Books Like The Love Hypothesis (2026)

This is the book I hand to anyone who says fake dating is played out, because Elena Armas makes it feel electric. Catalina Martin needs a date for her sister’s wedding back home in Spain, mostly to save face after inventing a boyfriend who does not exist, and the only person willing to fly across the ocean and play the part is Aaron Blackford, her infuriatingly composed colleague who she is certain despises her. He does not despise her. He has, in fact, been gone for her for a very long time.

The banter is sharp, the slow burn is agonising in the way we love, and the “he has secretly adored her this whole time” reveal is deeply satisfying. It has the same workplace enemies energy and the same oblivious heroine who cannot see what is right in front of her, plus a wedding, a trip, and yes, only one bed. If you want The Love Hypothesis with a passport and a slower fuse, start here.

Spice Level: Warm | Tropes: Fake dating, enemies to lovers, workplace romance, wedding date, forced proximity, only one bed, he falls first

Abby Jimenez has a gift for wrapping serious feelings inside a laugh out loud romance, and this one hit me right in the chest. Dr Briana Ortega is having a spectacularly bad month at work when Dr Jacob Maddox, the anxious, awkward new colleague she initially cannot read at all, starts leaving her handwritten letters. What begins as a fake relationship to solve both their problems becomes a correspondence so honest and disarming that you will want to reread every note.

The letters are the heart of it, and Jacob’s anxiety is written with such warmth that he never reads as a project, only as a real person learning to be brave for someone he adores. For Love Hypothesis lovers, this delivers the fake dating framework, the grumpy sunshine contrast, and a hero whose devotion sneaks up on you and then knocks you flat.

Spice Level: Warm | Tropes: Fake dating, grumpy x sunshine, medical romance, letters, anxiety representation, he falls first

More Hazelwood, because when the craving is this specific, sometimes only the source will do. Elsie Hannaway is an overworked adjunct physicist who moonlights as a professional fake girlfriend, becoming whatever each client needs her to be. Then she crosses paths with Jack Smith, the experimental physicist who torpedoed her mentor’s career and now stands between her and her dream job, and she is fully prepared to loathe him.

Jack, of course, has other ideas. He sees straight through Elsie’s shapeshifting to the real, exhausted, brilliant woman underneath, and he falls for that version, the one nobody else has bothered to look for. It gives you the STEM world, the fake dating complications, the rivals tension, and a quietly intense hero who falls first. Basically, it is comfort food for Love Hypothesis fans.

Spice Level: Warm | Tropes: STEM romance, fake dating, rivals to lovers, he falls first, grumpy x sunshine

Here is one for readers who loved the fake dating setup but want the heat turned all the way up and a paranormal twist to keep things interesting. Mackenzie and Noah are both doctors, both werewolves, and both cornered into pretending to be fated mates to get everyone off their backs. Noah is a grumpy, growly attending who Mackenzie has spent years being annoyed by, which makes the enforced closeness of their fake bond gloriously combustible.

It keeps the workplace pressure and the grumpy sunshine push and pull that makes Hazelwood’s books sing, then adds shifter mythology and a much higher spice level. If you want the familiar bones of The Love Hypothesis dressed up in something new and steamy, this is a brilliantly fun pick.

Spice Level: Spicy | Tropes: Fake dating, paranormal romance, workplace romance, grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity

Fittingly, Christina Lauren is the duo who called Hazelwood’s work contemporary romance’s unicorn, and this is their own gorgeous entry into brainy escapist romance. Jess Davis is a single mum and a statistician who has given up on dating, until a DNA based matchmaking company tells her she is a once in a generation 98 percent match with its founder, Dr River Pena, who happens to be the most closed off, unimpressed man she has ever met.

River is grumpy in that specific, buttoned-up, secretly-melting way that Adam Carlsen fans will recognise immediately, and watching the two of them collect data on their own compatibility is a joy. Readers on Reddit routinely rank it right beside The Love Hypothesis, and some love it even more. If you want the science premise, the grumpy hero, and a slow burn with real emotional stakes, this is your next read.

Spice Level: Warm | Tropes: STEM romance, grumpy x sunshine, single mum, slow burn, science premise

Before the current wave of workplace enemies to lovers, there was this modern classic, and it holds up beautifully. Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman share an office and a mutual loathing so committed they have invented games just to torment each other. Lucy is sunshine in a cardigan, Josh is a stone-faced wall of contempt, and the tension between them is so thick you could stand a spoon in it.

Then comes the twist that made this book legendary, the slow reveal that Josh’s hostility was never hatred at all. For Love Hypothesis readers, this is the grumpy sunshine blueprint, the oblivious heroine, and the he-fell-first gut punch, all in one tightly wound package. If you have somehow not read it yet, consider this your official nudge.

Spice Level: Warm | Tropes: Enemies to lovers, workplace romance, grumpy x sunshine, he falls first, forced proximity

If the actual hypothesis of The Love Hypothesis is what tickled you, this one leans all the way in, and it is such a good time. Corban Nash is a data nerd with a theory he swears can make any two people fall in love, and it has worked for everyone except him. Hazel Kiegen thinks the whole thing is nonsense and sets out to prove him wrong, which means the two rivals decide to test the theory on themselves. You can imagine how well that goes for their plan to stay uninvolved.

It is a standalone rom com stuffed with witty banter, a genuinely charming nerdy hero, and the kind of frenemies chemistry that crackles from the first page. Previously published as Love According to Science, it is the most on-the-nose match here for readers who loved the smart-people-running-an-experiment-on-their-own-hearts energy of Olive and Adam.

Spice Level: Spicy | Tropes: Enemies to lovers, nerdy hero, workplace romance, rom com, banter

A companion to The Spanish Love Deception. This one follows Rosie Graham, an aspiring romance writer with a spectacular case of writer’s block. She ends up unexpectedly sharing an apartment with Lucas Martin, her friend’s impossibly charming, dimpled Spanish cousin. What follows is a series of increasingly elaborate “experimental dates” designed, at least officially, to cure her creative slump.

The forced proximity is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and yes, there is the classic only one bed situation for good measure. It is lighter and sweeter than some picks on this list. For Love Hypothesis fans, the appeal is the experiment framing, the cohabitation tension, and the slow tumble from arrangement into the real thing.

Spice Level: Warm | Tropes: Forced proximity, only one bed, opposites attract, roommates, funny

Hazelwood swaps the lab for the chessboard in her young adult debut, and the result is utterly charming. Mallory Greenleaf accidentally defeats the reigning world chess champion, Nolan Sawyer, in a charity match, and just like that her quiet, careful life is thrown into chaos. Nolan is intrigued, then a little obsessed, by the unknown player who dismantled him, and he very much wants a rematch. Mallory very much wants him to leave her alone.

Because it is YA, the spice is off the page, but the intellectual chemistry and the yearning are all present and correct.

Spice Level: Sweet | Tropes: Rivals to lovers, competitions, he falls first, young adult, slow burn