tells him about how she thinks she’s fallen for Adam. She also tells him that she thinks that Adam was The Guy that she met all those years ago. Malcolm suggests that perhaps Adam feels the same way. Olive doesn’t think that’s the case, but moreover, she says scared of being vulnerable and possibly giving up the friendship she and Adam currently have if she’s wrong. Olive also says that everyone she cares about ends up leaving her — citing her mother, father and grandparents.

Olive says she’s certain she doesn’t want to say anything to Adam about her feelings — but then she turns around and sees Adam standing there.

When Adam acknowledges that he overheard her, Olive quickly lies and said she was talking about some other guy she has a crush on. Their conversation is interrupted by Dr. Holden Rodriguez , who is going to Boston with Tom and Adam. Dr. Rodriguez knows Olive since he was on her graduate advisory committee her first year.

As they talk, Holden explains that he and Adam are old friends. They grew up together because their parents were all diplomats. Holden tells Olive about how his boyfriend dumped him just before prom, so Adam went as his date instead.

After Holden leaves, Adam comments that Holden speaks highly of Olive and her research. Adam also explains a comment Holden made about Tom, saying that the two don’t really get along. He then tells Olive that she should just tell Jeremy how she feels, incorrectly assuming that the mystery crush Olive was referring to is Jeremy.

Malcolm continues trying to convince Olive to admit her feelings to Adam, but Olive refuses. With Adam out of town, she feels his absence. When Adam finally texts her on Sunday, she feels even worse about her stupid lie about liking someone else.

On campus, she runs into Holden, who mentions how glad he is that Adam and Olive got together. Holden days that Adam had talked about someone he wanted to ask out for years, and he’s glad Adam finally did it. When he says that, Olive thinks about how there must be someone else out there that Adam likes, then, since they only really met a couple weeks ago.

Holden also warns her to watch out when it comes to Tom and to watch Adam’s back, since he doesn’t trust Tom.

A little later, Olive is informed that her research has been accepted for the SBD conference as a panel presentation with faculty. Olive feels overwhelmed, since graduate students very rarely are selected for oral presentations. She goes to her advisor, Dr. Aslan, and explains that she’s terrible at talking. Of course, Dr. Aslan just gives her some encouragement and tells Olive she’ll help her practice her presentation.

Afterwards, Olive tells Malcom and Anh, who also volunteer to help her practice. They also mention, however, that they each got invited to stay with people in Boston for the conference (Anh with Jeremy and Malcolm with some friends who had a spare room), so they won’t be rooming with Olive. Anh says she figured Olive would stay with Adam.

Olive is trying to sort out some living arrangements for Boston when Adam, who is back in town now, comes up to her. She tells him about having trouble finding accommodations in Boston. Adam comments that there’s probably not anything left in the vicinity by now, but she could stay in his room at the conference center. He adds that he has the room for the whole conference, but he will only be using the room two nights, so they’ll only overlap for one night most likely.

When she tells him about her presentation, he offers to look over her slides. She also invites him to her talk, and she thinks about how one of the reasons she likes him is that she always feels like he’s on her side.

At the hotel in Boston, Olive takes the empty bed, and she rehearses the talk she’s about to give in a few hours. When Adam arrives, she thanks him for all the help he gave regarding her presentation.

He asks when her presentation is so he can attend, but it turns out it overlaps with the Keynote speech, which he is giving along with two other people. She offers to show him the recording of it afterwards.

When Olive goes to do her panel presentation, she sees that Tom is on the same panel. She gives her portion of the talk, and it goes well. Malcolm and Anh are there to cheer her on.

Afterwards, the room empties out, and it’s just her and Tom. As they talk, she notices him moving closer until he tries to kiss her. When she pushes him away, he keeps trying. Finally, he says that she’s clearly someone who sleeps around to get ahead, and so they both know she’ll sleep with him, too, for the same reason. He also says that she only got on this panel because someone wanted to kiss-up to Adam Carlson.

He also says that Adam is the reason he accepted Olive into his lab. When Olive threatens to tell Adam about this, he says that Adam won’t believe her word against his. Olive also says she won’t go work in his lab, but Tom says she knows it’s the best option for her, and if she doesn’t then he’ll just replicate her research since he already knows all about it.

When Adam gets back to the hotel, Olive is crying. She tries to pretend nothing is wrong, but fails at it. Finally, she lies and tells him that she’s upset because she overheard someone saying that her research was “derivative” and that she was only chosen because of Adam.

Adam comforts her, and then he says he has an idea for where they should go instead.

Holding her hand, they walk past all the people at the department social and instead head out to dinner. Adam asks what she wants to eat, and Olive sees an all-you-can-eat sushi place and wants to go.

After dinner, as they head back, Olive’s heels are hurting her, so Adam gamely picks her up and brings her to their room. She then suggests that they watch a movie. Olive goes to grab a quick shower, and Adam offers her a t-shirt since she forgot to pack pajamas.

When Olive’s mind wanders back to being called mediocre (by Tom, though she doesn’t tell Adam that), Adam tells her about how his advisor had once told him he wouldn’t amount to anything because of a mistake he made. He says that he had started preparing applications for law school as a result, since the comment shook his confidence. However, Holden and Tom (who also trained under the same advisor) convinced him to stick with science.

Adam says that later he realized that his advisor was abusive and a bad mentor who created a toxic environment. Comparatively, Adam says that he is critical since he wants students to be better, but it isn’t about belittling them as people or cutting down their self-worth. Adam also says that no one ever reported his advisor’s behavior because he was short-listed for a Nobel Prize, and they didn’t think anyone would listen. Adam also mentions how Tom had helped mediate thing with him and his advisor, so he was grateful to Tom for that.

Adam then tells Olive that the abstracts submitted to SBD go through a blind review process, so they definitely didn’t choose her because of him.

Finally, Olive moves to kiss Adam, but before anything can happen, he stops her. He points out that she’s upset and staying in his room and that the situation feels coercive to him. When Olive says she’s fine, he points out that she said she was in love with someone else and that he doesn’t want to regret this later.

Olive convinces him that she’s fine with the situation, and soon things get intimate.

They have sex.

Afterwards, Olive asks Adam about a book he’s reading. He says it’s in Dutch and that he learned it as a kid. He also says that his parents were busy all the time and that he was mostly raised by au pairs. They then talk more about their childhoods.

As they chat, Adam finally tells Olive that he might be going to Harvard. The reason he’s leaving the conference early is to go interview with them. He thinks that working together with Tom in the same lab would make them much more productive. He also mentions that he could show her around Boston when she’s there.

Olive wakes up to a barrage of texts from Anh and Malcolm. When she finally talks to them, it turns out the Malcolm hooked up with Holden at the department social. Malcolm also says that Holden mentioned that Adam’s funds had been released (though Adam hadn’t mentioned it to Olive).

