Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Love on the Brain

🔥🔥🔥 3/5 Steam Rating
📝 1st Person POV, Women in STEM, Sapphic side plot
💖 Enemies-to-Lovers, Workplace Romance

I have to be really honest, I didn’t care for The Love Hypothesis. I went into this book as my last chance for this author, and I ended up enjoying it! I also want to note that this book has more steamy than her previous book, so know that going in.

I adored how quirky & fun Bee was as a character. She was a breath of fresh air. I also enjoyed how steadfast and understanding Levi was, even though he was a bit awkward at times. There were a lot of Marie Curie references within this book, but I actually enjoyed them. I thought the author did a good job of weaving the references into the story in a way that was informative, without being annoying. I know this might not be for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

I also LOVED Rocío and her sub-plot. Talk about an interesting and unexpected character! I would love to see her get her own book one day!

There were a few things that didn’t work for me. First, the use of the ™️ and the “titles” associated with it was excessive and felt a bit childish. I also thought that there were a few cliché romance themes that this story could have done without, like the tiny woman always needing help from the giant man. 🙄 I also wasn’t a fan of how Bee took everything with Levi to the extreme; no one would interpret “change your dress” to “I think you’re ugly and hate everything about you” but Bee seemed to.

Overall, I thought that this was a fun quirky read. If you’re like me and didn’t love this authors debut novel, maybe give this one a try.

Content Warnings

dianaschmidty's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

somebooksomewhere's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book releases 23 August 2022 in Canada.

I like Neapolitan ice cream. I love mint chip, but Neapolitan is very good too and sometimes I even prefer it. Which is largely how I feel about Love on the Brain compared to The Love Hypothesis.

In LotB, neuroscientist Dr Bee Konigswasser has been selected to help research and develop a type of anti-brain fog helmet for NASA. She's absolutely ecstatic about getting out from under her creepy boss' thumb and working on such a monumental project, until she finds out who her co-lead is: Dr Levi Ward(ass). Levi was finishing his PhD in the same lab that Bee was starting hers, and despite Bee's efforts to be an absolutely delightful human thank you very much, Dr Ward(ass) immediately formed the No Bees Allowed club. But whatever, she can avoid him and his vile personality. Or not.

Ward(ha!)ing herself against Levi's evil, Bee begins her work, only to find she's been brain-blocked by the higher ups. She reluctantly teams up with Levi to get her own half of the project underway, when revelations occur and sparks fly. After all, they say that there's a very fine line between love and hate. Maybe only as fine as a single neural pathway.

LotB has a lot of similar tropes to TLH: grumpy+sunshine, miscommunication (so much miscommunication), men being generally awkward and also sometimes terrible (why are men??), quirky side characters, etc etc. In some ways, it felt almost too alike. But you know what, I don't care. It's my Neapolitan ice cream. Good, reliable, enough going on to keep me interested.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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