this was good but not as good as the first book, i wasn’t that interested in the plot of this book. i did like the romance more but at times i found myself bored also it was really annoying how the characters in this book talked.

Love on the Brain is a delightful, successful sophomore novel from author Ali Hazelwood! The chemistry between engineer Levi and neuroscientist Bee is off the charts! Hazelwood’s growth as a writer is showcased brilliantly here - more consistent pacing, less reliance on fanfic tropes, and a more fully fleshed out heroine make this a strong novel that fans of her debut and new readers alike will devour. A must read for any trad-pub contemporary romance fan.

Ali Hazelwood's second novel is just as much of a gem as her first. The same magic is in "Love on the Brain" as it was in "The Love Hypothesis." There is so much quick wit, humor, romance, and STEM goodness throughout this book. Hazelwood has an easy way of capturing the reader's interest and keeping them glued to the book until they can read it in one sitting! Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Having loved The Love Hypothesis, to the point I hand sold it every chance I got, I was ecstatic to see this become available to request. As this was one of my most anticipated rates of the year, I was a little apprehensive going into this book, as I had high expectations and I didn’t want to be disappointed. Alas, I should never doubt Ms.Hazelwood and her ability to craft the perfect romance. What I personally loved the most about Love on The Brain was how Hazelwood was able to perfectly articulate the feelings of being a female in a male dominated field, and incorporate this experience in a beautiful love story. It seemed as if she was talking from experience and I believe a lot of readers will be able to relate to Bee and her struggles to establish herself in STEM. Unlike “The Love Hypothesis”, it takes a bit longer for our two love interests to come together (in a sense), but longing and the relationship that is built makes it worth it. I love how Bee, like Olive, is a smart heroine, who is driven by her passion for what she does. Bee is quirky and fun and so relatable that you can’t help loving her, insecurities and all. Levi, is the perfect hero. Once you start to understand where he came from and you piece together the history of his unrequited love for Bee, you can’t help but root for him. Perhaps, I’m just a sucker for love interests written by females, but Levi is the kind of character you hope to fall in love with in your own life. The plot itself was engaging and while it learned more into neurology than I expected, the concepts were well explained and fascinating enough that I want to look into this field of research more. While the ending was slightly far fetched, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of this book at all! Ali Hazelwood and her works will be on my brain until she releases her next novel, but honestly I’m perfectly content with that.

this was really cute I even pre ordered it to have the physical copy. Cant wait for others to read it

Thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc!

Ali Hazelwood came back swinging with her second novel, after a huge success with The Love Hypothesis! I sat for 4 hours straight reading this, I could not put it down.

I really loved Bee, the main character in this one, and how she reminds me a little about Olive from TLH. I love that the book focuses a lot on her being a scientist, and a very successful one too. Can't wait for this book to go public!

Love on the Brain was my most highly anticipated book after getting a glimpse of it at the end of The Love Hypothesis and chatting with Ali about what to expect from it.

CW: death of parents (past), misogyny, sexism in the workplace, mentions of workplace sexual harassment, epilepsy in child, attempted murder, gun violence, cheating/gaslighting from ex (past)

THIS BOOK IS BEAUTIFUL. Ali Hazelwood writes STEM love stories beautifully and expresses clearly what it's like to be a woman in a male-dominated field. As a current Biochemsitry PhD candidate, I could FULLY understand what it feels like and while reading this was like "damn, I guess it's not just me."

I loved Bee. She is my new imaginary best friend. I loved her authenticity and her passion. I loved that even though the world beat her down, she was still fighting. She felt so real and I could vividly picture what it would be like to interact with her. Levi, my sweet sweet Levi, who was pining for Bee! The fact that he was fighting for her to be treated as his equal. The misunderstandings happened often, but I could see how they did and I just wanted Bee to realize that Levi loved everything about her.

