prettynerdy3's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Predictable but highly enjoyable
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Animal death, Car accident, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity
ankiaisreading's review against another edition
funny
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? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Gun violence
Moderate: Violence, Infidelity, Sexism, Grief, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Misogyny, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol
readmorbookz's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
sad
tense
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
5.0
Love this author. She has me scrambling to read faster every single time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Abandonment, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Animal death, and Toxic relationship
mlleelora's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Gun violence, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Violence, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Gaslighting, Death, Death of parent, Car accident, Grief, Animal death, Chronic illness, and Alcohol
leahfoko's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I liked this book SO much more than the Love Hypothesis. Ali Hazelwood killed it with her sophomore book and I am always excited for authors when that happens because I know it can be hard to follow up one that people love so much. I think I might be in the minority with this opinion… Meanwhile, I am here and thought this one was way better!
I thought Bee was a much more interesting character. One of the things I appreciated was that even though she had some stubborn things that got on my nerves (a lot) (like refusing to acknowledge that Levi might like her at all, being so stubborn that he hated her even when he told her like 500 times that he didn’t, refusing to accept love) the reasons for her doing those things made a lot of sense. Her backstory explained it very well, and you can totally understand why she is unable to accept these things because of how she has been hurt in the past and needs to protect herself. Her reasoning makes sense, unlike how I felt about Olive in the Love Hypothesis. So that made her a much better character for me.
I love love LOVED the online relationship thing turning out that Bee and Levi were Marie and Shmac the whole time. I saw it coming, but I love that shit. It reminded me of this favorite fanfiction of mine I read in high school, but I have never seen anything like this show up in an actual book before. Maybe because Hazelwood is a fanfic writer she would know the online world well and therefore added this plot line. Whatever the reason, I felt it was a really unique take on romance and I just really loved it.
I was also so shook by the Guy reveal™️. I was NOT expecting shit to go down that intensely. I have not seen anything like that in a book before, like, damn. The espionage. WILD.
I am not really a fan of the steamy scenes that Ali Hazelwood writes, for some reason the word choices she uses sometimes just do not do it for me, I am not really sure how to explain why. I don’t think that’s a deal breaker for this book, especially cause I felt the same way about the sex scenes in the first book. But I always find myself struggling my way through those scenes with a slight cringe the whole time.
Overall, this book followed the successful form of enemies to lovers trope well (meaning that the hate comes from a huge misunderstanding rather than any actual mistreatment) with only a few issues in the beginning (his comment on her clothing was inexcusable to me and his reasoning didn’t do it for me) but it also added some new, fresh things that I hadn’t seen done before and I really liked that. Also, lots of nerd references had me cackling. Love that. Very much enjoyed this book.
I thought Bee was a much more interesting character. One of the things I appreciated was that even though she had some stubborn things that got on my nerves (a lot) (like refusing to acknowledge that Levi might like her at all, being so stubborn that he hated her even when he told her like 500 times that he didn’t, refusing to accept love) the reasons for her doing those things made a lot of sense. Her backstory explained it very well, and you can totally understand why she is unable to accept these things because of how she has been hurt in the past and needs to protect herself. Her reasoning makes sense, unlike how I felt about Olive in the Love Hypothesis. So that made her a much better character for me.
Spoiler
I love love LOVED the online relationship thing turning out that Bee and Levi were Marie and Shmac the whole time. I saw it coming, but I love that shit. It reminded me of this favorite fanfiction of mine I read in high school, but I have never seen anything like this show up in an actual book before. Maybe because Hazelwood is a fanfic writer she would know the online world well and therefore added this plot line. Whatever the reason, I felt it was a really unique take on romance and I just really loved it.
I was also so shook by the Guy reveal™️. I was NOT expecting shit to go down that intensely. I have not seen anything like that in a book before, like, damn. The espionage. WILD.
I am not really a fan of the steamy scenes that Ali Hazelwood writes, for some reason the word choices she uses sometimes just do not do it for me, I am not really sure how to explain why. I don’t think that’s a deal breaker for this book, especially cause I felt the same way about the sex scenes in the first book. But I always find myself struggling my way through those scenes with a slight cringe the whole time.
Overall, this book followed the successful form of enemies to lovers trope well (meaning that the hate comes from a huge misunderstanding rather than any actual mistreatment) with only a few issues in the beginning (his comment on her clothing was inexcusable to me and his reasoning didn’t do it for me) but it also added some new, fresh things that I hadn’t seen done before and I really liked that. Also, lots of nerd references had me cackling. Love that. Very much enjoyed this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Medical content, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Sexual content
Minor: Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Animal death
__romancereader__'s review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
this comment may have spoilers in it -I really like this book the twist at the ending gave me really bad anxiety until the situation was solved but then i did start to enjoy it i do think the ending could've been longer and the epilogue could've been better i like for books to be plot and romance but more romance then anything so if you are like me in that kinda way then you probably won’t enjoy the book all that good you still will like it though just probably not love it the whole book i was waiting for them to get together and then the ending they didn’t really verbally get together bee just showed up to his house and said We in a sentence and that was kinda how they got together then they switched to epilogue and brought it to the 5k race they talked about though the book the ending was rushed and i wished the epilogue would’ve atleast fast fowarded a couple years and showed what they were like and gave some memories they shared over time but that didnt happen it just fast forwarded a couple months but i did enjoy the book i really love Levi and Bee together i jsut wish the author gave a little more memories and time together so i could really really fall inlove with the characters of the book im going to give this book a five star-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️because i still enjoyed it nonetheless
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Cursing, Gun violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, and Infidelity
Not all content warnings are about the main characters some are and some are about the characters that come along in the book❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥kassidyreads's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexism, Infidelity, Misogyny, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Death, and Animal death
Minor: Gun violence
hq_reads's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I finished this book in less than 24 hours. I could not stop READING! Ali Hazelwood has done it again - such an addictive, funny and perfect romantic comedy!
