Reviews with content warning for Stalking - Love on the Brain

The Hating Game, if it was well-written and not riddled with toxicity.

I love Hazelwood’s whip-smart, no-hold-barred take on the patriarchy and STEM, which she manages to achieve with thoroughly three-dimensional characters, emotional intelligence, intrigue, and heat. Even with the harsher elements of the real word that were involved, it was still a well-paced, fun, hot read that made me think AND feel warm & fuzzy.

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thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-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

4.0

First and foremost: Ali Hazelwood knows cute and quirky to a very tall, dark and handsome T. “Love on the Brain” was science + cuteness, encapsulated. You don’t have to know anything about neuroscience or space to understand the workplace romance fleshed out amongst these pages. It’s quite endearing, if a little repetitive. As many have pointed out, the plot and characters are very similar to Ali’s first steminist romcom and one of my personal favorites of all time, “The Love Hypothesis”. Forgive me for comparing them, but it absolutely happened!! I had no control over it!!

I love Levi, and I love Adam. But Olive >>> Bee for sure. Moving on.

For a neuroscientist working on a NASA-funded project, Dr. Bee Königswasser is quite the oblivious Damsel in Distress™ when it comes to her supposed grad school nemesis, Dr. Levi Ward. She is Tiny and Clumsy and Alternative Hair. He is Massive and Closed Off and Beautiful Green Eyes. Levi avoided her in grad school at all costs because He Hated Her So Much And There Is No Other Explanation.

It’s your typical enemies-to-lovers romance, but I appreciated that the “enemies” part didn’t fester long. We all know the “enemies” trope is never that accurate considering at least one party is secretly in love the entire time. In this case, it’s glaringly obvious to everyone except our stubborn MC.

I enjoyed this novel, but it didn’t give me all of the swooning and butterflies that TLH gave me. Which, understandably, is hard to achieve. Still, I think it has long been a dream of mine to score a NASA scientist who named his cat Schrödinger.

Extra points for the extra steam in this one, though 🔥

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jbookly's review

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funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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levesc17's review

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emotional funny lighthearted 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? No

4.0

I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with Marie Curie. But I can’t resist a one-sided crush trope any more than I can resist the brilliance of women making breakthroughs in science. Because I had already read and enjoyed “The Love Hypothesis,” I knew I would most likely enjoy “Love on the Brain” too, but I didn’t expect to learn so much about science and scientific history too. If anything, this book indulges in the delightful nerdiness even more than Love Hypothesis. There is an abundance of charm even as Hazelwood captures the misogyny in STEM fields that at times give this story darker moments. Fans of “The Love Hypothesis,” come for the STEM romance, stay for the cat loving avoidant Marie Curie fangirl scientist bad ass, Bee.

I was lucky enough to get an arc from NetGalley, and this is my honest review.

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