By the time a romance book reaches the screen, readers have often already built a whole world around it: analysing it, recommending it and imagining its characters. The Love Hypothesis, a romantic comedy set in the world of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) academia, is one such example.
The bestselling 2021 novel by neuroscientist-turned-author Ali Hazelwood revolves around biology PhD student Olive Smith and Dr Adam Carlsen, a young professor in the same department. The pair pretend to be in a relationship to convince Olive’s friend and Adam’s boss that their love life is on track. As they are forced to spend more time together, the lines between fake and real get increasingly blurred.