A review by emileers
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

4.0

I really liked this! For reasons I don’t fully understand, it seems like this book and the author is getting some hate. Not enough to really impact the goodreads rating, but enough to annoy me. There are some reviews saying this book is the exact same as her last, and tweets angry about an interview where she said that she had help coming up with the ideas for this one. Regarding the criticism on the book, yes it’s similar to her first in certain ways, but not the same book by any means. But romance readers (myself included) spend a lot of time searching for tropes and types of characters they like the most and enjoy reading, and if this is what Ali enjoys reading/writing, then that makes sense to me. No one is making anyone read this book. The other criticism is that, I guess, people think they/their friends/anyone else deserve to be published more than she does since she is not good/doesn’t know what she’s doing/started off writing fanfic (to which I’d say get a life). As if the publishing industry has pledged fairness and representation and inclusion and to publish everyone who wants it? I can’t begin to guess the reasoning, other than the fact that society cannot wholeheartedly love and appreciate a woman for more than just a short period of time before internalized misogyny kicks in and everyone decides she’s annoying (Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy schumer, AOC, etc). The downfall is even worse if a woman starts off wholeheartedly celebrated and embraced.

Anyway, I like the book, and I’ll read the next one she publishes, especially if the description of the MMC looks like Adam Driver.