That night, Olive meets up with Adam. He wants to go out and have dinner, but Olive breaks things off with him, since she doesn’t know what to do about the Tom situation. She thinks that taking herself out of the equation is the best thing for him.

As she starts to leave, they end up kissing, but he pulls away, and she leaves.

Olive spends the next day crying. Then, determined not to send up at Harvard, Olive takes Adam’s advice to reach out to people through her advisor and asks Dr. Aslan to e-mail various people she’d met at the conference to see if they’d be interested in her research.

Dr. Aslan agrees, and also asks to see her speech. As Olive edits the video recording, Malcolm talks about how he went on a first date with Holden, but they ended up running into his entire family (since they are all science junkies who attend science conferences).

As she’s editing, Olive realizes she recorded her upsetting conversation with Tom. Malcolm and Anh hear her listening to it. Once they’ve listened to the whole thing, they insist that Olive needs to tell Adam about it. Finally, Malcolm fills Anh in on what was really going on with Olive and Adam. However, they both agree it’s clear that Olive has feelings for Adam and that Adam would want to know about this. Still, Olive knows how important the collaboration with Tom is to Adam, and she is reluctant to complicate things for him.

They decide to call Holden to ask for advice. Olive asks Holden what he thinks about Adam moving to Boston and working with Tom. Holden says that he doesn’t trust Tom. He says he thinks there was a weird dynamic where Tom was secretly sabotaging Adam during grad school and then defending him. He thinks that Tom likes Adam’s loyalty towards him and having influence over him. Holden also tells them that he thinks Tom and Adam’s collaboration benefits Tom more than Adam. Finally, Holden implies that he thinks the only reason Adam is considering leaving Stanford is because Olive is going to Harvard.

Olive tracks down Adam’s location at a dinner with some Harvard people, including Tom. When he sees her, he gets up and asks what’s wrong. Tom comes over to try to get Adam to sit back down, but Adam insists on talking to Olive. Finally, Olive starts playing the video. Adam grows furious as he realizes what happened. He tells Tom that he’s going to kill him and goes after him, but Olive tells Adam that he’s not worth it.

As the Harvard people demand an explanation, Adam ignores them and kisses Olive. He then tells Olive to send him the recording immediately and then goes to talk to the Harvard people.

A few days later, Olive is back home, and Adam is on his way back to San Francisco. Meanwhile, Olive has received responses from four cancer researchers who are all interested in her research.

When Adam gets back, Holden insists on a double date. Adam reluctantly agrees. When they all sit down, they address the fact that Malcolm still has misgivings about Adam because of Adam’s harsh criticism of his work. Adam tells Malcolm that it wasn’t personal.

As they joke around about pumpkin spiced flavored foods, Holden mentions how Adam has liked Olive for years. Olive corrects him, saying they’ve only been dating for a few weeks, but Holden says that they met three years ago and that he’s liked Olive ever since. Olive then realizes that Adam was definitely the The Guy (from three years ago) and that he did remember her.

After dinner, Olive and Adam head home. Adam tells Olive that Harvard is going to fire Tom and that there will be other disciplinary actions. Olive then tells Adam that she remembered him, too, from all those years ago. But she didn’t piece it together until later, and she admits that she didn’t say anything once she figured it out.

Finally, she tells him that she loves him (in broken Dutch).

Ten months later, it’s the 1-year anniversary of their first kiss. Olive and Adam go to the lab and recreate and their kiss at precisely the same time as last year.

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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.

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For Chapter 16, I think it’s important to include the part where Olive comes out to Adam as demisexual. But other than that this is a great summary.

this book is so good i couldn’t put it down. the only i wish is it was both POVS i would of loved to see what adam was thinking during all of this or have his thoughts on when they met each other during the bathroom scene. and i would of loved to see him actually hurting tom for saying that stuff to olive.

Book Review of The Love Hypothesis ( The Love Hypothesis #1 ) by Ali Hazelwood

About the Book

• Ali Hazelwood
• Adult Romance
• Contemporary
• Man-Woman Romance
• White (Non-Specified)

Grading Scale

First Impressions: For Science What’s Your Type? Fake Dating, Grumpy/Sunshine, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Mutual Misunderstanding, Meta, Reylo Shipping The Lean : Like a Boulder We Need to Talk: Feeling the (Force) Dyad Was it Good For You? I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight

Content Warning: The Love Hypothesis includes elements of emotional and mental abuse, including bullying and gaslighting, and an attempted kiss without consent, that might be triggering for some readers.

First Impressions: For Science 

When the influx of cartoon-like illustrated covers started, I really liked them. They allowed for more diversity than the standard stock models. But they’re the norm, now, and while I like this one a bunch—the people on the cover are actually what made me first want to read this book, but more on that below—it’s getting hard to really distinguish from one book to the next. ( Especially in the rom-com world.)

I do appreciate the inclusion of the scientific gear and the woman in her lab coat, though. Very story on-point.

What’s Your Type?

• Fake Dating
• Grumpy/Sunshine
• Mutual Pining
• Mutual Misunderstanding
• Reylo Shipping

Dating Profile

Olive Smith is a rising third-year grad student in the biology department at Stanford. She’s passionate about her work—she’s doing research into pancreatic cancer detection—and doesn’t feel the need to have much of a life, other than spending time with her best friends Anh and Malcolm. But when a chance encounter brings Dr. Adam Carlsen into her life—the Dr. Carlsen who is the bane of most undergrad and grad students in the department’s lives—she suddenly finds herself juggling more than she can handle.

Especially when the encounter is part of a lie, a lie Olive staged to protect someone she cares about. And even more so when Adam agrees to be complicit in said lie, as it just so happens to help him out, too.

Olive and Adam have been a part of the same academic department for a couple of years, but it isn’t until The Night that Olive accosts him with a semi-consensual kiss to back up a lie about being on a date that they do more than cross paths in the hallway. The kiss leads to a fake dating situation, which Olive’s in to make sure her friends are happy and Adam’s in to make sure he gets the funding he needs to complete his research.

The Lean : Like a Boulder

Adam has a reputation amongst the biology department for being a complete hardass. He’s made more than a few people cry but doesn’t seem to care that he’s hated. Olive kicks herself at first for Adam being in the right place at the right time—she barely had a moment to realize who she was kissing before she did it—but soon she begins to realize that his outward stony exterior’s not actually all there is to him. He’s completely set in his ways, sure, but he’s also caring and supportive and delightfully sarcastic and kinda sexy with that extremely (surprisingly) fit physique and the somewhat exaggerated facial features that would look strange on anyone else, but there’s something about them on him …

For a romance book, there’s actually not a whole lot of romance , if you get my drift. Olive and Adam only share one very heated night of passion before plot gets in the way, but damn if it isn’t a supremely sexy night. Adam’s a caring and attentive lover, great for Olive who doesn’t have much experience—and who I believe is demi-sexual, although it’s not labeled in the book—but isn’t afraid to ask for what he wants in a sexily crass way.

Then Adam pulled out, pushed back in, and they annihilated the no-sex rule. In the span of a few seconds his thrusts went from tentative, exploratory, to fast and all-eclipsing. His hand slid to the small of her back, lifting her into him as he plied in, and in, and in again, rubbing inside her, against her, forcing pleasure to vibrate up her spine.

Ms. Perky’s Prize for Purplest Prose

This is the first book of Hazelwood’s I’ve read, but it certainly won’t be the last. I love her mix of wit and angst—two things any good rom-com should have in spades—and how realistic her characters are. Her writing is not at all flowery, unless you count the passages in which Hazlewood gives a close look at what’s happening in Olive’s brain:

In the span of a microsecond Olive’s entire brain burst into flames—and then crumbled into a pile of ashes. Just like that, one hundred billion neurons, one thousand billion glial cells, and who knew how many milliliters of cerebrospinal fluid, just ceased to exist. The rest of her body was not doing very well, either, since Olive could feel all her organs shut down in real time. From the very beginning of her acquaintance with Adam there had been about ten instances of Olive wishing to drop dead on the spot, for the earth to open and swallow her whole, for a cataclysm to hit and spare her from the embarrassment of their interactions. This time, though, it felt as though the end of the world might happen for real.

Our girl is a … tad … bit dramatic.

We Need to Talk: Feeling the (Force) Dyad 

If you followed the discourse about this book around its release, you might know that it’s based on a Reylo (Rey and Kylo Ren from Star Wars ) fanfic. Which is honestly one of the reasons I wanted to read it—no shame in my ‘ship game—I can’t get enough of that problematic relationship. However, lest this turn you off from reading, The Love Hypothesis doesn’t read like a Star Wars fic and, unless you’re familiar with the characters in the movies, you’ll likely not even pick up on the small nods, which mostly remain with the characters’ looks (see my vague note in First Impressions), personalities, and relationships. Whatever the story started as, it was obviously a total AU (alternate universe) story—Rey and Kylo certainly aren’t biology researchers who go to/teach at Standford, respectively—and Olive and Adam, while being reminiscent of others, completely stand on their own. 

Hazlewood’s grasp of actual science is an added bonus, too. I’m not a scientist, but I trust that she, someone who is, got all the bits and bobs right about the depictions of research in academia and what comes with it.

Was it Good For You? I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight

I really couldn’t have asked for more from a rom-com. I’m still a novice when it comes to romance books, so easing into the genre with books like this—books that make me smile long after I’ve finished reading with just the right amount of HOTTness—is exactly what I look for when I know I need a specific kind of pick me up. And I promise that you won’t feel like you’re reading a Star Wars story, but if you want any fic recs, you know where to find me.

FTC Full Disclosure: I bought a copy of this book with my own funds and got neither a private dance party with Tom Hiddleston nor money in exchange for this review. The Love Hypothesis is available now.

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• Book Reports,
• California,
• fake dating,
• workplace romance

Mandy (she/her) is a manager at a tech company who lives in Austin, TX, with her husband, son, and dogs. She loves superheroes and pretty much any show or movie with “Star” in the name.

6 thoughts on “ The Love Hypothesis (The Love Hypothesis #1) ”

Yes, please on the Reylo fanfic recs! I loved The Love Hypothesis.

I’ll put together a list! 😀

I have this on hold at the library. CANNOT WAIT.

It’s so, so cute. I hope you love it, too!

I read this in one day!!! It was so cute and slow burn romances like this are IMPOSSIBLE for me to put down.

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The Love Hypothesis

Physics genius Caro Kerber-Murphy knows she’s smart. With straight As and a college scholarship already in the bag, she’s meeting her two dads’ colossal expectations and then some. But there’s one test she’s never quite been able to ace: love. And when, in a particularly desperate moment, Caro discovers a (definitely questionable) scientific breakthrough that promises to make you irresistible to everyone around you, she wonders if this could be the key. What happens next will change everything Caro thought she knew chemistry – in the lab and in love.

Is her long-time crush Haruki with her of his own free will? Are her feelings for her best girl friend some sort of side-effect? Will her dog, Sirius, ever stop humping her leg?

Representation : bisexual MC with two gay dads; heterosexual and lesbian love interests.

Sexuality: Bisexual , Gay/Queer , Heterosexual , Lesbian/Queer Genre: Contemporary

'The Love Hypothesis' won Amazon's best romance book of 2021, has a near-perfect rating on Goodreads, and is all over TikTok. Here's why it's such a unique love story.

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• " The Love Hypothesis " grabbed the attention of romance readers everywhere in 2021.
• It was named Amazon's Best Romance Novel of 2021 and was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award.
• This book checks off all my boxes for a great romance read and is definitely worth the hype.

This year, Amazon named " The Love Hypothesis " by Ali Hazelwood the best romance book of the year. Even though it was only recently published in September 2021, "The Love Hypothesis" has quickly become a fan-favorite, with 88% of Goodreads reviewers giving it four- or five-star-level praise .

It was also nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award and is hugely popular amongst Book of the Month members , with only 1% of readers giving it a "disliked" rating.

"The Love Hypothesis" is about Olive Smith, a third-year Ph.D. candidate studying pancreatic cancer at Stanford. In an attempt to convince one of her best friends that she's moved on from an old crush, she impulsively kisses Dr. Adam Carlsen, the department's notoriously brutal (but undeniably attractive) professor. After the kiss, Adam and Olive agree to fake a relationship so she can prove to her friend that she's happily dating and he can convince their department that he isn't planning to leave anytime soon.

I'm a little picky about my romance novels , so giving this read every bit of a five-star review didn't come lightly. My standards are high because the best romance novels have the potential to expose readers to authentic and imperfect relationships and offer new topics of discussion without making us feel like it's a story we've already read. 

With all the hype surrounding this new romance read, I couldn't resist picking it up.

Here's why "The Love Hypothesis" is one of my favorite recent romance books:

1. the story focuses a lot on olive and adam's lives outside their romance, making their love story more believable and interesting..

Romance novels tend to fall into a few popular tropes such as " enemies-to-lovers " or "forbidden love." "The Love Hypothesis" combines two of the most popular tropes right now, "Fake dating" and "grumpy/sunshine," really well — I loved the contrast between Adam's serious attitude to Olive's bright and sugary one. 

But despite following these tropes, the story feels fresh because it's also largely about Olive's work and its meaning to her. The only other romance book I've read featuring a STEM heroine is "The Kiss Quotient" , so I loved seeing that representation and learning about something new. 

The story honestly reflected the challenges Ph.D. candidates face in academia and that authenticity — deepened by the author's personal experiences — brought the characters, the settings, and the romance to life even more as Olive and Adam faced challenges with funding, time-consuming research, and questioning their sense of purpose.

2. The steamier scenes are also awkward and realistic, which made them even better.

In romance books, there are a few different levels of how graphic a steamy scene can get , from little-to-no detail to explicitly outlined movements. (I personally prefer mine to "fade to black.")

There was only one chapter with adult content, and it was definitely graphic. While I made a ton of ridiculous faces while reading and tried to skim past the parts that made me audibly gasp, I loved that it wasn't a movie-made, perfect sex scene with graceful movements and smooth dialogue. The scene was a little awkward, imperfect, and full of consent and conversation, making it refreshingly real.

3. The book deals with other topics besides the main love story, making it a much deeper read.

While it's wonderful to get swept up in the magic of a romantic storyline, having a secondary plot that addresses real issues is what makes a romance novel truly great . 

Mild spoilers and content warnings ahead: While "The Love Hypothesis" is a fun romantic read, it also addresses the pain of familial death, power differentials, intimacy challenges, and, most prevalently, workplace sexual harassment. 

Love is beautiful, fun, and amazing, but "The Love Hypothesis" takes the opportunity to also include conversations about serious issues. While these topics may be tough for some readers, I think these plot points, hard conversations, and complicated emotions take "The Love Hypothesis" to the next level and make it a five-star read. 

The bottom line

"The Love Hypothesis" has everything I personally look for in a romance novel: A unique storyline, authentic characters, and an important message. If you're looking for a perfectly balanced romance read, "The Love Hypothesis" is worth the hype and definitely one of the best romance books to come out in the past year.

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When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relatio...

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“The Love Hypothesis” depicts love at Stanford and criticizes inequality in academia

Spotted: a fake-relationship turned real romance between a biology Ph.D. student and a biology professor, set in the familiar terrain of our very own Stanford University. Although I am not the biggest fan of romance books, Ali Hazelwood’s debut novel immediately caught my attention.  This is it , I thought to myself. This could be Stanford’s very own “Pride and Prejudice”! Then I bought the book right away. 

In “The Love Hypothesis,” author and cognitive neuroscientist Ali Hazelwood combines her two passions, writing and science, to give her readers a contemporary love story that reflects Stanford students’ frustrations with the elite institution. While delivering readers’ favorite romance tropes, Hazelwood also explores the fascinating world of biology and critiques academia as it exists today. In order to convince her skeptical best friend Anh that she’s in a happy relationship, Olive Smith, our protagonist and a third-year Ph.D. candidate, kisses Adam Carlsen, a professor notorious for giving low grades and harsh critiques. After the incident, Olive and Adam decide to fake-date so that Anh will continue to buy Olive’s charade and Stanford, convinced Adam’s there to stay, will fund his research. The two make a peculiar and even problematic couple because of their faculty-student relationship, yet their fake-dating persists.

Hazelwood began her writing career with Star Trek and Star Wars fan fiction, which she wrote frequently during the last year of her Ph.D. program. Along with her personal experiences in academia, these media franchises significantly shaped her novel. “The Love Hypothesis” incorporates emails between students and faculty members regarding research collaborations, portrays the day-to-day life of Ph.D. students in and outside of their labs and frequently mentions Olive’s work investigating blood biomarkers as an early-detection mechanism for pancreatic cancer, a real-life popular research area. Although Olive’s fictitious life is not a realistic depiction of life at Stanford, Hazelwood adequately portrays common student struggles and the work of today’s biologists. In the book, the emphasis on collaboration within the field of biology, depicted through Olive’s desire to partner with computational modelers, or even small details such as a graduate students’ eagerness to use the PCR machine first, reflect Hazelwood’s own knowledge and passion for the field. In addition, her love of Star Wars comes out through the characters of Olive and Adam, the former with a shy yet bubbly persona like Rey and the latter emulating Kylo Ren’s angst and detached attitude.

Reading the book through a Cardinal lens, you realize Hazelwood is not exactly campus-fluent. When Olive and Adam are setting the rules for their fake relationship, they agree to meet at Starbucks every Wednesday morning to make their relationship look more convincing, yet not once do they go to CoHo or Coupa. During their Starbucks dates, Olive constantly gets pumpkin spice lattes, and the two never go out to get boba. Considering the popularity of boba shops all around Palo Alto and the frequent door-dash boba orders during on-calls, it was especially peculiar that Olive and Adam did not participate in the boba culture at Stanford. Later, when Olive goes to visit Adam, he’s surprised to learn she doesn’t drive but instead bikes, as if he’s not seen the profuse bikes around campus. Compounding our confusion, Olive complains about there being no bike lanes around, which is very unlike anywhere near Stanford. It is also surprising that Olive never uses the Marguerite to get to the School of Medicine, a common practice among Ph.D. students. 

Aside from documenting the ups and downs of fake-dating on the Farm, “The Love Hypothesis” strikes a more sincere chord, as it doesn’t shy away from criticizing the world of academia. Hazelwood highlights how STEM academia is problematic through Olive’s experiences as well as those of her close friends and Adam. She acknowledges and critiques the chronic underpayment of student researchers, cultural sexism in academia, racism in higher education and the demoralizing attitudes of faculty toward beginner researchers.

“Committing to years of unappreciated, underpaid 80-hour workweeks might not be good for [Olive’s] mental health,” writes Hazelwood, condemning the lack of appreciation researchers express for student work from the very first page of her novel. She further depicts Olive’s struggle with rent and meals due to her low salary in an expensive city. Through Olive’s personal struggles, Hazelwood attests that current researchers are not paid adequately by the multimillion-dollar institutions they work in, which often withholds them from feeling passion for their jobs.  

Moreover, she repeatedly criticizes the sexist and racist practices in academia: “[Olive] was the only woman in the room, virtually alone in a sea of white men,” Hazelwood writes to expose the structural inequalities in academia that refuse women and people of color seats at the table. She reiterates throughout the book how the lack of diversity in Olive’s professional and academic environments makes her feel out of place and pushes her to doubt her own abilities, resulting in tremendous anxiety and imposter syndrome.

A breath of fresh air, Olive’s best friend Anh is characterized by her enthusiasm and optimistic outlook throughout the book, even in the face of constant gender discrimination. She is also the head of Stanford Women in Science Association and director of outreach for the Organization of BIPOC Scientists. Anh’s passion within the field and her positive perception of the future reflects a hope for change and highlights the importance of such organizations to diversify the field and create safer environments for women.

While it doesn’t feel true to Stanford at all times, Hazelwood’s novel presents both the beauty of biology and the downfalls of academia, all while narrating a gripping romance. Meanwhile, Hazelwood herself proves that one can follow their passions in STEM and creative writing simultaneously by excelling as a researcher and a novelist. For those who live for classic romance tropes, love biology or are looking for examples of how to reach faculty through email, “The Love Hypothesis” has you covered!

Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective opinions, thoughts and critiques.

Leyla Yilmaz '25 is the vol. 264 Reads desk editor for the Arts & Life section. She is from Istanbul, Turkey and a prospective Biology major who enjoys frequent trips to the bookstore and collecting cacti. Contact the Daily's Arts & Life section at arts ‘at’ stanforddaily.com.

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The Love Hypothesis

48 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapters 9-11

Chapters 12-13

Chapters 14-15

Chapters 16-19

Chapter 20-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Fake Dating

Fake dating is a popular trope in the romance genre . Exactly as the name suggests, fake dating involves two (or more) people pretending to be involved with one another, often for reasons that have nothing to do with any desire they might have to actually date their fake partner. Olive enters a fake relationship with Adam believing it will come to an end and she’ll move on while Anh and Jeremy get their happily ever after. Due to her demisexuality and dedication to her research, Olive sees no future with Adam until their lighthearted banter and meaningful conversations capture her heart.

Adam thwarts the fake dating trope with another common romance trope, the secret crush. While he tells Olive his main reason for entering the fake relationship is frozen funds, he has also been pining after her for years and welcomes the opportunity to spend time with her and get to know her better. As the fake dating trope dictates, Olive’s feelings eventually grow to match Adam’s, until both can’t imagine life without one another. Their fake dating becomes real love by the end of the book.

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The Love Hypothesis Kindle Edition

• Print length 383 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Berkley
• Publication date September 14, 2021
• File size 3306 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved..

Chapter One

Hypothesis: When given a choice between A (a slightly inconveniencing situation) and B (a colossal shitshow with devastating consequences), I will inevitably end up selecting B.

In Olive's defense, the man didn't seem to mind the kiss too much.

It did take him a moment to adjust-perfectly understandable, given the sudden circumstances. It was an awkward, uncomfortable, somewhat painful minute, in which Olive was simultaneously smashing her lips against his and pushing herself as high as her toes would extend to keep her mouth at the same level as his face. Did he have to be so tall? The kiss must have looked like some clumsy headbutt, and she grew anxious that she was not going to be able to pull the whole thing off. Her friend Anh, whom Olive had spotted coming her way a few seconds ago, was going to take one look at this and know at once that Olive and Kiss Dude couldn't possibly be two people in the middle of a date.

Then that agonizingly slow moment went by, and the kiss became . . . different. The man inhaled sharply and inclined his head a tiny bit, making Olive feel less like a squirrel monkey climbing a baobab tree, and his hands-which were large and pleasantly warm in the AC of the hallway-closed around her waist. They slid up a few inches, coming to wrap around Olive's rib cage and holding her to himself. Not too close, and not too far.

It was more of a prolonged peck than anything, but it was quite nice, and for the life span of a few seconds Olive forgot a large number of things, including the fact that she was pressed against a random, unknown dude. That she'd barely had the time to whisper "Can I please kiss you?" before locking lips with him. That what had originally driven her to put on this entire show was the hope of fooling Anh, her best friend in the whole world.

But a good kiss will do that: make a girl forget herself for a while. Olive found herself melting into a broad, solid chest that showed absolutely no give. Her hands traveled from a defined jaw into surprisingly thick and soft hair, and then-then she heard herself sigh, as if already out of breath, and that's when it hit her like a brick on the head, the realization that- No. No.

Nope, nope, no.

She should not be enjoying this. Random dude, and all that.

Olive gasped and pushed herself away from him, frantically looking for Anh. In the 11:00 p.m. bluish glow of the biology labs' hallway, her friend was nowhere to be seen. Weird. Olive was sure she had spotted her a few seconds earlier.

Kiss Dude, on the other hand, was standing right in front of her, lips parted, chest rising and a weird light flickering in his eyes, which was exactly when it dawned on her, the enormity of what she had just done. Of who she had just-

Fuck her life.

Fuck. Her. Life.

Because Dr. Adam Carlsen was a known ass.

This fact was not remarkable in and of itself, as in academia every position above the graduate student level (Olive's level, sadly) required some degree of assness in order to be held for any length of time, with tenured faculty at the very peak of the ass pyramid. Dr. Carlsen, though-he was exceptional. At least if the rumors were anything to go by.

He was the reason Olive's roommate, Malcolm, had to completely scrap two research projects and would likely end up graduating a year late; the one who had made Jeremy throw up from anxiety before his qualifying exams; the sole culprit for half the students in the department being forced to postpone their thesis defenses. Joe, who used to be in Olive's cohort and would take her to watch out-of-focus European movies with microscopic subtitles every Thursday night, had been a research assistant in Carlsen's lab, but he'd decided to drop out six months into it for "reasons." It was probably for the best, since most of Carlsen's remaining graduate assistants had perennially shaky hands and often looked like they hadn't slept in a year.

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 spoke, in the way he carried himself, that he thought himself the only person doing decent science within the Stanford biology department. Within the entire world, probably. He was a notoriously moody, obnoxious, terrifying dick.

And Olive had just kissed him.

She wasn't sure how long the silence lasted-only that he was the one to break it. He stood in front of Olive, ridiculously intimidating with dark eyes and even darker hair, staring down from who knows how many inches above six feet-he must have been over half a foot taller than she was. He scowled, an expression that she recognized from seeing him attend the departmental seminar, a look that usually preceded him raising his hand to point out some perceived fatal flaw in the speaker's work.

Adam Carlsen. Destroyer of research careers , Olive had once overheard her adviser say.

It's okay. It's fine. Totally fine. She was just going to pretend nothing had happened, nod at him politely, and tiptoe her way out of here. Yes, solid plan.

"Did you . . . Did you just kiss me?" He sounded puzzled, and maybe a little out of breath. His lips were full and plump and . . . God. Kissed. There was simply no way Olive could get away with denying what she had just done.

Still, it was worth a try.

Surprisingly, it seemed to work.

"Ah. Okay, then." Carlsen nodded and turned around, looking vaguely disoriented. He took a couple of steps down the hallway, reached the water fountain-maybe where he'd been headed in the first place.

Olive was starting to believe that she might actually be off the hook when he halted and turned back with a skeptical expression.

"Are you sure?"

"I-" She buried her face in her hands. "It's not the way it looks."

"Okay. I . . . Okay," he repeated slowly. His voice was deep and low and sounded a lot like he was on his way to get ting mad. Like maybe he was already mad. "What's going on here?"

There was simply no way to explain this. Any normal person would have found Olive's situation odd, but Adam Carlsen, who obviously considered empathy a bug and not a feature of humanity, could never understand. She let her hands fall to her sides and took a deep breath.

"I . . . listen, I don't mean to be rude, but this is really none of your business."

He stared at her for a moment, and then he nodded. "Yes. Of course." He must be getting back into his usual groove, because his tone had lost some of its surprise and was back to normal-dry. Laconic. "I'll just go back to my office and begin to work on my Title IX complaint."

Olive exhaled in relief. "Yeah. That would be great, since- Wait. Your what?"

He cocked his head. "Title IX is a federal law that protects against sexual misconduct within academic settings-"

"I know what Title IX is."

"I see. So you willfully chose to disregard it."

"I- What? No. No, I didn't!"

He shrugged. "I must be mistaken, then. Someone else must have assaulted me."

"Assault-I didn't 'assault' you."

"You did kiss me."

"But not really ."

"Without first securing my consent."

"I asked if I could kiss you!"

"And then did so without waiting for my response."

"What? You said yes."

"Excuse me?"

She frowned. "I asked if I could kiss you, and you said yes."

"Incorrect. You asked if you could kiss me and I snorted."

"I'm pretty sure I heard you said yes."

He lifted one eyebrow, and for a minute Olive let herself daydream of drowning someone. Dr. Carlsen. Herself. Both sounded like great options.

"Listen, I'm really sorry. It was a weird situation. Can we just forget that this happened?"

He studied her for a long moment, his angular face serious and something else, something that she couldn't quite decipher because she was too busy noticing all over again how damn towering and broad he was. Just massive. Olive had always been slight, just this side of too slender, but girls who are five eight rarely felt diminutive. At least until they found themselves standing next to Adam Carlsen. She'd known that he was tall, of course, from seeing him around the department or walking across campus, from sharing the elevator with him, but they'd never interacted. Never been this close.

Except for a second ago, Olive. When you almost put your tongue in his-

"Is something wrong?" He sounded almost concerned.

"What? No. No, there isn't."

"Because," he continued calmly, "kissing a stranger at midnight in a science lab might be a sign that there is."

"There isn't."

Carlsen nodded, thoughtful. "Very well. Expect mail in the next few days, then." He began to walk past her, and she turned to yell after him.

"You didn't even ask my name!"

"I'm sure anyone could figure it out, since you must have swiped your badge to get in the labs area after hours. Have a good night."

"Wait!" She leaned forward and stopped him with a hand on his wrist. He paused immediately, even though it was obvious that it would take him no effort to free himself, and stared pointedly at the spot where her fingers had wrapped around his skin-right below a wristwatch that probably cost half her yearly graduate salary. Or all of it.

She let go of him at once and took one step back. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"The kiss. Explain."

Olive bit into her lower lip. She had truly screwed herself over. She had to tell him, now. "Anh Pham." She looked around to make sure Anh was really gone. "The girl who was passing by. She's a graduate student in the biology department."

Carlsen gave no indication of knowing who Anh was.

"Anh has . . ." Olive pushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear. This was where the story became embarrassing. Complicated, and a little juvenile sounding. "I was seeing this guy in the department. Jeremy Langley, he has red hair and works with Dr. . . . Anyway, we went out just a couple of times, and then I brought him to Anh's birthday party, and they just sort of hit it off and-"

Olive shut her eyes. Which was probably a bad idea, because now she could see it painted on her lids, how her best friend and her date had bantered in that bowling alley, as if they'd known each other their whole lives; the never-exhausted topics of conversation, the laughter, and then, at the end of the night, Jeremy following Anh's every move with his gaze. It had been painfully clear who he was interested in. Olive waved a hand and tried for a smile.

"Long story short, after Jeremy and I ended things he asked Anh out. She said no because of . . . girl code and all that, but I can tell that she really likes him. She's afraid to hurt my feelings, and no matter how many times I told her it was fine she wouldn't believe me."

Not to mention that the other day I overheard her confess to our friend Malcolm that she thought Jeremy was awesome, but she could never betray me by going out with him, and she sounded so dejected. Disappointed and insecure, not at all like the spunky, larger-than-life Anh I am used to.

"So I just lied and told her that I was already dating someone else. Because she's one of my closest friends and I'd never seen her like a guy this much and I want her to have the good things she deserves and I'm positive that she would do the same for me and-" Olive realized that she was rambling and that Carlsen couldn't have cared less. She stopped and swallowed, even though her mouth felt dry. "Tonight. I told her I'd be on a date tonight ."

"Ah." His expression was unreadable.

"But I'm not. So I decided to come in to work on an experiment, but Anh showed up, too. She wasn't supposed to be here. But she was. Coming this way. And I panicked-well." Olive wiped a hand down her face. "I didn't really think."

Carlsen didn't say anything, but it was there in his eyes that he was thinking. Obviously.

"I just needed her to believe that I was on a date."

He nodded. "So you kissed the first person you saw in the hallway. Perfectly logical."

Olive winced. "When you put it like that, perhaps it wasn't my best moment."

"But it wasn't my worst, either! I'm pretty sure Anh saw us. Now she'll think that I was on a date with you and she'll hopefully feel free to go out with Jeremy and-" She shook her head. "Listen. I'm so, so sorry about the kiss."

"Please, don't report me. I really thought I heard you say yes. I promise I didn't mean to . . ."

Suddenly, the enormity of what she had just done fully dawned on her. She had just kissed a random guy, a guy who happened to be the most notoriously unpleasant faculty member in the biology department. She'd misunderstood a snort for consent, she'd basically attacked him in the hallway, and now he was staring at her in that odd, pensive way, so large and focused and close to her, and . . .

Maybe it was the late night. Maybe it was that her last coffee had been sixteen hours ago. Maybe it was Adam Carlsen looking down at her, like that. All of a sudden, this entire situation was just too much.

"Actually, you're absolutely right. And I am so sorry. If you felt in any way harassed by me, you really should report me, because it's only fair. It was a horrible thing to do, though I really didn't want to . . . Not that my intentions matter; it's more like your perception of . . ."

Crap, crap, crap.

"I'm going to leave now, okay? Thank you, and . . . I am so, so, so sorry." Olive spun around on her heels and ran away down the hallway.

"Olive," she heard him call after her. "Olive, wait-"

She didn't stop. She sprinted down the stairs to the first floor and then out the building and across the pathways of the sparsely lit Stanford campus, running past a girl walking her dog and a group of students laughing in front of the library. She continued until she was standing in front of her apartment's door, stopping only to unlock it, making a beeline for her room in the hope of avoiding her roommate and whoever he might have brought home tonight. It wasn’t until she slumped on her bed, staring at the glow‑in‑the- dark stars glued to her ceiling, that she realized that she had neglected to check on her lab mice. She had also left her laptop on her bench and her sweatshirt somewhere in the lab, and she had completely forgotten to stop at the store and buy the coffee she’d promised Malcolm she’d get for tomorrow morning. Shit. What a disaster of a day. It never occurred to Olive that Dr. Adam Carlsen— known ass— had called her by her name.

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08T6XN4FP
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley (September 14, 2021)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 14, 2021
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 3306 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 383 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1408725762
• #143 in Workplace Romance eBooks
• #170 in Workplace Romance
• #554 in Romantic Comedy (Kindle Store)

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About the author

Ali hazelwood.

Ali Hazelwood is a multi-published author—alas, of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience. She recently became a professor, which absolutely terrifies her. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, crocheting, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her two feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).

Customer reviews

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• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 65% 24% 8% 2% 1% 8%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 65% 24% 8% 2% 1% 2%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 65% 24% 8% 2% 1% 1%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

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Customers say

Customers find the banter good, lighthearted, and witty. They describe the story as captivating, compelling, and diverse. Readers also find the characters relatable, dynamic, and vulnerable. They describe the book as cute, sweet, and spicy. Additionally, they mention the book combines scientific curiosity with matters of the heart.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book light-hearted, fun, and authentic. They also appreciate the humor and wit. Readers mention the dialogue is amusing and relatable.

"...I liked the friend group and the amount of humor and nuance in the writing . And let's speak a moment about the cover...." Read more

"...This is cute and sweet. It’s cheesy , but it knows that it is, and I think that makes it all the better.Olive is adorable...." Read more

"I loved this book! It was sooooo good ! This was my first time reading something by this author, and I am totally in love...." Read more

"...something up it hits them upside the head but when it does it was well written and the scientist can be just as passionate and romantic as..." Read more

Customers find the dialogue amusing and relatable. They say the author skillfully weaves a captivating blend of romance and science. Readers also mention the book is frothy, readable, and the characters make them fall in love. They say the conflicts and twists feel legitimate.

"...So yeah, calling all geek-girls, this is a great romance book and I will definitely be reading more of the author's work in the future." Read more

"...is probably not going to be everyone’s favorite FMC but she’s dorky and believable ...." Read more

"...And it is definitely a love story. The romance is central throughout , with a light, fresh feel that gets richer and deeper as the story progresses...." Read more

"...This is a great story , and I definitely recommend giving it a try." Read more

Customers find the characters relatable, dynamic, and vulnerable. They appreciate the science references that add depth to the characters.

"...Still, Ali creates such great, complex characters that even when I didn't relate, I CARED...." Read more

"...I really love her writing style. The characters were super smart but not so smart that everything went over my head.I just loved Olive...." Read more

"...Loved the academia with the romance. The characters felt easy to relate too , the writing style is top tier Ali, I really enjoyed reading this book!" Read more

"...'s writing style is witty, charming, and engaging, and her characters are lovable , relatable, and full of personality...." Read more

Customers find the book cute. They say it's a good choice for someone who just likes cute things. Readers also mention the individual characters and their friends are beautiful. They appreciate the vivid, distinct voice and find it refreshing to see on the page.

"...And let's speak a moment about the cover. The Illustrator is amazing and honestly, her cover is what sold me to take the leap and buy the book...." Read more

"... Adam is cute . I really wish this was dual POV. I would LOVE to experience the pining and brooding that I know was going on in his head. But alas...." Read more

"...Well, it's all pretty great, actually. This has such a vivid , distinct voice that I am very much looking forward to whatever's next from..." Read more

"Okay, so not my favorite Ali book. It was cute tho. I read it in two sittings.I’m always down for a fake dating story...." Read more

Customers find the book sweet, with a nice bit of spice. They also love the banter and chemistry between Olive and Adam. Readers describe the book as fun and light, like cotton candy.

"...This is cute and sweet . It’s cheesy, but it knows that it is, and I think that makes it all the better.Olive is adorable...." Read more

"...This book does contain spice . I would say 2.5 spicy peppers out of 5 spicy peppers...." Read more

"FINAL DECISION: This book is fun and light, like cotton candy . Even the "serious" storyline is really fluff because it lacks complexity...." Read more

"I love how the story unfolds, spice is there but minimal ...." Read more

Customers find the chemistry in the book tangible and intriguing. They also appreciate the academic setting and references to science and research. Readers describe the book as a great, heartfelt read that is entertaining and educational at the same time.

"...I felt the world of academia was well established as it was shown, not told...." Read more

"...Tall, academic , and sweet… he’s what dreams are made of..." Read more

"Please read because the chemistry is undeniable !!" Read more

"..." is a delightful and charming romance novel that combines scientific curiosity with matters of the heart...." Read more

Customers find the book charming, heartwarming, and funny. They say it gives a great sense of the hardships and adventures of graduate students. Readers also mention the build-up will absolutely make them swoon. Overall, they say the book is sweet, fun, and slightly depressing.

"...The sex scene felt both hot and yet in some moments awkward , tender, and exposing (making it feel all the more real)...." Read more

"...It's a slow burn romance with one incredibly intimate and dynamic love scene - the intimacy and emotional connection are the shining stars here...." Read more

"...Olive had was so real that Ali makes it relatable and shows the real emotions and struggles that comes with it. Definitely a good read! 💯..." Read more

"...She is so selfless ...." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book. Some mention they enjoy the slow build-up of the attraction and relationship between Olive. However, others say the story feels very slow, like lazy narration.

"...A perfect summer romcom. This was easy to read and I finished it very quickly ...." Read more

"...The runtime is a bit longer than I'd like (11 hours), and I found it difficult to listen to the narrator's voice at a faster speed...." Read more

"...it’s a super fast read , b) it’s highly addicting, and c) Adam and Olive’s relationship/banter is the best...." Read more

"...On the other hand, this book have a lot of unrealistic situations , if you read this book don’t look for real things or amazing book to read, it is..." Read more

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Get the MIT Reads Fall Selection Close this alert

The Love Hypothesis

If, like me, your catnip is the taciturn, brainy, hot hero who is secretly a big squishy marshmallow at heart, look no further than this awesome debut!

Description

The Instant New York Times Bestseller and TikTok Sensation! As seen on THE VIEW! A BuzzFeed Best Summer Read of 2021 When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos. 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.

About the Author

Ali Hazelwood is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and The Love Hypothesis, as well as a writer of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the US to pursue a PhD in neuroscience. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her three feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).

Praise for The Love Hypothesis

An Indie Next Pick! "A literary breakthrough… The Love Hypothesis is a self-assured debut, and we hypothesize it's just the first bit of greatness we'll see from an author who somehow has the audacity to be both an academic powerhouse and divinely talented novelist."— Entertainment Weekly “ C ontemporary romance's unicorn: the elusive marriage of deeply brainy and delightfully escapist... The Love Hypothesis has wild commercial appeal but the quieter secret is that there is a specific audience, made up of all of the Olives in the world, who have deeply, ardently waited for this exact book.”—Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author “Funny, sexy and smart, Ali Hazelwood did a terrific job with The Love Hypothesis .”—Mariana Zapata, New York Times bestselling author “This tackles one of my favorite tropes—Grumpy meets Sunshine—in a fun and utterly endearing way...I loved the nods towards fandom and romance novels, and I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended!”—Jessica Clare, New York Times bestselling author "Pure slow-burning gold with lots of chemistry."—Popsugar "A beautifully written romantic comedy with a heroine you will instantly fall in love with, The Love Hypothesis is destined to earn a place on your keeper shelf."—Elizabeth Everett, author of A Lady's Formula for Love "Smart, witty dialog and a diverse cast of likable secondary characters...A realistic, amusing novel that readers won’t be able to put down."— Library Journal, starred review "Hilarious and heartwarming, The Love Hypothesis is romantic comedy at its best...a perfect amalgamation of sex and science, sure to appeal to readers of Christina Lauren or Abby Jimenez."—Shelf Awareness "With whip-smart and endearing characters, snappy prose, and a quirky take on a favorite trope, Hazelwood convincingly navigates the fraught shoals of academia...This smart, sexy contemporary should delight a wide swath of romance lovers."— Publishers Weekly

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The Love Hypothesis

This novel contains examples of the following tropes:

• All Girls Want Bad Boys : Averted. Despite being good-looking, Adam isn't pursued by women due to his asshole-tendencies. In fact, people are appalled about their relationship, and ask Olive if she is alright because she is dating a known jackass.
• Amicable Exes : What Olive and Jeremy are. They went on a few dates, but broke up because he was more interested in Anh.
• Anh and Jeremy.
• Malcolm and Holden.
• Big Man on Campus : Adam is this. So much so, that even Tom at Harvard heard of him dating Olive.
• Break His Heart to Save Him : Olive tries to do this, and breaks up with Adam, so he can work with Tom. Once Holden tells her Adam could easily research without Tom, and that Tom is gunning for Adam's career for a long time, she shows Adam the proof of Tom blackmailing her.
• Casting Couch : Tom tries it with Olive, making it clear that he'll only fund her research if she sleeps with him. If not, he'll steal it .
• Character Tics : Olive is prone to silently weeping. “Apparently, weeping silently was her new baseline state.”
• Compassionate Critic : Adam actually does mean well with his harsh criticism, wanting his students to become great scientists. He may not care about protecting anyone's feelings, but he does care about his students producing quality work and being able to thrive in the field.
• Curves in All the Right Places : A male version in which Adam gets countless stares playing Frisbee shirtless. Apparently, his shoulders are swoon-worthy.
• Deadpan Snarker : Adam snarks with every sentence.
• Disappeared Dad : Olive's dad left before she was born. Once her mother died, she had to go to foster care.
• When Olive kisses Adam, she quickly asks him if it is alright, and thought she heard a yes, which he denies. Turns out, he probably did say yes, since he was pining for her for about 3 years.
• Anh asks Olive if Adam is blackmailing her to be in a relationship with him, which Olive thinks is ridiculous. Tom tries exactly that later to hurt Adam.
• Fake Relationship : The entire premise. Olive wants Anh to date Jeremy without feeling bad, and Adam wants Stanford to think he will not move on to Harvard because his “girlfriend” is in Stanford.
• Gay Best Friend : Olive and Adam have Malcolm and Holden respectively; they even end up becoming a couple. The two serve to give them some (sometimes biting) insight into their relationship and support them in times of strife.
• Got Volunteered : This happens to Adam on a frequent basis. He doesn't care about social gatherings, but as a professor, he is in a rotation and has to go once in a while.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold : Adam. He doesn't believe in coddling other people's feelings in an academic setting, thinking it is more effective to get straight to the point. However, privately he is a genuinely nice person, a great friend and wants only the best for Olive.
• Loophole Abuse : Professors dating students, even grad students, is very frowned upon. But, as Adam points out, since Olive is a grad student, she's not his advisee, and she's not a T.A. for any of his classes, them dating is technically not against regulations. He'd have to recuse himself in the event he was ever asked to review any of Olive's work if she was up for funding or something, but other than that, they won't cross paths academically.
• Manipulative Bastard : Tom Benton. He tried to tear down Adam as a Ph.D. candidate whilst pretending to be his friend, and wanted to blackmail Olive into having sex with him to take something from Adam, because he was annoyed at his accomplishments.
• Missing Mom : Olive's mom died of pancreatic cancer when Olive was a teenager, forcing her to live in foster care till she was able to emancipate herself. This is the reason she is studying this specific type of cancer.
• Really Gets Around : Malcolm believes dating is an Olympic sport and is out to get gold.
• Reasonable Authority Figure : Once the recording with Tom Benton's blackmail is in the hands of his boss, there are quick consequences.
• Romantic Fake–Real Turn : Olive and Adam fall in love with each other for real.
• Adam has the reputation of one, being known for harsh and biting criticism and having a massive stick up his ass. However, as Olive gets to know him, she realizes it's not true; he may not like the majority of his grad students, but he does want the best for them, and his critiques are usually accurate.
• The real example would be Adam's adviser from back in his grad school days; cruel, domineering, abusive, and prone to messing with students just because he could and he liked having power over them. Adam is borderline traumatized by him.
• Single-Target Sexuality : Olive is gray asexual, and Adam is the first person she is attracted to.
• Stalker with a Crush : A mild example. Adam knows some things about Olive before they started fake dating. Turns out, he had a crush on her for the past couple years and was just too chicken to ask her out.
• Teacher/Student Romance : Downplayed. Olive is a grad student and Adam is a professor; however, he has no power over her academically and she was never in his classes as an undergrad.
• There Is Only One Bed : Discussed and ultimately averted. Olive is hesitant to share a hotel room with Adam because she's convinced they're going to end up with this trope. There are two beds.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel : Olive's more Thinks Like a Rom-Com. Having watched plenty of rom-com movies, she's already fully aware of the fake dating trope, There Is Only One Bed , and the like.
• The Topic of Cancer : Constantly at the back of the story, since Olive researches pancreatic cancer, which her mother died of.
• When She Smiles : Gender inverted with Adam. His usual version of a smile is slightly lifting the corners of his mouth. When he actually smiles, he is all dimples and teeth.
• Love Anthony
• American Literature (J To M)
• Love Letters to the Dead
• Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.
• Romance Novel
• Love in a Nutshell
• Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!
• Romantic Comedy
• Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!
• Love Frankie
• Literature of the 2020s
• The Lunar Chronicles

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Content Warnings/Notes for Check & Mate

This is a list of content warnings & content notes for Check & Mate (includes spoilers):

• Parental death in an accident (in the past)
• Chronic illness (arthritis)
• Sexism in the workplace
• Mentions of workplace sexual harassment
• Non-graphic sexual content
• Cursing and vulgar language