For me, a perfect beach read is one that I can enjoy stress-free without worrying about what the characters’ endings will be. For that reason, most of my beach reads are of the rom-com genre. I picked up The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood last year and liked it so much that I have read everything she has written since however I keep coming back to The Love Hypothesis.
The perfect chick-lit example, The Love Hypothesis encompasses fake dating, enemies-to-lovers, and witty humour. There is a sunshine/grumpy dynamic between the two love interests throughout the book, however, her cheerfulness offsets his crankiness to strike the perfect balance. The Wattpad-loving teen in me was overjoyed with the number of clichés, and while a tad predictable, they work together to provide the perfect, not-too-cringe, chick-lit.
However, Olive, our protagonist, is not cliché and is more than two-dimensional, with a background in STEM, we join her in the 3rd year of her PhD in biology. The university is where she meets Professor Adam Carlson, although their first meeting isn’t exactly conventional. Their mutually beneficial artificial relationship transforms into a slow burn romance that will have even the coldest of hearts warm.
Hazelwood manages to tackle the difficulty of being a woman in STEM, losing loved ones at a young age, and sexual harassment, but still come out with an uplifting, amusing tale of young scientists in love. The Love Hypothesis, a cliché-ridden guilty pleasure, will definitely be joining me poolside again this year.
