This was so cute! Typical Ali Hazelwood with quirky characters and a hero who seems to hate the heroine but is harboring secret feelings for her. I enjoyed the plot of this one and how the hero and heroine were working on a project for NASA. There was a bit of a predictable You've Got Mail kind of plot, which I actually ended up enjoying too. I do like book one better and wish the hero just communicated with the heroine, especially when she made assumptions in the beginning, but overall this was fun!

This was cute and I liked it...but this was NOT on the same level as The Love Hypothesis. The characters felt slightly repetitive and unfortunately TLH did these same characters better. I know, I know, I should try to remove comparison and try to be more objective or something...but I can't, so this is how it is.

I truly enjoy reading Hazelwood's quirky STEM loving characters in a way that I never really thought I would, considering I am the opposite of any kind of STEM loving or even generically understanding kind of person. I also don't mind the MMC in her books always being massive and ripped, because frankly...it's hot. The issue I had here was that I felt like I was reading the same book again, but not done nearly as well and that was a bit sad for me.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who has not read TLH and will not experience that minor disappointment, but I was still entertained.

such an amazing read! love it even more than the love hypothesis and i didnt think that would be possible. Ali hazelwood is a romcom genius!

Thanks from the bottom of my heart for the free book, PRH International <3 (and Netgalley of course).

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this new Hazelwood novel. When you like a new author's first book a lot, you always find yourself in that limbo of uncertainty between the confidence that the second one will be spectacular as wll, and the fear of being disappointed (and I admit that the fact that the novellas were definitely at TLH's standards didn't help too much). Well, despite all, I enjoyed this story even more than The Love Hypothesis. 

I think this author is one of the few people who manages to make science interesting and appealing to my eyes. I loved all the work Levi and Bee did together and I admit I would have gladly read even more of it, because yes, it may be a contemporary romance, but for me, without a plot and or a decent outline, a book doesn't work. It's obvious that the writer knows what she's talking about or has at least informed herself about it, so that the background of the characters and the story is concrete and believable. Hazelwood's STEM novels take me into a world that is far from me for sure, but somehow I can feel as mine too. Of course, the light-hearted and ironic style helps a lot, making the reading enjoyable and smooth, but you should not think that you are facing a book with no depth.

On the contrary, as in The Love Hypothesis, Love on the Brain is also a manifesto against sexism and discrimination in the academic-scientific field. Bree's work is hindered in many ways, undervalued because carried out by a woman, no matter how good she may be. Obviously aware of this situation, rather than giving up, she courageously continues to fight in a world that rather than accepting her seems trying to relegate her in a corner, creating anonymously a twitter account (What would Marie Curie do?) that over time has brought together and helped other people in a similar condition, giving birth to a sort of close-knit community based on dialogue and confrontation that can actually lay the foundations for a social change. I think this is a very good message if we think about the society where we actually live.

At the same time, if in this context we find a strong protagonist, romantically Bree's confidence is undermined by a manipulative and, for me, verbally abusive ex-boyfriend. Therefore it was nice to see the evolution of her relationship with Levi and the way she gradually comes to trust another person again, considering that the young engineer is practically her nemesis - at least from her point of view.
Besides the perfect tension crescendo that hovers since the very beginning of the book, I loved the way Levi relates to Bree and all the rest of the characters. I am inexorably in love with this quiet male figure who gives so much to the others and who, above all, has the courage to stand up for what he believes in, choosing carefully his own battles and how to carry them on. He's an intense but at the same time delicate figure, who has a not easy background, made up of continuous attempts to impose his career and his way of being. And perhaps is Bree's presence that will dilute the load he has always carried on his shoulders alone for years.

Obviously, there is the usual 'twist' that forces the situation, but compared to The Love Hypothesis, the drama is handled better and I really enjoyed how it has been solved.
In the end, I've adored all. Maybe I would have liked some additional closing chapters, or to see Olive and Adam back even just for a few chapters, but I guess that meant asking too much. I wouldn't mind, though, if there will be in the future a novel involving all the various protagonists.
In the meantime, I await Love, Theoretically!

I like this author a lot. The women are not stupid or following these men around like puppies. I've read all her others and I can't wait for her short story collection coming out soon!

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

All Bee Königswasser has ever wanted was to work with NASA, so when the call came for her to join a new team in creating a new spacesuit, and taking a lead with an unknown partner, she couldn't wait to arrive in Houston. But when she arrives and learns that her partner would be Levi Ward, the very man who seemed to make her life hell through graduate school, Bee soon realises it's not going to be easy. And when her orders start going unheard, and she's locked out of the main systems, it seems like all of Bee hopes and dreams are about to crumble. Until, that is, Levi starts backing her, and supporting her.

I'm going to admit I haven't read The Love Hypothesis, and have missed the hype with Ali's books. But I have wanted to read it, and so when I was sent the review copy for Love on the Brain I thought this one would be a good way to start. And my god, was this amazing! I was hooked from the very first page, and the tension and chemistry between Bee and Levi was outstanding. I read this late one night, and every time I got to the end of a chapter, I thought about putting it down and going to sleep, but I couldn't - I needed to get to the end, to see if Bee and Levi got their happy ending, with their house and garden, or not. The drama in the book was done extremely well too, and though I guessed at some of the twists and turns, I loved the way Ali wove them into the plot line. Now I need to get my hands on a copy of The Love Hypothesis, and hope I'll be lucky enough to get a review copy of Love, Theoretically next year!

This book started out quite slow and somehow didn't really pull me in right from the beginning like The Love Hypothesis did. Mostly because I was quite annoyed with the non-communicative way that Levi was having with Bee. I felt it was unnecessary and dragged on quite a bit. I also couldn't help but seeing the similar theme between Love on the Brain and The Love Hypothesis, the same character types but set in a different environment.

That being said, I really like the hero, Levi Ward (except for the initial non-communication), a NASA engineer, his pining and his you-are-my-only-oneness is delicious. The little things he does for Bee are swoonworthy. While it was written from Bee's POV only, Ms Hazelwood introduced Twitter messaging to reveal Levi's inner thoughts, which makes him even more endearing.

Bee is a young post-doc in neuroscience, she's smart, motivated, and passionate about science. This is something that I love to see in a STEM romance as it's very relatable to me personally. However, there are some moments that made me cringe from her childishness and immaturity.

Overall, I did enjoy the book, mostly because of the hero, and it's definitely steamier than The Love Hypothesis! I'm hoping we'll get to see something different in Ms Hazelwood's future books.

*Special thanks to the publisher for gifting me this book in exchange for my honest review.

Even better than The Love Hypothesis! I really appreciated the depth of this one, even if the relationship dynamic is very similar to TLH. Bee was a bit irksome at times as I found myself getting frustrated with her insistence that Levi hated her in the face of all evidence to the contrary, but for the most part she was easy to root for. And Levi is an absolute dream, obviously.

This one was far too similar to Ms. Hazelwood's debut. The plot twist at the end was ridiculous & I echo others who dislike the problematic size-difference obsession that weaves through both books.

Absolutely loved reading Ali Hazelwood’s newest! What a great plot with interesting, unique characters that really made themselves stand out. It was refreshing to see characters who could stand on their own but ended up in a happily ever after situation. The perfect romance to end the year reading!

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I found it far too similar to THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS and I'm not a fan of the enemies to lovers trope, so I decided to put it down. I appreciate the publisher for sending me an early copy to check it out for myself! I've heard good things from those who did finish it, but of the two--THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS definitely starts quicker, more realistic and more interesting than LOVE ON THE BRAIN.

i'm going to go right out and say what everyone else has been saying for months--love on the brain is a carbon copy of hazelwood's first book. i thought other reviewers might have been exaggerating with their comparisons between the two books, but no, they are exactly. the same. there's the brooding, grumpy love interest and the feminist woman in stem, carbon copies of the characters from the love hypothesis, as well as a similar scenes and an identical ending.

don't get me wrong, i loved hazelwood's previous book, but i didn't come into this one hoping to read the exact same thing. this book is fine on its own, if its readers haven't read the first one, but cringy lines and a boring plot combine to make even that unenjoyable.

overall, there are definitely better romances out there, ones with more unique plots and characters. i highly recommend those, and that you maybe pass on this one.

- 2 stars -

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review! (even though i'm three months late...oops!)

4.5 stars — I wholeheartedly enjoyed this book even more than her debut novel, it just seemed to hit the right spots with me.

I both listened and read this book, and the narrator was not bad, but made weird choices sometimes. I found I just preferred to read it myself, purely personal taste.

Bee was kind of adorable. She could be so strong and sassy and forthright, but she could also not stand up for herself all the time, and she was profoundly damaged by a few events in her past that made her averse to letting her heart out of its self-imposed cage. Understandable, but occasionally it felt a bit too long. Might have been just me though. Despite that, I really appreciated her journey and felt like it was realistic. I’m not a fan of the miscommunication thing in romance books in general, even though they are everywhere. And I was a bit worried about this one, but for some reason I was okay with the way the timing played out. It didn’t drag out so long that I lost interest in our characters and their love story. And it left me with enough time to love them together.

I really appreciated that while there was no Levi POV, there were moments where we were able to see him and know him through his own words. He was damaged himself, in very different ways, but he didn’t give up on love. He was absolutely adorable in the way that he adored Bee. He was also wickedly smart, not afraid of women in STEM, and once the misunderstandings were cleared up, basically pretty awesome.

I wouldn’t call this one slow burn necessarily, but there was a lot of time for that tension to build up. And given the circumstances between them, it all felt right. I loved that their chemistry just seemed to explode like someone threw gasoline on them or something. And damn, some of those steamy scenes?? Hoo boy.

Some great secondary characters (and cats). I especially loved the absolutely bizarre Roçio, and Bee’s hilarious twin sister. And heck, Marie Curie was almost her own character.

It was delightfully nerdy, and while I didn’t know some of the words, I didn’t feel like I got lost with them…it didn’t go completely over my head.

This was good but not as good as the first book, I wasn’t that interested in the plot of this book. The dialogue felt forced and as if there was no real chemistry because the hero, Levi, was too busy acting overly disgusted with the heroine. I love that the author focuses on women in stem but it just felt like sometimes the romance took a backseat to the way the author wanted Bee (our heroine) to come off as quirky or "not like the other girls".

A delightful follow-up to Hazelwood's 'The Love Hypothesis,' this book is perfect for science lovers and romance lovers alike. A lot of the same tropes and themes from Hazlewood's first book show up in this one. but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable this time around.

Love on the Brain is the hardest book I've ever had to review. I'm stuck between three and four stars because I was engaged and invested but it felt like a carbon copy of Love Hypothesis. I love the STEM romance angle but it almost became cringy in this one. Bree made me uncomfortable, despite being a grown women, it almost felt like she's described as a child to contrast Levi's overt masculinity. Yet, despite my qualms, it was a quick read and I was definitely invested. Overall, 3.5 out of 5 stars and will definitely be enjoyed by those who were big fans of Love Hypothesis.

Fun read. Appreciated that a scientist wrote this - could tell that the characters were written by someone in their realm.

Literally everything about this book was swoony. The characters, the STEM, the workplace tension - all of it wrapped up to be a perfect read. More please!

Ali Hazelwood delivers another enemies to lovers story that features women in STEM. Bee is our protagonist who is co-leading a neuroengineering project at NASA with her nemesis from grad school, Levi. There are several misunderstandings from both sides, with Bee thinking Levi has always hated her and Levi thinking she is married to her douchebag ex. As they work to complete the project before the competition, they cannot fight their attraction towards each other. I enjoyed, The Love Hypothesis but this book felt like it was trying too hard to keep up the nemesis plot. Since early on you could see the misunderstandings and I felt the plot dragged through resolving the issues.

*incoherent disappointed groan*

alexa, play traitor by olivia rodrigo

let me start off by saying that i LOVED the love hypothesis…like gave it 5 stars, dropped $60 on a special edition, made my heart sing, l-o-v-e loved

but love on the brain…really took every brain cell working overtime to finish

i don’t even know how to properly convey why i’m disappointed…bc it was *gestures vaguely* everything

firstly, this book was a hundred tropes in a trench coat

don’t get me wrong. i adore romance tropes, but when they’re so blatantly shoved in for fan service rather than purposefully integrated for the plot…it just doesn’t work

let’s also not forget our two main characters. bee and levi are supposedly world renowned geniuses…but tell me why they are dumber than bricks

i genuinely cannot fathom how someone who is supposed to be a NASA scientist has negative critical thinking skills

it’s not enough that our main characters can’t be bothered to communicate with each other…they are the worst versions of ~not like other girls/guys~

we GET it. she is smol. he is tall. it does not need to be repeated every other page

good thing this is a book about stem bc the pick me energy is off the charts!

finally, the finale

IT’S SO BAD IT’S PRACTICALLY FUNNY. like if you went into this book ironically, you would’ve had a great time. imagine trina vega’s production of chicago in the hit nickelodeon tv show, victorious

*deep inhale*

there’s really nothing more disappointing than having a book you thought would be an instant favorite just fall flat…

…but it happens…yeah…