2 Sentence The Love Hypothesis Summary
In The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood tells the story of a female scientist who goes on a comedic journey in search of true love. The novel shows how a fake relationship between two scientists can be thrown into chaos by the irresistible force of attraction and cause a woman’s carefully calculated theories on love to be thrown into disarray.
Summary Read Time: Less than 4 minutes
Actual Book Length: 356
First Published in: 2021
The Love Hypothesis was the debut novel of Ali Hazelwood which was followed by Love On The Brain. Both the novels quickly topped the charts and became a romantic sensation.
Below is the detailed yet quick summary of the book:
The Love Hypothesis Summary – Part 1
Olive is a biology Ph.D. student who meets a guy in the bathroom after her interview for her degree. She doesn’t catch his name but remembers the conversation distinctly. In the present, Olive is researching early detection methods for pancreatic cancer. She kisses a guy to make her best friend think she’s dating someone, but it turns out that guy is Dr. Adam Carlson, a faculty member in her department.
Meanwhile, Adam’s department chair is worried that he’s leaving for another university, so Adam agrees to pretend to be in a relationship with Olive to give the impression he’s staying. As Olive and Adam spend time together, they get to know each other and Olive sees that Adam is demanding, but not unkind. Olive also confides in Adam about her mother’s pancreatic cancer.
Olive starts to have feelings for Adam but is afraid to tell him. When he overhears her talking about a crush, she pretends it’s someone else. She also hears about a woman Adam has been pining after and feels jealous. Olive needs more lab space and talks to Dr. Tom Benton about a spot at his lab at Harvard. When Tom arrives in town, it turns out he’s friends with Adam. After Olive completes a report on her research, Tom offers her a spot in his lab for the next year.
The Love Hypothesis Summary – Part 2
Olive and Adam continue their relationship until they attend a science conference in Boston. Olive’s research has been selected for a panel presentation and Adam is a keynote speaker. At the conference, Olive is sexually harassed by Tom and when she rejects him, he makes accusations against her. Despite this, Olive and Adam sleep together but Olive soon breaks things off to avoid complicating Adam’s joint research project with Tom. Adam is also applying for a spot at Harvard.
Olive discovers that she accidentally recorded the conversation where Tom made advances and threatened her. She and her roommate turn to Holden for advice and he encourages them to tell Adam about the recording. Olive shows Adam the video and he reports it to their faculty. When Adam returns from Boston, he reports that Tom has been fired.
Olive has been reaching out to other cancer researchers for lab spots and gets promising responses. She tells Adam that she loves him and that she never liked anyone else. Adam admits that he remembered her from the day they met in the bathroom and that she’s the one he’s been interested in for years. Ten months later, Olive and Adam re-create their first kiss to mark their anniversary.
