Kait Mae

When I was growing up, I tended to gravitate towards fantasy and mystery. And that continued until one fateful day when I saw The Love Hypothesis on TikTok. I resisted for nearly a year after it came out because “I’m not a romance book kind of girl.” Turns out I am, and The Love Hypothesis was my first romance novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. I read it three times that vacation. And then I read it two more times since then.

Needless to say, I will eat up anything Ali Hazelwood puts out. And because of that, I want to see her novels adapted. So, without further ado, here is how I would adapt it.

Let’s Do a Rundown of Her Novels

This is a long section, so if you’re up-to-date on her publications, keep scrolling until the next headline to read about the actual adaptation plans if I were ever given the chance.

Her debut was The Love Hypothesis. It was originally a Kylo Ren and Rey (Reylo) fanfiction titled Head Over Feet that Hazelwood reworked to be free of Star Wars with new character names. It’s a fake dating romance between two scientists that turns real (as all fake dating typically does).

Following that, she published several STEM-centric romances. The first was Love on the Brain following a neuroscientist at NASA. After her novellas (which I’ll cover in a moment), she published Love, Theoretically (which is my personal favorite right now), following an asexual theoretical physicist. Her latest STEM romance is Not in Love, which follows a biotech engineer with a man who she shouldn’t be involved with.

Her one YA novel (as of the publication date of this post) is Check & Mate. It is a chess romance that is pretty tame in terms of spice – as YA books should be. But it is still swoon-worthy and gave me modern The Queen’s Gambit vibes.

She’s had one fantasy foray, Bride, which is a love story between a Vampyre and Alpha Werewolf. I’m not big into the Omegaverse (yet), but I’ve seen several reviews saying it’s part of it.

Her latest book is Deep End, her spiciest novel following two swimmers. Since the book just recently came out, I won’t spoil anything for you other than the characters’ names later. But just know that it does have a warning page before the story – so read it, unlike a lot of people I’ve seen on TikTok.

For her third major publication, she published three novellas, which were later compiled into Loathe to Love You. Each story in this book followed a different member of a friend group as they navigated their lives with love interests. The first, Under One Roof, is a roommate love story that was my favorite of the three. The second, Stuck with You, is a “stuck in an elevator” love story between former hookups. And the third, Below Zero, is a rivals-to-lovers, stuck in a snowstorm romance.

During the winter holiday season in 2024, she also released a holiday romance novella called Cruel Winter with You. And it’s a forced proximity second chance romance – and you should definitely read it this upcoming winter.

She also has an audiobook that she plans on releasing the ebook for one day once she’s legally allowed to. It’s an enemies-to-lovers workplace romance set at a video game company called Two Can Play. But I won’t be casting that because I like the audiobook as it is and don’t want anyone to touch it.

For more romance books to check out, read through my Romance Read Through the Rainbow list.

How Would I Adapt Her Novels?

Just as a general statement, I think every book (including Loathe to Love You) should be adapted into movies. The only caveat is with Cruel Winter with You, which should still be a movie – but that would involve the other novellas from that series, so I won’t be doing that one right now. I do plan on doing a quick write-up of that series later this year during the winter holiday season.

Now, most of the books are straightforward adaptations – just go by the book. However, with Loathe to Love You, I think it should be like Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve in that we follow each story as it intersects with the others instead of each getting its own movie or short film.

Who Would I Cast

For most of the books, I’m going by their cover photos – with a few creative liberties in some cases. I am of the assumption that the looks (unless specifically noted several times in the novel) are just guidelines – not the end-all, be-all.

First up is the Love Hypothesis because it’s only right to start with the debut. Since it was originally a Reylo fanfic, I went with casting people who look similar to those characters as well. And that’s how I got Cailee Spaeny and Enzo Vorgincic. They have about a foot height difference between them and the right age gap to believably be Olive and Adam.

Moving on to Love on the Brain. For Bee, I went with Emilija Baranac – mostly because I think she’d kill with Bee’s purple hair. As for Levi, I’m picking Jonah Hauer-King. He’s played characters with similar personalities before, so this is perfect for him.

For Love, Theoretically, I am casting myself – just kidding, I would cast Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elsie and Lucas Till as Jack. Something about this pairing just feels right for the characters, and I don’t know why.

Want to read about other hypothetical adaptions of mine? Start with this one.

With Check & Mate, I wanted actors who were close in age to the characters or could believably look the right age. My pick for Mallory is Teagan Croft (specifically because of her performance in True Spirit. And for Nolan, I’m going with Luke Mullen – who I recognized from Andi Mack.

Moving on to Not in Love, I’m casting Margaret Qualley and Wolfgang Novogratz as Rue and Eli, respectively. I went through several pairings of characters that look like the cover photo until I landed on this one – and it just felt right.

Now, with Deep End, I have yet to read the book (I just got it yesterday, but I will be reading it as soon as I finish my current TBR for the month). But I went through several descriptions, fancasts, and book covers – and settled on Lexi Jayde and Ashton Arbab as Scarlett and Lukas, respectively. That said, this might change once I’ve read the books, and I will own up to that.

With Bride, I wanted characters that not only looked like the characters but also have that otherworldly or supernatural look to them. And so, for Misery, I’m going with Thomasin McKenzie. For Lowe, I’m going a little off-book and choosing Lucien Laviscount. He might not look like the description, but I know he’d rock in this type of role.

Rounding out my casting, I’m going to do a quick rundown of Loathe to Love You couples. First up, Mara and Liam from Under One Roof. For Mara, while I couldn’t find someone perfect, I did find someone I know can bring the personality to life – Kennedy McMann. And with Liam, the character art reminds me of Neville Longbottom and so does Tye Sheridan – so he’s my pick.

For Stuck with You, I’m picking Scarlett Hefner and Kirill Zaytsev for Sadie and Erik. I once saw a post saying this was like a Pansy and Draco fanfic before reading the story, so Scarlett is who was in my head already, so I’m sticking with that. But with Erik, I went searching for someone with the right accent and look – and that’s how I got Kirill.

Lastly, with Below Zero, I wanted to go a little off-book again with Hannah’s casting. She doesn’t look like the character exactly, but I know Keana Lyn Bastidas can pull off the personality to a tee. As for Ian, I went through several actors until I found Taylor Napier. I knew he was the right choice.

So, that’s my casting for Ali Hazelwood novels (except her audiobook and holiday romance), but I’m curious – who would you cast? And did you like Deep End? I need people to talk to about it when I get to it.