academia, meet romance!

I think I grossly underestimated how much I could end up liking an academia-inspired romance. Which is kinda silly, cause my whole life is pretty much academia-centered. While I'm no scientist, I can tell this well-written romance was written by a scientist (a round of applause for such a multitalented individual!), and the educational/workplace environments and scenarios Adam and Olive find themselves in (as well as sunscreen-adjacent sillier scenarios) were so so fun to read.
Olive grew on me as an incredibly likeable main character. I love how she has very concrete academic and professional goals that she pursues with discipline and cute personality quirks. She's a girl in STEM, but she's also just a girl. I love how she's not some dainty protagonist who forgets to eat in the "oops, I'll try harder tomorrow!" type of way, but rather gets so lost in her research and atempts to do right by her late mother with her interest in cancer research that Adam can't help but fall in love with her stubborn will and intense intelligence from the literal get go. And Adam, though at times a little on-the-nose in his "I hate everyone but you-ness," really grew on me as well. I really liked how we seem to learn more about him as a character through his different friendships/how other people interact with and describe him. Tom Benton's character development, while feeling predictable at times, surprised me for the most part. I liked how Holden became more a part of the main plot than I was expecting, too. 
Summarily, my take on miscommunication tropes in romance novels is that I can only barely stand them if they're pulled off just right and don't drag on for too long. This novel hits this trope's sweet spot, I think, because Olive doesn't remain ignorant of who the "bathroom man" was for the entire length of the book, and it becomes dramatically ironic for readers to grasp Adam's feelings pretty early on in the narrative. We love a grumpy simp of a man. Overall, this was such a fun read with more depth than I initially gave it credit for!



Some of my favorite quotes from The Love Hypothesis:

"Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man."

"It wasn’t until a few minutes later, when she was sitting on her bed staring at the Boston skyline and chewing on her lunch, that Olive realized that the protein bar Adam had given her was covered in chocolate."

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