Third-year Ph.D. candidate Olive told her best friend, Anh, that she is on a date. Alas, she is not. She was only pretending to make Anh believe she is really, actually, over her last date, Jeremy. When she sees Anh walking towards her that night, she panics —and kisses the closest man nearby. Which is Adam Carlsen, professor and destroyer of Ph.D.-Dreams. Carlsen, though, isn't completely unhappy about this. Stanford froze his grands because he doesn't have any roots in California and, therefore, is practically at flight risk. What better way to get his money back than having a fake girlfriend?
This novel contains examples of the following tropes:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Averted. Despite being good-looking, Adam isn't pursued by women due to his asshole-tendencies. In fact, people are appalled about their relationship, and ask Olive if she is alright because she is dating a known jackass.
- Amicable Exes: What Olive and Jeremy are. They went on a few dates, but broke up because he was more interested in Anh.
- Beta Couple:
- Anh and Jeremy.
- Malcolm and Holden.
- Big Man on Campus: Adam is this. So much so, that even Tom at Harvard heard of him dating Olive.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Olive tries to do this, and breaks up with Adam, so he can work with Tom. Once Holden tells her Adam could easily research without Tom, and that Tom is gunning for Adam's career for a long time, she shows Adam the proof of Tom blackmailing her.
- Casting Couch: Tom tries it with Olive, making it clear that he'll only fund her research if she sleeps with him. If not, he'll steal it.
- Character Tics: Olive is prone to silently weeping.
- “Apparently, weeping silently was her new baseline state.”
- Compassionate Critic: Adam actually does mean well with his harsh criticism, wanting his students to become great scientists. He may not care about protecting anyone's feelings, but he does care about his students producing quality work and being able to thrive in the field.
- Curves in All the Right Places: A male version in which Adam gets countless stares playing Frisbee shirtless. Apparently, his shoulders are swoon-worthy.
- Deadpan Snarker: Adam snarks with every sentence.
- Disappeared Dad: Olive's dad left before she was born. Once her mother died, she had to go to foster care.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Olive kisses Adam, she quickly asks him if it is alright, and thought she heard a yes, which he denies. Turns out, he probably did say yes, since he was pining for her for about 3 years.
- Anh asks Olive if Adam is blackmailing her to be in a relationship with him, which Olive thinks is ridiculous. Tom tries exactly that later to hurt Adam.
- Fake Relationship: The entire premise. Olive wants Anh to date Jeremy without feeling bad, and Adam wants Stanford to think he will not move on to Harvard because his “girlfriend” is in Stanford.
- Gay Best Friend: Olive and Adam have Malcolm and Holden respectively; they even end up becoming a couple. The two serve to give them some (sometimes biting) insight into their relationship and support them in times of strife.
- Got Volunteered: This happens to Adam on a frequent basis. He doesn't care about social gatherings, but as a professor, he is in a rotation and has to go once in a while.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Adam. He doesn't believe in coddling other people's feelings in an academic setting, thinking it is more effective to get straight to the point. However, privately he is a genuinely nice person, a great friend and wants only the best for Olive.
- Loophole Abuse: Professors dating students, even grad students, is very frowned upon. But, as Adam points out, since Olive is a grad student, she's not his advisee, and she's not a T.A. for any of his classes, them dating is technically not against regulations. He'd have to recuse himself in the event he was ever asked to review any of Olive's work if she was up for funding or something, but other than that, they won't cross paths academically.
- Manipulative Bastard: Tom Benton. He tried to tear down Adam as a Ph.D. candidate whilst pretending to be his friend, and wanted to blackmail Olive into having sex with him to take something from Adam, because he was annoyed at his accomplishments.
- Missing Mom: Olive's mom died of pancreatic cancer when Olive was a teenager, forcing her to live in foster care till she was able to emancipate herself. This is the reason she is studying this specific type of cancer.
- Really Gets Around: Malcolm believes dating is an Olympic sport and is out to get gold.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Once the recording with Tom Benton's blackmail is in the hands of his boss, there are quick consequences.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Olive and Adam fall in love with each other for real.
- Sadist Teacher:
- Adam has the reputation of one, being known for harsh and biting criticism and having a massive stick up his ass. However, as Olive gets to know him, she realizes it's not true; he may not like the majority of his grad students, but he does want the best for them, and his critiques are usually accurate.
- The real example would be Adam's adviser from back in his grad school days; cruel, domineering, abusive, and prone to messing with students just because he could and he liked having power over them. Adam is borderline traumatized by him.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Olive is gray asexual, and Adam is the first person she is attracted to.
- Stalker with a Crush: A mild example. Adam knows some things about Olive before they started fake dating. Turns out, he had a crush on her for the past couple years and was just too chicken to ask her out.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Downplayed. Olive is a grad student and Adam is a professor; however, he has no power over her academically and she was never in his classes as an undergrad.
- There Is Only One Bed: Discussed and ultimately averted. Olive is hesitant to share a hotel room with Adam because she's convinced they're going to end up with this trope. There are two beds.
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Olive's more Thinks Like a Rom-Com. Having watched plenty of rom-com movies, she's already fully aware of the fake dating trope, There Is Only One Bed, and the like.
- The Topic of Cancer: Constantly at the back of the story, since Olive researches pancreatic cancer, which her mother died of.
- When She Smiles: Gender inverted with Adam. His usual version of a smile is slightly lifting the corners of his mouth. When he actually smiles, he is all dimples and teeth.
