Bee Königswasser, a neuroscientist, is beyond thrilled when she lands her dream job working on a neuroengineering project at NASA. That is, until she finds out her grad school nemesis, Levi Ward, is working on the same project. Will they be able to put aside their differences or will their project crash and burn?

This book was utterly adorable, witty, and swoony! I loved Bee and her Marie Curie obsession! And Levi was just amazing! Their chemistry was seriously off the charts! Even though I didn’t understand all of the science speak, I was fascinated by the descriptions of the astronaut helmet project they were working on at NASA. I’ve always been intrigued by space and astronauts! I thought the “You’ve Got Mail” vibes were super fun too! There were unfortunately some parts that made me cringe, but overall, I really loved this delightfully quirky enemies to lovers STEMinist romcom!

Release Day Review: Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (3.5 stars— many thanks to @berkleypub and @netgalley for a free ARC)

I wanted to love this book so badly!

It was fine, decent, ok — but it didn’t give me all the feels or sweep me off my feet with charm like The Love Hypothesis did.

I think part of the let-down is that Hazelwood’s debut felt fresh and unique, but after reading that, Love on the Brain, and the novellas, it seems safe to say she’s not branching out from her original formula. This was a lot like reading TLH without the magical fall atmosphere and campus setting.

That said, the characters are cute enough and I chuckled several times. And I really liked the You’ve Got Mail-inspired part of the story.

Hazelwood also continues to draw attention to biases in academia and STEM, this time using academic Twitter as a plot device, and I found that to be fairly engaging and enlightening.

Love on the Brain was one of my most-anticipated books of the year — and if it’s one of yours, just keep your expectations in check. While I thought The Love Hypothesis was something special, Love on the Brain was more of an average, run-of-the-mill romcom.

Definitely still read it — just don’t expect it to capture your heart in quite the same way Adam and Olive and their love story did.

Before I started this book, I was thinking to myself, "There's absolutely no way that I'll love this book as much as I loved The Love Hypothesis. I mean, just no way. Inconceivable. 

I'm an idiot. I don't want to say that I loved this one more--but I also don't want to say that I didn't. 

I feel like Bee and Levi, as a couple, were just--Ungggg. SO well done. The chemistry--before there was even an acknowledgement of feelings--was off the charts. The banter, the wittiness, the pining of Levi.

Just every part of this story was addicting. Even the side characters brought an incomparable awesomeness to this book. I am sincerely hoping that the author just keeps going in this series. 

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. My review will be live, at the link given, on 8/31/22--as part of a blog tour.

This book was super cute and light. Overall I really enjoyed it but it did get a tad slow in some places. Looking forward to more by her!

This was a highly anticipated release for me because I loved The Love Hypothesis so much, and Love on the Brain follows the same formula: quirky woman in STEM + grumpy, dark-haired, large hero have undeniable chemistry but let themselves get in the way of their relationship.

What I liked:
- unputdownable, quick read
- hilarious writing
- enemies to lovers banter
- supportive female friendships
- passionate characters

What I didn’t like:
- too similar to TLH (Levi and Adam are the same person)
- “I’m mean to you because I love you”
- excusing ALL of Levi’s toxic traits
- Bee’s willful obliviousness & immaturity
- emphasizing the physical over emotional relationship
- the spicy scenes 🫣

I overall enjoyed this book and flew through it, which is not an easy thing for me to do at the beginning of the school year!

Bee is a neuroscientist called in to work on a neuroengineering job for NASA, a dream job, the only drawback is working with her nemesis, Levi Ward. Levi made it clear that he didn’t like her, avoiding her at all costs back in grad school, but Bee isn’t going to let that stop her from taking the job.

