This is my favorite Ally Hazelwood book so far! More spicy than some of her past books for sure. I really liked the development of the relationship between the characters.

I loved this one even more than The Love Hypothesis! Levi brought all the pining hero vibes and he's a favorite book boyfriend of 2022. This was funny, swoony and yes there's steam!

Dear Lord, WHYYYY did I wait so long to finally read this one?! It was unputdownable. I absolutely luuuurved every moment of it. From the misunderstood grump, to the colorful sunshine girl. It gave me all the feels. It even had great spicy moments, which can sometimes be a disappointment in sweet romances. It was thankfully NOT the case with this one. Ali Hazelwood has herself a fan here!

Ali Hazelwood is the queen of writing hate to love romances, and Love on the Brain is no exception. Following protagonist Bee who is distinguished scientist as she teams up with her grad school arch-nemesis fellow doctor Levi Ward, Love on the Brain combines two of my favorite things when reading: a delicious romance and teaching me something new!

Hazelwood’s books always focus on protagonists working in the STEM field, and this novel is no exception. Though I don’t work on the STEM field myself, I love that her works showcase not only females making strides in the STEM world but also acknowledges the lack of representation in the field and the challenges her characters face are representative of that. Bee, for instance, is a very capable doctor who is highly specialized in her field, yet her team at NASA seems to always defer to Levi because he’s a male (shocker). She often has to fight and advocate for herself in a way her male colleagues don’t have to, and I appreciate that her struggle with these things wasn’t downplayed. I also love that despite the obstacles she encounters being a female in the world of STEM, Bee doesn’t downplay her style or personality in order to “fit in” or be taken more seriously- she rocks pink hair, piercings, tattoos and cute outfits while still being a bad ass scientist. I also love that I always just learn so much about different STEM topics from reading Hazelwood’s novels, and even the chapter titles/headings of this one incorporate cute yet educational facts about the brain.

As far as the romance goes, I enjoyed it the way I always enjoy the author’s romance novels. There’s a tall, dark, and brooding love interest who starts out aloof and at odds with the protagonist and eventually softens. I will say it’s a bit formulaic across the two novels and three novellas I’ve read by the author so far, but I do love the trope and I feel as though there’s enough distinction in personalities across the characters of each books that it still feels unique in each story. I also like how the love interests, such as Levi, end up being good guys when all is said and done, rather than the “bad boy” persona in many romance novels that can actually be super toxic and unhealthy when you really analyze the relationships. Levi is definitely one of my favorite love interests from this companion series and I also loved the little side plot of how him and Bee were unknowingly in contact for years (it was super cute, if a bit obvious). If I wasn’t happily married, a Levi would be at the top of my list lol.

One element that set Love on the Brain apart from Hazelwood’s other novels for me was the mystery element. While Bee and Levi work on a high profile NASA project, strange occurrences keep popping up- from access issues to malfunctions to a mysterious ghost cat prowling the labs at night. It added a fun bit of intrigue at the beginning of the novel but actually turned unexpectedly nefarious toward the end!

Overall: I truly adore these STEMinist novels and novellas from Ali Hazelwood and cannot get enough! Sure, some of the tropes might be a bit repetitive but they are so fun and well done that I sincerely don’t mind. Love on the Brain is a romance I can see myself returning too again for a comfort read in the future and I can’t wait to see what the author comes out with next!

BOOK REVIEW: LOVE ON THE BRAIN

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

After reading #TheLoveHypothesis and all of Ali Hazelwood’s novellas, I couldn’t wait to read LOVE ON THE BRAIN! I love how she portrays females in STEM fields and this novel centers around Bee, a scientist working on a NASA project with her nemesis - Levi, who is also a total hottie.

I’d pick this one up if you’re looking for:
🧬Scientific backdrop (with lots of Marie Curie references)
🙅🏻‍♀️Enemies to lovers
🔥A lil steam
💬Nerdy/witty banter

Hazelwood definitely does the sciency rom com niche well but I will say her books and novellas all do have a very similar feel to them. If you haven’t read anything by her, I’d pick up The Love Hypothesis first!

I absolutely loved this book! Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school--archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. So why is Bee still gravitatating towards him when he unexpectantly becomes her boss at her dream job? Funny, smart, and consuming, this was one of my favorites of all time.

looooooved this book! ali hazelwood has never disappointed me in the slightest and i found myself loving the plot and characters in this book just as much as the love hypothesis

Oh boy, Ali Hazelwood has done it again!

Ali weaves interesting facts about Marie Curie to highlight all the issues Women in STEM are still facing today. When are women going to start getting the recognition they deserve? We are smart, we are capable, we have brains! It is very frustrating, but I have high hopes.

Bee and Levi’s enemies to lovers' story is a great combination of You’ve Got Mail and The Big Bang Theory. Witty banter and hilarious scenarios have you routing for this couple despite all the misunderstandings. All the supporting characters are likeable (except for one) and I would love to spend a day with them in their labs. Who knew there was so much mystery and sabotage in the day to day lives of scientists and engineers.
While the premise is basically the same as The Love Hypothesis, it is still a very enjoyable read. Ali seems to have found her niche, and if it's not broken, don't fix it.

Love on the Brain is a must read for all those who love Enemies to Lovers, Women in STEM, Star Wars and cats. If you happen to have a knack for passing out (ahem ME) then you need to pick this one up pronto!!

𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠 - 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙱𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚋𝚢 𝙰𝚕𝚒 𝙷𝚊𝚣𝚎𝚕𝚠𝚘𝚘𝚍

Thank you so much to @prhaudio and @netgalley for my gifted copies.

𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

“𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗺𝗮𝗻’𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻.”

After reading a absolutely falling in love with The Love Hypothesis, I was so dang excited to read this book, and it did not let me down.

I cannot get enough of the women in STEM stories, then you throw in one of my favorite tropes (enemies to lovers) and I am sold! From start to finish I was sucked into Bee and Levi's story. I highly recommend for anyone looking for a swoon-worthy romance, with a strong female lead.

I absolutely loved The Love Hypothesis and had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately this one fell really flat for me and I didn't find myself enjoying it. It took me forever to finish, which is rare and found myself wanting more from the story and the characters. I will certainly read more from her though!

While I really enjoyed Ms. Hazelwood’s debut, I found the characters in Love on the Brain much easier to relate to. Not to mention the science was a bit easier to follow. Levi and Bee obviously have chemistry and you know where this is going to go but to read how Bee slowly comes around is fantastic. This is probably one of the steamiest books I’ve read this year and I’ve read my share.

I enjoyed the STEM and women in science aspects as well. Definitely looking forward to her next novel.

I liked the author's debut so I was excited to read this one. I think that this felt very formulatic at times and had lots of similarities to The Love Hypothesis but nonetheless, it was still a pretty enjoyable read for me. If you liked her former book, i'd recommend you to read this one.

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.