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rose_88's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
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
This book was pretty good, I loved the development of the science and stuff, I loved how all the women were just so smart and not ready to take any shit or to not get credit for their work. I LOVED how Levi actually went to therapy and worked out his issues with communication and how he took full responsibility for being an ass to Bee in grad school. I also loved how both him and Bee actually apologised to each other and understood that at times they were in the wrong. The whole thing with Guy at the end, basically everything to do with BLINK’s presentation and the @WhatWouldMarieDo twitter account/movement felt a bit rushed but overall I think it was cool that they realised that everything going wrong was the same guy (pun intended) I ALSO LOVED ALL THE CAT PUNS, plus just all the realisations (about them being twitter friends, him liking her for years, her not actually being married). Ali Hazelwood is very good at writing good and healthy relationships, obviously seem both here and with ‘The Love Hypothesis’. Overall, a pretty decent book with a relationship that makes me love them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexual content
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Animal death and Gun violence
morainjay's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Death and Death of parent
sami_leigh's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5
🌶️🌶️.5/5
‘There’s someone in my corner. A guy who loves Star Wars, and is too tall for space, and will take care of a kitten for half his life.’
🧠 First Person POV
🧠 Enemies to lovers
🧠 Forced Proximity
🧠 Workplace romance
🧠 Misunderstanding
🧠 Online identities
🧠 Women in STEM 🙌🏻
🧠 Feminism
🧠 BANTER! 🔥
🧠 He falls first
🧠 Well established - and quirky! - secondary characters (Rocío. She’s such a weirdo. I equally adore and fear her.) 🖤
🧠 Growth for our MC 👌🏻
🧠 Cat lovers 🐱
⚠️ Childhood trauma, death of a parent, gun violence, fainting disorder, seizures, emotional abuse, infidelity, gaslighting and toxic relationships.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Sexism
Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Death, and Emotional abuse
thatswhatshanread's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
First and foremost: Ali Hazelwood knows cute and quirky to a very tall, dark and handsome T. “Love on the Brain” was science + cuteness, encapsulated. You don’t have to know anything about neuroscience or space to understand the workplace romance fleshed out amongst these pages. It’s quite endearing, if a little repetitive. As many have pointed out, the plot and characters are very similar to Ali’s first steminist romcom and one of my personal favorites of all time, “The Love Hypothesis”. Forgive me for comparing them, but it absolutely happened!! I had no control over it!!
I love Levi, and I love Adam. But Olive >>> Bee for sure. Moving on.
For a neuroscientist working on a NASA-funded project, Dr. Bee Königswasser is quite the oblivious Damsel in Distress™ when it comes to her supposed grad school nemesis, Dr. Levi Ward. She is Tiny and Clumsy and Alternative Hair. He is Massive and Closed Off and Beautiful Green Eyes. Levi avoided her in grad school at all costs because He Hated Her So Much And There Is No Other Explanation.
It’s your typical enemies-to-lovers romance, but I appreciated that the “enemies” part didn’t fester long. We all know the “enemies” trope is never that accurate considering at least one party is secretly in love the entire time. In this case, it’s glaringly obvious to everyone except our stubborn MC.
I enjoyed this novel, but it didn’t give me all of the swooning and butterflies that TLH gave me. Which, understandably, is hard to achieve. Still, I think it has long been a dream of mine to score a NASA scientist who named his cat Schrödinger.
Extra points for the extra steam in this one, though 🔥
I love Levi, and I love Adam. But Olive >>> Bee for sure. Moving on.
For a neuroscientist working on a NASA-funded project, Dr. Bee Königswasser is quite the oblivious Damsel in Distress™ when it comes to her supposed grad school nemesis, Dr. Levi Ward. She is Tiny and Clumsy and Alternative Hair. He is Massive and Closed Off and Beautiful Green Eyes. Levi avoided her in grad school at all costs because He Hated Her So Much And There Is No Other Explanation.
It’s your typical enemies-to-lovers romance, but I appreciated that the “enemies” part didn’t fester long. We all know the “enemies” trope is never that accurate considering at least one party is secretly in love the entire time. In this case, it’s glaringly obvious to everyone except our stubborn MC.
I enjoyed this novel, but it didn’t give me all of the swooning and butterflies that TLH gave me. Which, understandably, is hard to achieve. Still, I think it has long been a dream of mine to score a NASA scientist who named his cat Schrödinger.
Extra points for the extra steam in this one, though 🔥
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Animal death, Cursing, Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Medical content, and Misogyny
Moderate: Abandonment, Stalking, Bullying, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, and Grief
Minor: Gun violence
macykey's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-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
4.5
Okay, first of all, Levi Ward 🥰
There are two things that are keeping this book from having a higher rating: 1. Levi was just a *little* too much of a jerk in the beginning and 2.
Bee never told Levi that she loved him. Obviously she thinks it and we assume she says it off the page, but I would’ve liked her to say it.