Together Levi and Bee made perfect sense. They were opposites that had so much in common, it was wild. I loved how Levi talked about having to go to therapy to help him learn how to process his feelings better, I love a man that admits he needed help. The love of science and their work made them a match made in a beaker. I loved that Levi was willing to admit what he did wrong, that he advocated for Bee, that he did his very best to be a better communicator and advocate. I just loved how perfectly they seemed to balance each other out.

Bee's relationship with her sister was beautiful and relatable. Two people can come from the same environment and experiences and end up being totally different in how they react to them. I loved that Ali focused on how there isn't always one right way to react to situations beyond your control. I loved Bee's RA, Rocio, she was amazing and I loved the somewhat parallels of her own love story to that of Bee's. I loved the subplot of abolishing the GRE, especially since most graduate schools no longer require the test.

I'm already planning my first re-read because I just can't get enough of this. Ali is one of my favorite authors and the hold this book already has over me is unmatched.

Thank you to Ali, Berkley, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

AHHH! One million heart eye emojis for Love on the Brain!!! A big thank you to NetGalley, Berkley, and Ali Hazelwood for this advance reader copy. Ali Hazelwood simply has done it again – another amazing and clever female protagonist and book boyfriend to add to my list of faves. If you think no one can compare to Adam Carlsen from The Love Hypothesis, think again….hello Levi Ward. *Cue the hot flame emojis*

Bee was such a refreshing character – she’s ambitious, relatable, passionate about her career, and completely real. When she is offered her dream position (lead on a neuroengineering project), she’s over the moon. Until she realizes who her co-lead is, her arch nemesis: Levi Ward. Believing he despised her in graduate school and is sabotaging her now at work, Bee finds herself getting to know the “real” Levi Ward in this satisfying enemies-to-lovers book.

A surprising addition to reading: I learned a lot about Marie Curie! Ali Hazelwood continues to pave the way with creating rom-coms that incorporate STEM effortlessly. The STEM content in both The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain is refreshingly real – specifically about the harsh reality (and unfairness) of working in a male dominated profession. Already eagerly waiting for what comes next from Ali Hazelwood! When this book releases in August 2022, set aside 4-5 hours because you won’t be able to put this down!

This book was a little slow for about the first 20%. It was kind of hard to get into, but once we got into it, oh goodness, hold your horses! This was smart and sexy and fun. I devoured this book!

thank you so much berkeley for sending me this arc

5/5 stars! ali hazelwood has done it again!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. From start to end it always kept my interest peaked, and that’s not some thing I can often say. From the beginning we are obviously introduced to Bee and she has to be one of the more interesting female protagonist I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading the perspective of. I love the way her mind works and how quirky she is she’s also insanely relatable and easy to adore. Bee and Levi’s relationship progression was one of my favorite things about this story. The way the audience new from the jump that he probably has always liked her and her oblivious behavior to it all just did it for me. I’m a sucker for these kind of tropes and this story hit it on the mark every time! I also love that Ali Hazelwood tend to always throw in a conferences in her storylines. I realize this is just a second book but I obviously love that because that allows us to see the force proximity TROPE. Which is executed beautifully in the story, Levi and Bee’s banter is one of my favorite things in this story and honestly I couldn’t get enough of it! I will say some parts of the story were extremely wordy for me, maybe because even though I am a stem major I am an engineer and not a neuroscientist so the constant references to Marie Curie and big science terms sometimes threw me for a loop but that’s just me. I will say what saved the story from getting a 4.5 from me to now getting 5 stars was the ending. I am a whore for climactic endings like that. Like Guy being the bad guy in the end and bringing out a gun??? I enjoyed that so much! I wasn’t expecting that at all that threw me for a loop and I absolutely adored it. I think Ali Hazelwood is one of the first authors I’ve ever seen incorporate such a chaotic ending into a story which you wouldn’t expect anything like that to happen. I really enjoyed reading that it put a smile on my face and honestly did it for me. Also Levi is honestly such a dream, I absolutely adore his character honestly believe he has no flaws the way he’s so hopelessly loved Bee with everything in him! He is a hopeless romantic, just like me and I absolutely love him for it. He also was re-teaching Bee what it felt like to be loved and I just couldn’t get enough of it. All in all I really adore the story if Ali wants to hang out any time she has my attention I will make time for her I absolutely adore her this was amazing.

Another winner by Ali Hazelwood. I was so excited to get this and read it in one sitting. It was so cute and I will read it again. I will also be purchasing a copy for my library.

What a delight! Although this story hits a lot of the same beats as The Love Hypothesis, Hazelwood pull off another great slow burn, enemies to lovers story centered around two competing scientists. Our heroine Bee has finally gotten the opportunity to prove herself by getting appointed to lead a team of scientists in creating a helmet for astronauts. The only difficulty is that she has to work with her nemesis, Levi, who made her graduate school rough through his indifference and avoidance. It seems at first that it's going to be the same thing- Levi is going to ignore her and sink their project. But throw in an imaginary cat, a side goth/sunshine romance, and a Marie Curie, and Levi and Bee realize that maybe they've just misunderstood each other all this time.
The chemistry is, as usual scorching, and this is the type of book that you'll want to sit and read in one sitting because why can't they just kiss already? There's also a delightful You've Got Mail situation going on that will be very obvious to the reader, but I thought it served a great job to let us into Levi's inner workings.
If Ali Hazelwood writes it, we will read it!

It is a true tribute to the power of this book's plot that I read and loved it even though the author for some godforsaken reason decided to switch from 3rd to 1st person in the middle of a trilogy??? But the plot is COMPELLING. It's the perfect "wronged woman" revenge fantasy: your fiance cheated on you, your best friend was the person he cheated with, your boss is a sexist pig, you're being sabotaged at every turn at work... but a sweet, brilliant, handsome man (who is played by Adam Driver) has been hopelessly in love with you for years, supports you unquestioningly, makes all the sexist men at work listen to you, catches you when you swoon at the sight of your cheating ex and then CARRIES YOU out of the room? And then you make groundbreaking scientific discoveries and you get offered your sexist boss's job and then HIS boss's job and you turn it all down so you can live in sweet sweet scientific bliss with Adam Driver and your his-and-hers matching laboratories? Perfect, showstopping, no notes. Love that for all of us.

This is not a story where the heroine has to change to earn her happily-ever after. This book is that picture of Will Smith gesturing to Jada on the red carpet as if to say "here she is, the most perfect woman in the world, adore her" in textual form. And you know what? GOOD.

Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis was one of my favorite reads of 2021 - I have never clicked on a Netgalley linked faster than when I saw her follow-up, Love on the Brain, was available eight months ahead of its publication date. I sped through it in one day, but wanted to savor it - it's one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time. It was so swoony, so delightful, so smart, and so funny - perhaps even better than The Love Hypothesis. I love that Hazelwood is representing women in STEM in her romances - she knows her stuff, but it never feels overly academic for non-scientists to engage with (and I ended up learning a lot from this book about brain science). Can't wait for everyone else to discover this book, and I'm so excited to read more of Hazelwood's work!

OMFG.

This book was so damn cute and Levi Ward deserves a spot in my top book boyfriends list because WOW what a man. Love on the Brain brings so many tropes to the table that I love: enemies to lovers, yearning, online friends but at odds in real life, forced proximity, DID I SAY YEARNING (Levi is such a simp I adore it), PRAISE

Also, my sister works in neuroscience so I felt like this was an awesome little peek into her world.

The only reason I am docking a star is because some of the central angst surrounds miscommunication, and it just lasted a bit too long for my taste. Like girl just tell him you're not married?? I know you're embarrassed and assume he already knows, but SPEAK.

I always worry about an author's sophomore book. Sometimes they just can't keep the same magic they had in their first book. Ali Hazelwood not only kept the magic, but created a book so satisfying and heart warming, I just couldn't put it down. Levi and his absolute love for Bee, the unrequited and pining was so gut wrenching, the moment he realizes that he has a chance the sweet, subtle, gentle way he goes about it had me holding my breath. Bee's utter unwillingness to believe that he truly still loves her, her, just how she is, I just wanted to shake her and make her see the light.

