by Ali Hazelwood
About this book
When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman’s carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.
As a third-year PhD candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships – but her best friend does and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-waving Jedi mind tricks: scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor – and well-known ass, which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own hear under the microscope.
Book review
This is the first book of Ali Hazelwood’s that I’ve read. I’ve certainly seen this being promoted a lot in the bookstores and on Instagram, so I thought I’ll see what all the hype is about.
I enjoyed this book – the characters are well-developed and the plot is not draggy. It was interesting to get a peek into the world of academia. The characters were not overloaded with personal issues that in the end seemed too easy to resolve (I’ve had enough of this problem with the recent books that I’ve read).
Adam was the perfect mix of grumpy, brooding genius, yet very gentlemanly and indulgent towards Olive. Turns out he’s been harbouring a crush on Olive for a number of years – how sweet is that?! Olive fake kissing a stranger just to convince her friend Anh that she is not in love with the guy whom Anh is interested in seems rather far-fetched, to be honest. For fellow science PhD students, surely they can talk through this logically?
Nevertheless, I think among the new authors that I’ve read lately, this one seems to fare better. The author didn’t try too pack too much into the story so we could focus on the development of the relationship between Olive and Adam.
Rin Ranger 
‘About the Book’ section cracked me up! Good review. While I enjoyed the initial phases of the book.. I soon lost interest. The characters didn’t pique me enough to know what would happen to them. It’s easy to read and move on.
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The ‘About the book’ section cracked me up! Like the review. I was initially interested but soon lost interest. The characters didn’t pique me enough to invest in what happens to them. Though I got to the end .. I didn’t even want to read the bonus chapter. Its an easy read though.
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Hi, thanks for your comment! In full disclosure, ‘About the book’ was lifted from the book cover synopsis. I agree with your comment – while it was an acceptable read for me it was not all that phenomenal to have received all that hype from social media. My conclusion out of this exercise is – just because everyone’s raving about a book, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s fantastic. Always take it with a pinch of salt!
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Yes, agree 👍
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