love hypothesis order

Ali Hazelwood Books In Order

Publication order of the love hypothesis books.

Publication Order of The STEMinist Novellas Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Ali Hazelwood is a chick lit, contemporary and romance novelist with several published works and peer reviewed articles. She has written articles on the subject of brain cancer and her stories are known for often unhappy ever afters in which most of the characters do not make it out.

The author is originally from Italy but over the years she has lived in varied places including Japan and Germany. She would then move to the United States, where she graduated with a neuroscience doctorate.

She recently took up a job as a college professor and is getting used to it even though she was initially terrified of it. When she is not working on her novels or teaching she can be found watching science fiction movies, eating cake pops or running.

Growing up and well into her teenage and young adult years, Ali Hazelwood was very much into fanfiction. She used to write a ton of “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” fan fiction as she loved the community and the amazing stories they made.

During this time, she was having a lot of fun and made so many friends with whom she shared notes with. Over time, she started thinking that she had it in her to write something original, just to do something different and challenge herself.

At some point, she wrote on the fan fiction forums that she was interested in reworking some of her fanfiction. A literary agent that was trawling the forums approached her asking to see some of her manuscripts. Soon after that she signed with the agent after sending what she believed was her most reworkable manuscript.

After a bunch of resubmits and revisions she could not make the manuscript work but was thankful for feedback she got. She would later on end up with Sarah, her current editor at Berkeley, which is where she would publish “The Love Hypothesis,” her debut novel.

Ali Hazelwood’s novel “The Love Hypothesis” is the story of Olive Smith, a third year doctoral candidate. She has never been a believer in romantic relationships that last for months let alone years but her friend got her into a tricky situation.

The handsome Anh wanted Olive from the very first time he saw her but she had told him that she was dating and very happy. But he is a determined man and hand wavy Jedi mind tricks will never work on him.

Since Olive knows that Anh will not give up until he has some proof of her alleged romantic relationship, she decides to kiss the first man she can get her hands on. The man she kisses out of the blue is a young hotshot professor named Adam Carlsen.

Still,she is shocked that her friend who has made a name for himself at the reigning lab tyrant at Stanford has agreed to keep her fake relationship a secret. He agrees to be her fake boyfriend until things go wrong at a science conference and her career is on the verge of going up in flames.

Adam shocks her again when he offers his unyielding six pack abs and his unyielding support. Suddenly, their little experiment just got very real as Olive comes to the realization that love is actually more complicated than she thought it was.

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Ali Hazelwood Books in Order (5 Book Series)

Ali Hazelwood has written a series of 5 books. Here, you can see them all in order! (plus the year each book was published)

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Last Updated: Monday 1 Jan, 2024

• Ali Hazelwood Books in Order

The Love Hypothesis

The love hypothesis, book 1.

Ali Hazelwood

Under One Roof

Steminist, book 1.

Love on the Brain

The love hypothesis, book 2.

Stuck with You

Steminist, book 2.

STEMinist, Book 3

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The Love Hypothesis

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This romance novel by Ali Hazelwood follows Olive Smith, a PhD student as she learns more about love than she ever thought she would. She doesn’t believe in lasting relationships but her best friend does. This series goes through the journey of Olive learning about love, science, and dating.

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The Love Hypothesis Kindle Edition

• Print length 383 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Berkley
• Publication date September 14, 2021
• File size 3306 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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Chapter One

Hypothesis: When given a choice between A (a slightly inconveniencing situation) and B (a colossal shitshow with devastating consequences), I will inevitably end up selecting B.

In Olive's defense, the man didn't seem to mind the kiss too much.

It did take him a moment to adjust-perfectly understandable, given the sudden circumstances. It was an awkward, uncomfortable, somewhat painful minute, in which Olive was simultaneously smashing her lips against his and pushing herself as high as her toes would extend to keep her mouth at the same level as his face. Did he have to be so tall? The kiss must have looked like some clumsy headbutt, and she grew anxious that she was not going to be able to pull the whole thing off. Her friend Anh, whom Olive had spotted coming her way a few seconds ago, was going to take one look at this and know at once that Olive and Kiss Dude couldn't possibly be two people in the middle of a date.

Then that agonizingly slow moment went by, and the kiss became . . . different. The man inhaled sharply and inclined his head a tiny bit, making Olive feel less like a squirrel monkey climbing a baobab tree, and his hands-which were large and pleasantly warm in the AC of the hallway-closed around her waist. They slid up a few inches, coming to wrap around Olive's rib cage and holding her to himself. Not too close, and not too far.

It was more of a prolonged peck than anything, but it was quite nice, and for the life span of a few seconds Olive forgot a large number of things, including the fact that she was pressed against a random, unknown dude. That she'd barely had the time to whisper "Can I please kiss you?" before locking lips with him. That what had originally driven her to put on this entire show was the hope of fooling Anh, her best friend in the whole world.

But a good kiss will do that: make a girl forget herself for a while. Olive found herself melting into a broad, solid chest that showed absolutely no give. Her hands traveled from a defined jaw into surprisingly thick and soft hair, and then-then she heard herself sigh, as if already out of breath, and that's when it hit her like a brick on the head, the realization that- No. No.

Nope, nope, no.

She should not be enjoying this. Random dude, and all that.

Olive gasped and pushed herself away from him, frantically looking for Anh. In the 11:00 p.m. bluish glow of the biology labs' hallway, her friend was nowhere to be seen. Weird. Olive was sure she had spotted her a few seconds earlier.

Kiss Dude, on the other hand, was standing right in front of her, lips parted, chest rising and a weird light flickering in his eyes, which was exactly when it dawned on her, the enormity of what she had just done. Of who she had just-

Fuck her life.

Fuck. Her. Life.

Because Dr. Adam Carlsen was a known ass.

This fact was not remarkable in and of itself, as in academia every position above the graduate student level (Olive's level, sadly) required some degree of assness in order to be held for any length of time, with tenured faculty at the very peak of the ass pyramid. Dr. Carlsen, though-he was exceptional. At least if the rumors were anything to go by.

He was the reason Olive's roommate, Malcolm, had to completely scrap two research projects and would likely end up graduating a year late; the one who had made Jeremy throw up from anxiety before his qualifying exams; the sole culprit for half the students in the department being forced to postpone their thesis defenses. Joe, who used to be in Olive's cohort and would take her to watch out-of-focus European movies with microscopic subtitles every Thursday night, had been a research assistant in Carlsen's lab, but he'd decided to drop out six months into it for "reasons." It was probably for the best, since most of Carlsen's remaining graduate assistants had perennially shaky hands and often looked like they hadn't slept in a year.

Dr. Carlsen might have been a young academic rock star and biology's wunderkind, but he was also mean and hypercritical, and it was obvious in the way he spoke, in the way he carried himself, that he thought himself the only person doing decent science within the Stanford biology department. Within the entire world, probably. He was a notoriously moody, obnoxious, terrifying dick.

And Olive had just kissed him.

She wasn't sure how long the silence lasted-only that he was the one to break it. He stood in front of Olive, ridiculously intimidating with dark eyes and even darker hair, staring down from who knows how many inches above six feet-he must have been over half a foot taller than she was. He scowled, an expression that she recognized from seeing him attend the departmental seminar, a look that usually preceded him raising his hand to point out some perceived fatal flaw in the speaker's work.

Adam Carlsen. Destroyer of research careers , Olive had once overheard her adviser say.

It's okay. It's fine. Totally fine. She was just going to pretend nothing had happened, nod at him politely, and tiptoe her way out of here. Yes, solid plan.

"Did you . . . Did you just kiss me?" He sounded puzzled, and maybe a little out of breath. His lips were full and plump and . . . God. Kissed. There was simply no way Olive could get away with denying what she had just done.

Still, it was worth a try.

Surprisingly, it seemed to work.

"Ah. Okay, then." Carlsen nodded and turned around, looking vaguely disoriented. He took a couple of steps down the hallway, reached the water fountain-maybe where he'd been headed in the first place.

Olive was starting to believe that she might actually be off the hook when he halted and turned back with a skeptical expression.

"Are you sure?"

"I-" She buried her face in her hands. "It's not the way it looks."

"Okay. I . . . Okay," he repeated slowly. His voice was deep and low and sounded a lot like he was on his way to get ting mad. Like maybe he was already mad. "What's going on here?"

There was simply no way to explain this. Any normal person would have found Olive's situation odd, but Adam Carlsen, who obviously considered empathy a bug and not a feature of humanity, could never understand. She let her hands fall to her sides and took a deep breath.

"I . . . listen, I don't mean to be rude, but this is really none of your business."

He stared at her for a moment, and then he nodded. "Yes. Of course." He must be getting back into his usual groove, because his tone had lost some of its surprise and was back to normal-dry. Laconic. "I'll just go back to my office and begin to work on my Title IX complaint."

Olive exhaled in relief. "Yeah. That would be great, since- Wait. Your what?"

