⠀
Thanks for the free book @prhinternational #ad #PRHInternationalPartner⠀
⠀
Esta es la historia de Bee Könisgswasser, una neurocientífica que para todo en su vida se pregunta ¿qué haría Marie Curie? pues es super fan de esta científica; tanto así que tiene una cuenta de twitter bajo ese pseudonimo y en ella expone las injusticias que sufren las mujeres en el campo de la ciencia. Ella trabaja en el instituto NHI, su jefe es terrible y cuando la llaman de la NASA para coliderar un proyecto cree que le ha llegado la oportunidad de su vida, hasta que descubre dos cosas: ⠀
1.- Su colíder es nada más y nada menos que su Némesis, Levi Ward.⠀
2.- Alguien (según sus sospechas, Levi) está impidiendo que el proyecto avance. ⠀
¿Cómo hará para soportar todo esto?⠀
⠀
Yo estoy enamorada de este estilo de ROMCOM que escribe Ali, ya que siempre nos presenta personajes enmarcados en el mundo científico y completamente humanos. En este caso, Bee es overthinker y con eso me puedo relacionar enormemente. Me reí muchísimo porque todo el conflicto está basado en una mala interpretación de las acciones de los personajes. ⠀
⠀
Levi, por su parte, es un ser humano adorable, fan de los gatos y tiene una cuenta de twitter que apoya a la de Bee, sin saber que es ella la que está detrás. Este es mi nuevo crush literario.⠀
⠀
Si aman las ROMCOM, el slowburn, las protagonistas super humanas y que sobrepiensan todo, este es su libro. Sale a la venta el 23/08 así que ténganlo en su radar.⠀
⠀

Donning my purple wig on a random Monday in order to channel my inner Bee in the hopes that Levi Ward will come and find me and sweep me off my feet. My eternal gratitude to Berkley for the opportunity to read an early copy of Ali Hazelwood’s sophomore novel, Love on the Brain, which comes out tomorrow and you absolutely do not want to miss. After book edging this one really hard, I read this in a single sitting yesterday. I have so many thoughts and emotions swirling around in my brain. I have not swooned this hard since I read A Taste of Blood and Iron earlier this year and while that one remains my favorite, Love on the Brain is a very, very close second.

I woke up this morning replaying the scenes between Levi and Ward like they were something that happened to me and not just characters that I read about. You know that scene in Twilight (I know but bear with me) where it’s the morning after Bella and Edward have finally hooked up and she’s just like looking in the mirror and touching her lips while she relives every moment? Ya, that was me today but minus the lip touching because I’m not completely unhinged (but only just). I have fallen so hard and I’m not sure when I’ll recover. There are several pages of quotes I’m dying to share but I need to get my hands on a final copy before I do that but just know they are coming. Love on the Brain has

- enemies to lovers (but only vibes because he’s actually head over heels in love with her and trying desperately to hide it because he thinks she’s married)
- a series of increasingly upsetting misunderstandings that had me wondering how Hazelwood was going to sort it so I could love Levi as much as my heart was telling me to (don’t worry because she totally did)
- a hilariously wonderful sapphic side story that is that meme of a black house next to a purple & pink house personified
- the swooniest hero I’ve read in a while and my favorite new book boyfriend
- badass women in STEM
- that trope where the MCs are already anonymously close online but don’t know it yet (but in this case it isn’t the source of the conflict which made it so much better)
- great banter and even better steam

A bit more about that last point. I love steamy romance books and have read all sorts of them at this point. They’re all delightful in their own ways but sometimes I find myself reading one that has intimate moments that feel so perfectly tailored to the characters that I find it impossible to imagine that they’ve been made up. Ali Hazelwood has accomplished this to perfection with Levi and Bee. Their scenes are so raw and tender and brain meltingly sexy. I could go on for thousands more words about this one but I’d rather you just read it and then come thank me when you (hopefully) fall as hard as I did. And I really really hope we get at least one bonus chapter from Levi’s perspective, though I don’t know that I could handle it.

Bee Königswasser is a neuroscientist who was just offered her dream job, leading a project for NASA. Secretly abiding by the principles of Marie Curie, Bee is psyched for the opportunity, until she discovers who she’s sharing the project with, that is.

Levi Ward has long been Bee’s arch nemesis, expressing his perceived disdain time and time again when the two were in grad school together. So when Levi and Bee meet up in present day, his dismissive demeanor doesn’t surprise Bee, but it still upsets her. What did she ever do to deserve such hatred from the (hot) scientist?