I absolutely loved The Love Hypothesis last year, so I was eagerly looking forward to Love on the Brain. It was fun being in Bee’s quirky brain, her internal monologue had me laughing at loud a bunch. Levi was a sweety, too. They bonded over Star Wars, cats, (I’m a big fan of both, too!) and more! I was totally on board for them to get their misunderstandings from the past sorted out since they clearly were meant to be together, which took a little longer than necessary, IMO. They were a cute couple, and it was a fun read. If you were a fan of The Love Hypothesis you’ll enjoy Love on the Brain, too!

Thank you @berkleypub @berkleyromance and @netgalley for the free #gifted e-copy! Love on the Brain is available now.

Another STEM romance, this time an #enemiestoloversromance between a neuroscientist and an engineer. Bee is so excited to get chosen to work on a new project at NASA, until she finds out that the person she is leading with is none other than her nemesis from college, Levi. But does he really hate her as much as she thinks he does?

Spoiler alert: no, he doesn’t. Shocking, I know.

There’s also 2 cats (one real and one potentially imaginary), fainting, brain stimulation, Twitter alter egos, Marie Curie, lots of sexual tension, and a good amount of well written steam.

Loved it. I loved Bee's individuality, and her banter with Levi. I was giggling several times, and even there were some serious undertones, they were handled well. The last few chapters were so good, I neglected several responsibilities to finish reading the book!

Thank you Berkley for an eARC. All thoughts are my own.

Let me say this first: if you loved her first one and thought wow I would love to read this exact book in a different setting but also the same—this book is for you!!!

I’m going to try to be nice. I think there are some things going for this book, I really do. But are those things for me? No.

Let’s start off with THIS IS ALMOST THE EXACT SAME BOOK!!!! I get that it sold and there’s the hype, but ???????? I like tropes and HEAs, but I need some variety.

Like if sunshine-grumpy enemies to lovers with a small naive friendly fmc and LARGE painfully introverted mmc is not your exact want again then this book isn’t for you.

Moving on, I do appreciate that we have STEM characters written by a woman in STEM. That’s great. But as a woman in the tech side of STEM working with only men this book is a little 🫣😬😬😬. Honestly I feel like it does the environment a disservice by making the misogyny so blatant and borderline unbelievable.

I also have issues as to how the characters are written. If Bee is supposed to be this outgoing friendly character how in the world does she not continue to try to make Levi her friend?? Like that would be goal # 1 to annoy him into friendship? Also how do you just walk away from so many important convos JUST IN TIME TO MISS EVERYTHING???

I did find the writing to be easy to follow and fairly engaging. It’s a lot of internal dialogue. Some of which is entertaining and a lot of which is cringe. I appreciated the Marie Curie moments. Truly the highlight of the book.

Side characters were better than the first by actually being present, setting was neat, the neuroscience was beautifully done. The romance was better than her first book too.

All in all I can’t bring myself to recommend it. I mean maybe borrow it? But I can’t say to go out and buy it🫣. Maybe that’s just me.

Great for those who LOVED The Love Hypothesis or like Christina Lauren.

Ali Hazelwood has done it again with a spectacular book. Love on the Brain was everything and more. It was hilarious, angsty and just so heartwarming it made me smile so big.

I adored that from the beginning we know that Levi has probably liked Bee for so long but she is so oblivious to it so it was great to see their progress throughout the book.

Levi is an absolute dream and I adore that man so much. The way he is such a big hopeless romantic made me swoon. Him and Bee are SOULMATES. 🫶🏻

The story had a lot of twists and turns but nonetheless I loved every second of it. Do yourself a favor and go read it asap! Thank you so much Berkley & NetGalley for the ARC.

I was so excited to read this because my attention was caught by BOTH the cover and the blurb on the back. I was not disappointed in the least! It was cute, a little spicy, and a great example of women in STEM. Not to mention the pretty realistic work environment for women in the male-dominated fields. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the whole thing, I read it pretty much in one sitting!

When they say it's the quiet ones you have to look out for, Levi is a prime example but in the best way possible ;) I loved that Bee wasn’t a “classic” beauty, but had her own funky/quirky look and personality. Shout out to all the geeky girls!

Having now read all 5 published things Ali Hazelwood has written, I can tell you I'm SO over the quirky petite girl with super tall, grumpy guy thing. I enjoyed The Love Hypothesis, but every hero and heroine are basically the same person. Though in Love on the Brain, Levi has even less of a personality than some of her other heroes. I don't want to keep reading the same thing over and over again. I also just don't get the appeal of tiny girl and giant man. And it's mentioned a lot, especially in the sex scenes. Which again, I don't really find appealing.

That aside, this book was okay at times, but also frustrating. Sometimes it was entertaining, sometimes the humor was very irritating (like can we not TM everything???). The characters were pretty immature and kind of dumb for people around 30 years old, the ending was incredibly over the top, and this doesn't at ALL grapple with the ethical issues of co-leads on a scientific project having an affair. Not to mention, Bee once makes a joke about something being sexual harassment. But it genuinely WOULD be considered sexual harassment, as would several other things that happen but are played off as no big deal.

This especially bothers me because this entire series is focused on women in STEM (which I love) and sometimes touches on the very real issues women face in the field, but never does anything substantive about it and in fact, sometimes just reinforces some of those problems in how things are depicted. I also struggle with how incredibly unprofessional so many of these characters are. Not that it doesn't happen, but it doesn't have to be that way and there are men in science who can actually support, mentor, and collaborate with women in appropriate ways. Like my spouse does.

And maybe that's why this bothers me so much- I'm married to an academic scientist in a department aware of issues surrounding people being marginalized and working to make changes. And there are men who give women credit for ideas without having to be in LOVE with them. Sorry for the rant- I know this is a romance, but I think we can do better. And Hazelwood is herself a woman in STEM, but I don't know that these books are doing much make it seem like an appealing path. And don't get me wrong, problems 100% exist and should be talked about, but I don't want the hero who's in love with the heroine to be the only half-way decent person. The fact that LH was incredibly successful and this probably will be as well only increases the stakes with what a large audience this is reaching.

I did enjoy the nerdy neuroscientist stuff, and sometimes the banter is funny. Though humor is very subjective and also found some of it to be less than entertaining. I was hoping for something better, but I think some readers will still enjoy this. I'm waiting to see if we ever get some diversity in character type instead of copy, paste and tweak. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

Love on the Brain is a romcom about Bee, a neuroscientist who gets the chance of a lifetime work with NASA astronauts on the newest version of their helmets. The trouble starts when Levi Ward is her co-lead on the project- he’s also her heated rival.

They have a lot of miscommunications and Bee thinks Levi is out to get her as some revenge for something that happens in school. Once they work out their differences, I do think they had good chemistry. I really enjoyed Bee’s love for Marie Curie and thinking like what she would do. It was exciting to see a woman who is at the top of her field, excelling at it and genuinely excited for advancing her career.

I did think parts of it were very obvious- such as the Twitter accounts she corresponds with. Wonder who they could be? And she’s truly shocked that some one thinks she’s married when she wears a wedding band! I did like this book more than the Love Hypothesis. I’ll keep trying them because FOMO.

Thank you so much to @berkleypub for my gifted copy. Love on the Brain is out now!

3.5 stars

I absolutely adored THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS, but Ali Hazelwood's latest book, LOVE ON THE BRAIN blew it away as far as I’m concerned. (In fact, the only thing that got me over the hangover this book gave me was binging the author’s three e-novellas.)

LOVE ON THE BRAIN is packed with snarky, smart women who take no crap, one super hot awkward science nerd, and a sizzling side plot that helps beef up the main romance plot. I loved every second of this book. I basically spent weeks obsessing over this plot and these characters. Even now they still live in my brain. The steam was top notch, I loved the NASA setting, I loved the romantic leads, and the side characters, and the science. This book was just *chef's kiss* ... perfection.

This was such a nerdy rom-com, in such a fun way! I’m here for all the great STEM representation we’ve been seeing lately I’m this genre and Hazelwood absolutely nails it again!

It’s an entertaining enemies to lovers plot full of amusing witty banter, comical laugh out loud moments and swoon worthy combustible tension!

I really enjoyed Bee’s code of “What Would Marie Curie Do” and her subsequent anonymous Twitter handle of @WhatWouldMarieCurieDo and all the fun dialogue associated with it! I genuinely loved Bee and Levi’s characters individually and even more so together!

Although Hazelwood already did a fantastic job with this in The Love Hypothesis, I think she did even better with this one and applaud how well she addressed sexism, misogyny, toxicity and biases that women in STEM face and academia as a whole. 👏

Ali Hazelwood is back with another STEM romance. I love the focus on smart women and could totally relate to sexism in the workplace that permeated this novel when Bee gets a job of a lifetime working at NASA. Unfortunately, it's also with her nemesis from grad school Levi.

It's a rom-com, so it's mostly predictable; however there was a mystery component and some intensity I wasn't expecting.

TBH I had a hard time relating to Bee, she acted much younger and a tad bit more immature than I would have expected. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but her vocabulary many times mimicked my 18 and 20 year old daughters. This could be a me problem.

Offsetting my minor gripes, the audio was amazing, all the stars for the narration. Rosio was my favorite voice. I totally loved Levi's character. He was strong, smart, yet completely vulnerable and sometimes awkward. So endearing.

li Hazelwood is back with Love on the Brain! I was lucky enough to get an early gifted ecopy from @letstalkbookspromo and @berkelypub. I enjoyed The Love Hypothesis and was looking forward to reading another book by this author!
I struggled with the book at first but I think that was the intent. When we first meet Levi, we see him from Bee's initial point of view and man oh man, do we hate that guy. But of course as the story unfolds and we get to know who he really is, the book becomes easier to read. Luckily that happens fairly quickly though I will say Levi has one of the cringiest lines I've read in a sex scene ever and I've read a lot of bad lines. I'll let you find that one out for yourself. Just know I'm here if you need to ew to someone.
Overall the book was fun, if not predictable. And I don't mean that in a bad way. It is a romance after all. There are some parts we all expect to happen. I more meant there were a couple of twists that I saw coming a mile away and was pleased to be correct.
I would really like an entire book centered on Bee's research assistant and another one centered on Bee's sister. They were my favorite characters in the entire thing. And the cats of course. Duh.

Sweet, sexy and funny, Love on the Brain is sure to make you smile

Book Report for Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

First Impressions: Drunk on Love
What’s Your Type? Work Adversaries, Oblivious to Love, Huge Guy/Tiny Girl, Unrequited Love, Sworn Off Relationships, Coworkers with Benefits, Grumpy vs. Sunshine, Dear God Girl, You’re Obtuse
Meet Cute: Weird Science
The Lean: Darcy Hand Flex.gif
Dirty Talk: Real Spicy, But Not Real Spicy
We Need to Talk: Approaching Single White Female Territory
Was it Good For You? Love on My Brain

First Impressions: Drunk on Love
This cover fits right in with the rest of Hazelwood’s books, which is both good and bad. Good: the cute characters, the bright colors, the inclusion of scientific elements, the cohesive Hazelwood “brand.” Bad: It’s too familiar. It looks like so many other rom-com novels that it completely loses any impact. Yes, I do like it, but it’s ultimately a cover that won’t stick in my brain.

What’s Your Type?
- Work Adversaries
- Oblivious to Love
- Huge Guy/Tiny Girl
- Unrequited Love
- Sworn Off Relationships
- Coworkers with Benefits
- Grumpy vs. Sunshine
- Dear God Girl, You’re Obtuse

Dating Profile
Dr. Bee Königswasser has recently accepted the project of a lifetime: working on hardware for astronauts at NASA. It’ll take her away from her role at the National Institute of Health, but also take her away from her lump of overworked mashed potatoes of a boss, Trevor. Bee knows she’s meant to do bigger and better things, and this project could be the first step into getting her own lab. She knows that her idol, Marie Curie, would have jumped at the chance. (And Bee, as the person behind the anonymous @WhaWouldMarieDo Twitter account, knows that for certain.)