He cocked his head. "Title IX is a federal law that protects against sexual misconduct within academic settings-"

"I know what Title IX is."

"I see. So you willfully chose to disregard it."

"I- What? No. No, I didn't!"

He shrugged. "I must be mistaken, then. Someone else must have assaulted me."

"Assault-I didn't 'assault' you."

"You did kiss me."

"But not really ."

"Without first securing my consent."

"I asked if I could kiss you!"

"And then did so without waiting for my response."

"What? You said yes."

"Excuse me?"

She frowned. "I asked if I could kiss you, and you said yes."

"Incorrect. You asked if you could kiss me and I snorted."

"I'm pretty sure I heard you said yes."

He lifted one eyebrow, and for a minute Olive let herself daydream of drowning someone. Dr. Carlsen. Herself. Both sounded like great options.

"Listen, I'm really sorry. It was a weird situation. Can we just forget that this happened?"

He studied her for a long moment, his angular face serious and something else, something that she couldn't quite decipher because she was too busy noticing all over again how damn towering and broad he was. Just massive. Olive had always been slight, just this side of too slender, but girls who are five eight rarely felt diminutive. At least until they found themselves standing next to Adam Carlsen. She'd known that he was tall, of course, from seeing him around the department or walking across campus, from sharing the elevator with him, but they'd never interacted. Never been this close.

Except for a second ago, Olive. When you almost put your tongue in his-

"Is something wrong?" He sounded almost concerned.

"What? No. No, there isn't."

"Because," he continued calmly, "kissing a stranger at midnight in a science lab might be a sign that there is."

"There isn't."

Carlsen nodded, thoughtful. "Very well. Expect mail in the next few days, then." He began to walk past her, and she turned to yell after him.

"You didn't even ask my name!"

"I'm sure anyone could figure it out, since you must have swiped your badge to get in the labs area after hours. Have a good night."

"Wait!" She leaned forward and stopped him with a hand on his wrist. He paused immediately, even though it was obvious that it would take him no effort to free himself, and stared pointedly at the spot where her fingers had wrapped around his skin-right below a wristwatch that probably cost half her yearly graduate salary. Or all of it.

She let go of him at once and took one step back. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"The kiss. Explain."

Olive bit into her lower lip. She had truly screwed herself over. She had to tell him, now. "Anh Pham." She looked around to make sure Anh was really gone. "The girl who was passing by. She's a graduate student in the biology department."

Carlsen gave no indication of knowing who Anh was.

"Anh has . . ." Olive pushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear. This was where the story became embarrassing. Complicated, and a little juvenile sounding. "I was seeing this guy in the department. Jeremy Langley, he has red hair and works with Dr. . . . Anyway, we went out just a couple of times, and then I brought him to Anh's birthday party, and they just sort of hit it off and-"

Olive shut her eyes. Which was probably a bad idea, because now she could see it painted on her lids, how her best friend and her date had bantered in that bowling alley, as if they'd known each other their whole lives; the never-exhausted topics of conversation, the laughter, and then, at the end of the night, Jeremy following Anh's every move with his gaze. It had been painfully clear who he was interested in. Olive waved a hand and tried for a smile.

"Long story short, after Jeremy and I ended things he asked Anh out. She said no because of . . . girl code and all that, but I can tell that she really likes him. She's afraid to hurt my feelings, and no matter how many times I told her it was fine she wouldn't believe me."

Not to mention that the other day I overheard her confess to our friend Malcolm that she thought Jeremy was awesome, but she could never betray me by going out with him, and she sounded so dejected. Disappointed and insecure, not at all like the spunky, larger-than-life Anh I am used to.

"So I just lied and told her that I was already dating someone else. Because she's one of my closest friends and I'd never seen her like a guy this much and I want her to have the good things she deserves and I'm positive that she would do the same for me and-" Olive realized that she was rambling and that Carlsen couldn't have cared less. She stopped and swallowed, even though her mouth felt dry. "Tonight. I told her I'd be on a date tonight ."

"Ah." His expression was unreadable.

"But I'm not. So I decided to come in to work on an experiment, but Anh showed up, too. She wasn't supposed to be here. But she was. Coming this way. And I panicked-well." Olive wiped a hand down her face. "I didn't really think."

Carlsen didn't say anything, but it was there in his eyes that he was thinking. Obviously.

"I just needed her to believe that I was on a date."

He nodded. "So you kissed the first person you saw in the hallway. Perfectly logical."

Olive winced. "When you put it like that, perhaps it wasn't my best moment."

"But it wasn't my worst, either! I'm pretty sure Anh saw us. Now she'll think that I was on a date with you and she'll hopefully feel free to go out with Jeremy and-" She shook her head. "Listen. I'm so, so sorry about the kiss."

"Please, don't report me. I really thought I heard you say yes. I promise I didn't mean to . . ."

Suddenly, the enormity of what she had just done fully dawned on her. She had just kissed a random guy, a guy who happened to be the most notoriously unpleasant faculty member in the biology department. She'd misunderstood a snort for consent, she'd basically attacked him in the hallway, and now he was staring at her in that odd, pensive way, so large and focused and close to her, and . . .

Maybe it was the late night. Maybe it was that her last coffee had been sixteen hours ago. Maybe it was Adam Carlsen looking down at her, like that. All of a sudden, this entire situation was just too much.

"Actually, you're absolutely right. And I am so sorry. If you felt in any way harassed by me, you really should report me, because it's only fair. It was a horrible thing to do, though I really didn't want to . . . Not that my intentions matter; it's more like your perception of . . ."

Crap, crap, crap.

"I'm going to leave now, okay? Thank you, and . . . I am so, so, so sorry." Olive spun around on her heels and ran away down the hallway.

"Olive," she heard him call after her. "Olive, wait-"

She didn't stop. She sprinted down the stairs to the first floor and then out the building and across the pathways of the sparsely lit Stanford campus, running past a girl walking her dog and a group of students laughing in front of the library. She continued until she was standing in front of her apartment's door, stopping only to unlock it, making a beeline for her room in the hope of avoiding her roommate and whoever he might have brought home tonight. It wasn’t until she slumped on her bed, staring at the glow‑in‑the- dark stars glued to her ceiling, that she realized that she had neglected to check on her lab mice. She had also left her laptop on her bench and her sweatshirt somewhere in the lab, and she had completely forgotten to stop at the store and buy the coffee she’d promised Malcolm she’d get for tomorrow morning. Shit. What a disaster of a day. It never occurred to Olive that Dr. Adam Carlsen— known ass— had called her by her name.

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08T6XN4FP
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley (September 14, 2021)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 14, 2021
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 3306 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 383 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1408725762
• #81 in Workplace Romance eBooks
• #379 in Romantic Comedy (Kindle Store)
• #1,011 in Contemporary Romance (Books)

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About the author

Ali hazelwood.

Ali Hazelwood is a multi-published author—alas, of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience. She recently became a professor, which absolutely terrifies her. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, crocheting, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her two feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).

Customer reviews

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To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the characters loveable, witty, and charming. They also describe the emotional tone as heartwarming, brooding, and angsty. Customers appreciate the writing style, inclusion, and representation of women in STEM. They find the banter good and the vibe young and fresh. Customers describe the content as wholesome, with a nice bit of spice. They describe the plot as cute, realistic, and moving. They appreciate the nerdy references to science and research. However, some customers feel the sexual content is cheesy and gross.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book funny, charming, and heartwarming. They also say it's cheesy, wonderful, and addicting. Readers also mention that the book has some grumpy/sunshine vibes.

"...I liked the friend group and the amount of humor and nuance in the writing . And let's speak a moment about the cover...." Read more

"...This is cute and sweet. It’s cheesy , but it knows that it is, and I think that makes it all the better.Olive is adorable...." Read more

"...She did a great job. The vibe feels young and fresh , with a voice that actually sounds like a 26-year-old...." Read more

"...It is filled with humor and sarcasm. The dialogue is amusing and relatable with good banter. The characters are loveable and witty...." Read more

Customers find the characters loveable, witty, and cute. They also say the illustrator is amazing and the book has a vivid, distinct voice.

"...And let's speak a moment about the cover. The Illustrator is amazing and honestly, her cover is what sold me to take the leap and buy the book...." Read more

"... Adam is cute . I really wish this was dual POV. I would LOVE to experience the pining and brooding that I know was going on in his head. But alas...." Read more

"...Well, it's all pretty great, actually. This has such a vivid , distinct voice that I am very much looking forward to whatever's next from..." Read more

"...The characters are loveable and witty . Overall, it's charming, heartwarming, smart, and funny...." Read more

Customers find the plot cute, heartwarming, and frothy. They also say the conflicts and twists feel legitimate and not made for the novel. Readers say the pacing of the romance is perfect. They mention the characters are quirky, realistic, and moving.

