{Book Review} Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

Thank you @berkleyromance for the review copy!

After loving her debut novel—who couldn’t love a low key Kylo Ren and Rey inspired romance?!—I was so excited for LOVE ON THE BRAIN and it did not disappoint!

While I do think Ali Hazelwood has a specific style of romance and characters she likes to write about, it didn’t bother me. I love the modern day miscommunication because it reminds me of historical romance in the best way. Levi and Bee’s dynamic from zero talking to a tentative friendship to, of course, love was very fun to read and felt very organic.

I adored Levi’s background and history and one thing I wish we had more of was a slightly deeper development of Bee’s insecurities. It was believable and well done but I feel like a deeper delve into her emotional landscape could have pushed this into women’s fiction in the best way but that’s just me!

The STEM element was fascinating even though I understood approximately zero of the technicalities, I loved the discussion of women in STEM and I also though the topic of the GRE and it’s merit was incredibly interesting and on point. What sets Hazelwood apart for me from other writers is her foundation of science and peripheral topics that gets the reader thinking and I absolutely cannot get enough of this.

If you’re a little nerdy with a lotta romance in your heart, you need this book!

I loved this enemies-to-lovers read about two smarty-pants scientists and their attempt at working together, even with angst from the past. Lovable characters, a great story line, and spicy romance make this an excellent, fun read.

So, before we begin this review, I want to let you all know that I have given 4 stars to The Love Hypotesis when I first read it in 2022, so I was really excited to read another STEMinist novel by Ali Hazelwood, especially since I wasn’t the biggest fan of Under One Roof, one of her short stories in the anthology she came out with last year (which I am going to finish in the next few days and review for you, stay tuned *evil laughter*).
Now, I understand the pressure of coming out with something new that can meet your readers expectations, especially if your debut became one of the bestselling romances of the year, went viral on every social media platform and was all everyone was talking about.
This does not mean that you should take your first novel, change a few details, make everything more and call it a day. If Olive was clueless, Bee is literally blind. If Adam was big, Levi was possibly even bigger. If the misunderstandings and miscommunication in the first book were over the top, in the second one they are so excessive they became unbelievable.
It wouldn’t have been a bad book, were it not from the same author of The Love Hypotesis. It was too similar for me, but I see it actually worked, because a lot of people ended up loving it as much as the first one, if not more. So, bravo Miss Hazelwood anyways.
Honestly, I don’t have many complaints and I don’t know what to say. The characters weren’t bad, they were just a bit annoying, but then again, more so because they were copies of Olive and Adam than anything else.
Same goes for the plot, it wasn’t a bad plot, just unoriginal. And I don’t mean unoriginal for the genre, because I am not looking for anything grounbreaking when I decide to pick up a romcom, I want fluff and distraction. But it was like reading TLH all over again, and if I wanted to do that, I own a physical copu and I could have done just so.
The writing style was just as smoot and quick to fly through as the other works by this authors I’ve read so far, which also means that I am not even annoyed at this book, because it was an easy read, and God knows I needed that while I was sick with the flu.
Overall, it wasn’t a book I can say I hated. However, I would still recommend The Love Hypotesis over this one. Read the classics, they say, and TLH is just classic romcom. If I had to make a metaphor, I’d say Love on the Brain was the sequel to a beloved movie that came out years later and was just a bad copy of the original. Just like Mary Poppins Returns felt in comparison to Mary Poppins (with the difference that I hated that sequel with a burning passion).
I am very curious to finish the anthology and then to read Love, Theoretically later this year, because I want to see if Ali Hazelwood ever writes something different. I am also really curious to read her YA debut, since I don’t like the way she writes sex scenes, and there should be none in a young adult romance.
Let me know what you thought about this book if you’ve read it, and which of Ali Hazelwood’s book you liked more (or if you hate them all, I want to know)!

🧠Love on the Brain
Author: Ali Hazelwood ( @alihazelwood )

🥰: Huge thank you to @berkleypub and @netgalley for the eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

👩🏾‍💻: This book is everything you could want in a romance! I absolutely loved #thelovehypothesis and as a Science teacher I knew I had to read this one asap.

This novel is about Dr. Bee who suddenly gets her dream job which is to work alongside engineers in NASA to create helmets for Astronauts. When she realizes she will be working alongside her college nemesis, Levi, she’s less than pleased, but I was definitely pleased with the situation 🤣 Levi was a great grumpy hero and with the banter came an amazing romance that slowly builds and gets very steamy 🔥😍

💛Recommended if you enjoy:
•Girl bosses
•Warm, fuzzy reads
•Workplaces between rivals

⚠️TW: Death, sexism, sexual harassment, firearms, & sexual content.

I really wanted to love this, but I just couldn't get into it. the writing and plot felt really juvenile. I did love that it highlights women in STEM, but that was really the only thing I liked about this.

STEMinist readers assemble! Finding love can feel like reaching for the stars, but for two brainiacs working at NASA, it’s not so far fetched. Romance is around the corner and nearing your orbit in this infectious romcom about two star-crossed rivals, scientists, nerds, and ultimately lovers.

In "Love on the Brain", Bee and Levi are nemeses forced to collaborate on a groundbreaking project that could launch Bee’s career and bolster Levi’s position. Although they haven’t seen each other since grad school, the tension between them is still insufferable and at times intoxicating. Unbeknownst to each other, they might have much more in common that they’d be comfortable admitting. Untangling the misunderstandings that have wound there way into their personal and work relationships, may result in feelings and revelations much more complicated and overwhelming than they anticipate in both the lab and the bedroom.

Ali Hazelwood’s charming wit had me blushing, laughing, and swooning for the chemistry she’d created between Bee and Levi. By the end of the novel, the main characters had me simultaneously falling in love and ready to call them bestie. This novel was nerdy catnip for my sappy silly heart. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth and Darcy, Ali Hazelwood’s protagonist are modern, lovelorn, sharp-witted, and humorous.

"Love on the Brain" is a RomCom must-read!

love hazelwood and enemies to lovers and extra smart leads, and this was it! I also liked the side stories happening

I LOVED The Love Hypothesis when I read it, and I had really high hopes for Love On the Brain. I think the concept for LOTB was so fun, I love a NASA set, STEM romance. But I didn’t love the characters quite as much as I did in Love Hypothesis. I think this is one story that I would have loved more if it had been duel POV. Levi’s character would have been great to hear his POV. I will say I didn’t love the ending and how the mystery played out/who the mystery villain was. This was a solid fun read, but not one I would want to reread. 3-3.5 stars

True to form…a typical Ali Hazelwood book! Smart, funny, sexy. Loved it! Ali has cornered the steminist romance market and I’m here for any and every one of her books!

I absolutely adored The Love Hypothesis and enjoyed Love on the Brain. Ali Hazelwood's ability to write about smart women and the men who love them (well, eventually, they do) is perfection for me. Bee & Levi each have their own quirks, so I connected with them so much. So many books nowadays have these perfect characters, which are often not believable, but Levi and Bee were, dare I say, normal. They are enemies to lovers, sorta. They aren't really friends but maybe not enemies either - rivals, one might say.
Their rivalry, then friendship, then more was fun to watch evolve.

I loved The Love Hypothesis, so I had really high hopes here. Unfortunately it underwhelmed. It was a little long, a little repetitive, and a little far fetched. Still a cute story, still enjoyed it, just not a new favorite at all.

This was cute but not as good as Ali’s first book. It was hard to stay interested in the plot. I did enjoy the romance though. I do love that Ali stays in the science realm because that is also a passion of mine. Overall I liked it.

This was romance with a splash of mystery and action! This was a super fun read! Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for a review!

Love on the Brain is another romance novel in Ali Hazelwood's STEMinist series. While Bea and Levi were both interesting characters, thematically this book seemed like a retread of The Love Hypothesis to its discredit. Things that were supposed to be major twists were foreshadowed with blinking lights and blaring alarms so Bea's inability to see these things made her seem less intelligent than she is supposed to be. The insistence of Hazelwood to use the "hEs So BiG aNd ShEs So SmAlL" trope really came to be obnoxious in this book.

I love a good enemies to lovers, but this book was made even better by the banter and nerdy fun throughout the story. I didn’t go in looking for any kind of life-altering revelation, but really just wanted fun. I devoured it so quickly and loved every second. Bee and Levi were both stubborn and brought the angst that every good enemies to lovers rom-com needs.

Another fun STEMinist romance that made me coo like a damn cozy infant. There’s nothing else I can say about Hazelwood’s books other than they’re so extremely soft and delicate. They have depth and beautiful characters, but I always feel warm.

I was unable to finish this novel before the publication date. My library owns two copies and it is used for displays and reader's advisory.

Ali Hazelwood has hit it out of the park again! I enjoyed this book just as much as her first one. The S.T.E.M. aspect is something I love to read and support in books and in life with my programs at the library. NASA is also one of those places I have always wanted to visit and one day I will!

Bee & Levi's relationship has its ups and downs. There, of course, where moments where I want to kick both of them for the miscommunication between them. That being said, the "miscommunication' trope is one of my least favorite tropes that I read; however, this book was written well enough that I didn't have a massive problem with it.

I can't wait to read more in Ali's world.

My hypothesis: I will always love an Ali Hazelwood book. There’s something about the combination of characters, friendships and relationships, and the writing style that gets me every time. Plus, there’s always an academia element and I always love that. The writing has only grown stronger the more novels I read from Hazelwood, and I cannot wait to get to the next book!

I loved this book even more than The Love Hypothesis. The plot was much less contrived and I loved the witty banter between the characters. I really enjoyed the story from beginning to end.