Ratings:
Star Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
If This Book Was a Movie Rating: R
Review:
Let me intro this by saying I ADORED the Love Hypothesis. Five stars and a kiss.
But this.
This.
THIS gets ONE BLOODY STAR and i have barely ever been so disappointed with a book in my life.
*screams into pillow*
The characters were cardboard, the plot was vanilla, the romantic tension was nonexistent, and let me start this review before i spill everything lol
“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.
The problem is, living with someone means getting to know them. And the more Mara finds out about Liam, the harder it is to loathe him…and the easier it is to love him.”
DJIDDKKSKSANSJJSSKSMSM SEE THE AMOUNT OF POTENTIAL THIS THING HAD?
AND WHERE DID IT ALL END UP?
THE TRASH, THAT’S WHERE.
ugh let’s begin with the plot.
So you remember how the Love Hypothesis had this whole side plot about Olive trying to obtain funding for her liver cancer research and overcoming sexism and harassment in the workplace?
Yeah, well, the research/science angle was barely in this one. We never get a scene of Mara at her engineering company, we never learn what projects she’s working on, and the most sciencey thing this environmental engineer does is deconstruct a microwave.
Mara does mention how her sexist boss dismisses her and her ideas and then takes credit for her work, but at best, everything is merely touched on. No specificity. An annoyance mentioned in passing, instead of giving Mara a fight and life outside of her relationship with Liam.
also hearing those cringy science jokes on audiobook was just plain painful.
The rest of the plot is easily broken down into two recurring events: Liam and Mara being mad at/getting to know each other and Mara ranting about Liam to her friends. Generally vanilla and bland and very tame.
HOWEVER. RIGHT AT THE END OF THE NOVEL. THEY LITERALLY CONFESS THEIR FEELINGS AND THEN THE ENTIRE LAST 16% OF THIS NOVELLA WAS A *GRAPHIC* BEDROOM SCENE.
i personally skipped over the whole thing, but i heard there were parts that were cringier than the science jokes. so there’s that.
ONTO THE CHARACTERSSSS
The MCs (and the very few side characters) are absolutely wonderful people made of toddler emotions and pure vanilla extract. Every other page for the first third of the book, Mara declares her passionate and vehement hatred for Liam Harding.
Why, might you ask?
Children, that’s not important. The point is, they hate each other. Like, HATE hate each other.
so because I missed how this mortal hatred originated the first time, I rechecked the intro. And you know what this origin was?
LIVING HABITS.
THEY HATED EACH OTHER’S LIVING HABITS.
Mara’s psycho-like fantasies about violently maiming Liam were because of his LIVING HABITS???
UGH THESE PEOPLE.
Aside from her psychopathic tendencies, Mara was so emotionally unintelligent that i wanted to knock her out the window about 500 seperate times. Like I get you might not have many friends but YOU HAVE A GRADUATE DEGREE SIS I KNOW YOU KNOW COMMON SENSE.
case in point: in this one scene, Liam approaches Mara and inhales sharply when he gets close.
Now, instead of just ignoring this oddity, our graduate scientist proceeds to reason her way through it: “do I smell bad? i bet i smell bad. in fact, this is liam. oh, i bet i smell like trash. is my shampoo finally failing me after eight years?”
Mara, why would he inhale if you smelled like trash.
That's it. That's his personality.
Except for a sob story to give him *depth*, there’s nothing else about him that is remotely entertaining. Nada.
anyways, that’s all I got. I probably won’t read the last two novellas, but because I did adore the Love Hypothesis, I’ll be reading Love on the Brain when it comes out. I have enough loyalty left for that lol
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Buy this book:
Recommendations That Are Better Than This Book:
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
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