"...So yeah, calling all geek-girls, this is a great romance book and I will definitely be reading more of the author's work in the future." Read more

"...is probably not going to be everyone’s favorite FMC but she’s dorky and believable ...." Read more

"...And it is definitely a love story. The romance is central throughout , with a light, fresh feel that gets richer and deeper as the story progresses...." Read more

Customers find the writing style flawless, enjoyable, and full of tropes. They also appreciate the inclusion and representation of women in STEM. Readers also love the continuous focus on consent, communication, and support.

"...I appreciated the women in STEM focus and the inclusion and representation in the book ...." Read more

"...Overall, it’s fun and cute. A perfect summer romcom. This was easy to read and I finished it very quickly...." Read more

"...that make her my favorite type of lead character—intelligence, resilience , and understandable flaws...." Read more

"...a bit longer than I'd like (11 hours), and I found it difficult to listen to the narrator 's voice at a faster speed...." Read more

Customers find the book has a nice bit of spice, is wholesome, and sweet. They also say it's funny and light, like cotton candy.

"...This is cute and sweet . It’s cheesy, but it knows that it is, and I think that makes it all the better.Olive is adorable...." Read more

"...Tall, academic, and sweet … he’s what dreams are made of..." Read more

"FINAL DECISION: This book is fun and light, like cotton candy . Even the "serious" storyline is really fluff because it lacks complexity...." Read more

"...This book does contain spice . I would say 2.5 spicy peppers out of 5 spicy peppers...." Read more

Customers find the chemistry class in the book nerdy, enjoyable, and chemistry-filled. They also say the book is accurate and a good science rom com. Readers also mention that the banter and chemy between the characters is electric.

"...Tall, academic , and sweet… he’s what dreams are made of..." Read more

"...I felt the world of academia was well established as it was shown, not told...." Read more

"..." is a delightful and charming romance novel that combines scientific curiosity with matters of the heart...." Read more

"...The chemistry was tangible right from the start and they were all so likeable (I even loved the names the author chose for them😆)...." Read more

Customers find the emotional tone of the book heartwarming, low angst, and real. They also say the attraction is almost tangible, and the book is incredibly intimate.

"...The sex scene felt both hot and yet in some moments awkward , tender, and exposing (making it feel all the more real)...." Read more

"...It's a slow burn romance with one incredibly intimate and dynamic love scene - the intimacy and emotional connection are the shining stars here...." Read more

"...The characters are loveable and witty. Overall, it's charming, heartwarming , smart, and funny...." Read more

"...She is so selfless ...." Read more

Customers find the sexual content in the book cheesy, gross, and immature. They also say the book is offensive, ridiculous, and jarring.

"...Content Warnings: There is one scene with explicit sexual content (or two if you count the bonus chapter), and characters discuss sex at other times...." Read more

"...It's weird and gross . Ok, tangent over...." Read more

"...So much second hand embarrassment in this book . I was literally cringing on behalf of Olive...." Read more

"...Smut score: 3.5/5 (slow burn, explicit but not super kinky other than *one* thing that had me going "ohhhh" 🥵🌶)..." Read more

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Looking for The Love Hypothesis books in order?

Read The Love Hypothesis books in order. Whether just starting the series or looking for the next book, you can use this page to find the correct book order of The Love Hypothesis series.

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The Love Hypothesis

Love, Theoretically

Love on the Brain

Description of The Love Hypothesis

Dive into 'The Love Hypothesis' series, where the world of academia meets the unpredictability of love, making for an explosive mix. Follow the journey of young PhD candidates as they navigate the highs and lows of scientific research, mentorship, and unexpected romance. With a blend of humor, heartache, and scientific discovery, this series explores the fascinating hypothesis that love might just be the most complex equation of all.

Order of Ali Hazelwood Books

Hazelwood is originally from Italy, but lived in Japan and Germany before moving the United States to pursue her Ph.D. in Neuroscience. She has since become a professor. Ali uses that background in her books as she likes to see how traditional romantic tropes would play out in academic settings. When she’s not working or writing, Ali enjoys binge-watching television shows, running, and eating candy.

Get notified when Ali Hazelwood releases a new book at BookNotification.com .

Publication Order of The Love Hypothesis Books

Publication Order of The STEMinist Novellas Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

If You Like Ali Hazelwood Books, You’ll Love…

• Christina Lauren
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The Love Hypothesis sees a third-year Ph.D. candidate named Olive Smith who doesn’t believe in romantic relationship. Her best friend believes in them though so she will tell her stories about how she is dating and on her way to a happily ever after. However, Anh needs proof so Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees. That turns out to be Adam Carlsen, a young professor and well-known ass. He’s known as a lab tyrant, but he surprisingly agrees to pretend to be her boyfriend. The two attend a big science conference and things go wrong, but then Adam surprises her again by supporting her. Suddenly, this experiment seems like it might be turning into something more.

Love on the Brain follows Bee Königswasser who lives by a simple code in her life: what would Marie Curie do? She is offered the lead on a neuroengineering project at NASA, but there is a catch: she has a co-lead. Her partner is Levi Ward and the two were rivals throughout grad school. The two must work together now though and the two end up working well together with Levi seconding her ideas. Could this grow into something more? And does Bee have what it takes to make a move?

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The Love Hypothesis

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The Love Hypothesis

Each year thousands of members vote for our Book of the Year award—congrats to The Love Hypothesis !

We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Ali Hazelwood, on your first book!

by Ali Hazelwood

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After a fake relationship generates real sparks, a rising scientist must decide if she's ready to experiment with love.

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As a third-year Ph.D. 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-wavy 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 heart under the microscope.

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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.

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Why I love it

Rachael Burlette

BOTM Editorial Team

What is the formula for a perfect romance? For me, it’s about the sweet moments, the witty banter, and amazing chemistry. I’m particularly drawn to love stories that also go beyond falling in love, which is why I was excited to read about Olive’s journey as a young scientist. I loved her drive and ambition. Once I began reading The Love Hypothesis , I knew that it had all the right elements to become one of my new favorite romances.

Set in the world of academia, Olive is a Ph.D. biology student who spends most of her time in a lab. She certainly doesn’t have time for dating. So when she kisses a random person at her university to convince her best friend, Anh, that she is doing just fine, she finds herself entering into a fake dating agreement with the infamously grumpy Professor Carlsen. It’s the perfect plan: Olive’s friends will stop worrying about her and Adam’s bosses will believe he’s not leaving for a new job anytime soon. Adam and Olive just need to follow a few ground rules and not fall in love. What could possibly go wrong?

On the surface, this book is a fun romance about a hilarious fake dating scheme. But it’s also more than that. It’s a glimpse into the world of academia and the obstacles women face in the male-dominated STEM field. I found myself reading this book whenever I had the chance. I felt completely invested in Adam and Olive’s love story and how everything would unfold. The Love Hypothesis is everything that you’ll want in your next read. I have a theory you’ll love this book—I know I did!

Other books by Ali Hazelwood

Member ratings (72,036)

Lindsay p ..

Portland , OR

Don’t mind me, as I add Ali Hazelwood’s 2 upcoming STEM-inist novels to my TBR. Best Rom-Com I’ve read in 2021.The worst part of this book, is that’s it a debut and I have for more ???? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Metamora , MI

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I read this in one sitting, could not put it down. Adam has single-handedly destroyed my standards for men. Hazelwood’s wit has yet to be matched. Can’t wait to read more of her work :)

Allison A .

Denison , TX

Could not have loved this book more! Finished it in 24 hours, I stopped only because I had to go to work. I absolutely love the characters, the storyline, the brains, the chemistry. It’s a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

La Mesa , CA

Slow to develop the characters/their story line but halfway through it picked up. I absolutely loved how it all came together. A little cheesy but that’s exactly what it was supposed to be. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Belton , TX

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ O.M.G. So good! I totally lost sleep cause I couldn’t put it down!! Great hidden romance plot. I would have loved to have more steam, but what we did get - phew watch out! Best add-on ever!

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The Love Hypothesis

Quick recap & summary by chapter.

The Full Book Recap and Chapter-by-Chapter Summary for The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood are below.

Quick(-ish) Recap

Three years prior, Olive Smith talks to a guy when she's in the bathroom fixing her contacts (and can't see) after her Ph.D. candidate interview. She tells him about her passion for her research. She doesn't catch his name but remembers the conversation distinctly and wonders about the guy she met.

In present day, Olive is a biology Ph.D. student researching early detection methods for pancreatic cancer. She kisses a guy randomly in order to trick her best friend into thinking she's dating someone (so that her best friend Anh won't feel bad about dating Olive's ex). That guy turns out to be Dr. Adam Carlson , a young, handsome and highly-respected tenured faculty member in her department. He's also known for being hypercritical and moody.

Meanwhile, Adam's department chair is worried that he's planning on leaving for another university and has frozen some of his research funds. So, Adam he agrees to pretend to be in a relationship with Olive in order to give the impression he's putting down "roots" here, in hopes they will unfreeze the funds.

As Olive and Adam fake-date, they get to know each other. Olive sees that Adam is demanding and blunt towards his students, but not unkind or mean. Olive confides in him about her mother getting pancreatic cancer, which is why she's doing her research.

