Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Love on the Brain

I think I have to agree with a lot of other reviewers. This has too many similarities to the author's first novel, The Love Hypothesis. I appreciate her writing about women in STEM, but unfortunately, the main character in this book doesn't seem like a strong, independent woman anywhere but the lab. There were still enough plot differences to make for a fun read, though comparatively speaking, the differences in characters and their backstories, overall plot, and elements of romance and mystery seemed underdeveloped and made this less interesting

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heyykaayla's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

I loved this book! I’ve recommended it to friends, and I loved The Love Hypothesis as well. My only issues with this book was the timing of the plot twist, I wish we got more of the conclusion than we did. I feel like I have a lot of questions about the plot twist that weren’t answered in the last few chapters which irks me a bit as a reader. This book DID grab my attention, I did not want to put it down!! Though, when I hit the plot twist I was kind of left sitting there like “really?… that’s it?” maybe I didn’t read it as deeply as the author anticipated, but it just felt a little lackluster to me.

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thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

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funny 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

3.75

Ali Hazelwood's books are always a good bit of fun; however, I do have some issues with this one. First, the main character, while likable, is super frustrating. She's painfully oblivious and her capacity for denial is insane. It's never fun when you feel like you're miles ahead of the main character, and that was certainly the case here. Second, a lot of the plot deals with sexism in STEM, which is understandable, but the constant horribly misogynistic interactions we got to see kept me from having as much fun as I want to have with a romance novel and left me instead feeling like a walking, talking ball of rage. Finally, There's way too much focus on actual science here for my little liberal arts brain. I didn't need nearly as much information about their project as I got, and I found myself skimming whole sections because the characters where just talking shop.
That said, I did have good time with this book. The hero was super dreamy, most of the humor landed, and the sex scenes where great. I'd say if you didn't like The Love Hypothesis this one won't turn you into a Hazelwood stan, but if you like her work in general, it's defiantly worth your time.

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rorythebean's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring 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? Yes

4.25

Spoiler

Rocio and Kaylee have my heart ahhh <333

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lunarmagi42's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm very glad I gave this one my full "read 100 pages to see if you like it," instead of dnfing at about 75 pages in because you get a VERY incorrect view of Levi up to that point. Once Levi is revealed to be not-an-asshole, I very much enjoyed the story. The romance was cute and I thought Bee was very funny as a narrator. I rated this as a 4 because despite loving the story, I can't stand that they slimmed Bee down on the cover. She's not severely over weight in the book but she's definitely not as skinny as the cover makes her appear and that bothers me.

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rose_88's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

This book was pretty good, I loved the development of the science and stuff, I loved how all the women were just so smart and not ready to take any shit or to not get credit for their work.

Spoiler

I LOVED how Levi actually went to therapy and worked out his issues with communication and how he took full responsibility for being an ass to Bee in grad school. I also loved how both him and Bee actually apologised to each other and understood that at times they were in the wrong.

Spoiler

The whole thing with Guy at the end, basically everything to do with BLINK’s presentation and the @WhatWouldMarieDo twitter account/movement felt a bit rushed but overall I think it was cool that they realised that everything going wrong was the same guy (pun intended) I ALSO LOVED ALL THE CAT PUNS, plus just all the realisations (about them being twitter friends, him liking her for years, her not actually being married).

Ali Hazelwood is very good at writing good and healthy relationships, obviously seem both here and with ‘The Love Hypothesis’. Overall, a pretty decent book with a relationship that makes me love them.

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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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sydneyluxford's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

If Ali Hazelwood did not write this book, I’d tell her to sue whoever did because it is literally a carbon copy of The Love Hypothesis but ten times cringier.

This book took me so long to read because I just didn’t connect with the characters, and the plot was really dull in my opinion. It was also really predictable. Don’t ask me anything that happened before 75% because I literally cannot remember 😭.

Spoiler

Also, the last 10%????????????? Since when did this book turn into a hostage situation??? I’ve never been more confused in my life, because it was just so unexpected.

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