Reviews with content warning for Acephobia/Arophobia - The Love Hypothesis

Reviews tagging 'Acephobia/Arophobia'

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

20 reviews

ayah_reads's review

funny lighthearted fast-paced

4.5

THAT WAS SO CUTE, I ENJOYED IT SO MUCH.

This makes me wish we had SO MANY MORE NOVELS SENT IN UNIVERSITY OR ACADEMIA 😭😭😭

I absolutely LOVE that the STEM academia backdrop of this story comes right from the author's own experience. I'm an undergrad, with a sister in postgrad, so when I began reading this it felt bizarrely accurate to what I tangentially know of academia and I was really impressed and loved how Olive being a biology PhD student was large part of her character and the plot. The setting was not just a background for the romcom story, and then I found out the author is a professor in neuroscience, and it made so much sense!! So so wonderful to see it.

I loved that it really exposed academia for what it is, the overworking, underpaid, often times toxic work environment it can be. I feel like the mainstream public often sees academia as something shiny and amazing when there really is a lot of issues with it. Intertwining that with a romcom story was gold.

I found it hilarious that Olive knew the fake dating trope but it seemed to completely forget the feelings that always arise from it in every romcom ever 😂

A few issues with the book tho and some spoilers below:

I did wish they had fake dated longer than a month ish, because then we could have had that time to be like okay yes I see this relationship developing and them falling in love. But that's often a romcom vibe so I just let it slide.

Problem my biggest irksome is that Olive is clearly demisexual but she would often describe her experiences as being "werid" and not like "normal people". She even mentions contemplating being asexual but then it's never mentioned again, so clearly there is some awareness of this term existing. I wished we had either Olive already know she was demisexual / on the ace spectrum (as in know there was a term for what she felt), or understood her experiences to be normal and valid or throughout the course of the novel come to find the term herself. At the very least the comments about her being "werid" shouldn't have been in this book. I'm not asexual however so I can't speak further on the representation, I just wished those comments were either addressed or not included at all.

All in all, I'm definitely keen to read more STEM academic romcoms from this author! 🤩

Content Warnings

bootsmom3's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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memorable's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I could hardly put it down, it was so good! The only thing I didn't like that much was the whole talk about Olive not being "normal" for hardly experiencing sexual attraction. Other than that, even though it's really easy to see where things are going, it's a really good book.

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rosinna's review

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

God where do I start. Everyone loves this book and I do not, I'm sorry. First of all, I know it used to be a reylo fanfic and that was so hard to forget. I could kind of not picture Daisy Ridley for Olive but the guy is named *Adam* and Adam Driver is just not my cup of tea, so trying and failing to picture someone else the whole book was not working out great. The set up is fun, I think there were some good tropes, but every situation felt so forced and predictable.

Olive's best friend literally forces them into most of the scenarios which is... weird.

Adam has a lot of red-flags

(he threatens to kill someone?? and even if justified Olive is just like, fine with him assaulting and threatening someone as a first reaction?)

and the behavior from both of them throughout reads as incredibly immature - especially for supposed scientists. They act like high schoolers who can't communicate.

Miscommunication is the main conflict and that is always just frustrating as far as I am concerned.

It also feels weirdly ace/arophobic a lot of the times.

Olive's lack of sexual interest does end up being one of those "oh I just needed to find the right person" things. She even mentions wondering if she was asexual before but never aromantic, even though she feels very ace/aro coded in a lot of the ways she behaves. She is at least definitely demi-sexual/demi-romantic and if the book is going to broach that subject at all, why not just canonically make her demi?

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wanderingtales's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Overall, obviously loved this book and story. I’m a big fanfic reader so any complaints about it being too fanfic-y weren’t anything I was bothered by at all.

Only two big concerns I’d recommend before going in. The two MCs joke about title ix (federal protections against gender based discrimination, including sexual harassment etc) with each other because of the way their fake relationship began. I wasn’t too bothered because the would-be alleged did think they had consent and acknowledged it would be in the others right to file if they wanted. Depending on your personal experience with title IX, this may be a good content warning to know.

The other thing is highly debated in the aspec community, but Olive is clearly demisexual, though the term itself isn’t used. Some of the language Olive uses shows that she believes feeling this way is wrong and it’s never addressed. This could’ve been easily solved by her and Malcolm doing the barest research previously when they talked about her feelings and we could’ve seen Olive learning to accept her identity in a positive way. Some aspec reviewers I’ve seen loved the rep, others did not. For you, know that the demi rep is there, though is missing a lot of nuance or...simply addressing it for what it is.

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stardustandrockets's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Where to begin with this book? I bought The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood sort of on a whim after hearing just about every romance reader I follow fawn over it and seeing a tiktok video about how the main character is demisexual. That right there had me sold because I rarely see acespec characters in mainstream romance books. Shortly after that I learned the story originally started as a Reylo fanfic and that had me even more interested. Now, don’t misunderstand; I was never a Reylo shipper. I was firmly in the camp that Rey and Ben Solo were separated siblings like Luke and Leia and that’s why they had such a strong connection. I was wrong, but a girl can dream, right?

I devoured this book in less than 3 days. I think I started it after midnight on January 2nd, read a few chapters, went to sleep, woke up, read all day, stayed up ‘til 4:30 am on January 3rd, read even more, and then finished it around 4 pm on January 4th. I could not put this book down. It’s been a good while since that has happened and I’m glad I’m starting the year off strong. The banter in this book is frankly TOP TIER. (Yes, the all-caps is necessary.) It had me smiling from ear to ear, grinning like a doofus, laughing out loud, and biting my lip to try to contain my joy. The fluff factor is spectacular. TLH combines my favorite things: fake-dating, grumpy-meets-sunshine, and forced proximity. I’m not always fond of an age-gap romance, but this was done in a way that it wasn’t predatory or creepy in my opinion. It does have a professor/student relationship, but Olive isn’t Adam’s student and they made sure their fake relationship wasn’t going to be breaking any Stanford ethics guidelines.

Throughout the book we see Olive talk about how she’s doesn’t experience sexual attraction unless it’s with someone she knew and trusted deeply and that was something she had only recently figured out. This was the first time I had ever seen a demisexual character talked about in such a way that wasn’t a big deal. There’s a bit of acephobia from Olive’s best friend Anh a bit later in the book, which, as an ace person myself I know all too well. We don’t get Adam’s point of view at any point during the book (which is a total shame), but from the way he talks/acts, and what we learn from his childhood best friend Holden, it seems that Adam may also be demi. Which, total win for me and my ace ass. I loved seeing bits of myself represented in a character in a romance book because I’m so very often not the target demographic as a sex-repulsed ace.

The writing style had me hooked from the very beginning. It was easy to follow and the story felt natural. You can tell that the author is a science academic herself and that she really knows what she’s talking about. My only complaint is about some of the word/descriptor choices during the sex bits, but that’s generally my complaint with all romance books so far.

I absolutely love how Adam begrudges Olive her choices in coffee-like beverages and food. You can tell that he’s really besotted with her, even from early on in the book. The way that he lovingly calls her a smart-ass and how she calls him an old man (34 really isn’t that old). I loved everything about it.

I would rank this pretty low on the spice factor, though chapters 16 and 17 were definitely steamy. One thing I will say that sets this apart from the other handful of romances I’ve read is Adam made sure he had Olive’s enthusiastic consent every step of the way. There was even a point where he said something along the lines of “I know you said yes before, but you can absolutely change your mind at any point in this process.” I really vibed with that. At one point he could tell that Olive was really not having a great time with what he was doing, so instead of forcing things he changed course to get her more relaxed. I really don’t see that often; especially when one of the people involved was so inexperienced like Olive was. That made me love Hazelwood and her writing even more. Making me wish I had my own Adam Carlsen in my life. (Don’t get me wrong, my partner is fabulous. But sometimes you just want to be the main character in a romance novel falling for the tall, dark, and brooding love interest who is definitely modeled after Adam Driver/Kylo Ren.)

I cannot sing my praises about this book enough. I absolutely adore it and already want to give it a reread. That really says a lot.

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politewriter's review

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emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book is absolutely phenomenal. A beautiful college romance without any of the gross power dynamics. Any sensitive topics were approached with care and sensitivity. The chemistry (pun intended) between the ML and FL is stunning, hilarious, and adorable. All characters get an appropriate amount of time to develop and move around the plot, no wasted characters. Author does a great job dropping hints and weaving together clues so readers can arrive at plot twists at just the perfect time. Absolutely loved the realistic portrayal of friendship dynamics and academia. The author is amazing at discussing the realities of academia without ostracizing those outside of STEM. Some of the lexicon may be a bit to digest, but no other majors are ever discredited for the work they do in their own fields. This book is the perfect blend of nerdy, wholesome, and thrills.

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esophagus18's review

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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alliemikennareads's review

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

PHEW. I read this as an audiobook and it is QUITE descriptive and that’s all I’ll say about that.

Overall, I really enjoyed this enemies to lovers / fake dating romance. I liked Olive’s personality, and even Adam’s too - his character was somehow simultaneously kinda boring but also incredibly hot? I’ve dated men with his personality before but they def weren’t as hot as he sounded, that’s for sure. I also liked the BIPOC women in STEM rep.

I loved the audiobook format but oh my, this one builds some serious tension. Like 8.5/10 on my 🍆 scale. This is a standout romance of the year for me.

That said, was it perfect? No. Was the conflict believable? Eh, not really. Was it infuriating now incapable two genius adults were? Sometimes. Did I find myself caring? Not really.

One thing I’m not the best person to speak to as I’m not asexual, but do want to mention…I appreciated the visibility of Olive questioning whether she was asexual and later describing how she feels more. But I didn’t love how this was kinda glazed over and how her friends made kinda acephobic comments that acted like Olive “finally getting laid” was the most important thing about her new relationship-that rubbed me the wrong way.

That said, this book gets a lot of things right - great consent on page, great handling of the concept of virginity, tackling a serious issue of sexual harassment in academia appropriately, to name a few.

Overall, I really enjoyed this more than anything I’ve read in awhile but that moment above did prevent me from fully raving about this one, I’m still thinking about it days later.

TW: Anxiety, attempted assault / sexual harassment, acephobic comments

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restingconfusedface's review

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I felt so represented as a woman in stem, a hopeful future graduate student, a person that suffers from anxiety, a person in computational biology, and a grey ace. So thank you Ali Hazelwood! You have truly given me a gift. Also the characters are hilarious and felt so real, all of them even the side characters. The pining was amazing and the slow build up of them getting to know each other was the kind of thing that made me fall in love with love.

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