Olive soon realizes that she has feelings for Adam, but she's afraid to tell him. When he overhears her talking about a crush, she pretends it's about someone else. Olive also hears someone else refer to a woman Adam's been pining after for years and is surprised at how jealous she feels.

In the meantime, Olive needs more lab space and has been talking to Dr. Tom Benton for a spot at his lab at Harvard. When Tom arrives in town, it turns out he's friends with Adam. Adam and Tom are friends from grad school, and they have recently gotten a large grant for some joint research that Adam is excited about. After Olive completes a report on her research for Tom, he offers her a spot in his lab for the next year.

Olive and Adam's relationship continues to progress until they attend a science conference in Boston. Olive's research has been selected for a panel presentation, while Adam is a keynote speaker. There, Olive is sexually harassed by Tom, who makes advances on her. When she rejects him, he accuses her of someone who sleeps around to get ahead. He also says that he'll deny it if she tells anyone and that they won't believe her.

While Olive does finally sleep with Adam at the conference, she soon tearfully breaks things off since she doesn't want to complicate things with Adam's joint research project with Tom. Adam is also in the process of applying for a spot at Harvard.

Olive is certain no one will believe her about Tom until she realizes that the accidentally recorded the conversation where he made advances and threatened her. Meanwhile, Olive's roommate Malcolm has started seeing Dr. Holden Rodriguez, a faculty member who is a childhood friend of Adam's. Olive and Malcolm turn to Holden for advice, who encourages them to tell Adam about the recording. He points out that he thinks the main reason that Adam is considering a move to Harvard is because Olive is supposed to be going there.

Olive finds Adam and shows him the video. He is incensed at Tom and reports it to their faculty. When Adam returns from Boston, he reports that Tom has been fired. Meanwhile, Olive has been reaching out to other cancer researchers for spots at other labs, and she's gotten promising responses. Olive tells Adam that she loves him and that she never liked anyone else. Adam admits that he remembered her from the day he met her in the bathroom and that she's the one he's been interested in for years.

Ten months later at the anniversary of their first kiss, Olive and Adam re-create the kiss to mark their anniversary.

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Chapter-by-Chapter Summary

Olive Smith is an applicant for Stanford’s biology Ph.D program. After the interview with Dr. Aysegul Aslan , she ends up in a bathroom nearby unable to see and trying to wash out her eyes because she put in expired contacts.

She meets “The Guy” there, who she assumes is a Ph.D student there. As they strike up a conversation, she tells him that her name is Olive and talks about why she’s applying to the program. She tells him that she wants to do it in order to research a specific topic.

A few weeks later, Olive is accepted into the program.

Years later, Olive is now 26 and a Ph.D. student in Dr. Aslan’s lab. Olive has just kissed a random stranger (in order to trick her best friend, Anh , into thinking she’s on a date) — only to realize that the “stranger” is actually Dr. Adam Carlson , a 34-year-old tenured and highly-respected professor in her program with a reputation for being notorious moody, mean and hypercritical.

After they pull away, Adam accuses her of assaulting him. Olive insists she asked him and he said yes, but he says he merely snorted. Finally, she explains that her friend Anh had hit it off with a guy she’d been dating, Jeremy. Olive broke things off with Jeremy, but Anh felt too bad to go out with Jeremy. To make Anh feel better about it, Olive lied to Anh about dating someone and being on a date tonight. When Anh showed up at the lab, Olive needed to kiss someone so Anh would believe she was on a date.

Finally, Olive apologizes and leaves. She doesn’t notice that Adam had called her by her name (which she hadn’t brought up in this conversation).

A few days later, Olive is still embarrassed by what happened. However, she figures that she’d never crossed paths with Adam before then, so perhaps she wouldn’t cross paths with him again. Meanwhile, Olive is preoccupied with needing to find more lab space for her research on early detection of pancreatic cancer. Today, she also finds out Tom Benton , a well-known cancer researcher and an associate professor at Harvard, is interested in potentially allowing her to carry out her research at his lab at Harvard. He’s going to be in town in two weeks and wants to meet with her.

When Anh sees her, she confronts Olive about kissing Adam Carlson. Olive thinks back to how they met since they were the only two non-cis-white-male students in their class. Beyond that, Anh was her biggest support and best friend.

Today, Anh demands to know why Olive is dating Dr. Carlson. This conversation is interrupted when Adam walks in. He plays along and pretends that he and Olive are together. After they make formal introductions, he tells her to call him Adam, in case her friend Anh is around. Later, when Olive talks to Anh again, Olive continues to pretend she’s dating Adam, and she once again encourages Anh to date Jeremy.

On campus, Olive starts to notice that people are treating her differently and with some level of curiosity. When her roommate, Malcom , demands to know why she didn’t tell him about dating Dr. Carlson, Olive realize that everyone know about her lie. Olive goes to Adam’s lab to tell him what’s going on, and she apologizes to him for it.

Olive notes that he seems very at ease with everyone believing that they’re dating, and she wonders why. Finally, he admits that Stanford considers him to be a “flight risk” (that he wants to leave them for another institution) and that they’ve frozen some of his research funds because of it. Part of the issue is that he’s recently gotten a large grant with one of his collaborator’s at another institution, and the department is worried he’s planning on moving there. He hopes that the dating rumors will make them think he’s more likely to stick around since he’s dating someone here.

A few days later, Olive goes to Adam’s office and tells him she wants to proceed with pretending that they’re dating. Olive notices that she’s been treated much better by everyone since the rumor started. (Apart from Malcom, who dislikes Adam Carlson, and has been shunning her.) Adam explains that he’s looked into it and there’s no issue with it, though he can’t serve in any supervisory capacity for her or serve on her thesis committee or be a part of any decisions if she’s nominated for a fellowship or other awards.

They decide to set some ground rules for their fake-dating arrangement. They decide to be fake-dating while on-campus only, so no personal engagements. Olive stipulates that there’ll be no sex. They also agree not to date others in the interim, since it will make things messy. And they agree that they should get coffee or something regularly to make things believable.

They plan to continue their fake-dating until September 29, roughly a month from now, which is the day after the department’s budget review. Their first coffee “date” is planned for Wednesday at 10 AM.

Later, Olive talks to Malcom, who is still upset with her. Malcom comes from a long line of well-known scientists, and he dislikes that Adam Carlson’s criticism of his research had made his life so difficult. Olive confides in Malcom that they’re merely fake-dating and that she barely knows Adam. She says that he’s just helping her out with the Anh/Jeremy situation (and she doesn’t mention Adam’s reasons for participating).

On Wednesday, Olive and Adam have their first fake-date at the coffee house. They ask each other some basic questions, and Adam pays for her order.

The next week, they meet up again, though Olive is running late since she was getting ready for a meeting she has with Tom Benton later that day. Meanwhile, Adam is a little moody because his department chair has still not agreed to release his research funds. They discuss attending the fall biosciences picnic together so that his department chair can see that they’re together.

They’re interrupted when a friend of Adam’s walks in and greets him warmly. Adam introduces the man to Olive as his friend and collaborator — who turns out to be Tom Benton.

Dr. Benton reveals that he’s heard about Adam’s romantic exploits all the way at Harvard, and he’s surprised to hear the rumors about Adam’s new girlfriend being true. Olive also awkwardly tells Dr. Benton that they have a meeting planned for later that day. Tom is delighted to find out that his meeting is with Adam’s new girlfriend.

The three of them sit down to chat. As Tom asks her about her research, Adam rephrases it to help Olive organize her thoughts when he sees that she’s struggling to come up with an answer. Olive then tells Tom about her research on biomarkers in order to more easily and cheaply diagnose pancreatic cancer. As Tom inquires about her reasons for doing her research, Olive reluctantly admits that it’s because her mother had pancreatic cancer.

Finally, Tom asks Olive to spend two weeks writing up a report on the current state of her research. He says that he’ll make a determination of whether to give her the lab space and cover her research expenses depending on what he reads in that report.

When Tom steps away, Olive and Adam discuss that if she decides to go to Harvard then she needs to keep it a secret until the end of their arrangement, otherwise it’ll make Adam look worse. They also agree not to tell Tom that they’re only fake-dating.

The next day, Olive attends a well-attended talk that Tom is giving on campus. The auditorium is so packed that there’s no space anywhere. Anh convinces Olive to sit in Adam’s lap for the duration of the talk.

Afterwards, Olive and Anh head back to the biology building. Olive talks about the report she’s preparing for Tom and the presentation she needs to work on for a conference (the “SBD Conference”) coming up in Boston. Meanwhile, Anh is working on organizing an outreach event for BIPOC women in STEM for the conference.

As they walk back, they see that there’s a traffic jam involving a stopped car blocking an exit. Then they see Cherie , the department secretary, talking to Adam. Adam then proceeds to physically push a car out of the way to relieve the jam. Anh encourages Olive to go over and give him a kiss for his efforts. After some awkward negotiation with Adam, they kiss.

Olive is working on her report for Tom when Greg Cohen , one of Dr. Aslan’s other Ph.D. candidates, barges in, clearly agitated. Chase , another one of their lab mates, walks in uneasily after him. When Olive asks Greg what’s wrong, he angrily responds that Carlson is on his dissertation committee and he failed his proposal. They ask Olive whether she knew he was going to fail Greg, and Olive insists she didn’t know. Greg then yells at Olive and calls her selfish for not caring how Adam makes everyone’s lives miserable. Greg then storms off.

Later that day, Olive texts Adam. She asks him about failing Greg. She argues that he should be nicer, but Adam is unapologetic. He insists that his job is to make sure that students produce useful research. Olive gets frustrated texts profanity at him, and he doesn’t respond.

A few days later, Olive is on her way to the biosciences picnic, where she’ll be seeing Adam after their tense exchange. She, Anh, Jeremy and Malcom go together and are quite late. When they arrive, they see Adam playing Ultimate Frisbee shirtless, showing off his six-pack. Olive is surprised to find herself “viscerally attracted” to Adam.

As they put on sunscreen, Anh gives Olive way too much sunscreen. Meanwhile, the frisbee from the game lands near her. When Adam comes over to retrieve the frisbee, Anh offers Olive’s excess sunscreen to Adam. He accepts, and Olive rubs the sunscreen on him. Olive also apologizes for what she texted him the other day.

Tom then comes over and brings up that Adam will be going to Boston soon for a few days.

Olive is in the break room at night when she runs into Adam next. Olive is working on her report for Tom, but there’s a section she’s having trouble with since her lab equipment seems to be messing up. They chat and share snacks. Olive finds herself wondering why he’s single.

Olive also finds herself telling him about her mother and her death. She describes how, when she was 15, her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer too late and only had a few weeks left to live by then. Olive also says that her father was never in the picture and her grandparents were deceased, so she was sent into the foster system until she was emancipated at 16.

When she mentions needing to get back to work, Adam offers to let her use his lab equipment if she needs it. He also gives her some advice on the Western blot she’s working with to make sure she’s doing it correctly. Before Olive leaves, she asks Adam why he’s single, but before he can really answer, Jeremy walks in and interrupts them.

On Saturday, Olive sends in her report to Tom. He responds by asking her to meet to talk about it at Adam’s house (where he’s staying) on Tuesday before he leaves for Boston. At Adam’s house, she and Tom chat about her report for about 20 minutes. Before she leaves, Tom offers her a spot at Harvard for the next year, and Olive is thrilled.

Adam gives her a ride back to campus. He talks about how excited he is about the research he and Tom are working on. As they chat, Adam says something that The Guy she’d met in the bathroom all those years ago had said to her. Olive realizes then that Adam was The Guy she’d met. She marvels at how she’d wondered about The Guy for years. Olive then suggests that go celebrate her lab spot and him and Tom’s grant.

They agree to get coffee. Before then, she convinces him to go with her to get flu shots at the setup on campus, all the while she teases him for his fear of needles.

On Wednesday, Olive and Adam are texting and teasing each other when Anh comes in and comments on how in love with Adam she is. Anh says that she feels better about dating Jeremy, since she sees how much Olive likes Adam. As Anh leaves, it dawns on Olive that Anh is right.

Olive soon texts Malcolm asking to talk. When they get together, she tells him about how she thinks she’s fallen for Adam. She also tells him that she thinks that Adam was The Guy that she met all those years ago. Malcolm suggests that perhaps Adam feels the same way. Olive doesn’t think that’s the case, but moreover, she says scared of being vulnerable and possibly giving up the friendship she and Adam currently have if she’s wrong. Olive also says that everyone she cares about ends up leaving her — citing her mother, father and grandparents.

Olive says she’s certain she doesn’t want to say anything to Adam about her feelings — but then she turns around and sees Adam standing there.

When Adam acknowledges that he overheard her, Olive quickly lies and said she was talking about some other guy she has a crush on. Their conversation is interrupted by Dr. Holden Rodriguez , who is going to Boston with Tom and Adam. Dr. Rodriguez knows Olive since he was on her graduate advisory committee her first year.

As they talk, Holden explains that he and Adam are old friends. They grew up together because their parents were all diplomats. Holden tells Olive about how his boyfriend dumped him just before prom, so Adam went as his date instead.

After Holden leaves, Adam comments that Holden speaks highly of Olive and her research. Adam also explains a comment Holden made about Tom, saying that the two don’t really get along. He then tells Olive that she should just tell Jeremy how she feels, incorrectly assuming that the mystery crush Olive was referring to is Jeremy.

Malcolm continues trying to convince Olive to admit her feelings to Adam, but Olive refuses. With Adam out of town, she feels his absence. When Adam finally texts her on Sunday, she feels even worse about her stupid lie about liking someone else.

On campus, she runs into Holden, who mentions how glad he is that Adam and Olive got together. Holden days that Adam had talked about someone he wanted to ask out for years, and he’s glad Adam finally did it. When he says that, Olive thinks about how there must be someone else out there that Adam likes, then, since they only really met a couple weeks ago.

Holden also warns her to watch out when it comes to Tom and to watch Adam’s back, since he doesn’t trust Tom.

A little later, Olive is informed that her research has been accepted for the SBD conference as a panel presentation with faculty. Olive feels overwhelmed, since graduate students very rarely are selected for oral presentations. She goes to her advisor, Dr. Aslan, and explains that she’s terrible at talking. Of course, Dr. Aslan just gives her some encouragement and tells Olive she’ll help her practice her presentation.

Afterwards, Olive tells Malcom and Anh, who also volunteer to help her practice. They also mention, however, that they each got invited to stay with people in Boston for the conference (Anh with Jeremy and Malcolm with some friends who had a spare room), so they won’t be rooming with Olive. Anh says she figured Olive would stay with Adam.

Olive is trying to sort out some living arrangements for Boston when Adam, who is back in town now, comes up to her. She tells him about having trouble finding accommodations in Boston. Adam comments that there’s probably not anything left in the vicinity by now, but she could stay in his room at the conference center. He adds that he has the room for the whole conference, but he will only be using the room two nights, so they’ll only overlap for one night most likely.

When she tells him about her presentation, he offers to look over her slides. She also invites him to her talk, and she thinks about how one of the reasons she likes him is that she always feels like he’s on her side.

At the hotel in Boston, Olive takes the empty bed, and she rehearses the talk she’s about to give in a few hours. When Adam arrives, she thanks him for all the help he gave regarding her presentation.

He asks when her presentation is so he can attend, but it turns out it overlaps with the Keynote speech, which he is giving along with two other people. She offers to show him the recording of it afterwards.

When Olive goes to do her panel presentation, she sees that Tom is on the same panel. She gives her portion of the talk, and it goes well. Malcolm and Anh are there to cheer her on.

Afterwards, the room empties out, and it’s just her and Tom. As they talk, she notices him moving closer until he tries to kiss her. When she pushes him away, he keeps trying. Finally, he says that she’s clearly someone who sleeps around to get ahead, and so they both know she’ll sleep with him, too, for the same reason. He also says that she only got on this panel because someone wanted to kiss-up to Adam Carlson.

He also says that Adam is the reason he accepted Olive into his lab. When Olive threatens to tell Adam about this, he says that Adam won’t believe her word against his. Olive also says she won’t go work in his lab, but Tom says she knows it’s the best option for her, and if she doesn’t then he’ll just replicate her research since he already knows all about it.

When Adam gets back to the hotel, Olive is crying. She tries to pretend nothing is wrong, but fails at it. Finally, she lies and tells him that she’s upset because she overheard someone saying that her research was “derivative” and that she was only chosen because of Adam.

Adam comforts her, and then he says he has an idea for where they should go instead.

Holding her hand, they walk past all the people at the department social and instead head out to dinner. Adam asks what she wants to eat, and Olive sees an all-you-can-eat sushi place and wants to go.

After dinner, as they head back, Olive’s heels are hurting her, so Adam gamely picks her up and brings her to their room. She then suggests that they watch a movie. Olive goes to grab a quick shower, and Adam offers her a t-shirt since she forgot to pack pajamas.

When Olive’s mind wanders back to being called mediocre (by Tom, though she doesn’t tell Adam that), Adam tells her about how his advisor had once told him he wouldn’t amount to anything because of a mistake he made. He says that he had started preparing applications for law school as a result, since the comment shook his confidence. However, Holden and Tom (who also trained under the same advisor) convinced him to stick with science.

Adam says that later he realized that his advisor was abusive and a bad mentor who created a toxic environment. Comparatively, Adam says that he is critical since he wants students to be better, but it isn’t about belittling them as people or cutting down their self-worth. Adam also says that no one ever reported his advisor’s behavior because he was short-listed for a Nobel Prize, and they didn’t think anyone would listen. Adam also mentions how Tom had helped mediate thing with him and his advisor, so he was grateful to Tom for that.

Adam then tells Olive that the abstracts submitted to SBD go through a blind review process, so they definitely didn’t choose her because of him.

Finally, Olive moves to kiss Adam, but before anything can happen, he stops her. He points out that she’s upset and staying in his room and that the situation feels coercive to him. When Olive says she’s fine, he points out that she said she was in love with someone else and that he doesn’t want to regret this later.

Olive convinces him that she’s fine with the situation, and soon things get intimate.

They have sex.

Afterwards, Olive asks Adam about a book he’s reading. He says it’s in Dutch and that he learned it as a kid. He also says that his parents were busy all the time and that he was mostly raised by au pairs. They then talk more about their childhoods.

As they chat, Adam finally tells Olive that he might be going to Harvard. The reason he’s leaving the conference early is to go interview with them. He thinks that working together with Tom in the same lab would make them much more productive. He also mentions that he could show her around Boston when she’s there.

Olive wakes up to a barrage of texts from Anh and Malcolm. When she finally talks to them, it turns out the Malcolm hooked up with Holden at the department social. Malcolm also says that Holden mentioned that Adam’s funds had been released (though Adam hadn’t mentioned it to Olive).

That night, Olive meets up with Adam. He wants to go out and have dinner, but Olive breaks things off with him, since she doesn’t know what to do about the Tom situation. She thinks that taking herself out of the equation is the best thing for him.

As she starts to leave, they end up kissing, but he pulls away, and she leaves.

Olive spends the next day crying. Then, determined not to send up at Harvard, Olive takes Adam’s advice to reach out to people through her advisor and asks Dr. Aslan to e-mail various people she’d met at the conference to see if they’d be interested in her research.

Dr. Aslan agrees, and also asks to see her speech. As Olive edits the video recording, Malcolm talks about how he went on a first date with Holden, but they ended up running into his entire family (since they are all science junkies who attend science conferences).

As she’s editing, Olive realizes she recorded her upsetting conversation with Tom. Malcolm and Anh hear her listening to it. Once they’ve listened to the whole thing, they insist that Olive needs to tell Adam about it. Finally, Malcolm fills Anh in on what was really going on with Olive and Adam. However, they both agree it’s clear that Olive has feelings for Adam and that Adam would want to know about this. Still, Olive knows how important the collaboration with Tom is to Adam, and she is reluctant to complicate things for him.

They decide to call Holden to ask for advice. Olive asks Holden what he thinks about Adam moving to Boston and working with Tom. Holden says that he doesn’t trust Tom. He says he thinks there was a weird dynamic where Tom was secretly sabotaging Adam during grad school and then defending him. He thinks that Tom likes Adam’s loyalty towards him and having influence over him. Holden also tells them that he thinks Tom and Adam’s collaboration benefits Tom more than Adam. Finally, Holden implies that he thinks the only reason Adam is considering leaving Stanford is because Olive is going to Harvard.

Olive tracks down Adam’s location at a dinner with some Harvard people, including Tom. When he sees her, he gets up and asks what’s wrong. Tom comes over to try to get Adam to sit back down, but Adam insists on talking to Olive. Finally, Olive starts playing the video. Adam grows furious as he realizes what happened. He tells Tom that he’s going to kill him and goes after him, but Olive tells Adam that he’s not worth it.

As the Harvard people demand an explanation, Adam ignores them and kisses Olive. He then tells Olive to send him the recording immediately and then goes to talk to the Harvard people.

A few days later, Olive is back home, and Adam is on his way back to San Francisco. Meanwhile, Olive has received responses from four cancer researchers who are all interested in her research.

When Adam gets back, Holden insists on a double date. Adam reluctantly agrees. When they all sit down, they address the fact that Malcolm still has misgivings about Adam because of Adam’s harsh criticism of his work. Adam tells Malcolm that it wasn’t personal.

As they joke around about pumpkin spiced flavored foods, Holden mentions how Adam has liked Olive for years. Olive corrects him, saying they’ve only been dating for a few weeks, but Holden says that they met three years ago and that he’s liked Olive ever since. Olive then realizes that Adam was definitely the The Guy (from three years ago) and that he did remember her.

After dinner, Olive and Adam head home. Adam tells Olive that Harvard is going to fire Tom and that there will be other disciplinary actions. Olive then tells Adam that she remembered him, too, from all those years ago. But she didn’t piece it together until later, and she admits that she didn’t say anything once she figured it out.

Finally, she tells him that she loves him (in broken Dutch).

Ten months later, it’s the 1-year anniversary of their first kiss. Olive and Adam go to the lab and recreate and their kiss at precisely the same time as last year.

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As a third-year Ph.D. 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-wavy 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 heart under the microscope.

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Bookshelf: Development Diary

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For Chapter 16, I think it’s important to include the part where Olive comes out to Adam as demisexual. But other than that this is a great summary.

this book is so good i couldn’t put it down. the only i wish is it was both POVS i would of loved to see what adam was thinking during all of this or have his thoughts on when they met each other during the bathroom scene. and i would of loved to see him actually hurting tom for saying that stuff to olive.

• Womens Fiction
• Paranormal Mystery
• Science Fiction Romance
• Personal Development

The Love Hypothesis Series by Ali Hazelwood: The Complete Guide

Table of Contents

Hey. What’s up, guys? I hope you are doing well. Today, we will discuss one of the most famous and romantic series by Ali Hazelwood , “ The Love Hypothesis. ” I completed all these books a week ago, so I decided to share my memories related to this novel with you. LET’S START >

The Love Hypothesis series has been written by Ali Hazelwood, a New York Times bestselling author. She writes modern romcom novels about women in STEM and academia. She published this novel on September 14, 2021, and this book consists of 383 pages, which are good enough to evoke your soul letter on 2 more books that were released in this series.

In 2022, it was announced that a  film conversion of the novel  is in progress from Bisous Pictures. The Love Hypothesis has  sold over 750,000 copies  worldwide, and the series has three different romantic story books. I will discuss all the books in this epic review, so stay with me till the end.

Overview of the series: 

The love hypothesis :.

The Love Hypothesis is an adult and romantic novel written by Ali Hazelwood. In this most-rated book, we read about the love story of Olives and Adam. Olive is a third-year biology Ph.D. student at Stanford University. She is researching pancreatic cancer from which her mother died. And Adam, who is a professor at the same university. The university has banned funds for Adam to study in the medical field as they fear he will leave the university and go to another. They both do fake friendship with each other. So both can have benefits.

Love On The Brain:

This is another book in the series, “ The Love Hypothesis ,” released in 2022 and is also a standalone novel. This is the romantic story of Dr. Bee Königswasser, who works at NASA, which was her dream job. And Levi Ward, who is her nemesis from grad school. He was her co-leader in the project, and they were trying their best to work with each other and forget what happened in the school. After working together for an extended period, they start loving each other.

Love, Theoretically:

This is the final book of the series The Love Hypothesis, written by Ali Hazelwood and published in 2023. This is also a comedy and romantic novel. In this book, we follow the life of Elsie, who is a good physicist and a professor at three Boston universities. She is trying to do many jobs to fulfill her needs; she also does the job as a Fake girlfriend to be hired. But this affects her academic position too much. She meets Jack and falls in love with him.

The series mainly fits within the Young Adult Romance and Romantic Agog genres; all three books share contemporary romance and academic fiction genres.

RECOMMENDED AGE RATING:

The series is recommended for mature enough readers due to its severe and emotional content. Not that mature, 17-18+ is good. Readers above 35 may not have that much fun, but the young ones’ hearts will be filled with pleasure.

Be sure that you are mature enough to read mature content.

HOW MANY BOOKS IN “The Love Hypothesis” SERIES?

There are currently three books in “The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood,

• The Love Hypothesis
• Love on the Brain
• Love, Theoretically

All these books were released one after the other in a sequence. The first book, The Love Hypothesis, was released in 2021; the second in 2022, Love on the Brain; and the last in 2023, called Love Theoretically. All these books have different storylines of different couples.

Best Reading Order for “The Love Hypothesis” Series :

I recommend you read all the books in sequence; otherwise, you will face many issues in understanding concepts and logic; you can also read them without sequence because they all have different stories. So, start with “The Love Hypothesis,” then the second part, Love on the Brain, and then at last, “Love Theoretically. This will be a good way according to my view of reading.

• Love theoretically

The Love Hypothesis #1: Plot Summary

Olive is a third-year biology Ph.D. student at Stanford University. She is researching pancreatic cancer from which her mother died. She did not believe in Love and romance, as her boyfriend had broken up with her a long time ago. But her best friend Anh believes in Love and romance. Anh and Olivia’s ex-boyfriend Jeremy like each other but can’t get into a relationship because she thinks she will hurt Olive if she goes into a relationship. Still, Olive has already told her she has been moved on and is no longer with Jeremy. To confirm this, one day, they were in the lab, and Ana dared Olives to kiss any random guy in the science lab. She had just kissed a guy, then learned that he was Prof. Adam, a famous scientist, and a handsome guy.