Placing their differences on the back Bunsen burner, the two coders slowly learn to decipher what caused them to take issue with each other in the first place. Before long, they realize they’re better as a covalent bond than as individual atoms. But even the best experiments yield mixed results. Can they get the formula right this time around?

Love on the Brain is the latest release from the super popular, Ali Hazelwood. Making STEM sexy is no easy feat and yet Hazelwood is beginning to have a reputation for doing just that. As for the story, despite its refreshing uniqueness, I could still do without some of the overdone misunderstanding and corny sex scenes. I realize these things are some romance readers ingredients for perfect chemistry, but for this reader it just makes for some weird science.

Thank you Berkley Romance and Netgalley for the gifted eARC.

I loved Hazelwood's debut, The Love Hypothesis, last year so I have been excitedly counting down to Love on the Brain. So much of what I enjoyed about Hypothesis can be found in this book as well - STEM heroine, grumpy and sunshine, classroom/workplace complications, good humor. The book is incredibly readable and I flew threw it over the weekend after struggling to figure out what kind of reading mood I was in.

However, there was just something "off"about certain parts of this one for me. Some parts felt a little overly preachy, the workplace problem I kept seeing coming and it felt just so over the top unrealistic to me, and the steam... wow, the steam. I ended up having to skim parts of it, because it was... a lot (like rivals A Court of Silver Flames a lot).

I'm going with a 4 star because overall I did really enjoy it and I haven't found a lot of contemporary RomComs that have held my attention recently, but certain aspects of the book could were more 3 stars for me.

Love love love
This is definitely not my usually genre but I absolutely love all of Ali Hazelwood's books I've read.
Love the chemistry between the main characters.
Love the dialog between everyone.
One of the books I will 100% be rereading.

I adored this book to bits and pieces. I loved the miscommunication between Levi and Bee and the drama of their past and how it played out in their future. This book brought the Ali Hazelwood STEAM with a dose of authentic relationship drama. There were also a lot of surprises along the way. Levi may be my next book crush, I could not have loved his character anymore.

Ok friends, I have to tell you.
If you are looking for a book almost exactly like The Love Hypothesis, then you have found it. Clearly, Hazelwood has a type of writing style that they are heavily leaning into.
Bee and Levi are fun though. Levi is almost a little too shy for me though. It does lead to some cuteness later, but it doesn't necessarily make him look better.
All in all, this book is fun. It doesnt do anything wrong necessarily. I was just hoping for something a little further away from TLH. I will try this author again, but hoping for a different style of plot next time.

Love on the Brain is sheer delight. I will admit that at first, Ali Hazelwood's big brain kind of messed up my own, having to take many breaks to fully understand exactly what Dr. Bee Königswasser was creating in her lab at both NIH and now NASA. But it's Hazelwood's sharp wit that she channeled into Bee that kept me going. I found myself laughing both to myself and out loud as Bee navigates a mostly man-controlled scientific world with her hysterical euphemisms and inner thoughts. It showed the more human side to the intricacies of what the esteemed scientist works on so that once I got the hang of all the complicated jargon, or at least pretended to, the pages flowed beautifully and I was fully immersed in all things, Bee.

I fell hard for not only Bee but for her sworn enemy and the man she is currently co-partnering with, Levi Ward. He tries hard just to be decent but at every turn, Bee is there to remind him of how much he hates her, something apparently started when they were both in grad school. The numerous times Levi is interrupted or stopped from explaining the whys of how he acted drove me a bit crazy, I will admit right here and now. But as the story gets moving and truths are revealed a little at a time while a surprised Bee is starting to soften where Dr. WardA$$ is concerned (one of her nicknames for Levi), I was happily satisfied in the direction these two were headed.

The way Levi is actually a huge supporter of Bee, is in total awe of her knowledge, and the ways she solves issues they are having with their project was really sweet. I won't give anything away as to the many secrets he has kept all these years later but let's just say I loved how everything unfolded as Bee finally puts to rest all the doubts she previously had about Levi and about her failings with her former fiancee Tim. To say that Bee's brain is truly put to the test over and over again is an understatement. And I'm sure it's because matters of the heart start to infiltrate her daily thoughts which is something she fights tooth and nail but also secretly cherishes.

The substory concerning Gus and his help in getting the prototype helmet to work successfully is a great tangent and definitely helps take the messy relationship between Bee and Levi to a whole other level. Misunderstandings are clearly our couple's M.O. and as they get closer to success, let's just say things don't necessarily go according to plan. However, Bee's wanderlust-addicted twin sister Reike and her texts of snarky but loving wisdom and the mysterious feline Felicette add some lighter moments and true joy for the oft-times beleaguered scientist.

But without a doubt, it's the dialogue and crazy-good chemistry between Bee and Levi that drive this book and make this wild journey the wonderful reading experience it was for me. They could truly laugh and trade barbs like it was a competition all the while they both were helpless in falling for the other so completely. And they both made it so endearing and joyful to do so.

I will definitely add Ali Hazelwood to my list of go-to authors, especially when I'm looking for something different and wildly clever. Love on the Brain could very well be the perfect late summer read as Hazelwood presents a very astute and brilliant heroine in Bee who at the same time could be any woman out there simply trying to juggle their life in the best way possible. And does so with great humor, humility, and a beautiful soul. Levi's heart never stood a chance, thank goodness.

5 huge stars!

LOOOOOVED IT!

Bee has the break of her career when she’s hired to partner on a project at NASA. She’s a neuroscientist, but the catch is having to work with her old nemesis, engineer Levi. She's never really sure why he's hated her, why he could never look at her, would leave a room if she walked into it, but he's been a pain in her cerebral cortex forever. Now, as a woman in STEM she has the opportunity of a lifetime and she's not going to let anyone stop her. It’s what Ali Hazelwood does best-women in STEM, their struggles, how they fight to be heard. It's also funny, with a great sister relationship. But the best best best thing about it is how she's crafted a story where you know what Levi is thinking, without ever getting his first person POV.

Hazelwood was born in Italy and has moved to the USA to pursue a PhD in neuroscience. She has written several rom-coms with a science component, her last one being "The Love Hypothesis". This new release is another in the same genre. It features Bee who gets her dream job as the co-lead on a neuroengineering project for NASA. The one drawback is her co-lead is a man who very obviously cannot stand her. Although very predictable this is a fun read and a great recommendation for fans of the genre. It releases in trade paperback, is in our Bestseller Bay and has a Goodreads rating of 4.29/5 from 1339 readers.

Thanks for the free book, Penguin Random House

I’m pretty sure this is my last time reading Ali Hazelwood.

Love on the Brain is not a bad book, it has its flaws, but it’s overall a nice read.
Its biggest problem is having been published after The Love Hypothesis and the three novellas, and not because they’re better, but for a rather simple reason: it is nothing new compared to what has been already published by the author, who basically reused the same stuff found in The Love Hypothesis and the three short stories, only making some small changes here and there, and it’s all too noticeable.

Without giving anything away, I think this romcom is in some respects an improvement on TLH while on the other is kinda worse, especially in the way Hazelwood writes her protagonists, who sometimes can end up being annoying or cringe-y.

As with her debut novel, I found the book a smooth read, so much so that it only took me 3 or 4 days to finish it. I might’ve finished it even earlier if all these similarities with her previous works hadn’t annoyed me the more I went on reading: the male protagonists are pretty much the same, both physically and temperamentally, the same more or less goes for the female characters, and the dynamics between them, and the misunderstandings, and the twists and turns, just to name the most obvious.
I’m all for her to keep writing about women in STEM, but I did not expect to find myself reading pretty much the same thing five times over!

I hope Hazelwood will create something genuinely new for her next novel, but I’m not sure I will be here waiting when she does.
…
Credo proprio che questo sarà l’ultimo libro di Ali Hazelwood che leggerò.

Love on the Brain non è un brutto libro, ha i suoi difetti, ma non è male.
Il suo problema più grande è di essere stato pubblicato dopo The Love Hypothesis e le tre novelle, e non perché non regga il confronto, ma per un motivo piuttosto semplice: è un romanzo che non ha quasi nulla di nuovo rispetto a ciò che è stato pubblicato in precedenza dall’autrice, la quale ha praticamente riciclato lo stesso materiale usato in The Love Hypothesis e i tre racconti, apportando giusto qualche cambiamento qua e là, e la cosa si nota parecchio.

Senza entrare nel dettaglio, credo che in alcuni aspetti questa commedia romantica sia un miglioramento rispetto a TLH, mentre per altri è peggiore, in particolare nei modi che ha Hazelwood di scrivere i protagonisti principali, che possono risultare a tratti irritanti o cringe.

Anche questa volta, come con TLH, ho trovato la scrittura molto scorrevole, tanto da finire la lettura in circa tre/quattro giorni, ma avrei potuto finirlo anche prima, se tutte queste somiglianze palesi con i lavori precedenti non mi avessero irritato sempre di più andando avanti con la lettura: i personaggi maschili sono più o meno uguali, sia fisicamente che caratterialmente, lo stesso vale per i personaggi femminili, la dinamica tra loro anche, e i malintesi, così come alcuni risvolti e colpi di scena, tanto per citare quelli più evidenti.
Va bene continuare a scrivere libri su donne nell’ambiente scientifico, ma non mi aspettavo di ritrovarmi a leggere praticamente la stessa storia per ben cinque volte!

Spero per Hazelwood che per il prossimo romanzo crei qualcosa di effettivamente nuovo, ma non sono sicura che sarò lì ad aspettare.

Ali Hazelwood’s debut novel The Love Hypothesis was one of my favorite reads from last year, and I’m happy to report that her latest “STEMinist” rom-com, Love on the Brain is just as hilarious and steamy as its predecessor. I devoured the book in less than a day and closed it with a satisfied smile on my face.

Love on the Brain follows Bee Königswasser, an up-and-coming neuroscientist whose hero is Marie Curie, the mother of modern physics. When NASA offers Bee the chance of a lifetime, to lead a huge neuroengineering project, she of course says yes, without hesitation. But then she learns who she will be working with – her archnemesis from grad school, Levi Ward. After years of loathing Levi and knowing he feels the same way, Bee can’t imagine a worst case scenario than being stuck working with him for three months. But at the same time, it’s her dream project so she reluctantly packs her bags and heads to NASA Headquarters in Houston.

I absolutely adored Bee. She’s brilliant, quirky, and just flat out hilarious. She’s also tough and independent, which I loved, but at the same time, there’s a vulnerability to her that made her especially appealing and relatable. Her parents died when she was very young, and she and her twin sister were bounced around from one extended family member to another throughout their childhood. Bee never stayed in one place and has grown up craving stability and a place where she can put down roots. A horrible fiancé who left her at the altar has also put her off romance of any kind.

Levi was also a wonderful character, even though I kind of wanted to punch him in the face when Bee recounts her horribly awkward first encounter with him when they were in grad school and how it became the start of their mutual hatred of one another. As we get to know Levi though, it becomes clear that while he may be the King of Awkward when it comes to Bee, it is not his hatred of Bee that makes him act so cold and aloof around her.

I’m not sure if I would call this enemies-to-lovers or more of a miscommunication trope, but either way, I was here for it. I loved watching Bee and Levi slowly get to know each other better, and especially for Bee to realize that her initial perception of Levi was completely wrong. They work together well professionally, the banter between them is hilarious and flirty, and the sexual chemistry between them is off the charts. I flew through the pages just waiting for the moment when they finally couldn’t resist each other any longer.

Love on the Brain is also filled with some pretty great side characters as well. I adored Bee’s research assistant, Rocio, who is just as quirky as Bee but with a darker sense of humor. Bee’s twin sister, Reike, is also a fun, free-spirited counterpoint to Bee and often brings levity to the conversation when Bee is mid existential crisis.

If you like quirky STEM heroines, witty banter, and plenty of steam in your rom-coms, you’ll definitely want to check out Love on the Brain!

Bee is a nuero-engineer who has been offered to co-lead a huge project for NASA. But when she arrives, she learns her co-lead is Levi, the man who made it very clear he hated Bee in grad school. But as they work together, she begins to see Levi more as an ally…and maybe even more than that.

Ali Hazelwood has done it again with a steamy, swoon-worthy, woman in STEM romance. I loved Levi and Bee both separately and together. They were an incredible partnership both in and out of the lab. I particularly loved how Levi stood up for Bee with the other men they worked with. Bee, what a sweet hot mess. She was so smart and impressive career-wise but also so relatable in her struggles. Also, that ending…oh my goodness, I did not see that drama coming. I LOVED this one.

Thanks to Berkley for the advance copy

I’ve read a few of Ali Hazelwood’s books now and got to say I enjoy them. I love the women in STEM representation and the romance stories she comes up with!

This book is very reminiscent of The Love Hypothesis as far as the dynamic between the characters. I think I enjoyed this dynamic better in a fake dating scenario (like The Love Hypothesis) rather than the enemies to lovers in this book. My favorite part of an "enemies to lovers" trope is the banter between the love interests during the "enemies" stage and I didn't feel we really got any of that. I did really love the social media and science plot lines in this book and I think they created a really interesting and unique 3rd act conflict that was thrilling! As with The Love Hypothesis there is really only one "spicy" scene and everything else is just alluded to. Overall, if you enjoy a fun romcom I think you will really enjoy this.

Didn’t make me cry, thus only 4 stars, but OMG i did NOT want to put this down! Bee was wonderful, and while Levi was less developed, I liked him too. This was mostly action, not much introspection, and the sexy scenes were… weird and not in character with the rest of the book.

I liked this more than The Love Hypothesis.
I think the romance between Bee and Levi is much better than Adam and Olive's. I enjoyed their back and forth/will they won't they. I enjoyed their conversations via email (The plot is a bit inspired by You Got Mail so keep that in mind while reading this). They start as enemies and I liked their journey to lovers.
The writing has improved since the author's debut, however I do wish we got Levi's POV. Also, I was not a fan of how long the miscommunication occurred but I understand why it happened.
I know so many readers are going to devour Love on the Brain, and it's success will be well deserved.

Bee é uma personagem incrível, focada no seu trabalho e que se espelha em Marie Curie, cientista que foi uma das pioneiras na pesquisa sobre radioatividade. Ela comanda uma conta no twitter chamada WhatWouldMarieDo, onde várias mulheres pedem conselhos sobre como lidar com machismo e misoginia em seu ambiente de trabalho. Também vemos sobre esses dois pontos no ambiente de trabalho da Bee, e como ela lida com isso.

Depois de Adam Carlsen em A Hipótese do Amor, e dos mocinhos das novelas lançadas esse ano, eu estava muito curiosa para ver como seria Levi Ward. O que eu posso dizer é que me apaixonei rapidamente, mesmo ele parecendo um rabugento, porque eu vi que tinha muito mais ali e que ele estava tentando esconder. Esse é um romance slow burn, mas a leitura é tão fluída que essa construção lenta torna tudo ainda mais gostoso de ler. Não quero detalhar muito a história porque prefiro que vocês leiam e tenham a mesma experiência que eu tive com cada surpresa.

Ali Hazelwood is simply the queen of writing pining men. And we love her SO much for that. This was easily one of the cutest, funniest, most adorable, badass, throwing-my-book-across-the-room-screaming-giggling-kicking-my-feet-because-so-many-emotions books I’ve ever read and is my favorite read of the year so far. I adored The Love Hypothesis and it is hard to imagine Ali Hazelwood could do better than Adam Carlsen but oh my god LEVI WARD. She has truly outdone herself with this one.

Dr. Bee Konigswasser is a neuroscientist who is ecstatic to be offered a position to lead her dream neuroengineering project at NASA. However, her excitement is significantly diminished when she discovers she will have to co-lead the project with her nemesis from graduate school Dr. Levi Ward, who made his feeling about her very clear six years prior when he spent the entire year in lab avoiding her at all costs and refusing to work with her. She reluctantly arrives at NASA to find everything going wrong; her equipment is missing, she’s locked out of her lab, the staff is ignoring and disrespecting her, and she assumes Levi-her-sworn-enemy is behind it… except he actually seems to be on her side and becomes an unexpected ally… and then friend… and then a little bit more...

Everything about this book was perfect and is everything I want in a romance. The hilarious, witty banter, the immaculate chemistry, the enemies to lovers/academic rivals but not really because he’s always loved her, the workplace romance, SO-MUCH-PINING, and most importantly a badass woman in STEM and a sexy, tall, brooding, dark-haired, man-who-goes-to-therapy love interest who is obsessed with her (seriously, when I say SO-MUCH-PINING I mean it. Think Adam Carlsen-level pining on steroids and you get Levi Ward). Not to mention the hilarious and vibrant side characters, the spice, the cat obsessions, the secret internet identities, the nerdy science talk, how sweet brooding Levi is to be Bee. This book melted my cold, dead, nerd heart and I loved every single second of it.

I truly don’t know who I have a bigger crush on: tall, brooding, green-eyed, dark-haired, capital P Pining Levi with a heart of gold and soft spot for Bee and Bee only or the BADASS, purple-haired, tattooed, nipple-pierced, Marie Curie obsessed Bee with so, so much trauma and a dysfunctional parasympathetic nervous system. They are both the loves of my life and have my entire heart. Ali Hazelwood is one of my favorite authors and humans and I look forward to reading absolutely everything she writes in the future.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Berkley Romance for the e-ARC!

Review: I was really happy when I got an e-ARC of this book from the publisher, because while I have not yet read The Love Hypothesis (I know, I know! It's on my TBR list. One day...), I have heard so many good things about Ali Hazelwood's writing, so I went into this book with high expectations! And I definitely understand why so many people love her books! Her writing is great, and her characters all have vibrant personalities. And the epilogue was delightful and made me smile while reading it! Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who thinks it sounds good!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.