⭐️ 3

I really wanted to love this book. It was one of my MOST anticipated reads for this year. The Love Hypothesis was my all-time favorite romance novel last year (I have an Adam sweater, a special dust-jacket for the book, a print I framed on the wall, etc.) I was TLH OBSESSED for most of last year and still get teary-eyed thinking about how much I love that book.

And I didn’t want to compare Ali Hazelwood’s sophomore novel to her debut, but I couldn’t help it when I was reading it because it felt like The Love Hypothesis’s best friend who really wanted to be like her but couldn’t (does that make sense?)

I didn’t feel as invested in either Bee or Levi, and was able to predict how this book was going to go, romantically, from the JUMP. The ending did have quite the twist, but it still felt like a very predictable read.

I will say that Levi definitely had his moments where my heart was pounding and I couldn’t stop blushing, but other than that it a very mid read for me 😔

Whenever I need a pick me up, Ali Hazelwood is pretty sure to deliver. I like her contemporary romance novels that combine steamy romance with geeky layering, and the comfortable familiarity of a likable scientist heroine falling for someone she never expected is still enjoyable to me. Therefore, I enjoyed my time with LOVE ON THE BRAIN, her newest STEM romance between two scientists. It's going to be hard to top Olive and Adam, but Bee and Levi have their own charms that made me like them and root for them. True, I had to suspend my disbelief on some of the details, and true, a twist at the climax was a little farfetched and out of left field, upending the tone, but I'm really here for the cuteness and the fluff, and this one delivers that along with some pretty sexy moments.

I enjoyed LOVE ON THE BRAIN. Can't wait to see what's next.

I loved this book. It’s sweet, funny, sexy, and I even feel a little smarter after reading it. Ali Hazelwood is hilarious. I laughed out loud throughout the whole book. Bee is such a fun character! We could definitely be besties. It’s a really quick read too. Highly recommend!

Love on the Brain is Ali Hazelwood’s long awaited follow up to The Love Hypothesis. If you like scientists in love, quips, enemies to lovers, and years of pining, this book delivers.

Bee is a neuroscientist who works at NIH and is thrilled to be selected to co-lead an elite NASA project. After all, work is her life and since she broke off her engagement, she doesn’t have anyone that will miss her while she relocates to Houston. The catch is that her co-leader is Levi, her grad school nemesis. But since they are both brilliant and committed to the project, it should be fine, right?

As Bee works more closely with Levi, he gradually upends everything she thought about their relationship. This book includes enemies to lovers and lots of pining, which are huge pluses. It also does a great job detailing the obstacles women in STEM face on a daily basis, even when they are just as qualified, or more so, than their male colleagues. And, the snarky comments and banter are spot on.

There are a few plot points/mysteries that are painfully obvious from the beginning, but that didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the book. What did bother me a bit was that Bee seems almost purposely obtuse sometimes. While the reader could write it off as her being “book smart not people smart,” that doesn’t feel quite right. She misses a few overt clues again and again. Of course if she picked up on these details right away, the book’s conflict would be vastly different, so ultimately I’d say it’s fine.

Overall, this book was a thoroughly enjoyable romance with cool insights into the lives of women in STEM. While The Love Hypothesis is still my favorite Ali Hazelwood book, Love on the Brain is worth reading.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Love on the Brain has been one of my most anticipated summer reads. I enjoyed The Love Hypothesis so I was excited to see how Bee and Levi’s story will be! Love on the Brain contains women in STEM, Marie Curi, cats, and enemies-turned-lovers trope. Overall, I liked this one even though I found the formula to be very similar to The Love Hypothesis and her other novellas. I think I may have enjoyed this more if I didn’t read her other novellas that all have extremely similar storylines. All the characters were fun, however, I wish there was a bit more depth for Bee and Levi. In terms of the story flow, it would have been great to either see past versus present to see how each of them have changed or to also include Levi’s perspective in the present. I think having that extra layer aside from Bee’s present perspective could have brought the complexity that I was craving. For those who liked The Love Hypothesis may enjoy love on the brain.

Oh boy! This one was just as good (hot) as The Love Hypothesis. Ali Hazelwood may use some common tropes like they hate each other and then they love intensely, but it all works in this fun romance novel. Am I alone in visualizing Adam Driver as the main male character? Off to take a cold shower …

5 Star review to come -- please see publisher notes, I'd like to schedule an interview with the author. Thanks!

Love on the Brain was okay. Unfortunately it didn't hit the mark as I had such high hopes from The Love Hypothesis. I enjoyed the first part, but it felt a little slow throughout the majority.

Listen: I like Ali Hazelwood. She’s a likable person. Her writing is engaging and easy to read and fun. Do I think she is INCREDIBLY stuck on one narrative? Yes. Do I think she needs to diversify her characters and plots? Yes. Did I still enjoy reading this book? Yes.

I could go my entire life and never read another straight romance with a tiny, petite, diminutive, pocket-sized female main character with silly quirks that make her physically vulnerable—Bee literally faints. All the time. For no medical reason. I could go without reading about a tall, stacked, built, ginormous, intimidating male main character who is emotionally stunted but remains in love with the main character for LITERAL YEARS.

But, when I overlooked the egregious amounts of Marie Curie facts, the constant discussion of the physical size of our main characters, and the singular character of color being an obvious Aubrey Plaza caricature, I did have fun reading this book. I enjoyed the completely insane ending. I sped through it more quickly than most books I’ve read lately.

Take that for what it is.

Bee and Levi share a past: they attended grad school together. However, Levi made Bee’s life miserable at times, even refusing to work on a research project together and telling her then fiancé he could do better than Bee. So when Bee finds out that she will share the co-lead at her new NASA dream assignment with her nemesis, she’s less than thrilled.

Love on the Brain is another STEMinist smash hit for Ms. Hazelwood. I absolutely enjoyed reading Bee’s journey of self-discovery and finding love. She has been hurt and abandoned over and over in her life and doesn’t see her self worth, especially when it comes to men, so she’s sworn off relationships since she found out her best friend slept with her fiancé just weeks before their wedding. Instead she focuses on her work, at which she is extremely good. But she’s constantly being overlooked and/or minimized because of her gender.

Using humor, the author points out the rampant issues women in STEM can face… it’s a boys club most of the time, especially in higher-level settings. Bee handles it with an eye roll and sarcasm. She vents using her twitter account. While at times, the awful treatment of woman and Bee’s attitude could outweigh the story, it’s necessary for the development of Bee’s character.

The story is shared solely from Bee’s POV, which allows the author to use Bee’s inner fears to shape the reader’s opinion of her relationship with Levi. Hazelwood captures insecurities and love so perfectly. She allows her readers to experience all of the feelings along side her heroine, her imperfections making Bee relatable and real. She’s so set in her beliefs of what Levi thinks of her and her life, that it takes a (frustrating) while for her to start believing differently.

Although we only see Bee’s POV, I love how obvious it is that Levi is head over heals for Bee. While I found him an irredeemable ass in the start, Hazelwood shares bits and pieces of the true Levi over time, and we discover Levi is a doll. He appreciates everything about Bee. He supports her brilliant brain and can’t see why others don’t treat her the same.

I love how the truth of their past slowly unfolds as they become friends and grow close. It’s one of those love stories that works because it plays out over time. They are better people now, after the years of misunderstandings, because they have evolved into the adults they are meant to be - unknowingly ready for a relationship and perfect for one another.

Love on the Brain is a funny, delightful romance. I simply adore Bee and Levi and loved experiencing their journey as they discover their HEA.

My Rating: A
LOVED IT!

Love on the Brain is a fun, energetic, and inspiring STEM novel set at NASA. I really enjoyed Bee's character. Sharp, witty, and incredibly smart, I loved her confidence in neuroscience and how passionate she was about the BLINK project. Despite her feelings toward Levi, Bee works tirelessly to keep the integrity of the project alive and to achieve its mission. I loved her cat puns, her internal dialogue, and her feistiness. Bee is a unique heroine and I loved being in her brain.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the plot involving the What Would Marie Curie Do twitter. It offered not only great commentary on the real challenges facing women in STEM, but it also was a fun twist on the usual enemies to lovers trope. It also allowed there to be a bit of a mystery laced throughout the book, which ultimately made me love the book more.

Hazelwood has a knack for writing great banter and hilarious one liners. Bee's research assistant was so damn funny and offered great comedic relief throughout. I also loved the interaction between Levi and Bee. There was
palpable sexual tension, but also sweet and tender moments. Despite the misunderstanding of their past, I loved how articulate Levi was about his feelings and the way he cared for Bee (and was so confident in his feelings toward her) was such a breath of fresh air.

My only complaint about the book is that it felt a bit too science heavy for the first half. I'm not a huge fan of science (in fact, I cried almost every day in high school AP Chemistry), so it took me awhile to get into the book. But once the romance ramped up around the 56% mark, I was fully invested in the story and could not stop reading until the end. For those that love science, this is going to be the book for you.

Thanks to PRH International and Berkley Publishing for gifting me an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Love on the Brain was absolutely a delightful read. It follows the story of Bee, a neuroscientist who longs for stability after a childhood filled with uncertainty and constant travel. Bee has been invited to lead a team at NASA developing brain-stimulating astronaut helmets, and she can't wait to get started until she learns that her co-lead on the project will be her grad school nemesis, Levi.

Bee is a likable character; I thought she was a great narrator. Her fears of falling in love with someone and having them abandon her were real and emotional. Levi is a stunning love interest; I am completely smitten with him. He was everything a book boyfriend should be intelligent, funny, supportive, endearingly sweet, and sexy. The banter between Levi and Bee would make me blush. The slow burn is spectacular, as is the chemistry and tension between Bee and Levi. I also liked the supporting characters and the plot. It addressed misogyny and systemic barriers faced by women in STEM and the various manifestations of misogyny. I appreciated Bee's participation in a Twitter that brought women in STEM together to address their distress with the discrimination they face and to support one another. I learned a lot about their struggles, which made me appreciate women in STEM even more. It held my attention from beginning to end. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

Love on the Brain is the kind of cute romance book perfect to read in one session, with a lovely romance (academic rivals to lovers where one of them is convinced the other hates them while the other is so in love they acts like an idiot is a superior trope) and a focus on women in STEM, with the consequent inequality they (together with other minorities) face in the academic environment, that is something I absolutely love in Ali Hazelwood books.

The plot had the coolest starting point (do I understood anything about how the BLINK helmet worked? not at all; was it still extremely cool to read about it? absolutely) and it was interesting to follow the development of the story (especially in the hope to see more apparitions of Bee’s mysterious cat), but the key plot twist was (in insight) pretty predictable, and while I loved how everything worked together I still missed some kind of ✨sparkle✨ with the overall story.

Still, Bee was an adorable main character (her fear of being left alone and her dream of a nice, stable and happy family is something I find so so so relatable), and Levi is the caring and sexy partner I would sacrifice my favorite chocolate cake to a ghost (in Rocío style) to have.

While I loved The Love Hypothesis more, I would still recommend Love on the Brain for those looking for a similar book, or just an engaging rom-com to spend a few hours with.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the review copy. While Ali and I share a publisher, this in no way influenced my opinions, which are my own.

LOVE ON THE BRAIN gave me a character in Bee that I have needed to see for quite a while: one who is keenly, viscerally aware of the risk inherent in loving someone of losing them. It's often something that gets touched on in romance novels, but Bee's character *lives* this awareness. It's shaped every part of her life, from her deep love of cats yet her unwillingness to adopt one, to something so grand as wrestling with how she can possibly give into the love she feels for the patient, steady man she adores, because to open her arms to Levi and his love means she could lose him. So many of us carry these fears, the scars of loss and their echoes, and to see it so openly explored and honored really touched my heart.

On top of a theme that deeply spoke to me, this plot was fast-paced, engaging, and sparkled with a lovely thread of science and history of science (especially surrounding Marie Curie, who I adore) that I soaked up along the way. Ali's voice through Bee's point of view was engaging and energized, and while Levi is described as typifying a classic male hero in some ways, there's such a tender depth and goodness to him, as he pines and patiently waits for Bee that was soft and sweet and cinnamon-roll-hero delectable.

LOVE ON THE BRAIN is out August 23 and I'm so grateful I had the chance to early read it!

Oh how I loved this! I binged the whole book in just about 24 hours and absolutely couldn’t put it down. I adored The Love Hypothesis and this was one of my most anticipated books this year. If possible, I think I loved Bee and Levi even more! I absolutely loved their chemistry and the fact that he obviously was smitten with Bee. I enjoyed watching their relationship move from enemies to friends to lovers. I love how smart the characters are in Hazelwood’s books. I don’t know anything about engineering or neuroscience but I still loved learning about their project. I can’t wait to see what Hazelwood writes next!

I enjoyed, even though it was predictable. The chemistry was great and made the characters pop off the page. I was, however, a little thrown by the focus on the size of a character's *ahem* manhood. But I'm sure some people are going to love it for that. Overall, it read VERY similarly to The Love Hypothesis, would've liked to see more differentiation between the leading characters.

This was so chaotic good! It checked off all the boxes that I loved about The Love Hypothesis! This had loveable and quirky characters, strong feminist vibes, deadpan humor, female STEM-rep, and the "it's always been you trope". It even threw in a surprise subplot that I definitely wasn't expecting, but I still kinda liked it! I can see how there might be too much going on in this book for some, but for me I still really enjoyed it!

Levi is a new fav! I absolutely adored him and his love for Bee. Rocio and Bee had the best friendship! I loved their dynamic with each other.

It was really harped that "he hated her" or "they're just friends" over and over again. In a way that was a little noticeable and made me roll my eyes a little. There is a lot of predictability in this one, but hey what is a romance if not predictable? That's why we love it!

Overall, this is a chaotic STEM romance full of fun characters, a unique plot (& subplots), and plenty of swoon!

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the gifted copy!
Folks, this one has some quirky, swoony fun!
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I have a love/hate/meh relationship with contemporary romance and I've realized that when I dislike/meh the book, it's most likely to do with chemistry. I mean, most contemporary romances will be predictable and use often-seen tropes, so those two factors don't ruin the story - it's always a lack of chemistry between the shipped couple.
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So ... three cheers for Love on the Brain! Bee & Levi definitely have that chemistry that turns this book for a meh to a yay! I totally wanted them to get together and enjoyed their enemies-to-lovers trope.
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In general, this was an easy-to-consume, fun story that had me laughing with and cheering for the main couple. As with The Love Hypothesis, I love the emphasis made on the importance of women in STEM, and just powerful women in general. There is great representation in the book as well.
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Steam warning. Man - this one is incredibly steamy. Some parts even made me a little uncomfortable - like iiiiicccck. But, if steam is your thing, I suspect you'll like it! And if it isn't, it's easy enough to just scoot on past those parts!
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This is a fun read that I rec to contemporary romance lovers, and if you enjoyed The Love Hypothesis, I suspect you'll also enjoy Love on the Brain!

This was a fun, quick, steamy read from Ali Hazelwood, famed author of The Love Hypothesis. The story follows neuroscientist Dr. Bee Königswasser who is assigned to co-lead a project for NASA. She comes to find out that her college nemesis Levi is the
engineer she is assigned to work closely with on the project. Cue your enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine romance!

I loved all the STEM related jokes and topics. I always learn new things when reading a Hazelwood story. I also loved the banter between Bee and Levi. Being a sarcastic human, I can relate to some good banter! My
favorite character was hands down Bee's research assistant Rocío. She is hilarious, dramatic, and my favorite part of the whole story. Hazelwood also upped the steam from The Love Hypothesis and I was not mad about it!

I'm not a huge fan of the miscommunication trope so there was some eye rolling and frustration from me as I read but it was bearable.

If you enjoy bad ass females navigating and kicking butt in male dominated fields, mysterious cats, steamy brooding men, science-filled jokes, Marie Curie fan
girling, You've Got Mail vibes, and a good story than this is the book for you!

I love Hazelwood's commitment to STEM romance. I love the enemies to lovers trope even more. For some reason though, this book never gained traction with me. I found myself bored with Bee, a neuroscientist, and Levi's (a former grad school classmate) tale, often zoning out while reading. While Levi was dreamy, I found Bee unrelatable, and I found their shared project, BLINK, hard to understand. This made me feel like I wasn't smart enough for this book-a feeling that almost had me resenting this book over and over. Maybe super-intelligent love isn't my jam.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this ARC. I wish I liked it more.