There are two things that are keeping this book from having a higher rating: 1. Levi was just a *little* too much of a jerk in the beginning and 2.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Misogyny, Death, and Medical content
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Death of parent and Gun violence
stardustandrockets's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It really had me in the beginning as being extremely cookie cutter and like the rest of Hazelwood's work. Which, it is, but it also had me on the edge of my seat. Was I also screaming at Bee for being am idiot basically the whole book? Yeah. But that's nothing new for me when it comes to romance books.
I know a lot of people had issues with this one (I see you, twitter discourse), but I enjoyed it overall. Though do I agree that all the male leads are basically carbon copies of each other in some form or fashion? 100%. Are they giants with large dicks? Absolutely. Weirdos in bed? Yup. (That's also coming from a sex-repulsed asexual, so take it with a grain or five of salt.)
I know a lot of people had issues with this one (I see you, twitter discourse), but I enjoyed it overall. Though do I agree that all the male leads are basically carbon copies of each other in some form or fashion? 100%. Are they giants with large dicks? Absolutely. Weirdos in bed? Yup. (That's also coming from a sex-repulsed asexual, so take it with a grain or five of salt.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Gun violence and Death of parent
0701mango's review against another edition
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.nicksalex's review against another edition
emotional
funny
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity and Sexual content
Moderate: Misogyny, Death, Cursing, and Death of parent
litstyleguide's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Infidelity
Moderate: Death of parent and Death
Minor: Animal death
lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year because I read "The Love Hypothesis" last year and loved it. I am a sucker for a nerdy romcom that takes place in higher education. I was really into this book until the end, which kind of ruined it for me.
"Love on the Brain" follows Bee, a young woman who has been struggling to make a name for herself in her academic field, neuroengineering. When she gets offered her dream job to work with NASA she is elated...until she finds out her co lead is Levi, a man who has hated her since grad school, seemingly for no reason. Bee relocates to Texas to start her new job and is frustrated not only to see that Levi is the same guy, but that she still has to deal with the sexist politics she has always had to face. Can Bee succeed with her project and finally prove to everyone that women are just as capable as men, and can her and Levi resolve their differences?
I think it is pretty obvious that this story centralizes as a love story between Bee and Levi. I am normally not a big fan of enemies to lovers, but their story overall did work for me. I loved seeing their love story, and I really enjoyed that they already had a past together, so it kind of felt like a second chance romance. I did think Bee was incredibly annoying at times. I understand an empathize that she is going through a difficult time and trying to heal from her past trainwreck of a relationship, but she is entirely convinced that Levi is the enemy and will not even give him a chance. I also understand that woman, especially in the science fields, have to work twice as hard because of their sexist male counterparts, and I love to see Ali Hazelwood's characters kickass and show how smart and capable they are, but I am getting a little bored that all of her characters seem to have the same jaded outlook. I would love to see her write a woman character who is a little less jaded by the struggles woman face. Again, I get it, and it sucks that we still live in a world where women are seen as inferior, just from a fictional standpoint, I would love to see a variety.
The ending of this book is CRAZY. The story takes a dramatic, Hollywood -like turn and becomes a high action, higher stakes adventure for a hot second, which I did not see coming. This is where the story lost me. I did not need that intense scene, and it seemed way too over the time to be plausible.
I will definitely read from Ali Hazelwood again, but I do hope she writes a different story in the future!
"Love on the Brain" follows Bee, a young woman who has been struggling to make a name for herself in her academic field, neuroengineering. When she gets offered her dream job to work with NASA she is elated...until she finds out her co lead is Levi, a man who has hated her since grad school, seemingly for no reason. Bee relocates to Texas to start her new job and is frustrated not only to see that Levi is the same guy, but that she still has to deal with the sexist politics she has always had to face. Can Bee succeed with her project and finally prove to everyone that women are just as capable as men, and can her and Levi resolve their differences?
I think it is pretty obvious that this story centralizes as a love story between Bee and Levi. I am normally not a big fan of enemies to lovers, but their story overall did work for me. I loved seeing their love story, and I really enjoyed that they already had a past together, so it kind of felt like a second chance romance. I did think Bee was incredibly annoying at times. I understand an empathize that she is going through a difficult time and trying to heal from her past trainwreck of a relationship, but she is entirely convinced that Levi is the enemy and will not even give him a chance. I also understand that woman, especially in the science fields, have to work twice as hard because of their sexist male counterparts, and I love to see Ali Hazelwood's characters kickass and show how smart and capable they are, but I am getting a little bored that all of her characters seem to have the same jaded outlook. I would love to see her write a woman character who is a little less jaded by the struggles woman face. Again, I get it, and it sucks that we still live in a world where women are seen as inferior, just from a fictional standpoint, I would love to see a variety.
The ending of this book is CRAZY. The story takes a dramatic, Hollywood -like turn and becomes a high action, higher stakes adventure for a hot second, which I did not see coming. This is where the story lost me. I did not need that intense scene, and it seemed way too over the time to be plausible.
I will definitely read from Ali Hazelwood again, but I do hope she writes a different story in the future!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Gun violence, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Physical abuse
Minor: Death of parent and Death