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

I liked the science background to the cute romcom. would be a 4 or higher if I didn’t find the main character annoying. also all the ‘im so small im literally tiny and he’s so big’ was unnecessary and unfortunately throughout

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whillsjournal's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

An absolutely lovely adventure from start to finish. Perfect for the subset of hopelessly romantic STEM folk. I saw a lot of myself in both main characters, and this just perfectly captured so many emotions and nuances so authentically on the academia backdrop.

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kristannereads's review against another edition

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funny 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

4.0

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eallain96's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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reallife_kazbrekker's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

DNF at page 204.

I don't dnf books a lot, but I just couldn't take another page of this book.
I just couldn't keep reading about how tall and muscular the main love interest was... Seriously like every two sentences she mentions his height. Like I get it, he's tall. You don't need to keep mentioning it.

Anyway I can understand why other people like this book, but it's just not for me I guess...

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madi_miss'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? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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green_mm's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing sad tense 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

3.25

This was a nice fluffy read to sink my teeth into! I thought that Olive and her overarching dilemma of worrying that anyone she loves will eventually somehow leave her were written rather compellingly; the reader could definitely understand her hesitations in admitting her true feelings to Adam and sympathize with her internal struggles over doing so. Adam was also a great love interest, as I never cease to admire when the MMC who has been in love with the FMC for ages and is finally getting an opportunity to be with her still gives her space, follows her lead, and refrains from sharing the depth of his feelings for her, essentially operating as if everything is business as usual even though it is torture for him. This type of I’ll-take-whatever-she-chooses-to-give-me MMC is a Hazelwood staple that does not go unnoticed or unappreciated, especially when there are so many romance books featuring overly possessive, basically misogynistic male leads who are somehow supposed to be read as caring and empowering when they are actually toxic and harmful. I would definitely recommend this novel if you are looking for an unproblematic romance with a happy ending!

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jenmaysiereads's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.0

2 out of 5 stars

‘The Love Hypothesis’ isn’t the worst book I’ve read courtesy of booktok, but it isn’t the best.

Hazelwood’s debut follows third-year Ph.D candidate Olive Smith, whose disbelief in lasting romantic relationships gets her in hot water when she panic-kisses a young hotshot professor in a bid to convince her best friend she is over her ex.

The professor in question is Adam Carlsen, well-known at their university for his bad attitude and rigorous scientific dedication. To her utmost surprise, Adam offers Olive an opportunity — to help keep Olive’s charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend in exchange for helping him convince their department he’s here to stay. But when a scientific conference gone wrong draws them closer together, Olive’s carefully calculated theories on love are thrown into chaos and she begins to wonder if her hypothesis on love may need to be put under the microscope.

As former fanfiction writer myself, I have to respect Hazelwood’s game for getting her Star Wars fanfic published and having it become a New York Times Bestseller. Despite the initial struggle of having to seperate this story from the ship it’s inspired by (as I am a Reylo hater), I still kinda ate this book up.

The writing style of this is very readable. The prose isn’t flowery nor particularly lush, but it also feels decently edited in a way that many rom-coms of late have been lacking. It’s highly digestible and made for a really quick, fun read which is exactly what I was after.

There are for sure some cringe moments — I’m pretty sure the description of Adam fitting Olive’s entire breast in his mouth (yes, the entire thing) mid sex-scene almost made me catatonic. Likewise, the scene in which Olive had to sit in Adam’s lap in a crowded lecture hall made me physically recoil given the characters were in a professional work setting. But it’s fun regardless of these moments.

The trope of ‘grumpy-sunshine’ rarely works for me unless it’s subverted in an interesting way, so the odds were stacked against ‘The Love Hypothesis’ from the beginning.

Likewise, as much as I am self-described slut for the ‘fake dating’ dynamic, contemporary romance books often seem to miss the mark with it more and more. In ‘The Love Hypothesis’ it felt like a contrived and immature method of getting the two main characters in close proximity — Olive’s excuse of needing to fake date Adam purely so her friend will date the guy she likes, is flimsy at best and annoying at worst. A lack of communication between characters is my pet peeve in books like these, particularly when it feels as immature and pointless as it does here.

Similarly, ‘fake dating’ is at its best — in my opinion — when nobody beyond the two main characters knows it’s fake. This dynamic raises the stakes of the fake relationship, causes a tension and a trust to build between the two protagonists that feels palpable. Personally, I find ‘fake dating’ in rom-coms to not really work as well as it ought too.

The cause of my lower rating stems from, what I feel, is the unnecessary inclusion of a sexual assault plot point. Personally, I’m not entirely sure why books purported as rom-coms insist on including scenes of sexual assault/harassment that are never properly addressed. While ‘The Love Hypothesis’ is not as bad as other books that share this feature, I still came away from the novel wondering why that sequence was necessary.

Sexual assault is hard to write about and have conversations about in general, but even more so when the book is attempting to be a feel-good, lighthearted romance and keeping everything surface level. It really does a disservice to such an important topic. If you’re going to include healing from sexual abuse trauma in a romance novel, it should not be used as a plot point to drive forward a contrived conflict.

As such, I feel I cannot give this book a higher rating — even though I did mostly enjoy my time reading it.

On a more personal note, this book also makes mention of a mother passing away of cancer which is something due to my personal circumstance I’m rather sensitive about. Prior to coming across it in the book, I’d never heard mention of this facet of the story so coming across it organically without anticipating it was rather an unpleasant surprise. However, this is mostly a me thing and I don’t begrudge the book for the inclusion this but I’d be remiss to think that didn’t put a damper on my enjoyment.

All this to say, while ‘The Love Hypothesis’ was not a smash hit for me; I definitely can see the appeal and it’s one of the stronger ‘booktok romances’ that I’ve tried.

Hazelwood is an author who I’m certain I will be revisiting.

This one just didn’t go the distance for me.

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