Meh. That’s the only word I can really think of to describe this book. I have a slight suspicion that Ali’s books are all going to follow the same outline - guy likes girl but doesn’t know how to show it, girl thinks guy hates her, hijinks ensue, workplace nemesis is set out to destroy girl or guy, girl and guy fall in love. And don’t get me wrong! I know romances typically employ the same tropes/themes and we eat them up.

But something about this was just TOO similar to the love hypothesis for me. I loved Levi more than I loved Adam, oddly enough, but the book as a whole just wasn’t it for me. I would recommend to others but certainly wouldn’t be rushing to suggest people throw out their TBRs for this book when it’s released. Three stars - thank you to Berkeley and Net Galley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed Ali Hazelwood's debut, The Love Hypothesis, but I enjoyed LOVE ON THE BRAIN (Pub 08.23) even more. Thank you to @berkleyromance and @netgalley for early access.

This contemporary romance is a smart, geeky, sweet and sexy enemies-to-lovers story set at NASA. Take a STEM/neuroengineering heroine and a somewhat misunderstood colleague and add some smart yet adorkable banter and scorching steam and you have the formula for a fabulous read.

I absolutely loved Bee's fangirl appreciation of Marie Curie and the subsequent @WhatWouldMarieDo tweets are perfect. Plus- Levi's pining and unrequited love of Bee left me smitten. Bonus- communication AND consent. I'm always here for that.

There is one particular scene at the 82% mark that left me a bit off-kilter. It generated a very interesting conversation with my husband. 4 EP

A huge thank you to Ali Hazelwood for my e-ARC in exchange for the honest review.

NASA was Bee dream. And when she was offered her to lead on a neuroengineering project, she grab it., because it was her dream come true. Bee was scared when Trevor tell him that she was off in this project. But Bee told him that she got Blink because she was qualified. But she’s scared that maybe she can’t do everything she can and also scared that Trevor can really kick her off the project. She want to ask Guy for help but she knows that Guy will direct her to Levi and for sure Levi won’t talk to her.

Levi likes Bee but he’s preventing to fall for her more because he knows that Bee is married. Overall the book was fine. I still liked The Love Hypothesis more.

Anyway! I’ve already read this book. I just posted now because I’m waiting for my copy to arrive. So thanks for these lovely people for providing me a physical copy of Love on the Brain.

Ali Hazelwood's newest "Love on the Brain" is as funny, charming, and sexy as her breakout "The Love Hypothesis," and her fans will undoubtedly devour her second novel as rapturously as they did her first. Everything that made "The Love Hypothesis" special is here again: Quick-fire banter, a sparkling main character you want to root for from the get-go, and a slow-burn love story whose payoff is more than worth the wait. The two leads, Bee and Levi, are even more adorable and nerdier than Olive and Adam from "The Love Hypothesis," and their chemistry is palpable. The ironic insights into the world of STEM from the viewpoint of a woman in science is especially funny from Hazelwood.

The story moves quickly, so you won't have to wait long for the big rom-com moments that any romance novel lover would swoon for, but its plot falters at the end with an unnecessary and jarring third act. Some secondary characters provide a welcome spark (Rocío, Boris, and Kaylee in particular), but others require more in-depth examination; Reike and Guy are left especially wanting.

Yet "Love on the Brain" remains at its center a love story between Levi and Bee, whose romantic journey touches on themes of grief, trauma, and the heaviness of familial baggage that many will resonate with. The story, thankfully, pays much well-deserved attention on the two characters as they grow, struggle, and change throughout the narrative, so fans will be delighted with their story arcs from the first page to the last. Hazelwood's second novel will satisfy her fans, and is a solid follow-up that will surely leave readers eager for more from the author.

I will officially read anything Ali Hazelwood writes, even a grocery list. I loved this book. It follows Bee, a neuroscientist, and Levi, an engineer, as they are forced to work together on a once in a lifetime NASA and NIH joint project. The pair first crossed paths in graduate school where Levi made his distaste for Bee very clear. Now, years later when she finds herself working back with him, she's frustrated, but undeterred. As time goes on though, all may not be what it seems.

