THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS

As a third year Ph.D. student, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships. In fact, her last date ended up falling for her best friend, Anh, instead. But just because she and love aren't meant to be doesn't mean her best friend doesn't deserve happiness. So, Olive lies and tells Anh that she is already dating someone else so Anh can guiltlessly date Olive's ex. But when she almost gets caught in her own lie, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

The man she kisses is none other than Doctor Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor, and well-known ass. Adam has a reputation of being a lab tyrant and his assistants all live in fear of his explosive criticism. But in order to keep Anh from learning about her lie, Olive must enlist his help in keeping up a fake dating charade. Surprisingly, Adam agrees. Together they set a list of rules to keep things professional. But as situations continue to throw them together, whether it be an overcrowded seminar that lands Olive into Adam's lap or a sunscreen disaster at a department picnic that forces her to apply said sunscreen to Adam's bare chest in front of their cohorts, the line between fake and real blurs.

When Olive is chosen as a panelist at a big science conference as the only grad student amongst M.D.s and Ph.D.s and where Adam is a keynote speaker, she is faced with crippling imposter syndrome. But just when she think she is at her lowest, Adam surprises her with his unyielding support, a contradiction to the terrible rumors about him which forces her to realize she might have been prejudiced all along. As far as her hypothesis about love goes, it turns out facing her true feelings just might be even more complicated than mastering biology.

Olive is a STEM heroine who will appeal to fans of A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole and Helen Huang's The Kiss Quotient and her chemistry with Adam will resonate with readers of Sally Thorne's The Hating Game or Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare.

Arianna Rigon, writing as Ali Hazelwood, is originally from Italy, but she has lived in Japan and Germany before moving to the US in 2013 to pursue a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. She has been a university professor since 2019. This would be her debut book.