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A review by andreapepsii
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
After my new found love for the “The Love Hypothesis”. I quickly took up the second edition of the cozy STEM romance stories to keep filling my achy heart whilst doing chores (listened to it as an audiobook).
Plot wise this book had the potential to be better than the first book (fancy NASA project, toxic ex, Twitter personality), to me those plot lines never get the weight they should, they are spread unevenly and get solved quite fast and they never link as well as they should. I can’t quite put the finger on it but there was a bit more connection work between plot lines and characters to make them work truly well.
Characters are also a bit more flat than in the first book. It’s always obvious that he’s into her and her trauma with commitment is also not developed as deep as it could’ve because, as previously mentioned, that plot line gets quickly put to rest to leave space for other plot lines and doesn’t regain weight anymore in the book.
Now, what I severely pleasantly surprised with was the ending. Completely out of left field and putting a more serious and dangerous end to the story, it had my jaw dropped for all of the second to last chapter. Which I was not expecting from the quite predictable story line. Kudos to that.
Maybe because I had just recently read The Love Hypothesis, I couldn’t help it but compare both stories and seeing this one fell short despite the plot potential. Would recommend the first one instead of this for a cozy read, but it wasn’t bad either.
Happy with the content, wishing for more excellency.
Plot wise this book had the potential to be better than the first book (fancy NASA project, toxic ex, Twitter personality), to me those plot lines never get the weight they should, they are spread unevenly and get solved quite fast and they never link as well as they should. I can’t quite put the finger on it but there was a bit more connection work between plot lines and characters to make them work truly well.
Characters are also a bit more flat than in the first book. It’s always obvious that he’s into her and her trauma with commitment is also not developed as deep as it could’ve because, as previously mentioned, that plot line gets quickly put to rest to leave space for other plot lines and doesn’t regain weight anymore in the book.
Now, what I severely pleasantly surprised with was the ending. Completely out of left field and putting a more serious and dangerous end to the story, it had my jaw dropped for all of the second to last chapter. Which I was not expecting from the quite predictable story line. Kudos to that.
Maybe because I had just recently read The Love Hypothesis, I couldn’t help it but compare both stories and seeing this one fell short despite the plot potential. Would recommend the first one instead of this for a cozy read, but it wasn’t bad either.
Happy with the content, wishing for more excellency.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Chronic illness, and Sexism