“The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood ★★★★

Some of the best tropes that were featured in ‘The Spanish Love Deception’ also appear in “The Love Hypothesis” — but this time we also have some academic romance. It’s the perfect recipe for an unforgettably cheesy and gripping romance novel — just how I like it. Olive Smith is an insecure and hard-working biology PhD student who spends most of her time in the lab — searching for a cure to cancer and emailing colleges for research funding. She keeps to herself and spends time with friends, and she doesn’t want much more from life beyond her research and friendships. To prove a silly point to her best friend, she decides to kiss the first man she sees, and that man just happens to be Adam Carlsen, a professor at Stanford who has the reputation of being young, attractive and an asshole. He agrees to keep Smith’s secret and be her fake boyfriend, but a science conference later decides the fate of their relationship, as well as Olive’s career. Ali Hazelwood made a wonderful choice by choosing a woman in STEM as the main character and highlighting the struggles of being a woman in a male-dominated field. This book tackles both comedy and romance excellently. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and will definitely be returning to Hazelwood for some well-done romance novels.