Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Love on the Brain

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.

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sami_leigh's review against another edition

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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.

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thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

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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 🔥

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kris386's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-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

3.0

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litlifeguide's review against another edition

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4.0

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ardentlyandi's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.0

I was so excited to read this after reading TLH when it came out but almost immediately, I was a little disappointed with this book. From the jump, you pretty much have an idea where it’s going.

Shmac being Levi is blatantly obvious from the first time he’s introduced.

I feel like everything was very predictable. I love the grumpy/sunshine trope

but the misunderstanding trope is so obvious from the beginning. I don’t really understand how Bee is a neuroscientist but also can’t realize that Levi very obviously likes her or at the very least doesn’t hate her.

Overall, I was just disappointed. Especially towards the end, things took a weird, random turn that I don’t think would be expected from a lighthearted romance book. Unexpected can be good, but I don’t think it made sense here. It went from super predictable to something so out of left field that you wouldn’t really ever see coming. On the other hand, I did enjoy the women in STEM aspects, discussions about the inequality facing groups of people who aren’t cis, white, straight men and I did enjoy Levi’s character for the most part and some of the supporting characters. I do love Ali Hazelwood’s writing style so I look forward to her next book, I’m just hoping for something a little less predictable.

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lauramparis's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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