The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood is the story of Olive, a third year grad student, and Adam, a young associate professor, as they fall in love while fake dating.  

I'm going to be up front with all of you and say that I may possibly be the worst person ever to talk about this book. For one, my memories of grad school are not always pleasant (not always unpleasant, mind you, but on the whole something I try to forget about) and having a book set in academia is not my usual jam. For another, I find the professor/student relationship to be challenging. I think it's unethical (and am reminded of a professor dating a grad school in our department and it was gross and everyone talked about them behind their backs). HOWEVER, after having this discussion with my husband multiple times, I do understand that not everyone takes on this same opinion.  But this whole review will be colored by the fact that I think the baseline premise of this book is a bit repulsive.

This book is beloved (4.4 on Goodreads!) and I am going to be a very wet blanket about it, so just know that I am an outlier and feel free ignore what I am about to say if that brief summary sounds like something you might be into.  

Interesting characters:

Olive has so much potential. She's a woman in a STEM field and has an interesting familial backstory. Unfortunately, she's very superficial. She doesn't think much about her work outside of work, which is fine, but the author doesn't give her other interests, either. She's just...always thinking about Adam. It's ridiculous.  The author thinks "woman in STEM" is a personality AND IT IS NOT.

And don't get me started on Adam. He grumpy and taciturn and you know I love me a man who doesn't talk, but we just never get anything from him. Does he want to stay in his job? Go? What interests does he have beyond work?

They are fake dating because Olive wants her friends to date and one of them thinks Olive is hung up on the other, so Olive just plants a kiss on Adam randomly to make her friend think she is dating someone else. I have SO MANY issues with this. YOU WOULD NEVER JUST KISS A PROFESSOR. You just wouldn't. There are "jokes" made about Adam reporting Olive for sexual assault, but that's exactly what she did and it isn't funny.  Adam's colleagues are apparently not sure if he's going to be sticking around and if he was dating someone, he'd seem more stable and likely to stay. This is actually a real scenario in academia. I know that my husband's department chair breathed a huge sigh of relief when we bought a house. Adam's reasons for fake dating are much more realistic.

I think, if I hadn't been upset by the sexual assault "meet cute" and dubious ethics of the professor/student relationship, I would have let a lot of the sillier aspects of the fake dating go in the name of romantic comedy. As it stands, however, I was on edge for things to criticize and so here we are.

Believable conflict:

These two never talk. Of course they're going to have conflict. Ridiculous, contrived conflict.

Emotional tension:

It was never clear to me why they would want to be together other than physical chemistry. 

Happily ever after:

I was satisfied with the ending, actually. Things are working out professionally for both of them and they seem like they're in a good place.

Unfortunately, the end was not enough to make up for the rest of it. 2/5 stars

Line of note:

Then she stepped closer to Greg's bench and asked, "What's wrong?"

She had expected the answer to be The production of my reagent has been discontinued, or My p-value is .06, or Grad school was a mistake, but not it's too late to back out of it because my self-worth is unbreakably tied to my academic performance, and what would even be left of me if I decided to drop out? (page 113)

It's clear that Hazelwood has spent some time in grad school with lines like this. I had an existential crisis nearly every day and it sounded exactly like this.

Very useful thing I looked up:

Petrichor (page 334) - A pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather. 

I did not know there was a word for this and I am GLEEFUL than I know it now. I will use it often.