Dr. Levi Ward is Bee’s nemesis and—of course—her co-lead on the project, which she only finds out after she accepts it. Levi, a hulking “Victorian mansion” of a man, has hated Bee since they crossed paths in grad school, where he often spoke publicly about his dislike for Bee. (Or so she thought.) He’s determined to continue his hatred by making her time on the project difficult (or so she thinks), but Bee’s not going to let him ruin her chances at something better.

Meet Cute: Weird Science
Bee and Levi initially met in grad school, when they were working under the same Ph.D. advisor. Their initial encounter was on a day when Bee was slated to give her first academic talk and dressed up for the occasion. Annie, Bee’s grad school best friend, asked Levi offhandedly what he thought about Bee’s outfit, and after he “stared at me from head to toe for several moments,” he said nothing and walked away. Bee took it as hatred, especially when she later overheard (part of) a conversation between Levi and their Ph.D. advisor when he was telling her he couldn’t work on a project because Bee would be involved. All subsequent encounters were always just as uncomfortable; his demeanor came off at best as sullen and at worst as seething with hatred.

Bee’s determined not to let their status as nemeses (nemesi?) ruin the NASA project, though. Not even when, on her first day, she’s nearly crushed by falling boxes in a hallway and Levi body checks her into a wall to save her from being crushed. He only did it to protect himself and NASA, right?

The Lean: Darcy Hand Flex.gif
Semi-spoilers, but y’all are just as smart if not smarter than me, so you’ll find this as obvious as I did: Levi does not hate Bee. Not even a little bit. All of his awkwardness was just that—awkwardness at being around a woman he was immensely and uncontrollably attracted to. Bee, for as smart as she is, is painfully oblivious of this, and it’s the one element of the book that really stuck out to me as an issue. (Then again, I might feel the same were I in her position and not reading about it like a creeper omnipotent being.)

But even when she thinks he’s in hate with her, and vice versa, their chemistry is palpable. She talks about his eyes and their unique shade of sparkling green very often, and although she sees hate seething there, I see Mr. Darcy levels of conflicting feelings and near overwhelming lust. The man has it bad, y’all. And when they actually get down to business—though Bee still thinks it’s just some casual sexytimes between people who used to hate but now only semi-dislike each other—he shows her just how much.

Dirty Talk: Real Spicy, But Not Real Spicy
Like I mentioned above, when things finally reach a climax (why is innuendo so easy sometimes?) between Bee and Levi, it’s obvious that he’s been thinking about this for a while—and not in an “I hate this person but the sex would be explosive” kind of way. That said, the sex scenes aren’t super explicit, and they’re actually more “realistic” than other books I’ve read. (Although Levi’s huge pulsating member is a little suspect, and—after reading all of the STEMinist Novellas—me thinks there’s a theme in Hazelwood’s writing …)

Ms. Perky’s Prize for Purplest Prose
As much as I enjoyed the spicy scenes in this book, there was a bit of giggling when I read certain passages. Because we are all, at heart, thirteen-year-old boys when it comes to some of this, right?

We Need to Talk: Approaching Single White Female Territory
Although I’m not a scientist, I 1000% appreciate that Hazelwood, who is a bonafide doctor of neuroscience and a professor, makes science a vital and important part of her romance novels. Science and sex don’t have to be mutually exclusive things, and she shows that delightfully well through her writing. I was equally fascinated by the project Bee and Levi were working on as I was by their budding relationship. (Full disclosure: That might be because I wanted to be an astronaut back in the day.)

But my favorite part of Hazelwood’s books, having now read two novels and three novellas by her, are the small comments, references, and character remarks that make me think she and I could easily be best friends. From the Reylo aspects of The Love Hypothesis to the mentions in this book of Guy Fieri (who I adore, wholly unironically), naming Bee’s mother Maria DeLuca-Königswasser (I caught that reference* immediately), and the various terms/phrases she’s come up with for the sausage fest that is STEM (“WurstFestTM,” “the well-known Meatwave,” “a Dicksplosion in the Testosteroven,” “good old Brodeo,” “CockclusterTM”), there’s something about Hazelwood’s writing that makes me feel like I’m reading a book written by a close friend. A close friend who has a much better sense of humor than I do, but it’s never bothered me to not be the funny friend.

Was it Good For You? Love on My Brain
Hazelwood’s an auto-buy author for me already, so it’s no surprise that I really enjoyed Love on the Brain. The fact that we’re BFFs hasn’t colored my Very Objective Opinion at all.

Short synopsis: Bee gets the job of a lifetime working with NASA to design brain stimulating helmets for astronauts, but is forced to work with her college nemesis the awful Levi Ward.

My thoughts: I love a book with a strong woman representation, and after reading The Love Hypothesis I was so excited to hear of another book coming out with a woman pushing the bounds in STEM.

This was a fun Rom-com with some witty banter and a slow burn enemies to lovers romance. It was very predictable with the “twists” but I’m okay with that in a romance book, and it was somewhat repetitive in places which I can overlook especially while listening to 2x speed.

The cats Felicette and Schrodinger were fun add ins to the story. I always enjoy a book with a fun pet sidekick.

Read if you love:
* Enemies to Lovers
* Women in STEM
* Sneaky cats and Twin Sisters
* Tall men

𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙸𝚂 𝙸𝙵 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙻𝙸𝙺𝙴/𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴/𝚆𝙰𝙽𝚃:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
🎀 Enemies to lovers ​​​​​​​​
🎀 Forced proximity​​​​​​​​
🎀 Women in STEM​​​​​​​​
🎀 NASA and cats ​​​​​​​​
🎀 1 POV written in the 1st person ​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​𝙱𝙻𝚄𝚁𝙱 𝙾𝙽𝙴-𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙴𝚁: A STEMinist rom-com in which a scientist is forced to work on a project with her nemesis—with explosive results.​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
𝙼𝚈 𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚄𝙶𝙷𝚃𝚂: I went back and forth between listening to this and reading it. I had high hopes for this book after loving The Love Hypothesis. I didn’t expect to know everything about Marie Curie (or knew who that even was), but I sure do now! 😅​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
So I liked the book, but didn’t love it because I found it too predictable with the Twitter pseudonyms. But I did think the plot twist at the end was good. I grew up loving the Kennedy Space Center and NASA since my dad worked for them, so I did enjoy the space exploration/ brain science aspect of this book.​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​
I just wanted more in this one after the debut of The Love Hypothesis. I think I didn’t feel the chemistry was real or maybe that it was too fast. I honestly don’t know. The fact that this did talk about mental health also made me happy. Especially a MC that admits to going to therapy! ​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
𝚀𝚄𝙾𝚃𝙴𝚂 𝙸 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴𝙳: ​​​​​​​​
“I want to tell her that she's luminous, she's so bright in my mind, sometimes I can’t focus.”​​​​​​​​
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Thank you @berkleyromance @netgalley @prhaudio for the eARC, audiobook, and #gifted finished copy!

Ali Hazelwood is a treasure! She reminds us, in no uncertain terms, that romance is for everyone, even super-smart scientists with PhDs and scholarly publications and robust academic careers. In fact, one of my favorite parts of reading this book was when my 11yo daughter asked, "What are you reading?" And I said, "A romance novel about two scientists working on a project for NASA," and she said, "Oh, wow, that's really cool!"

And the book itself? I loved it. I loved the romance, even if a few of the plot points were a little predictable/easy to figure out. It still made for an intensely slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers storyline, and the NASA backdrop was amazing.