A review by marylinaris
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

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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