Olive receives an email regarding a paper she submitted to an upcoming conference in Boston. A few days later, Tom offers her a spot in his lab next year. After listening to her research pitch, Tom requests a report by the end of the week, which Olive delivers. It turns out that he’s a friend of Adam’s and wants to meet this girlfriend everyone’s been talking about. At their second fake date, Tom Benton joins them. Meanwhile, she keeps up appearances with Adam, meeting him at the campus coffee shop once a week. He’ll be visiting Stanford in a couple of weeks, and Olive frantically works on her project in the hopes he’ll give her space in his lab. Needing a better equipped lab for the next phase of her research, Olive contacts several professors at other universities, but only one responds-Tom Benton from Harvard. Her mother died from pancreatic cancer because it was found too late, and Olive dedicates her life to the disease so other people don’t lose loved ones to it.

Olive’s area of focus is early detection for pancreatic cancer. The two decide to pretend they’re dating for a month in hopes their fake relationship will be mutually beneficial. Olive wants to keep up the charade until her friends are solidly together, and Adam needs to convince Stanford he’s not leaving to get his research funds unfrozen. Before Olive can spin an explanation, Adam arrives and acts warmly toward her, which convinces Olive’s friend their relationship is genuine. Olive haltingly explains her situation, apologizes for the kiss, and runs away, hoping she never sees him again.Ī few days later, Olive’s friend corners her in the lab. Adam has a reputation for being mean and terrifying, and he demands an explanation. Desperate to appear on a date, Olive kisses the first man she sees, who turns out to be Adam. Olive is working in the lab on a night she said she’d be on a date when she sees her friend walk by. His wise words convince Olive that grad school is the right path, and two weeks later, she accepts an offer to study at Stanford.Īlmost three years later, Olive is trying to convince her best friend that she’s over her ex-boyfriend so her friend, who is interested in her ex-boyfriend, will date him. While she waits in the bathroom for her eyes to stop watering, she meets Adam Carlsen, one of the foremost biology researchers in the world-though she doesn’t learn it was him until the end of the book. Two years before the main events of the story, Olive’s expired contacts act up right before her interview for Ph.D. Olive’s research focuses on pancreatic cancer, but each chapter begins with a hypothesis about Olive’s love life or choices as is relevant to the chapter’s contents. The Love Hypothesis is set in modern-day America and follows Olive Smith, a 26-year-old graduate student of biology at Stanford University.

Illumicrate the love hypothesis