A review by pagesfromhome
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

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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