Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
Publication date: August 23, 2022
Berkley Publishing Group

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 4.5/5 stars

I loved this one! Dare I say - I may or may not have liked it even better than The Love Hypothesis. Readers who loved Ali Hazelwood’s first book, will definitely be a fan of Love on the Brain.

Love on the Brain tells the story of Bee, a woman trying to make her own way in the STEM world full of men. When she finds herself on a job with her graduate school nemesis, Levi, Bee feels like the whole world is against her. As the job goes on, and the miscommunications start to clear up, Levi and Bee find they may not differ as much as they initially thought.

I LOVED Levi. He is a character that won’t leave my brain for a while. I also felt like this was a pretty well done enemies to lovers/hate to love trope. Heavy on miscommunication, but it all worked well for me. This story featured a variety of my favorite tropes, including: workplace romance, enemies to lovers, and it’s always been you.

I have given this book a rating of 4.5 stars for a story that I loved and would definitely recommend to others. I took off half of a star for the explicit content. This one has multiple open door scenes that were a little much for my preferences and held me back from a perfect 5 star, but overall I loved this one!

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for this ARC.

Ali Hazelwood always nails the swoony, funny, and embarrassing feelings associated with crushes. I love her feminist, women in STEM perspective, it always makes her characters so relatable.

"What would Marie Curie do?" is the code that Bee lives by. She is a talented engineer, goes for her goals, does her best to stand up for herself in a male dominated field. She's landed her dream gig working on a special NASA project, the downside is that her co-lead, Levi, seems to always be in her way. As the two work through snags on the project and in their communication, they progress from reluctant allies to friends, and maybe to even more? As with The Love Hypothesis, this is another sexy and smart win from Ali Hazelwood.

I loved this story line, I loved the characters.

I mean who doesn’t love yummy, tall & protective book beau?

I loved that we got more spice in this one by Ali Hazelwood! We love an author that listens to us!

I love how relatable Ali Hazelwood makes her characters. It makes it a lot easier to connect with the book and just stay interested!

I have enjoyed all of Ali Hazelwood books. It is nice to see the main character in the book be a female scientist and she all they have to do to survive in that world. Bee is so excited to start work on a project with NASA until she finds out that one of her ex classmates who she believes has always hated her is co lead on the project. Bee has to do twice as much to try and get where she is and has to deal with men who don't want her to succeed. You find out that Bee is stronger and smarter then everyone thinks she is. This is a good book on how women can succeed even when everything is against them.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy for this book in exchange for an honest review
I don't give five stars often...

If you liked the love hypothesis, this book is here to break it's neck, spit on it and bury it under every white cis male who has ever taken credit for a woman's groundbreaking discovery in the history of human kind.

I read this is one sitting and I am so pleasantly surprised.

Ali has taken her writing to another level, the feminist way she approaches women is STEM is adorably funny. This book is brainy and grindy and I that is why I love it so much. It is SO MUCH more than just a quirky FMC with a brooding male main character, it's a women's science history book. It's a call out to sexist work environments, it's a call out to standardized tests, it's a SAFE PLACE.

I have always been a nerdy kid, liking and wanting to be places women were not supposed to be a part of, video games, sports, dinosaur/archeology/science camps...It is so refreshing to see that someone out there is doing MORE with their romcoms than sticking to the cookie cutter recipe.

I am sick and tired of reading the same stories behind different cartoon covers. Ali DELIVERED.

There are so many reasons I loved this so much but I have to remain spoiler free, but I will say: this is the first time Ali writes a female main character whose voice and personality I absolutely adore.

The side characters in this? Unbelievable.

The amount of times she made me laugh out loud? Uncountable.

How hard I swooned? Way too hard.

Am I desperately in love with this book and Levi? Undoubtedly.



A masterpiece.

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: The same way I knew People We Meet on Vacation was going to win (and I was right) This book is the new winner of the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards in the romance category.



I have no words to describe how much I enjoyed every single page of this book. I'll dare say this is possibly one of my favorite books of 2022 so far.

Ali Hazelwood has done it again! I've really appreciated how her books take place in academic settings and show the trials of PhD/researcher life in terms of time, stress, and relationships (not just romantic) with other people. Love on the Brain was a hilarious story of the crossed signals of two researchers. Inter-personal communication skills are definitely highlighted here. In addition to the love story, there were themes of ethics in research and gatekeeping in academia, which were nice to see in addition to the more fun side of the work. If you enjoy Ali's other works or work by Talia Hibbert, definitely give this book a try!

Unfortunately, I had a lot of the same problems with this book that I had with the first one. The story is funny, the character banter has its moments, but honestly it's really stereotyped, The characters aren't much different than the ones in Love Hypothesis, and it seems like Ali Hazelwood does a kind of copy paste with her stories.

LOVE LOVE LOVED THIS BOOK!

Levi Ward might be my favorite Hazelwood man yet. He’s the biggest simp you’ll ever read lol. And I loved how flustered he would get every time Bee simply walked by. Two massive, cute nerds.

I wish we got a bit more on how the whole Twitter thing played out cuz I felt like that was very open-ended. But I need MORE of these two now

Here is a compilation of my thoughts, feelings, and viewpoints on Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood…also known as a “review.”

*insert gif of Jake Peralta screaming while strumming (poorly) on a guitar*

AHHHHHHHH. I want to give this book somewhere between 4 and a million stars.

I went on a journey with this book.

Here’s the deal: I ADORED The Love Hypothesis. So going into Ali’s sophomore book, I had high hopes, yet, at the same time, I found myself hesitant. TLH made my heart soar. It was like a breath of fresh air and a high that I rode for months and months. One does not simply move on from the glorious wonder that is Adam Driver, *ahem* I mean Adam Carlsen 😉

Like our female MC, Bee Königswasser, I spent nearly half of this book in denial. In denial about enjoying the book. In detail about falling for these characters. In denial about enjoying this book as much as TLH. And in denial about how much I identify with Bee. But the truth is…

I have never seen myself in a character more than in Bee Königswasser.

Sure, I may have a fewer number of tattoos and piercings than Bee (2 tattoos and just the ears pierced, but I used to have a Monroe. Does that earn me any cool and edgy points?) and I’ve never dyed my hair a vibrant color, but the inner workings of Bee’s mind and sense of self is like a mirror of my own. We both overthink and overanalyze the actions of others which often leads us to make assumptions and operate out of those assumptions. Are those assumptions ever right? Not always, but sometimes. Okay…mostly never.

At the end of the day, Bee just wants to prove that she’s worth her salt. She’s a brilliant neuroscientist, she’s capable, and she cares about what she does. She wants to elevate those marginalized in her field and make a difference. She’s humorous, desires stability, and relies on facts and logic. I love all those things about her. I relate to all those things about her (well, except for the “brilliant neuroscientist” part. God, I wish.)

There’s one thing Bee is convinced she can’t rely on: love.

“The intrinsic transience of human relationships. The real villain is love: an unstable isotope, constantly undergoing spontaneous nuclear decay.”

When Bee gets a call from NASA (freaking NASA!) to head up a once-in-a-lifetime, career-altering project, the last thing on Bee’s mind is love. Especially when she learns she’ll be co-leading this project with her arch nemesis from grad school: Levi Ward.

Levi is offensively handsome, so tall and broad he occupies every room he’s in, he loves The Empire Strikes Back, and he despises Bee. Of this, she is certain. But after spending time in close quarters, layers behind the cold and obstinate exterior begin to peel back. And Bee learns that maybe not every thing you believe about a person is always true.

“I want to reach out to Levi. I need to reach out. But I’m locked inside my head, paralyzed, finally making connections and understanding things.”

To say that I adored this book, would be a severe understatement. This book turned my insides into fluffy and sickly sweet cotton candy. I want to be as cool, funny, and smart as Bee, and I want to fall in love with a sure and steady Levi Ward. (I would share more about Levi but we would be here for daysss. Also, I want everyone to experience him in the most pure, unadulterated way, without any teasers from me. All I will say is…Adam Carlsen who?)

Was everything about this book perfect? No, nor does it need to be. There were definitely things that are not my personal preference. To be transparent, I wrestled with Bee’s character and her stubbornness A LOT. Miscommunications/misunderstandings drive me crazy. Especially when people are not forthcoming or proactive in seeking clarity. But at the end of the day, those details pale in comparison to the ultimate outcome of this book and the pure elation my heart is in.

Love on the Brain.. It really was on my mind every time I put this book down. If I haven't become so busy in my life, I probably would have finished this book in a couple of days instead of a week.

This book was new and refreshing. I love how Ali brings love stories alive into the field of STEM.

Bee is such down to earth character and really brings forth what women in STEM face. She's the only women (minus her RA who is a treat in this book! and the one girl on Levi's team) who is on this groundbreaking project between NASA and NIL. The guys on the team don't listen to her because, surprise, she's a girl. Bee does a great job, through sarcasm, talking about how the guys don't trust her because she's a girl a tends to talk over her and won't listen to her unless Levi says the same thing. Bee also faces some hard obstacles as the book goes on (her marriage that failed, cheating, friends who backstabbed her, etc). She was well-rounded and I could read about her all day because of her sarcasm and how brilliant of a neuroscientist she is!

Levi... Probably one of my favorite tropes, so... it was easy for me to fall for him. He was the one who fell in love first. He talked about how he had feelings for her since the first time he saw Bee in Grad school. He is super protective to the point of, if you touch her you die (in the best way contemporary novels show it :) ). Levi has always had trouble showing his affection to Bee and Bee has taken it that he hates her. Levi does everything he can to show that he respects her and tells the team over and over again, that Bee has just as much sway as he does and that they are co-leaders. On his end, he does what he can to minimize the stigma of women in STEM.

Bee and Levi, I will forever love their dynamic and it's kind of like they compliment each other. I don't want to spoil a lot of the book, but you need to go read it as there is never a slow point and you just want to find out when the slow burn ends. I'll say it again, I love Ali Hazelwood and the worlds that come alive from her. I wish I could go to Texas to meet both of them and see them in real life.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC for an honest review.

Ali Hazelwood does it again! I absolutely devoured this book! Bee is such a fun character with her love of cats, tattoos, piercings and all things Marie Curie. She is true to herself and has a capacity for love that is genuinely heartwarming(despite her belief that love eventually leaves you). I cannot tell you how many times I sat the book down, laughing at a scene in the book or a comment Bee made, saying to myself "This is me!" And Levi is just everything! I am a sucker for a tall, dark and handsome, broody nerd. Levi is right up there with Adam from the Love Hypothesis, maybe a bit less broody but no less potent.

The cast of side characters are amazing! They are so supportive and dynamic and they are not just props to further Bee and Levi's story but integral pieces of the book. Also this continued narrative of Women in STEM and what it is like to navigate that in a professional setting is absolutely amazing.

So do yourself a favor and read this book!

Love on the Brain definitely lived up to my expectations. I could not put it down. The romance was *chefs kiss* and dare I say it was nerdier than love hypothesis.

We follow Dr. Bee Königswasser as she gets the job offer of her life to work at NASA leading a neuroengineering project. Bee shortly discovers that she will be co-leading with her grad school archenemy, Levi Ward. Immediately the project is a disaster of missing equipment and obstacles working against her, until Bee makes an alliance with Levi to get the project off the ground.

Why I loved this book:

• Levi Ward… Tall, dark, intelligent. He’s seemingly icy and shut off, but in reality he’s a kind of a softy. I am obsessed with him.

• The side characters! Specifically Rocio, Bee’s RA. She’s a Gen Z with dark humor that I absolutely loved. If you love April from Parks and Rec you will love Rocio. I caught myself laughing frequently when she showed up in scenes.

•This has even more science than Love Hypothesis. I loved Bees Twitter account supporting women in STEM and watching her navigate through this job being one of very few women there.

Overall I loved this book! It was a fun quick read and I will definitely continue to read anything Ali Hazelwood writes.

Snappy dialogue with witty zingers make this tender enemies-to-lovers story, set at NASA in Houston, an unforgettable follow-up to neuroscientist Hazelwood’s popular The Love Hypothesis (2021).

Starred Review for Booklist: https://www.booklistonline.com/Love-on-the-Brain-/pid=9764677

This book was basically a shadow of The Love Hypothesis with about 1/100th of the charm. Bee and Levi were just Olive and Adam 2.0 with less personality. And the quirkiness factor was dialed up to 10,000 which made me cringe the whole book. I also found so much of the plot ridiculous or far fetched, which I know romance novels are often wild. But I couldn’t get it around it, I just couldn’t, the ending was way too over the top.

And look that’s all personal taste, Hazelwood and I might not be the best mix anymore. HOWEVER for a book that loudly claims it is feminist, there was a lot of references to how men and penis are the same which is boring and tired and frankly bordering TERFy white feminism. Trans people exist, this writing is lazy do better!!!!!!!!!

I AM SMITTEN.

Absolutely smitten with every single thing about this book.

Every single thing.