Olive told Adam why she did this and made plans with him to make a fake relationship with each other so people, including Anh, would think they were in a relationship. They start fake dating; after a few days of dating, Olivia starts having feelings for Adam, but she is afraid of telling him. One day, they both go to a conference where Adams’s friend Tom also comes. He was also a great scientist, just like Adam. When she was there at the meeting, Tom did a sexual harassment with Olive. She does not tell Adam this because she thinks he will not believe her.

 One day, Anh gets to know about the fake act of Olive and Adam, which they were doing, as well as she also knows that she was sexually harassed by Tom. She advises Olive to tell Adam about what happened to her. She hopefully gets to Adam and tells him everything with some proof, and Adams believes her and takes Olive’s side. After some time, Olive also said to him that she loved him very much.

Everyone likes tall, broody, sullen hunks with genius IQs. The Love Hypothesis

 It seems to be that Adam also likes her, but he is not saying it clearly to her. They both start a good relationship and live happily, enjoying their life with romance and Love. They do everything they want to do wherever they want. They have sex whenever they want to do it. They kiss each other wherever they wish, and now they can’t live without each other.

This was a short summary of the novel; no spoilers are given.

Characters:

Dr. Adam Carlsen: A young professor who is harsh and hypercritical. This is what students say about him. The university has frozen his research funds because they are worried that he will leave and go to a different university; Adam has faked a relationship with Olive to make the science department believe that he plans to stay at Stanford University and will not go anywhere.

Olive Smith:  She is a third-year biology Ph.D. student at Stanford University. She is doing research on pancreatic cancer from which her mother died. She has a fake relationship with Dr Adam Carlsen to convince her friend she got over her ex-boyfriend.

Love On The Brain #2: Plot Summary

Dr. Bee Königswasser is a neuroscientist working at NIH who received a prestigious chance to co-lead BLINK, a project at NASA concentrated on making helmets for astronauts that improve engagement through neurostimulation. Bee is thrilled, except she must work alongside Levi Ward, an engineer, and her old grad school nemesis. Bee went to Houston to start the task with her research assistant, Rocío Corporeal. When Bee formally begins work the next week, she finds that many of the gear and resources she had ordered have not yet arrived.

Her multiple emails to Levi to meet and discuss BLINK have been going unanswered. This, coupled with his general avoidance of her and the fact that she is kept out of the loop about team meetings, leads her to suspect that Levi purposely sabotages her involvement in the project. Levi discovers evidence that another firm is working on similar helmets, forcing their boss, Dr. Boris Covington, to push for the project to resume. With BLINK back on, Levi and Bee began cooperating closely, and she realized they had much more in common than she had ever guessed.

While working together one night, Levi and Bee find a file misplaced on the server in a row of strange circumstances. Levi calls a corrective meeting among the engineers despite Bee’s explicit request for him not to, which outrages her. Levi quickly apologizes for it, surprising Bee with his seriousness and respectfulness. There are many more hurdles in the story to love success.

The real villain is love: an unstable isotope, constantly undergoing spontaneous nuclear decay. Love On The Brain

Dr. Bee Königswasser : SHE works at NASA, and it is her dream job.

Levi Ward : He is Dr. Bee’s nemesis from grad school. He was her co-leader in the project.

Love theoretically #3: Plot Summary

Elsie is an overworked and underappreciated adjunct lecturer at three Boston universities who loves speculative physics but dislikes teaching. To cover her medical expenses and make up for her poor salary as an adjunct, Elsie works for an app called Faux that lets users hire people to act as their girlfriends.

Greg Smith has been a client of Elsie’s for some time, and she assumes they are friends, but she feels distressed by Greg’s older brother, Jack, who thinks she is lying to Greg about who she is. One day, Elsie meets the constituents of the MIT physics branch; she is surprised to learn that Jonathan Smith-Turner is  Jack Smith , her client Greg’s judgmental older brother. She begins to trust Jack, who has known through his brother that he and Elsie were only acting to date to alleviate his driven mother and hide the secret that Greg is aeromantic and has no interest in dating anyone.

Once he realizes that Greg and Elsie were never together, Jack reveals that he has always had feelings for her and only appeared to hate her because he was protective and envious of Greg.

“Have you considered that maybe you’re already the way I want you to be? That maybe there are no signals because nothing needs to be changed?” Love, Theoretically

The storyline was engaging and interesting, allowing me to read until the end. The characters and the relatable everything are highly appreciable. The well-developed plot, the twists, and the thrilling managements were great.

The writing style and storytelling were beyond my thoughts about this series. Some plot twists were clear to get what would happen next, but sometimes I need clarification about what is happening in this stage, so I repeat it.

The emotional and mental states of the characters sometimes did not show depth and genuineness. The book leans towards a more formulaic romantic approach. So I recommend reading this series; this will increase your knowledge of Love. So go grab it before it’s too late 🙂

CONCLUSION:

Be ready for an incredible journey with Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis series! It’s all about Love, drama, and amazement. Whether you’re a big fan or just starting, these books are like a cluster of feelings with lovely characters. You should totally read all the books. Each story is like a big hug of emotions – sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but always fascinating. So, grab these books, dive in, and prepare for a super awesome time!

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A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.

So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…

Not In Love

A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science.

Rue Siebert might not have it  all , but she has  enough : a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.

A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance.

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again…

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….

Check & Mate

In this clever and swoonworthy YA debut , life’s moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.

Mallory Greenleaf is  done  with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess.

Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist….

From A Certain Point Of View (Star Wars)

Celebrate the lasting impact of  Return of the Jedi  with this exciting reimagining of the timeless  Star Wars  film featuring new perspectives from forty contributors.

On May 25, 1983,  Star Wars  cemented its legacy as the greatest movie franchise of all time with the release of  Return of the Jedi . In honor of its fortieth anniversary, forty storytellers re-create an iconic scene from  Return of the Jedi  through the eyes of a supporting character, from heroes and villains to droids and creatures.  From a Certain Point of View features contributions by bestselling authors and trendsetting artists.

Love, Theoretically

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By  other  day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he’s the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job.

Love On The Brain

Like an avenging, purple-haired Jedi bringing balance to the mansplained universe, Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project — a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia — Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.

Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. And sure, he caught her in his powerfully corded arms like a romance novel hero when she accidentally damseled in distress on her first day in the lab. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school — archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.

Loathe To Love You

From the  New York Times  bestselling author of  The Love Hypothesis  comes a collection of steamy, STEMinist novellas featuring a trio of engineers and their loves in loathing–with a special bonus chapter!

Under One Roof An environmental engineer discovers that scientists should never cohabitate when she finds herself stuck with the roommate from hell–a detestable big-oil lawyer who won’t leave the thermostat alone.

Stuck with You A civil engineer and her nemesis take their rivalry–and love–to the next level when they get stuck in a New York elevator.

Below Zero A NASA aerospace engineer’s frozen heart melts as she lies injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station and the only person willing to undertake the dangerous rescue mission is her longtime rival.

The Love Hypothesis

As a third-year Ph.D. 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-wavy 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.

Under One Roof

As an environmental engineer, Mara knows all about the delicate nature of ecosystems. They require balance. And leaving the thermostat alone. And not stealing someone else’s food. And other rules Liam, her detestable big-oil lawyer of a roommate, knows nothing about. Okay, sure,  technically  she’s the interloper. Liam was already entrenched in his aunt’s house like some glowering grumpy giant when Mara moved in, with his big muscles and kissable mouth just sitting there on the couch tempting respectable scientists to the dark side…but Helena was  her  mentor and Mara’s not about to move out and give up her inheritance without a fight.

Stuck With You

Logically, Sadie knows that civil engineers are supposed to  build  bridges. However, as a woman of STEM she also understands that variables can change, and when you are stuck for hours in a tiny New York elevator with the man who broke your heart, you earn the right to burn that brawny, blond bridge to the ground. Erik can apologize all he wants, but to quote her rebel leader—she’d just as soon kiss a Wookiee.

Hannah’s got a bad feeling about this. Not only has the NASA aerospace engineer found herself injured and stranded at a remote Arctic research station—but the one person willing to undertake the hazardous rescue mission is her longtime rival.

Ian has been many things to Hannah: the villain who tried to veto her expedition and ruin her career, the man who stars in her most deliciously lurid dreams…but he’s never played the hero. So why is he risking everything to be here? And why does his presence seem just as dangerous to her heart as the coming snowstorm?

Hi! Hey! Hello!

I’m Ali, and I write contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia. I love cats, Nutella, and side ponytails. I’m also currently learning to crochet, so as you can tell I’m a super busy gal with an intense and exciting life! 

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What Is The Birth Order Dating Theory, And Is It Legit?

There's actually some psychology behind it—therapists explain.

If you spend any time on TikTok, you might’ve already heard of the birth order dating theory, which posits that certain birth order pairings are more compatible than others. The hashtag #birthorderinrelationships has over 58.6 million posts, with many users confirming that their past relationships corroborate the theory. “I am the eldest daughter, and all of my relationships have been with youngest sons,” revealed one user .

As it turns out, this theory isn’t just a fun TikTok trend—it’s psychologically backed, too. Your birth order has a direct impact on your personality and relationships, including who you date. “Your siblings can absolutely impact your romantic life, because those are your first age-appropriate dynamics when you’re learning how to communicate with someone,” explains Karen Stewart, PsyD, a psychologist specializing in sex and couples therapy in California. Therefore, it makes sense that eldest children are often drawn to lastborns: “If you’ve been comfortable with that dynamic for the past 20-plus years, it isn’t surprising that you gravitate towards that type of partner,” she adds.

So, what is the birth order dating theory, and is it really the ultimate compatibility test ? Ahead, relationship experts and therapists break it down.

What is the birth order dating theory?

The hashtag #birthorder may have 690.5 million views on TikTok, but the birth order personality theory has actually been around for over a century. The idea that children may inherit certain behaviors and traits based on where they fall in their family tree has its origins in the early 1900s.

Through his research, Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler —who is also credited for developing the superiority complex and retail therapy theories—suggests that the rank of one’s birth order shapes not only your personality, but how you show up in all aspects of life. In other words, my fearless ability to take charge is due to my inner “eldest child syndrome,” in which my role as the older sibling molded me into being a leader and problem solver.

According to Adler, birth order can also impact how we view and interact in non-familial relationships, including romantic ones. More specifically, your birth order can explain compatibility with a partner, as an eldest child’s alpha mentality may best compliment the personality of a youngest sibling, who tends to be more of a follower. Although every family dynamic (and person!) is different, “there are common threads in all these birth order situations,” Stewart notes.

What can my birth order tell me about my relationship needs?

As for whether you should use the birth order theory as your love compass, well... let’s let the stereotypes do the talking, first. Ahead, everything you can learn about yourself (and how you show up in relationships) from your birth order.

Eldest Child

As the eldest, firstborns can feel a sense of hierarchy over their siblings. “They’re used to being the leader,” explains Stewart.

While Adler’s birth order theory describes firstborns as being high achievers, problem solvers, and caretakers, Stewart says these strong characteristics can also result in controlling tendencies. Additionally, eldest children tend to be people pleasers and worrywarts, she adds. (And suddenly, my anxiety all makes sense!)

In the realm of dating, eldest children exhibit many redeeming qualities. For starters, they’re action-orientated—so if planning date night isn’t your thing, they’ll likely be more than happy to take the reins. Eldest children are also devoted and reliable.

While there’s nothing wrong with having an alpha personality, per se, the “need to be in control all the time” can also hurt you in a relationship, warns Julie Menanno, LMFT, a marriage and family therapist, and the author of Secure Love: Create a Relationship That Lasts a Lifetime . An eldest child might not know “how to adapt or be flexible with their partner,” which can lead to issues including resentment from their S.O., she adds. You never want your partner to feel like they’re “invisible” in the relationship, so try to relinquish some of that control when you can, advises Menanno.

Middle Child

Growing up, middle children often get lost in the shuffle. “They don’t entirely know what their identity is because when they’re with an older sibling they’re treated like the youngest, but with a younger sibling, the middle child wants to exert that power or dominance of an older sibling and it’s really confusing for them,” explains Stewart.

Because of this constant tug-of-war, middle children often take on the role of peacemaker. “As a peacemaker, they tend to back away from conflict because they want everything to be okay. However, being the family peacemaker is exhausting for them, so they may view relationships, including romantic relationships, as a lot of work,” says Menanno.

Sometimes, this can snowball into developing poor communication skills like “checking out in the face of conflict,” she adds. On the contrary, Menanno says middle children may be more verbally combative in relationships because “they’re used to having to fight for their voice to be heard.” It'll likely depend on what your relationship with your older and younger siblings looks like.

Youngest Child

Known as the “baby” of the family, lastborns are often perceived as spoiled, extroverted, and a little rowdy, according to the birth order theory. Whereas their eldest siblings were held under a magnifying glass, the youngest are typically, in theory, kept on a looser leash. To put it simply, they’re able to get away with a lot more.

That said, lastborns are used to adhering to multiple authoritative figures in the house, which can sometimes translate to codependency in relationships. On the flip side, “if you’re used to being spoiled and getting all your needs met, then that can turn into sucking up all the air in a relationship,” says Menanno.

But, of course, every partnership needs balance. A lastborn’s fun spirit and zest for adventure can be appealing to a firstborn or even middle child who considers themselves a rule follower. Their spontaneity ignites feelings of excitement and togetherness, both of which are important building blocks of a relationship.

Similar to lastborns, only children crave the spotlight because they’re often used to being the center of adult attention. “They’re used to having their needs met at all times, so those folks can tend to be a little more needy,” explains Stewart.

Only children can also get a bad rap for being selfish in relationships. “Stereotypically, only children don’t learn how to share in those formative years. Thus, for example, not learning how to share toys can evolve into not knowing how to share time or space with a partner,” continues Stewart.

Communication can also be a weak spot for some only children. “This is particularly true when it comes to fighting styles, as only children can be more catastrophic with their words and actions,” says Stewart. But despite this, only children might also be more mature and emotionally intelligent in some ways, because they grew up surrounded by adults.

Which birth order combinations are compatible?

So, who is your “perfect” match based on the birth order dating theory? On paper, all signs point to firstborns and lastborns being the most compatible pairing, says Stewart. “The eldest is used to assuming the role of caretaker. This person aims to please and they want someone who they can look after,” she explains. “Then, you have the baby of the family, who is used to being led and coddled. That’s a dynamic they’re [both] probably comfortable and familiar with.”

And the same goes for firstborns and only children: “An only child looks for someone who can take care of them at all times, which is one of the primary personality traits of a stereotypical eldest child,” says Stewart. While only children may run away from conflict, firstborns run towards it.

Surprisingly, middleborns also get along best with siblings who were born first. “The eldest can be the leader and the support system that the middle child never received growing up,” explains Stewart. Meanwhile, middle children are perceptive yet quiet. They make great mediators, which helps when navigating tough conversations in which an eldest’s instinct is to take control.

Which combinations *aren't* compatible?

Theoretically, based on the birth order dating theory alone, same-birth orders are the least compatible combinations, say both Menanno and Stewart. This means two firstborns, two middle children, two lastborns, and two only children might not be the best match.

“Two older siblings together will definitely butt heads in a relationship,” says Menanno. “Both people have been awarded throughout life for taking charge, figuring it out, making a plan, finding a solution, and being the one that’s always right. And so, it feels very vulnerable to an eldest child to have to give that up.”

And, while being a peacemaker certainly has its attributes, a pair of peacemakers (I’m looking at you, middle children) can put a relationship in a communication rut. “They’re going to have a difficult time navigating conversations, especially big ones that may involve conflict,” warns Stewart.

And finally, because lastborns and only children are used to being the center of attention and share such similar personalities, any combination of the two could end in strife. But if you’re in a same-birth order relationship, don’t worry: This isn't an end-all, be-all compatibility test, because every person is a little different. “There could be a super healthy situation in which nobody needs to fall into those rigid birth order roles to feel a sense of identity or belonging,” says Menanno.

So, can your birth order really tell you who’s a match?

If you’re fascinated by astrology and/or attachment theory , then you know there are a lot of different factors that play into who we become in relationships, and birth order is just one of those. So, if you’re a firstborn contemplating whether you should dump your fellow firstborn partner because this theory is all over your TikTok feed right now, well… first, take a breath. And, no. Someone's birth order shouldn't be a relationship deal breaker , say both experts.

“Does [this theory] mean you should set up your dating profiles to ‘I only date the youngest child?’ Absolutely not, because we were all raised in different ways,” explains Stewart. While birth order does shed some insight into the role you might feel comfortable filling in a relationship, it isn’t the golden rule of dating.

Am I going to stop dating lastborns? Definitely not. As much as I hate to admit it, I do inhibit the caretaking (and controlling, if I’m being honest) gene. But, did Adler’s theory prompt me to reevaluate how I show up in relationships? Absolutely.

Meet the experts: Karen Stewart , PsyD, is a psychologist specializing in sex and couples therapy in California. Julie Menanno , LMFT, is a marriage and family therapist and the author of Secure Love: Create a Relationship That Lasts a Lifetime .

Emily Weaver (she/her) is a New York City-based freelance writer, who specializes in topics related to e-commerce, love and sex, home trends, and other lifestyle-esque content. When she isn't writing about her Trader Joe's cult-like obsession, she's managing Scary Mommy Book Club (and stalking her favorite mystery and rom-com authors). Outside of work, her interests include watching reality TV and women's sports. Her writing has been featured on Women's Health , People , Food & Wine , POPSUGAR , Scary Mommy , Better Homes & Gardens , and more.

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