Review of delightful modern romance The Love Hypothesis and not quite as delightful Love on the Brain, both by Ali Hazelwood

 

 

 

In my review of Anita Kelly's romance Love & Other Disasters, I complained bitterly about how poorly researched the plot was and how non-specific the characters were, which resulted in a terrible book.  The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood is the answer to that complaint, and it is an adorable book to boot.  

Heroine Olive is in a PhD program, where she is literally trying to find a cure for cancer -- and she just might do it.  The life of a student in a doctoral science program is described with such clarity that it was no surprise to find out that Hazelwood has lived that life.

Hero Adam is a professor in the program, but not someone with any supervisory role over Olive.  Although it is slightly creepy that he has been watching her for a couple of years before the main action of the book, I love how carefully the power imbalance and potential conflicts of interest in a student/professor relationship are laid out, discussed, and dealt with.  Also, Adam is my everything.  Taciturn, abs of steel, deeply caring, able to be a good friend, observant . . . the best type of hero.

This book has only one sex scene.  It's not particularly hot, but it made me fall in love with both characters.  Olive's clumsiness, her inability to get out of her own head (at first), and her relative inexperience were just enough.  Adam's consideration and skill were what my dreams are made of.  

The book had a few details that almost didn't work.  Olive's lack of self-confidence was sometimes a lot, but made sense given her back story.  Adam being maybe the most brilliant scientist of our generation felt unnecessary.  His abs of steel were never explained, and the fact that both he and Olive run marathons without apparently ever training was a bit annoying.  

But that is all minor stuff.  I loved this book.   

So naturally I went on to immediately read Hazelwood's next book, Love on the Brain.  

 

While I liked this book I did not love it like I loved The Love Hypothesis.  SPOILERS:

 

 

 

 

For one thing, I could see every single major plot twist coming from a thousand miles away.  When you have a book with a limited number of characters, as soon as you introduce someone who the heroine has been anonymously texting with for years, of course that person will be the same person as the heroine's love interest.  It would have been more interesting if that mystery had been resolved on p. 2.  And, when you have a character who asks  out the heroine and she turns them down, of course that person will turn out to be the villain.  

I also found heroine Bee to be an annoying manic pixie dream girl.  Her habit of fainting was weird and off-putting, as was her lack of self-confidence that can only be rectified by the love interest, Levi.  When she is shut down at work, there's a small step towards character development where she realizes she has to stand up for herself, and she does, but then Levi comes in and saves the day.  We never see her being assertive again.

And while Levi turns out to be a dreamboaty good guy, his weird obsession with Bee, forsaking all others, for years, for years when he doesn't see her, could easily veer into serial killer territory.  

Finally, there's the issue of a stray cat who wanders a government building full of classified equipment and information.  This seem unsafe and unsanitary -- although I have to admit that a big grin broke out on my face when the cat saved the day.