Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Love Hypothesis: Il teorema dell'amore

Will start this review off by saying that I—no matter how much I tried—could not stop imagining Adam as Adam Driver. The Love Hypothesis is a wholesome, easy read that covers several tropes, so be prepared to either cringe, or swoon, or both. Upon finishing, I strongly recommend readers to read Adam’s POV (available on Ali Hazelwood’s website for free!). I enjoyed it WAY too much. I so badly wish it was incorporated into the book!

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marylinaris's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

Fanfic!Kylo Ren - and I cannot believe I am saying this - was the best part of this book. Adam was charming, had great jokes and, most importantly, was Whipped from page one. Is there anything more we could ever want? (I think the author did her story a great favor by only telling us about Adam’s bully behavior, he definitely would’ve lost most of my sympathy if I had to read a scene of him being mean to stressed out students. The hits would be just a smitch too close to home.)

Olive on the other hand got annoying fast. Her personality seemed to be borrowed from a YA protagonist circa 2011 and her general attitude toward Adam felt more contrived than built on her previous experiences with him. Even a bit into the book Olive continues to be super judgemental about Adam, even though he is doing her a massive favor and her bitchy (internal) attitude towards him was unwarranted. Leave the man alone if you can’t stand him (I cannot believe, I’m getting defensive over fanfic Kylo Ren.)

The romance was very slow, which would’ve been okay as that fit in with what we know about Adam and Olive, but I was not convinced by their connection by the end of the book. I buy that she thinks that Adam is hot (her hight-kink was working overtime!) and that he is pinning for her and deeply whipped, but I don’t buy them being properly in love, nope.

I liked the academia aspect of this story a lot. Things like the “Send from my iPhone” underneath one of the Professor’s emails were very familiar. But if any dude started making metaphors that involve mentioning chi-square or logit model’s in the middle of sex (!!!), I would start screaming in the non-good way, but maybe people who study biology are built differently than I am.

The story wrapped up a little too fast but didn’t drag on or got boring throughout. You win some, you lose some. Overall it did very much feel like a fanfic though - and I, a frequent fanfic-reader, do not mean that as a compliment in this case.

The other things I didn’t like about this book also very much stemmed from its fanfic roots and inherit ideas of the particular fandom that were baked into this book.

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residentimp'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? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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chaoticace's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

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clairew97's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-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

4.75

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pagesfromhome's review against another edition

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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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

All in all, the characters and plot of The Love Hypothesis are a complete delight. Hazelwood does an incredible job of creating characters that I want to be friends with (looking at you, Malcolm!) without feeling too contrived. I originally was planning to go for a 3.5-star rating, but I found myself reading right until my workday started and a little bit into it...oops...to get through this, so my desire to find out how everything was going to get tied up earned it that extra half a star.

I bumped it down from a 5 for a couple of reasons:

I got kind of bothered that Adam kept calling Olive a smart ass when it didn't feel like she was actually being a smart ass in the moments. All for an inside joke; it just felt odd.
I also think the story was missing out on a chance to be told from a split perspective: some chapters from Olive and some from Adam. I don't usually push for that, but I think this story would have been stellar from that angle.
There were a few things that just bugged me from an editing standpoint, like, this is a progressive book clearly and handles consistent consent well, but then the phrase "clean" is used to refer to someone who doesn't have any STDs, and that felt odd since that implies that anyone who does have an STD is dirty which is incredibly stigmatizing. I also found myself bothered by the mention of one of the characters getting Type 2 diabetes because of their diet, but it isn't really clear if diet causes diabetes in that way.

While some weird things pulled me out of the story, they certainly didn't make me want not to read it, and I ended up loving the characters, and it felt a little bit like a love letter to the romance genre, which is always welcome! I'm looking forward to reading more from this author, and I'm sure I'll give this one a re-read whenever I'm looking for a grumpy and sunshine storyline with heart!

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golden_like_dior's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-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

4.5

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stephmorrisbyatt's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-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

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