What I liked: major feminist/women in STEM rep (as always from Ali Hazelwood), serious slow burn chemistry, major, MAJOR spice, great female friendships, and fun plot twists.

What I didn't like: not much. The twist end was a little unbelievable and over the top, but fun nonetheless.

I would recommend this to any rom com lover, and even those who are hesitant about the genre.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This has the classic Ali Hazelwood hallmark writing style with the (very) quirky main character and the hulking, broody main love interest and I love nerding out alongside them. I thought this was very similar to The Love Hypothesis and as a result, I ended up slightly preferring TLH a bit more but this was so fun and addicting to read!

No signs of a sophomore slump for Ali Hazelwood! Following up to last year's hit, The Love Hypothesis, readers everywhere are probably wondering if Hazelwood can bring that magic again - and I'm here to tell you that she can! Move over Olive & Adam, because Bee & Levi have stolen the show!

Featuring another strong STEM couple, Bee instantly wormed her way into my heart with her quirky, endearing personality and firmly cemented her place as a new favorite character of mine. Enter Levi, Bee's grad school nemesis and now, in a twist of unfortunate (or fortunate, since this is a romance, after all), Levi and Bee are reunited at NASA. In this enemies-to-lovers, co-worker romance, Hazelwood turns up the steam notch from her prior book and... IT IS GOOOOOOD!

Now, is it too soon for me to wonder what is on deck for book three?

Thank you to Berkley Romance for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

This wasn’t my favorite, but still enjoyable. It was a quick and easy read, just what I was looking for in the moment.

Ahhhhhh! Finally! After the joy of "The Love Hypothesis," I've been highly anticipating Ali Hazelwood's next novel. And while her trio of STEMinist novellas helped tide me over, they were too short, and therefore didn't build enough.

We get another woman in STEM here, and as one would expect from a book titled "Love on the Brain," this deals with neuroscience. Quirky, septum-pierced and purple-haired Dr. Bee Königswasser is celebrating landing a huge neuroengineering project at NASA, but then realizes she's a co-lead with her grad school nemesis Levi Ward. When she arrives in Houston, it seems that someone is out to sabotage her. Access is denied, equipment isn't arriving on time, she's missing important meetings and emails ...

Bee is delightful – and not just because all of her quirks are so colorful and specific like loving cats and fainting often – but she also is incredibly principled and will fight for gender parity (the terms she's coined for various ways the gender imbalance plays into STEM academics and workplaces are hilarious and spot-on).

Levi is very much Hazelwood's archetypical hero - ridiculously fit, good looking, absolutely gaga over her (surprise, he never hated her in grad school, something all readers will spot immediately but Bee takes a depressingly long time to realize), and great in the sack. But he is of course INTENSELY awkward when it comes to Bee, hence the confusion. Of course, the super-nerdy guy who's an uninhibited sex god is a fantastic romance staple, and Hazelwood delivers. My biggest gripe, however, is that all of these nerdy hunks are still more thinly sketched compared to the female main character, and thus they always feel sort of remote -- like a faceless mannequin.

There's a subplot involving Marie Curie, cats and a mystery that's very Scooby-Doo in tone (we even get a "if not for you meddling kids"-type speech) that makes this a brisk story on top of the rom-com of it all. Oh, and Bee's assistant Rocio is a goth-hearted, amazing character that needs to be read to be believed. I fully expect fandoms and shippers for Rocio. Hazelwood is able to create some very daffy and lovable characters, and Rocio and Bee's twin sister Reike are two whom I wouldn't mind seeing again.

All that, and it's set in my hometown of Houston, so I was especially interested even though there wasn't enough about the local food and art, just the mosquitos and well, guns. That this is an ultra-feminist read while reality in Texas and other states is anything but, made this an even more escapist fantasy.

Overall, "Love on the Brain" was often funny and exasperating, hot and sweet, if not terribly deep, which works for Hazelwood's whimsical writing.