The writing. ✔️
The storytelling. ✔️
These characters? ✔️
LEVI FREAKING WARD. ✔️✔️✔️

GAH! I loved this SO MUCH!

I was a little worried. I loved The Love Hypothesis a lot. There's something magic about picking up a book by a new author and striking gold. But so much of reading is subjective and I wasn't sure if Love on the Brain would hit the same.

And then it did.

I think in part because Ali Hazelwood has this irresistible way of telling a story. She somehow manages to make her characters so extraordinary and yet somehow also completely relatable. She weaves sweet tender emotion is with smart snappy humor in way that causes my heart to clench even as I am laughing out loud. The end result is this sort of masterpiece that is interesting and fun, swoony and sexy (**fans self** boy howdy, was it ever) and layered with complexity, quirky secondary characters, and good old-fashioned nerdiness.

I'm so completely in love. I mean, with Bee and Levi of course. But also maybe a little bit with Ali Hazelwood too.

I loved Bee so much. It was impossible not to adore the pint sized, spit-fired heroine. But Levi. Ohmygosh you guys.

Levi.

I am deceased. He was everything. He was the kind of strong, stoic, deliciously nerdy hero that I will never get enough of. I adored how he cared for Bee. I loved how patient and supportive he was of her. I loved how he low key worshipped her in a way that never felt too earnest or too overplayed. He was an absolute dream and I don't know what I'm going to do without him in my daily world anymore.

Good gravy, I cannot fangirl over this book enough. I loved every single moment spent between these pages and I cannot wait to see what this fabulous author has in store next! ~ Shelly, 5 Stars

Book: Love on the Brain

Author: @alihazelwood 💖

Release date: August 23, 2022

GOOD THINGS CHECKLIST:

✔️ Women in STEM. enough said.

✔️ misunderstood enemies to lovers 🤌 AND THEY'RE FORCED TO WORK TOGETHER 😈

✔️ literally even just the fact that this book has chapter titles gave me life.

✔️ SO MANY NEUROSCIENCE REFERENCES my little geeky heart is soaring.

✔️ ya man went to THERAPY. what more can a woman ask for?? oh wait... we can also ask for a tall (👀), smart, swoony man who just so happens to be the perfect mix of sexy, cute, and handsome 😩

✔️ a female MC that is the equivalent of a fainting goat in stressful situations (because honestly, same) but is also a little quirky genius.

✔️ didn't know I needed a NASA romance in my life but also.... I absolutely did??

✔️ LOVE when opposites attract. top tier romance trope.

✔️ honestly cannot even count how many passages I highlighted simply because they made me laugh my lil booty off.

Well folks, if you ADORED The Love Hypothesis like I did, look no further than Love on the Brain for your next romance read. 💓 this cutie pie of a book belongs on your shelf ASAP!!!

thanks to @netgalley and @berkleypub for the advanced e-book copy! 💛

This was an easy read and I enjoyed the banter that Levi and Bee engage in and that the side couple are lesbians that are the classic scary goth/bubblegum pink girlfriend which I thoroughly enjoyed. The plot was a little convoluted with all the moving parts of the NASA-NIH collab, the miscommunications between Levi and Bee, the fact that Bee faints all the time with Levi there to catch her all the time like a damsel and then that plot twist at the end which really came out of nowhere and that might be my fault maybe I missed that there was a mystery subplot that would culminate in the plot twist. I think I just don’t like enemies to lovers since they usually become enemies by virtue of a miscommunication which really irritates me since I always end up yelling at my book to just freaking talk already and quit taking everything the wrong way. I did like how they interact on twitter and the you got mail of it all with them complaining about each other to each other. So all in all I liked it but didn’t love it.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

I am speechless! I don't think I've loved the second book more than the first from an author in a long time. Love on the Brain is everything and so much more than The Love Hypothesis, and that is saying something because The Love Hypothesis is brilliant. I ADORE BEE! Bee has such a wonderful voice and background. She is so fleshed out and real and vulnerable at times that it hurts. And then there is Levi. And listen, I wasn't sure how Levi could lap Adam Carlsen in terms of sexiness, but holy cow did he ever. Levi is also incredibly fleshed out and I love everything about the way the story unfolds. This plot was written so beautifully and while I saw many of the plot points coming while reading it, it was deliciously captivating. I'm deeply sad I won't be able to read this book for the first time ever again because it was truly wonderful and I can not wait for it to be out in the world.

after reading Ali Hazelwood's last book I had high expectations for this release and oh boy I was not let down