Praise for The Love Hypothesis
“Contemporary romance’s unicorn: the elusive marriage of deeply brainy and delightfully escapist. . . . The Love Hypothesis has wild commercial appeal, but the quieter secret is that there is a specific audience, made up of all of the Olives in the world, who have deeply, ardently waited for this exact book.”
—New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren
“Funny, sexy, and smart. Ali Hazelwood did a terrific job with The Love Hypothesis.”
—New York Times bestselling author Mariana Zapata
“This tackles one of my favorite tropes—Grumpy meets Sunshine—in a fun and utterly endearing way. . . . I loved the nods toward fandom and romance novels, and I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended!”
—New York Times bestselling author Jessica Clare
“A beautifully written romantic comedy with a heroine you will instantly fall in love with, The Love Hypothesis is destined to earn a place on your keeper shelf.”
—Elizabeth Everett, author of A Lady’s Formula for Love
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A JOVE BOOK
Published by Berkley
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
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Copyright © 2021 by Ali Hazelwood
Excerpt from Love on the Brain copyright © 2021 by Ali Hazelwood
Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.
A JOVE BOOK, BERKLEY, and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hazelwood, Ali, author.
Title: The love hypothesis / Ali Hazelwood.
Description: First edition. | New York: Jove, 2021.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020057346 (print) | LCCN 2020057347 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593336823 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780593336830 (ebook)
Subjects: GSAFD: Love stories.
Classification: LCC PS3608.A98845 L68 2021 (print) | LCC PS3608.A98845 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057346
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057347
First Edition: September 2021
Cover illustration by lilithsaur
Book design by Tiffany Estreicher, adapted for ebook by Estelle Malmed
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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To my women in STEM: Kate, Caitie, Hatun, and Mar. Per aspera ad aspera.
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Contents
Cover
Praise for The Love Hypothesis
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Excerpt from LOVE ON THE BRAIN
About the Author
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hy·poth·e·sis (noun)
A supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence, as a starting point for further investigation.
Example: “Based on the available information and the data hitherto collected, my hypothesis is that the farther away I stay from love, the better off I will be.”
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Prologue
Frankly, Olive was a bit on the fence about this whole grad school thing.
Not because she didn’t like science. (She did. She loved science. Science was her thing.) And not because of the truckload of obvious red flags. She was well aware that committing to years of unappreciated, underpaid eighty-hour workweeks might not be good for her mental health. That nights spent toiling away in front of a Bunsen burner to uncover a trivial slice of knowledge might not be the key to happiness. That devoting her mind and body to academic pursuits with only infrequent breaks to steal unattended bagels might not be a wise choice.
She was well aware, and yet none of it worried her. Or maybe it did, a tiny bit, but she could deal. It was something else that held her back from surrendering herself to the most notorious and soul-sucking circle of hell (i.e., a Ph.D. program). Held her back, that is, until she was invited to interview for a spot in Stanford’s biology department, and came across The Guy.
The Guy whose name she never really got.
The Guy she met after stumbling blindly into the first bathroom she could find.
The Guy who asked her, “Out of curiosity, is there a specific reason you’re crying in my restroom?”
Olive squeaked. She tried to open her eyes through the tears and only barely managed to. Her entire field of view was blurry. All she could see was a watery outline—someone tall, dark haired, dressed in black, and . . . yeah. That was it.