(Review based on an ARC from Netgalley and Berkley)

Another hit for Ali Hazelwood, following her The Love Hypothesis. While you don't have to read them in order I do recommend it because there are several references that you will enjoy more if you have read the first book. Follows rom com format- I did enjoy the first one more but this is still good. Nothing over the top, but a middle of the road rom com that is quick to read.

LOVE ON THE BRAIN
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkeley Romance
Pub Date: 23 August 2022

Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐️

Read if you Like:
- Women in STEM and strong women characters
- Rivals to lovers
- first person POV

Review:
Love on the Brain exceeded my expectations and more. The characters were well developed, the romance was top tier, and the banter was incredible. Levi is an incredibly well developed MMC and is extremely swoon-worthy. Ali writes in a way that makes you feel like you're listening to Bee's inner thoughts. I felt that I was actually in Bee's brain throughout this book.

The plot was very similar to The Love Hypothesis with similar tropes. While I wasn't the biggest fan of the miscommunication, the ending made it all worth it. Highly recommend to anyone who loved The Love Hypothesis!

Thank you NetGalley and Berkeley for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ali Hazelwood's nerdy spicy books are like catnip to me. I just gobble them up.

You'll love this enemies-to-lovers book in all of its nerdy goodness. Women in STEM who also get the hot guy to worship the ground they walk on? Yes, please.

Just as charming, sexy and funny as The Love Hypothesis, Love on the Brain is an amazing follow-up. NIH and NASA team up (with an appropriate amount of institutional jealousy) to work on neuroscience for astronauts. Bee and Levi met as PhD candidates at Pitt…and they didn’t get along at all. Now, Bee and Levi both have PhD’s and careers…Bee at NIH and Levi at NASA. They are thrown together on a project as co-leaders and find out that their perceptions of each other MAY have been incorrect. Plus, have they been DMing each other for years? Has somebody sabotaged their project, Bee’s twitter account, NASA email? Love and science…Ali Hazelwood proves once again…can be very sexy.

This book is my favourite type of rom-com. It is sweet and fun, but it also touches on some important topics like sexism in the workplace and grief.

At this point, I would be obsessing over a lullaby if Ali Hazelwood wrote it. 😌
I felt the same way about Love on the Brain as I did about The Love Hypothesis. (The mentioned feelings: screaming, crying and calling the characters "my babies" God knows how many times) But, but I LOVE LOTB A THOUSAND TIMES MORE. Ali has this impeccable quality of making her characters feel like home. With Bee and Levi, it honestly felt like I was getting multiple hugs everytime they had their heart-to-heart conversations.

The plot, the romance, the twists, the angst and the mutual longing/pining - everything about LOTB was just purrrfect! 💅 (this is me taking a page out of Bee's book and making a bad cat pun). I lost count of the number of times Bee made me laugh. The things that went through that girl's brain were so chaotic, my gosh. 😂 And don't even get me started on Levi!!! I didn't think it was possible for me to love a male lead more that Adam Carlsen - but then Levi Ward came into the picture and BAM! ✨ Sparks flew - not only betn Bee and Levi, but between me and them too. 👀

Love on the Brain made me fall in love with Women in STEM more than ever before. I got to know a lot about their struggles, which in turn made me appreciate the STEM Queens so, so much. The realistic portrayal of academia was really eye-opening. Speaking of science - the chapters of LOTB were titled with parts of the brain/nervous system, etc - and that just made me so happy? (I am a bit biased as I am a biomedicine undergrad) but wow; the layout was so, so clever!!

I didn't know how much I needed LOTB in my life until I read the first chapter. Bee and Levi's story was everything and then some. I love how Ali doesn't shy away from talking about the real stuff - be it mental health, commitment issues, or fear of attachment. Please, please buy a copy of Love on the Brain when it comes out. I promise you're gonna love it. 😭

Great book! I’m a sucker for a good STEM romance and Ali Hazelwood did an amazing job with this one. I’m not sure why I love STEM romance so much because I sucked at science/math in high school and college but these books get me every time! I laugh, cry and fall in love with these characters. Bee and Levi gave me all the feels💜. Five star read for me and a big thanks to Net Galley for the e-arc.

I truly believe Ali Hazelwood can do no wrong. I've read all of her released book so far and there has been so much to love and so little, if anything, to hate.

This book, true to Hazelwood fashion, was funny, smart, and unapologetically feminist. Bee, our leading lady, has a unique obsession with Marie Curie (rightfully so) and has so many quirks and things that happen to her that you can't help but laugh and root for her. The humor from Bee's assistant, Rocío, also had me laughing out loud. She reminded me so much of April from Parks and Rec and I was living for it.

And, of course, this is a STEM-based book so we get all of the nerdy bits of science that we've grown to love from Hazelwood's other novels. Bee is a neuroscientist and Levi is an engineer that are working are a NASA project together so we get lots of nerdy talk. Also, we learn a lot about Marie Curie which was an unexpected bonus to the nerd aspect.

Now, onto the romaaaaaance. It was absolutely top-notch. There was pining, so much pining, a small You've Got Mail trope, a miscommunication trope, and so many beautifully delivered lines that I wanted to cry and swoon all at once. Levi was everything. He was broody and stoic, he was romantic and sweet, and he was the only good seed out of a bad family plant. There was just so much to love about him and the You've Got Mail trope really solidified that for me. I had butterflies in my stomach anytime him and Bee were together. I just loved loved loved it!

There was also a bit of a mystery thing that played into the main conflict of the book. It was predictable, but I like the added component it gave the story.

Overall, run don't walk to get this book. Hazelwood is on a different level than the rest of us and I've just accepted it. Praise to the STEMinist!

I may have squealed when I got this ARC :) Hazelwood's first book, The Love Hypothesis, was one of my favorite reads last year. I was eagerly awaiting her followup, and let me tell you - IT WAS SO GOOD! It felt pretty similar to The Love Hypothesis with the guy falls first trope, grumpy/sunshine and overall vibe. Hazelwood has such a fun style, and the STEM world is so different than anything I know, the book drew me in from page one. Highly HIGHLY recommend!

This is no sophomore slump for Ali Hazelwood in her second STEMinist rom-com novel after her first hit, The Love Hypothesis. And she does not disappoint with this new setting and cast of characters. You'll be frustrated by them (in a good way), laugh with them, and fall in love with them just as you did Olive and Adam in her first novel.

This story follows Bee, an NIH neuroscientist chosen to co-lead a groundbreaking project with NASA, as she heads to Texas to create a state-of-the-art helmet for astronauts that reduces distraction events in the brain while working in space. Her dream of snagging a meaningful project that will showcase to the STEM world her knowledge and expertise to help her escape her current underpaid, monotonous job has finally arrived. The only problem: she doesn't have the fondest memories (none to be exact) of her co-lead on the project, Levi Ward, an engineer with NASA, when they were in the same grad school years ago. But, of course, thanks to some of the classic tropes in the genre, there are two sides to every coin which means we may learn along with Bee and Levi that sometimes our perceptions can be deceiving. As Bee expresses her joy and wonder of the human brain throughout the story, you will indeed learn that the mind is a marvelous thing to behold.

Hazelwood's writing is like candy. It's lovely and sweet and so easy to just keep eating another piece (or read another page). When this author presents a story to the reader, she gives everything she promises. At this point, she's an auto-buy author for me. I already have her three novellas lined up on my TBR list to read. Grab this if you enjoyed her first novel, The Love Hypothesis, contemporary romance, or if you too have a massive love for Marie Curie.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this title.

I absolutely loved this book! I didn't think anything would top The Love Hypothesis, but this book proved me wrong. Bee is such and interesting and fun character to read about. Her hilarious commentary and excitement about neuroscience was engaging to read. I absolutely loved the chemistry between the leads and this is for sure one of my favorite romance book that I will now be recommending to everyone I come across.