I loved these characters and rooted for them throughout the whole book. I love the emphasis on Marie Curie and loved the factoids scattered throughout. I will literally read anything Ali Hazelwood writes, even if it's just a grocery list. I will recommend this book far and wide!

Ali did it again! Love on the Brain was an incredibly fun, sweet read that got me so absorbed I finished it in under 24 hours, I can't wait for it to come out to I can put my copy in its place next to The Love Hypothesis. Thank you for the early copy, I can't wait to read Ali's next book!

I was fine with it as is until chapter 24. I guess certain “twists” happen in Woody Allen movies, but he’s nuts, and his movies always contain wonky undercurrents, so basically anything goes. Here, I felt like I got a hiccup in the middle of a perfectly good hamburger. The story corrected itself immediately after chapter 24, so... nice.... but it detracted a bit from the total experience. Likable characters, an interesting examination of academic politics, the gender gap, and a modern sensibility that wasn’t overbearing lent authenticity to this and separated it from the pack. I’d recommend it, in spite of what I said.

Bee Königswasser, a scientist with NIH is given the chance of a lifetime to team up with NASA and it’s a dream come true for her! She’s so ecstatic…until she finds out that she will be working alongside Levi Ward - her archnemesis. Levi and Bee were in grad school together, but Levi was always so cool and reserved and hated Bee. She’s not sure anything’s changed in the past few years and is dreading working with him.

The project starts off immediately on the wrong foot. Being a woman in the STEM field, Bee should be used to it, but she was hopeful and excited. Soon, Bee’s not sure that she can put up with all the crap she’s having to deal with. Not to mention that Levi either ignores her or is trying to sabotage her every step of the way. But not everything is at is seems and soon Bee finds herself working alongside Levi. Will these two be able to work past their differences to work together?

<SPOILERS>

After reading The Love Hypothesis, I was highly anticipating Love on the Brain. And oh, how I loved Levi and Bee together. Their chemistry and banter was evident right from the beginning. This enemies-to-lovers, second chance romance was equally swoony and funny. I constantly had a grin on myself while reading it.

And while so many parts of Love on the Brain had me laughing out loud, there were also topics of grief and loneliness that I really resonated with. The grief of losing a best friend, the grief of losing parents, the grief and loneliness of having family members that never accept you for who you are. These topics were woven throughout this romance so perfectly.

Read Love on the Brain If you love Star Wars, cats, Marie Curie, texting ala You’ve Got Mail, steamy scenes, nerdy jokes and lots of puns…so yeah I could go and on and on, but please add this book to your TBR!

Funny, nerdy, sweet, and a perfect sophomore book!!

Like most other romance book lovers, as soon as I saw the newest Ali Hazelwood title, I squealed. I moved it to the top of my queue and then read it in a night. My god, is this a superb second novel in this series. This plot, the science, the women in STEM, the protagonists. All of it was just *chef's kiss*. Bee was one of my favorite characters. Levi! Ugh, I just adored Levi. You know when you're reading a book, and then you're halfway done and get preemptively sad that it'll be over? I felt it with this one. I wanted to be in this world after it ended, and was sad to leave these new pals. Ali Hazelwood writes perfectly nerdy characters with such refreshing plots.

Bee was a super relatable science nerd who has had so many people leave her in her life that she's promised herself to never put herself in a situation where she would be leave-able. No dating (they could die or leave you!), no cats (they'll die in 13-17 years!), and just focusing on her career will keep her safe. That changes when she's placed as a co-lead on a NASA project with her nemesis Levi. Levi has hated Bee since grad school (for reasons that were never clear to Bee), and now he's basically sabotaging any progress on this project. Toss in some incredible research assistants, coworkers and some super fun plot twists, and you get an incredible book. LOVED Love on the Brain!