Bookmarked!: FEBRUARY

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

FEBRUARY’S THEME: Romance

==> FEBRUARY’S BOOK OF THE MONTH: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood! <==

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Welcome.

This new column is for you, the readers, and also all of those books that you’ve had piled up on your shelf for months. Maybe they were mildly interesting, but not quite motivating enough to sit down and read. Maybe you didn’t have the time, between school, co-curriculars, sports, etc. If so, then this column is meant for you. At Bookmarked!, we read those books for you and tell you whether they’re worth your time.

The way it works? Simple. We pick a book at the beginning of each month (If you have any suggestions for books, please let us know in the comments!), read it, then publish reviews at the end of said month.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Ali Hazelwood, the author of The Love Hypothesis, writes a story about these two scientists, Olive Smith and Adam Carlsen, who have to complete a new experiment together. This so-called “experiment” is a fake relationship, and as they spend more time together… let’s just say the relationship has a chemical reaction . I thought Hazelwoods’s book is very sweet and kind of cliche. I was not a big fan of the POV though, and I personally love when books have more than one POV because you get to read the perspectives of the characters. The Love Hypothesis was definitely a slow burn but a manageable one. My favorite character has to be Olive because she is such a #womeninstem . I honestly found this book on booktok and I was pretty interested. It’s not really my favorite romance book and honestly booktok kind of overrated it. I mean it was a good read and all, but if someone asked me, “What’s a good romance book?” I would not put this book on my recommendation list.

— Samantha Ramos, ‘24

The Love Hypothesis follows the story of Olive Smith, a grad-student at Stanford University, as she navigates both her future career in pancreatic cancer, and her feelings for a fellow co-worker. After accidentally intertwining herself in a complicated situation with a professor at Stanford, Olive is desperate to prove her work to be valuable while also controlling the awkward situation she’s thrown herself into. The novel is quirky, funny, and refreshing to read; it has lovable, relatable characters, my favorite being Olive’s friend, Malcom. Compared to other novels, this book hooks you on the first chapter, and after that you simply can’t put it down. Despite this, I felt that Hazelwood stretched out moments in the story that were seemingly unrelated to the plot of the book. Hazelwood used an unchallenging vocabulary that could easily have been read by someone much younger than her intended audience. All this being said, I would recommend this novel to anyone looking for a fun read that they can finish quickly and easily.                                                                                               — Ynez Doyle, ‘26

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood is a contemporary novel that flips the traditional romantic novel stereotypes. It’s filled with awkward encounters and honest interactions, offering brutally honest insight into the doctorate world. It features a Ph.D student, Olive, who recently broke up with her boyfriend, Jeremy. Olive’s best friend Anh has a crush on Jeremy, so Olive fake dates a professor to show that she has moved on from Jeremy. This is not a very typical romance book. The main characters have intellectual pursuits as well as romantic ones. Additionally, the main characters are generally driven, independent, and intelligent individuals, including my favorite character Anh, and these characters lack the stupidity and obsessiveness that other romance books intensify. Some parts of The Love Hypothesis were swoonworthy, while other parts were almost agonizing to read. The excessive amount of detail in some of this book caused me outrageous second hand embarrassment. The author is supposed to evoke emotion, but it’s less beneficial when it’s an unpleasant emotion. Despite that one small liability, I would recommend The Love Hypothesis to someone who wants a book that flips the stereotypes of a typical romance on its head. While it has its painfully awkward moments, The Love Hypothesis is an engrossing romance that involves characters of reason and prestige. You don’t find a romance book with such refreshing humor and characters very often.

— Julia Burdick, ‘26

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Watch out for the next reviews, coming soon! In the meantime, you can find the book at your local library, online, or maybe even in the Mount’s library. Happy reading!