If you are anything like me and also have a subscription to Prime, and if you have gone anywhere near your Prime streaming in the past couple of days, you have been pitched (full-screen) the dropping of the movie The Love Hypothesis. If you are a romance reader (especially Millennial or Gen Z), you know what this is. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazlewood is a modern romance classic. It haunted the romance and summer read displays at bookstores and book sections of stores for years after its publication during the Pandemic, and it is still at the top of those generations’ romance read lists. I read it a couple weeks ago in preparation for the movie, because I had meant to read it sometime, anyway. Then I watched the movie on the day it published.

I’ll begin, as we should, with the book.

The Love Hypothesis was Hazlewood’s first book and it remains her most popular/lauded, but she has written an insane amount of books since its publication (remembering that it’s only been like five years). Her books lean in two directions: either STEM woman romance (like this one, Love, Theoretically, and Love on the Brain) and supernatural romance (less of those, in one popular Bride series: Bride, Mate, and more to come). You’ve probably seen those around if you read the genre.

I read the book in between a ton of other book club reads, and I love to do that with romance because it tends to give my brain both a break and also a rush of dopamine, like candy. My main impression: I can see why The Love Hypothesis is a modern classic of the romance genre.

(Let’s back it up to the cover, though. Why is it just barely blurry? And the male romantic lead isn’t right—he doesn’t fit the description. Why do they do that? But whatever…)

I find that when I hear that a book is funny, it makes it nearly impossible to be surprised by the humor in a genuine way. However, I’m going to tell you that I thought this book was so funny. I laughed out loud. And I loved these peeps—all the quirky side characters and the horrible villain. The book was full of tropes, sure, but they were done right and readers of genre fiction tend to like the tropes, as much as they might complain about them. I also thought that the science was done right, too. It wasn’t just an affect, but was baked into the way these people talked and thought.

I probably hadn’t read Love Hypothesis yet because the whole grad student academia setting doesn’t appeal to me (even if I am still considering an MFA. Throw this story into a school of magic or Victorian London and you’ll hook me). And being in that setting was a little horrible (which was how Hazlewood was describing it), like a nightmare to be there as a grad student (and even a teacher), but I was happy with these people and with the MC’s antics. There is only one MC in this book; it’s written in third-person, and I was so glad about that. (I like both ways, but first-person, two-POV is over-done in the romance genre at this moment in time. I like me a classic story-telling.) As for the bonus chapter… I really didn’t need it. I already understood everything that was shared.

I suppose I could have used a little more setting, more description of the people and places. But that’s a style preference. I was emotionally engaged in the story and just plain enjoyed a sorta light-hearted but crazy spin on reality feel.

Lastly, I’m not being coy or prude, I just don’t think the steamy parts were where this story was at, and I thought they were excessive considering the tone of the rest of the book. I know the pressure these authors feel to up the spice rating for some readers, but these couple scenes (grouped together in the second half of the book) were a little plot-dragging and odd for me. And always too rose-tinted, but that’s the genre.

Basically, I’m going to say a lot of the same things about the movie.

After my husband laughed out loud (with me), he seemed a leettle unimpressed by our viewing of the brand-new The Love Hypothesis straight-to-streaming movie. I had to think about this, because while I also laughed and then thought the romance ultimately paid off, I was occasionally… bored? Is that the right word? I just wasn’t drawn in the whole time. But why? I think it’s because the movie could have been more unique or special. A little snoozy, in that way. Still, they pulled it off.

As usual, I missed some things from the book because movies are shorter and limited. I thought the read on the two MCs and the acting were spot on, though. (I saw their personalities a little differently in my head, but I’m not sure the director didn’t do a better job interpreting them.) I wanted a little more drama, but the levity was still there (hence the lol-ing) and the sweetness. The romance totally worked, though it was more slow-burn than in the book. The sex scene was really out of balance, quite frankly. I understand it being there because of the average romance book reader and Hazelwood fan, but to a casual viewer (like my husband), it was like, wtf, where did that come from? (I mean, me too, if I’m honest. It didn’t fit the movie, and now that I’m looking back at my book review, that makes sense because it didn’t really fit the tone of the book, either.)

So, a solid movie that plenty of people (and especially fans) will like if they can just get past the changes that were made to survive the format-change. (My husband was disappointed to find out that one of his favorite scenes was totally not in the book.) It’s a great date-night movie (though depending on your relationship, it might get a little awkward at the aforementioned sexy scene because of its being incongruent and therefore kinda noticeable.) I liked the book better. I enjoyed both.

I would even read or watch again.