Is The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood the Best Romance Book of 2021?

After hearing so much praise for this book, I decided to read the ebook. When will I learn not to pay attention to the hype?

This is full of tropes and not written very well. Olive, a Ph.D. candidate, fakes a relationship with professor Adam Carlsen to get her best friend off her back.

Though the academic setting is an interesting backdrop, the characters are not developed well and the story is not very believable either.

Adam is supposed to be nasty to his students, but we never see that first hand. It’s always comments made by third parties. He’s supposedly had his eyes on Olive too, another thing we never see and have to take his word on it.

Their dating went from a weekly 10 minute Starbucks date so they’re seen together on campus to sharing a room for a conference. From 0 to 100 real quick. But who believes they’re truly dating when they’re only seen together once per week? We didn’t see any friends or colleagues expressing any doubts.

I appreciate the plot twist idea and seeming fight against injustice in academia, but the attempt is half-hearted at best.

Don’t even get me started on the so-called best friend. The author has gone to extreme lengths to make Anh a feminist, all for women’s power, etc, and has slightly neglected to give her any best friend qualities. She constantly pushes Olive to do this or that, what Anh deems best. She’s pushy rather than supportive. Where’s Olive’s character, when will she start saying no to things?

In short, this reads a lot like fan fiction and I just don’t get why this blew up all over social media. If you’ve read it, feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments.