Another winner from Ali Hazelwood! I was completely engrossed in Love on the Brain—I absolutely couldn’t put it down. I loved Bee, and Levi definitely made my list of book boyfriends. Hazelwood is an expert at combining humor, romance, and real world issues in a way that is relatable and uplifting, and ultimately inspiring. I hope we get many more books from her to enjoy! 4.5/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

🔊Song Pairing: Head Over Feet - Alanis Morissette

(more like feet over head in Bee’s case, had to pair with some 90s rocker girl music)

💭What I thought would happen:

The Love Hypothesis has my heart. Ali could have written her new book on rolls of toilet paper and I would have gladly taken it.

📖What actually happens:

Bee has been just offered a groundbreaking career move, not just for women in science but all peoples in science. She’s ecstatic until she finds her co-lead is the assery of all assess…Levi assface Ward(ass). EFF! This man goes out of his way to make Bee feel like she isn’t good enough in her field of neuroscience. He’s such a typical engineer.

Bee is off to Houston to work with NASA to create some sort of smart helmet for astronauts (this is above my capacity to learn/understand). Bee soon discovers many road blocks to achieve success with a team of all men (hello CockClusterTM) and no equipment, somehow complex data can’t be derived from her 10 fingers and 10 toes….Bee knows it’s Wardass who is messing with her. Why does he have to be so dang hot!

🗯Thoughts:

While this book just cannot live up to the pedestal in which I hold The Love Hypothesis, I very much adored the witty banter, the humour and just overall crassness of the writing.

There is repetition people. I can overlook it. But I am aware that people that didn’t enjoy TLH all made one similar comment…”we get it he is tall”…well guess what?! Levi is also very tall and it is made known often 😂 brace yourselves. Honestly, I think I would cry laughing if I found out Ali Hazelwood is in a relationship with a short king😝

I came out of this knowing more about Marie Curie, archaic graduate program testing and expressing feline anal glands than I ever thought I’d know…I’m a better person for it.

This one is going to sell regardless of my review but I can’t wait to see the mixed reviews. The super fans and the people that love to hate 😂 I support it all!

Ngl, it’s been so long since I attempted to write a review. I don’t have the best track record on reading then reviewing but somehow, I feel inclined to discuss Love on the Brain.

I am not the biggest fan of Ali Hazewood’s debut novel, The Love Hypothesis. I read it in one sitting, yes. It was fun and romantic but there was nothing really new about it. I loved it but I didn’t like the thought of Adam Driver while reading it. (It was initially a Reylo fanfic I heard.) And with this, I am not surprised that Love on the Brain is way right up my alley.

Love on the Brain is The Love Hypothesis but in different font. While there’s no doubt that Ali Hazelwood can write STEM romance, the similarities between the two stories were hard not to notice. BUT I’M OKAY WITH IT. Because cats. And academic quirky girl x academic man wife is apparently my thing.

I love me some strong female character paired up with a fictional man written by a woman (like he literally is), that’s Bee and Levi for you. Add in the classic shade and call out this book has to the unfair and unjust treatment of academia and constitutions to women? Perfect. And I gotta commend Ali’s writing style. While it needs improvement (plot wise), her voice was easy to understand and I get it why dedicated and casual readers alike can get into her books easily. It was as if she knows how to communicate what needed to be said using a language a lot of people can understand.

I’m not gonna go into details but one thing’s for sure, I enjoyed this and I will recommend it to my fellow romance readers. It may not be the best out there but it did take my mind away for a while. And I think that’s reason enough to rate this book 4 starts.

Ali Hazelwood is one of my new favorites! Her books may be romance, but no weak gals here -- the female leads are always badass ladies in STEM.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to Berkley and Netgalley for providing an e-arc of this! All thoughts and opinions are still my own.

Ali Hazelwood books never miss for me. There is something about her writing that captures me completely every single time. I lover her characters, the chemistry she creates, and the hilarious dialogue and banter throughout. And this book was absolutely no exception.

This book is classic Ali Hazelwood. It has a woman in STEM up against ingrained sexism and misogynistic coworkers. An enemies to lovers, opposites attract romance. And a misunderstanding behind it all. But somehow this combination never gets old for me.

As always I loved the dialogue surrounding women in this field and the challenges they face being in a classically male dominated field.

Overall, if you love the Ali Hazelwood formula and characters, this will be another knockout. Levi is all time favorite hero of mine. He was EVERYTHING.

I can't help but read and love everything Ali Hazelwood writes. And will continue to do so into forever.

Levi and Bee... My gosh, I melt for these two! With Bee's quirky ways, and Levi's moody attitude that makes me want to smile at him all day every day, I instantly fell in love with their love story. The LONGING that they have towards each other is just **inserts fire emoji**. Yup, **fire emoji** is pretty much accurate. Ali is not only making a break in the romance community with her fantastic and just outright incredible novels, but she is making a staple in my TBR for all her upcoming books!

Hi I'd like to request Ali Hazelwood write a million more books, because honestly the enemies-to-lovers, (but really it's one sided), is my favourite thing right now! Loved the main characters and the side character plus the twist at the end was amazing!

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!!

(3.5 stars) I did like Love on the Brain better than Love Hypothesis, but I still can't say this book was right for me. This book felt less cringey, the main characters were more believable, and the situations they found themselves in were more appropriate (i.e., no uncomfortable forced PDA like in Love Hypothesis), so that's great. It had more girlbossy and #millennial vibes, which gets a big meh from me, but overall I can't say I didn't enjoy the read.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC!

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, as second books can be tricky! However, I'm thrilled to report that Ali Hazelwood knocked it out of the park with this one, and I truly enjoyed my read. Love on the Brain follows Dr. Bee, a neuroscientist who recently got a fantastic opportunity co-leading a project at NASA. The problem, her co-lead is her arch-nemesis from grad school!

Ali Hazelwood's background shines here, and I love this book's women in STEM aspect. However, the one thing that bothered me a little bit was the constant miscommunications between the main characters. That went on a little longer than I'd like, but the payout was worth it! I had a blast reading this book and definitely recommend it!

For its pure entertainment factor, I'd throw all the stars in Love on the Brain's direction. It centered on Bee, ready and eager to begin her new assignment at NASA until she finds out she's co-leading it with her arch nemeis, Levi Ward, from grad school. Of course, we quickly find out that some past events and actions were not quite what they seemed, and...well, this is a romance book after all.

Like everything Ali Hazelwood writes, I love the women in STEM aspect. This book also taught me more about Marie Curie than I ever knew before, there were adorable cats, and Bee's RA was a riot of a character. It was a quick, easy story to read, and I finished it within a day.

I know it's often a trope of the genre, but it frustrates me how dense some of these characters are when it comes to social interactions, especially when these in particular are supposedly so brilliant. I also can't help but notice that Bee and Levi feel similar to characters from the writer's previous books (slight, quirky female with a big, brooding male love interest who really is a softie deep down).

Even with that in mind, I had a blast reading this book and look forward to future novels.

This is what "The Love Hypothesis" would be without the weird student-professor dynamics. If you don't already know, that kind of dynamic weirds me out and is definitely not my cup of tea. However, "Love on the Brain" was definitely easier for me to like. It doesn't really stand out much from Hazelwood's previous books, and you get exactly what you would expect, which necessarily isn't a bad thing. After all, we got a moody, silent and tall guy pining for our bubbly and bold main character and their love story.

Overall, it's an easy read, perfect if you want to read something quickly. And it has its funny and entertaining moments. A solid book, to be honest. Can't really expect to see much complexity in the plot and characters, as it is after all a romance-centered book. Is the plot a bit too convenient at times? Yes. But is it still worth reading? Absolutely.

Over and out. -Nora<3

I had to take TWO WHOLE DAYS TO PROCESS EVERYTHING! This book!!!!! Is literally everything I’ve ever wanted and so much more. I was lucky enough to be blessed with the arc of this so shoutout to the amazing Ali Hazelwood and NetGalley for this opportunity. The first few chapters I was practically breezing right through them but realized ‘what the actual fuck? I don’t want this end!’ So I slowed the whole process down devouring each word, each interaction, each moment between these characters. Levi was giving me very much tough guy exterior but in reality he’s all warm and mushy on the inside. For the life of me I couldn’t get enough of this man!!! Whereas my home girl Bee may come in a small package, she is such a great force it’s hard not to fall in love with her. Truly this is the definition of a comfort read.

Also can we talk about the amount of empowerment, love, and respect this book holds for women? It has somewhat mended my battered heart. With the amount of bullshit women have been put through in the STEM field or generally in any field as so to speak. This was very much needed. In fact I really believe the world needs this!

Sophomore book - ooh, those are always scary. Will it be as good as The Love Hypothesis? Can Ali Hazelwood recreate the magic of women in STEM mixed with the misogyny endemic in the field and then sprinkle in some hotness?

Whew, is all I can say because she did it, imo. I adored Love on the Brain, the deep dive into neuroscience, the setting at NASA, the quirky adorable female doc, the hunky brooding male engineer. And the secondary love story between two female scientists trying to tear down the ______ was fun.

So if your last book was super serious or heart wrenching and you need a smile and some passion in your next read, pick this one up - it publishes August 23!

I was, shall we say, disappointed. The more I think about this book, the less I like it. I almost DNF'd at 50%, but kept pushing through.

Neurologist Bee has finally gotten a great job - co-leading a project at NASA. Hooray! But her co-lead is a guy from grad school who wouldn't even look at here. Boo! Also, sexism in science!

Bee is... a lot. She's tiny and has colored hair and tattoos and an obsession with Marie Curie bordering on unhealthy. She also thinks of a lot of things as (tm), which gets a little overwhelming. And she's been left or betrayed by everyone in her life for her entire life, so she doesn't expect much for herself. She's this bad-ass neuroscientist, but we don't get to really understand her competency. The book is single POV, so we're exclusively in Bee's head, seeing how much she thinks Levi hates her when she's not adding up the pieces of evidence in front of her to create a reasonable hypothesis, but instead relying on old evidence to back her assumptions.

When Bee and Levi are together, it can be pretty great. But there's a lot of story where they're not on page together.

There are several plot threads that are kind of dangling around and quickly tied up only at the very end. And there's one plot point that just shows up out of practically nowhere and it really aggressive toward the end. Like, SURPRISE! without adequate foreshadowing.

Now, I'm reading an ARC, so maybe some of this is addressed, but holy cow. The book shares a ton of its DNA with The Love Hypothesis, to the point where I'm pretty sure Levi is also physically based on Adam Driver.

I had high hopes, and they weren't met.

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

There are a lot of things to say about Love on the Brain. Most of them, not good. Love on the Brain follows Dr. Bee, a neuroscientist, who gets the opportunity of a lifetime to work at NASA, developing a state-of-the-art neuroengineering project. The kicker: her co-lead on the project is a man who has shown her utter disdain since their days in university, Levi Ward. But Bee is willing to put up with him if it means fulfilling her dreams. After all, Bee swears by mantra, what would Marie Curie do. But when things begin to go seriously wrong at the NASA lab, Levi starts to look more like an ally than an adversary. Can they put aside their personal differences if it means changing the future of space and science or would they become another casualty?

Before I get into why Love on the Brain was incredibly frustrating and disappointing, let me talk about why I liked it. Hazelwood’s background truly shines. I loved all the details about the science bits because I don’t understand a single thing and it’s so fascinating to learn about. You could also feel Bee’s passion (and subsequently, Hazelwood’s) for her work which was a nice touch. It was perhaps the most engaging part of the book, to be honest, which says a lot for a romance novel. I also liked how Love on the Brain takes the opportunity to also highlight pertinent issues within a male-dominated industry, especially surrounding gender treatment in the workspace. Rocio, Bee’s research assistant and Kaylee, project manager for BLINK (the project Bee and Levi are working on) were also some of my favourite characters. Their grumpy/sunshine relationship and dynamic was adorable and far more interesting than Levi and Bee. I practically squealed when they finally got together.

That’s pretty much all the things I liked about Love on the Brain.

Bee and Levi will never make it into my book of favourite characters. Bee is what someone who is trying to be cool would call cool. She’s got dyed hair in outrageous colours, is obsessed with Marie Curie and wears cute clothes. She’s also itsy, bitsy, small, petite and delicate. I try not to be judgemental with stereotypically feminine characters who are tapping into their feminine energy because it seems counterintuitive to feminism but Bee, oh, sweet Bee is infantilised. She’s bright, bubbly and constantly cheerful to a fault. She’s oh so clumsy and whimsical. For someone who proclaims to be a “STEMinist”, Bee also leaves a lot of the saving the day to the men. Specifically one man, Levi. I disliked that Bee seemed to not challenge boundaries nor take a lot of initiative into her hands. I can understand that in most professional environments, especially ones dominated by men, would operate as described in Love on the Brain. There’s also a lot of red tape when it comes to highly governed bodies such as NASA that would have been impossible for Bee to overcome in reality. But, it would have been great to see Bee really step out on her own instead of relying on the male forces around her to make things happen while she sits, complains and whines.

Levi, on the other hand, makes me want to dig my eyeballs out with a spoon. With every fibre of my being, I wish authors would stop describing men as giant, huge, big with the penis of a god! It makes me cringe. Like, can we stop with the objectification? Because Levi’s main quality is that he’s a big, big man with manly muscles; he has little to no personality. To put it bluntly, it’s not about the tool, it’s about how you use it. His trauma with his family seems thrown in for some colour and emerged completely out of left field. He can’t stand to be in the same room as Bee because he thinks she’s pretty and he is physically repulsed by her touch. Something’s not connecting here and his reactions are in no way sexy or endearing. And when Bee questions his feelings, he has the audacity to be offended she’s questioning him. Other than that, Levi seems like a glorified sexbot.

It is obvious that Hazelwood has decided to replicate the success of The Love Hypothesis by basically copying the entire novel and changing only a few details. Romantic comedy is perhaps my favourite genre, especially while I had been taking Film Studies in university. There are always predictable tropes and classic elements such as the meet-cute and “falling in love in an unfamiliar setting”. These worked exceptionally well in The Love Hypothesis but I felt it failed to garner the same impact in Love on the Brain. For one, the enemies to friends to lovers dynamic did not work here. Their animosity wasn’t realistic and seemed more petty than antagonistic. And I absolutely detest the miscommunication trope: it’s not funny, it’s not sexy. It’s frustrating. Especially, when you’re working in a professional environment that relies on clear communication between all parties to get the job done. Their animosity is petty and childish for grown adults who have been working in their respective fields for years and are fairly established.

The “falling in love in a foreign place” trope is my absolute favourite rom-com trope. But, this one is completely rehashed from The Love Hypothesis which diluted the reading experience. It was all I could think about. Bee and Levi head to a conference together…been there, done that. The fact that it’s repeated consecutively means there was absolutely no effort on Hazelwood’s part to differentiate the two books.

There was also a very obvious lack of tension. Love on the Brain uses Bee’s online Twitter persona, @WhatWouldMarieDo and her friendship with another internet famous science personality, @Shmacademics as a way for the two main leads to create misunderstandings and tension. It is obvious from the beginning that @Shmacademics is Levi so when the big reveal happened, it fell completely flat. Throughout the whole book, I was pretty much just waiting for the ball to drop and after a while, the anticipation fizzled out. It felt like even Hazelwood knew it wasn’t a great plot device because the book barely focused on the reveal which makes no sense considering they were supposed to be the best of internet buddies and their Twitter personas were such a big part of their lives, their political beliefs and career.

Love on the Brain also brought on a bit of a mystery element to spice things up. But unfortunately, it also did not work. It was underdeveloped and it should have been introduced much earlier into the plot rather than as a last ditch attempt to bring excitement to a boring story. While I appreciate trying something new, it would have been better to focus on the weaker aspects of the story.

But oh, I can put up with the bad writing and the rehashed plot line, the repetitive character tropes and the eye-roll inducing personalities of Bee and Levi. What I will not put up with is bad sex. I like that there is always a little bit of awkwardness, some fumbling and some inexperience in Hazelwood’s characters when it comes to sex. That’s realistic and cool. But with Love on the Brain, I don’t even know what it was but I just knew it was not it. Even though we get three whole sex scenes, it feels written by someone who is clinically describing hot sex. Not just is there no emotion, it’s boring. And not only is it boring, it is peppered with constant mentions of how small and tiny and perfect Bee’s vagina is and how large, monstrous and big Levi’s penis is. And to make matters worse, Bee has this incredibly childlike voice when it comes to the sex scenes, lending her an obscene innocence which makes reading these bits very uncomfortable. It was absolutely unsexy and I was constantly waiting for these scenes to be over.

To sum it all up, I wanted to fall in love with Love on the Brain because the science bits were so fun and strong. I could read a whole book about Levi and Bee figuring out the science, bickering and falling in love. I also really loved The Love Hypothesis. Instead, we got a strange amalgamation of new and old that missed the mark. I get it, sequels are tough and authors put a lot of effort into putting out a second piece of art but when your debut is a hyped up TikTok sensation, all eyes are on you to over deliver. I think Love on the Brain did a fair job as a sequel but it had large shoes to fill and sadly, did not manage to do so. It’s hard to say whether I did enjoy it but I managed to get to the end without giving up so that’s a good sign!

Love on the brain is an adorable, cute book 😍

What I loved about it:
Let's start with the most perfect fictional man ever written, Levi! 🥰😭 I am obsessed with him, You think Adam Carlsen was good? Just wait until you meet Levi 😏 He set the bar way too high even for Fictional men, with his green mesmerising eyes and swoon-worthy character, a brilliant scientist who grew Hummingbird mint in his yard and took care of his 17-year-old cat and made time to play with his deceased friend's little daughter 🥺
Levi is a caring, perfect, beautiful, hot as hell love interest and he made my heart melt 😭✋🏻
I adored how head over the hills in love he was for Bee from the very beginning, and it made my heart ache that Bee was so oblivious to all his affection for her🥺
He helped Bee be a better version of herself and if that isn't a sign how beautiful this romance is, I don't know what is🥺

I loved Bee and her genius brain, did she make me want to strangle her sometimes? Sure, but I really liked her work ethic, how good she was at what she did and I would've read 100 more pages of her just working on BLINK( the project she and Levi were co-leaders of) and talk about the beauty of neuroscience!
I was so invested in BLINK, and I loved it when Levi and Bee were brainstorming ideas and discussing it🥹 The science aspect of the book was as interesting as the love story for me!

Bee was a vivid character, I loved her pastel hair, how she fainted all the time ( Levi thought it was cute 😂), and her secret Twitter account (@ WhatwouldMarieDo) which was a safe place for all the women in STEM 😍She cried whenever she saw dead animals on the side of the road ( it was so adorable how Levi would try to distract her😭) and loved Star Wars and cats and wanted a Yoda best Neuroscientist mug😂
And I also loved who she was with Levi!

In general, this was a very enjoyable read for me! And if you want to know about the 🌶️... This one is the smuttiest Ali Hazelwood book😌 There are more spicy scenes and I can't wait for you guys to meet Levi in his full glory 😮‍💨😏His lines made me blush ...


Why not five stars?
The ending was really rushed, for me it felt like Levi was doing all the work in this relationship, and Bee's character development wasn't well done, she still had commitment issues and difficulty expressing her feelings in the EPILOGUE!
Bee was constantly telling Levi how much she " thinks" he " hates" her and it was just so ridiculous because he DIDN'T! I think for the sake of marketing this book as Enemies to Lovers Bee had to ruin part of her character by emphasizing how much she hates Levi and he's her archenemy when it was clear to anyone reading their interactions that he wasn't 😂 She was so clueless sometimes and it annoyed me a lot!
The drama at the end of the book didn't make sense, and the person who ended up being the bad guy of the story ... I was just rolling my eyes😅
You know, Ali Hazelwood has been writing about the same small woman and big guy since the Love Hypothesis, all her MMCs and FMCs are basically the same person with different hair colors! and after a while, her books become repetitive!
And some of the descriptions had me frowning at my book, I don't want to picture Levi as Hulk 😭
"𝙃𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙑𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣."
" 𝙄𝙩'𝙨 𝙖 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚.𝘼 𝙗𝙪𝙡𝙡."
"𝙂𝙤𝙙, 𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙨𝙤 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙡.𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙙. 𝙃𝙚'𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙖𝙣𝙙-𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙤𝙖𝙠."

thank you so much for providing me with the ARC,PRH International!

I adored Olive and Adam and also adored Levi and Bee! Ali Hazelwood's characters are smart, nerdy, quirky, awkward, and relatable. (However crying every time you see roadkill and fainting multiple times in a book was a bit too many times for me!) I loved the science - while I didn't understand a good amount, it was explained in very digestible bits and very easy to follow along! There is a good villain and mystery included as well. Bee was a great lead though - orphaned at a very young age and bounced between so many relatives and countries with her twin sister. She is dedicated to her field of neuroscience. She and Levi have great banter, their relationship progressed naturally. Levi is kind, patient, and so thoughtful. I also enjoyed the storyline with the What Would Marie Curie Do? twitter page and the secret messaging throughout - very You've Got Mail!

I absolutely ADORED this book! There were so many storylines that I loved - the relationship between Bee + Levi, the friendship between WWMCD & Shmac, and of course the whole BLINK mission. This was such a fun enemies to lovers - with a great story - swoony & steamy moments to gush over - and an epic twist!! It was such a fun read and everything I could have wanted from an Ali Hazelwood book. LOVED!

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 and once again, I was not disappointed. There is a reason that romantic comedy is one of my favorite genres and Love on the Brain is one of the reasons. I just loved the mix of humor, emotion, and readability.

Bee Königswasser is over the moon at getting a job at NASA working on a neuroengineering project until she learns that she will have to co-lead the project with her graduate school nemesis, Levi Ward. She doesn’t want to see Levi again, she knows he hates her, but she needs this project for her resume so she can finally get away from her job, and her horrible boss.

Bee goes ahead and takes the job as she also needs to get away from her ex-fiance who broke their engagement recently. She knows she can ignore Leve, but can she? The project seems doomed as soon as she gets there, no email, missing equipment, and no support from NASA, and she’s starting to believe she’s being sabotaged. Is it Levi? Or someone else?

Ali Hazlewood is back with her STEM characters and her signature humor. I love a book with a brainy heroine, and Love on the Brain fits that perfectly. Bee is quirky and unique without being over the top. And Levi is a wonderful hero. A bit dark and broody, but with a heart of gold. This is an enemies-to-lovers trope, and it’s got a You Got Mail vibe as the two main characters correspond via Twitter without knowing who they are DMing.

Both Bee and Levi have some serious baggage they must overcome, and there is a bit of miscommunication in the beginning, but it’s believable. Every interaction they have is just wonderful, from witty banter to swoony tender moments, this couple is everything I want in a rom-com couple.

I found the pacing of the book perfect, I was pulled right in from the beginning and I didn’t put this down until I read the very last word. If you liked The Love Hypothesis, you’ll love Love on the Brain.

I highly recommend Love on the Brain by Ali Hazlewood to anyone who enjoys romantic comedies. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A contender for my favorite book of the year!

This review is just going to be me gushing about this perfect book. The Love Hypothesis was one of my favorite books of last year and it still doesn't come close to the perfection that is this book. It takes everything I liked about TLH and makes it even better. Levi is perfect and adorable and Bea is bada** and intelligent and funny. Even the side characters were extremely entertaining and made me smile.

I was a giggling fool throughout this entire book up until the very last page. Ali Hazelwood is an automatic buy author who always hits the mark.

I cannot state this enough, go buy this book when it comes out!