Was it predictable? Yes. Was it full of overused tropes? Yes. Was it cheesy? Absolutely. But I don't care. There was something so comforting reading this book, knowing they were definitely going to get together. I still had fun reading through it - sometimes you just need a good comforting, easy read and this delivered exactly that.
I love the humour in her writing and I loved the FMC Bee. I usually don't enjoy the miscommunication trope but it worked for this story! Dr Levi Ward is definitely a contender for top 10 book boyfriends of all time - he's bypassed Dr Adam! The anticipation and slow burn of their relationship was done so well - SO WELL.
Having gone through a postgraduate degree in STEM myself (marine biology), I found so many moments in this book (and the Love Hypothesis) extremely relatable! I love that Hazelwood draws attention to the day-to-day discrimination women in STEM face, and the examples she uses are very much real and common in many professions. She is able to articulate all the microaggressions and double standards very well, in a way that many women find it hard to communicate as these behaviours are often quite subtle and hard to prove. I feel like women reading her books who experience this will be able to better recognise when they are facing this discrimination in the workplace and feel confident to speak up.
Was it predictable? Yes. Was it full of overused tropes? Yes. Was it cheesy? Absolutely. But I don't care. There was something so comforting reading this book, knowing they were definitely going to get together. I still had fun reading through it - sometimes you just need a good comforting, easy read and this delivered exactly that.
I love the humour in her writing and I loved the FMC Bee. I usually don't enjoy the miscommunication trope but it worked for this story! Dr Levi Ward is definitely a contender for top 10 book boyfriends of all time - he's bypassed Dr Adam! The anticipation and slow burn of their relationship was done so well - SO WELL.
Having gone through a postgraduate degree in STEM myself (marine biology), I found so many moments in this book (and the Love Hypothesis) extremely relatable! I love that Hazelwood draws attention to the day-to-day discrimination women in STEM face, and the examples she uses are very much real and common in many professions. She is able to articulate all the microaggressions and double standards very well, in a way that many women find it hard to communicate as these behaviours are often quite subtle and hard to prove. I feel like women reading her books who experience this will be able to better recognise when they are facing this discrimination in the workplace and feel confident to speak up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Death of parent
Minor: Chronic illness, Gun violence, and Animal death
juliaegreene's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
thoughts on this book:
- i did not like bee. at all. she was super annoying, very stupid for someone with a PhD, and felt like a pick me/"not like other girls" kind of woman. i felt like she was only vegan for the sake of making her seem special and same thing with the whole running plotline.
- levi is a fine male lead. good, even. but ali writes him like his size is the only important quality about him for the first half of the book, and it just gets worse as bee gets to know him and they have sex (more on this later). hulking, towering, huge, massive, broad, big, tall, 6'4", oh my fucking god it never ended. and bee being like 5'2" just seemed ridiculous. overall, he seemed like a good guy, but all the shit with his family seemed unnecessary and he genuinely just needed to go to therapy (i feel like it was only mentioned that he'd gone before to make him more of a desirable Self Aware romantic lead). i normally love love love an obsessed male lead (go ahead, be a simp!!) but considering how long ago he fell for bee and the time in between that and the story, it just seemed weird and kind of creepy at times. like, why is she your phone passcode? do you even know her? ugh.
- the miscommunications between the two of them were unreasonable. bee wearing her grandmother's ring ON HER RING FINGER was just dumb and created unnecessary tension for 2/3 of the book so that levi would think she was married to tim.
- side note: the whole fiance/cheating/best friend plot seemed thrown in only when it was convenient for the story or to keep levi and bee apart
- i was not expecting them to be FWB, which again was an unnecessary miscommunication. she thinks he's just getting a crush out of his system, he wants her to move in. JUST TALK. OH MY GOD.
- okay, the sex: honestly, it was just cringey. ali's writing is a whole lot of things that i want to get into, but the sex scenes felt very immature at times and like she thought she was writing super deep and well in others. the way their size difference came into play made me really uncomfortable, and the way levi talked to bee and bee thought about him felt really possessive and steeped in gender roles.
- the plot itself (BLINK, guy, the way the romance progressed) felt very predictable. i've read the love hypothesis, so i felt like i knew what ali wanted to do from the beginning and could call what would happen when a character or issue was introduced for the most part.
- side note: the shmac thing was predictable but fine for the most part, though i did hate the huge paragraph that everyone was thirsting over. dude, why are you sending all that shit to A STRANGER? boundary: crossed
- another side note: the cat? really? unnoticed in a NASA facility? and only to serve as a plot device when bee has A GUN pointed at her head? all of the plot climax was ridiculous and i didn't see the point. ali tried to go big and it really did not work for me.
- ali's writing in this book was so much worse than TLH. the millennial humor, the galaxy leggings, the unprompted and honestly annoying interjections of rants on the GRE and marie curie that just overloaded the book, all of them could have been made into a drinking game that probably would have poisoned me before the halfway mark. my favorite thing to hate was the TM jokes that i think were supposed to be another quirk of bee's but instead made me want to scream. i unfortunately didn't have the ebook, so i couldn't search, but i counted 41 instances while reading the physical version. even 2 was too many.
- things i actually did like: wlw!! banter was not terrible at times! fuck standardized testing!!
- i finished this book last night, so i think i might need some time to process still, but as of right now i'm going to give love on the brain 1.5 or 2 stars. i originally was going to do 1, but i think the fact that it was such a fun experience to hate it should count for something.
- fuck reylo all my homies hate reylo
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Infidelity, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
lucyrudd's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship