Books Like The Love Hypothesis

More fake dates and people who really should know better.

Olive Smith kisses a man in a lab hallway to convince her best friend she’s over her ex. The man turns out to be Adam Carlsen, the professor you’d least want to explain yourself to. He goes along with the fake relationship because looking settled at Stanford might help him get his research funding back.

If you liked watching two scientists find practical reasons to keep seeing each other, start with The Rosie Project. For the pleasure of watching a cover story get harder to explain, go straight to the honeymoon.

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01
The Rosie Project
by Graeme Simsion
Don Tillman is a genetics professor who screens potential wives with a questionnaire. On one date, he tries to settle a disagreement about ice cream with a blind taste test. By the time he has the samples, his date has left.
Rosie fails his screening, then gives him a better problem to work on when he agrees to help find her biological father. This is the closest match for the lab side of Hazelwood’s book, with the scientist doing the deadpan narration himself.
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02
The Unhoneymooners
by Christina Lauren
Wedding food poisoning leaves Olive and Ethan, the best man she can’t stand, free to take her sister’s prepaid honeymoon. In Maui they have to pass for newlyweds, even when they run into Olive’s future boss. If you wanted more scenes where Olive and Adam have to sell the relationship in public, this is the one to pack. It also comes with a couples massage.
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03
The Paradise Problem
by Christina Lauren
Anna Green thought her student marriage was over. Then Liam Weston turns up needing a wife for a family wedding on a private island. His inheritance depends on the marriage looking happy, and Anna needs the money he’s offering. She starts by answering his solemn explanation in mock-aristocratic language. Pick this over The Unhoneymooners if you’d rather watch a rich family scrutinize the act. Expect plenty of sex and swearing.
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04
The Rom-Commers
by Katherine Center
For the pleasure of watching someone good at her job explain it to a skeptic, go to Hollywood. Emma Wheeler is hired to fix a terrible romcom script by her idol, action writer Charlie Yates, who has little faith in love. Their research involves line dancing and kissing.
Emma has six weeks away from caring for her injured father. That part of her life gives the book some weight alongside the arguments about screenwriting.
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05
The Hating Game
by Sally Thorne
Lucy and Joshua sit across from each other at a publisher and want the same promotion. The winner gets to be the other’s boss. Until then, there’s the staring game, the mirroring, and the possibility of taking it all to HR. We’d pick this first for the sparring.
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06
Can You Keep a Secret?
by Sophie Kinsella
Emma Corrigan tells a stranger her most embarrassing secrets during a turbulent flight. She survives. Then he walks into her office and turns out to be the CEO. Emma already gets through meetings by pretending she understands the jargon and making up some of her own. Now she has to look composed around a man who knows exactly how flustered she can get.
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07
Part of Your World
by Abby Jimenez
An ER doctor ends up in a ditch after swerving for a raccoon, and the conversation with her friend turns to shapewear. That gives you a fair idea of how Alexis handles a bad night. The romance pairs her with a small-town carpenter ten years younger. He’s the sunny one, and she’s the one with a family legacy to worry about.
Alexis is also dealing with an emotionally abusive ex and parents who expect her to put the family first.
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08
Things We Never Got Over
by Lucy Score
Naomi flees her wedding and winds up responsible for a niece she never knew she had. All she wants when she walks into the café is a latte, but the local barber thinks she’s the twin who’s banned from the place. If a slow courtship made up of small arguments is your favorite part, give these two time. The sex is on the page.
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09
Betting on You
by Lynn Painter
The YA pick trades the lab for a hotel waterpark. Bailey and Charlie start by betting on other people’s relationships at work, then give themselves something to be wrong about when they start fake dating. He’s been needling her since the day they met at an airport, where she just wanted a kissing couple to stop holding up security.
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