Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

10 reviews

julianh's review against another edition

funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Mental illness, Gun violence, Death of parent, Cursing, and Emotional abuse

cutepatzie's review

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The book is good. Love the relationship and romance here. Again I appreciate showing how hard it still is to be a girl and have a career in the university and since world. I very much appreciate the way of appreciation of mental health characters go to therapy when they need to, they do not feel emberes because of that and that is such a positive thing. My only minus is this a bit cliche but still sweet and cool story is the cat saves the day. Especially when the author a couple of pages before talking about cliche moments in books and movies. But still a good book about a very amazing love story. Every girl deserves a man like Levi.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Cursing, Abandonment, Sexism, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Death of parent, Car accident, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, and Chronic illness

chasingpages1's review

emotional funny informative lighthearted relaxing tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Sexual content, Sexism, Death of parent, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, Violence, Cursing, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Bullying

chainsiren's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Violence, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol

chuckielittle's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual content, Mental illness, and Gun violence

Moderate: Violence, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Sexism

Minor: Death of parent and Cursing

harmony822's review

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Abandonment, Classism, Grief, Misogyny, Gun violence, Mental illness, Car accident, Sexism, Stalking, Violence, and Death of parent

reverieparacosm's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, and Sexual content

Minor: Gun violence, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

0701mango's review

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

I really liked the leads' dynamic in this book, and I appreciate the science of it as a student of science myself. However, I found it harder to like Bee, the heroine, compared to some of Ali Hazelwood's other heroines like Olive from The Love Hypothesis and Mara from the novella Under One Roof. That being said, I found Levi, the hero, very attractive and highly appealing as a romantic interest. He was strong and secure, and I find good leadership to be attractive.

The order of events in the romantic plot was not for me. Nor were some of the plot points themselves of the romantic plot. For one, I really hate the misunderstandings/miscommunication trope, and that was pretty central for a lot of the book. I include Bee and Levi not knowing they're Twitter friends in the components of this trope. I don't mind that they had sex before getting together, but this back and forth of will Bee let herself be in love or not was not for me. I generally don't like when the romantic resolution happens on the very last page, but I thought it worked better in The Love Hypothesis than in this book. In the last third or quarter of the book, everything felt like too much of a rollercoaster for my taste.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Car accident, Death, and Misogyny

Minor: Gun violence and Murder

The main character, Bee, is an orphan whose parents passed away in a vehicle accident. She has attachment issues stemming largely from moving around a lot as a child and her ex-fiance cheating on her with her best friend. Bee's love interest, Levi, has a disinterested, rude, and unsupportive family. The sexual content in this book is explicitly written and somewhat frequent.

There's a scene in which Bee is threatened with a gun.

readundancies's review

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Love on the Brain is Ali Hazelwood’s sophomore contemporary romance and I hate to say it, but it feels very sophomorey. As in, by no means is it a poor sophomore novel, it just didn’t have the same magic as her debut. 

There were a lot of plot choices that just didn’t work for me in combination when it came to Levi’s backstory. It was very drama heavy and unbelievable in a way I struggled to appreciate. I also found the friendships to be lacking emotional depth in this one compared to debut. Even the sisterhood presented had a lot left to be desired for me, it just wasn’t giving me enough. And everything about Levi’s family was garbage, and I was not a fan of how it was dismissed rather nonchalantly once all his family members were introduced. 

The banter was cute, but then Hazelwood does great things with dialogue. It’s just the plot and characters didn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside which is what I wanted because I wanted the romance to capture me the way The Love Hypothesis did. 

And then the ending happened. Which did not do the story any favours from my viewpoint because oh how tired am I of reading about gun violence as plot points in contemporary romance. 

So yeah, the story wasn’t anything to write home about but it wasn’t a bad one either. I think I just had expectations that were never going to be met. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Violence

katebrownreads's review against another edition

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity