A review by melirose1998
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

emotional lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

 The Love Hypothesis piqued my interest because I started seeing very high praise on social media about the book. I don't read adult romance too often, which y'all already know. I have a lot of thoughts on the book, both good and bad, and I will try my best to explain my experience with the book and reasoning for my 3 star rating. 

So, did I consume this book really quickly? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Yes. It was just what I needed to get out of my physical book slump. I wanted some fluff to escape real life and this book provided that. If you want to read and not critically analyze, maybe this book is for you. But, it would be a disservice for me to post only the good without dissecting the bad, considering the field I want to go into (social work lol). 

TW: emotional abuse, death of a parent, consent, sexual harassment, peer-pressure, tokenization, imposter syndrome, casual mentions of death (as in a joke?)

The good: rep of a woman in STEM, the imposter syndrome she experiences, cute angst in the fake dating trope where the characters don’t communicate and inevitably fall for each other. 

The not so good/ the ick: consent??? LOL the premise is this fake dating relationship between a PhD student who is 26, and a tenured faculty prof/ supervisor who is 34. Homegirl thinks it's appropriate and okay to not even wait for an answer when she asks "can I kiss you" randomly, and just goes for it... like uh. And that's straight from the jump. Additionally, it felt like the best friend who is one of the only BIPOC characters, is tokenized… I perceived her entire personality to be that she leads a lot of organizations and does work around empowering women and BIPOC women in the STEM field. Obviously that is great to highlight that there is a lack of diversity in the STEM field but idk it felt a little much at some points? I had an additional issue with the SPICY scene towards the end of the book… for various reasons but one thing that stuck out to me was the awkward moment when the male character was about to stop the whole thing? I personally can attest that if you’re in a situation where you disclose deeply personal information about your experience or lack thereof in that setting, you can get a multitude of reactions from the other party. Not all of those reactions are positive or helpful. It seemed a little unrealistic and weird to me the events that followed… I will leave it at that, since I don’t want to post any spoilers. 

Again, I am not trying to hate on this book because honestly it helped me get out of a slump and it was generally a fun read. After ruminating on it and thinking with my social worker-in-training brain (which I can’t seem to turn off, for better and for worse), I was like hmmmmmmm I gotta say something. 

You are obviously welcome to disagree or have further discussion with me. I know for a lot of folks this book resonated with them because of the sexism that is discussed throughout, and some folks saw themselves in it a lot! I am not here to discount that at all because I’m here for all of the rep. I just wanted to reflect a little more on it, because sometimes I myself fall into this trap of “everyone else liked it so I have to like it.”

I also do not normally write a review or reflection this thorough about a romance book, but hey here we are! Love y’all and thanks if you’ve read this far. 
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