A review by michadoaboutnothing
Love on the Brain, by Ali Hazelwood
4.0
Bee has landed a dream job with NASA, but with one catch; her grad school nemesis is to be her co-lead. He's never hidden his dislike of her, so why when everything is going wrong does he feel like her only ally?
3.5⭐️
So this book has presented a really strange question for me, I am still unsure did I enjoy it, or did I enjoy disliking it? In that I don't think a single one of my annotations was positive, and yet, I do think I enjoyed it all the same. It has its issues, no doubt, but it was a quick, fun read. So, bear with me while I try to parse through these conflicting feelings.
I don't think it was as painfully similar to The Love Hypothesis as I was expecting going in. I mean, the characters were, for sure (if Hazelwoods fixation on big-tall-hulking man with small-tiny-helpless woman wasn't clear before, it sure is now, and add in a proclivity to fainting for good measure), but the plot did feel different enough that I was compelled to finish it.
Speaking of the characters though, I find it truly hard to believe Bee wasn't being intentionally obtuse for the majority of this book. I can understand misreading social interactions and catastrophising in assuming people dislike you, but this was next level. That, and her insistence on informing Levi how much he clearly dislikes her at every possible opportunity (and despite his denial), it just felt so forced. Don't even get me started on all the "arch nemesis" and the constant ™ naming of things, she didn't even feel like a real person half the time. And on that note, Rocío felt like a charicature of a person, and almost all of her and Bee's interactions felt unnatural.
I think there was missed potential here, because the circumstances of their relationship felt much more plausible than that of The Love Hypothesis, but the misunderstandings and lack of communication were so drawn out (and continued even when they had admitted their feelings), it ended up feeling less realistic.
All that said, I still found it fun. It was a quick little romp of escapism, which I suppose is what a romcom should be.
Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for my e-arc of this title, recieved in exchange for an honest review.
3.5⭐️
So this book has presented a really strange question for me, I am still unsure did I enjoy it, or did I enjoy disliking it? In that I don't think a single one of my annotations was positive, and yet, I do think I enjoyed it all the same. It has its issues, no doubt, but it was a quick, fun read. So, bear with me while I try to parse through these conflicting feelings.
I don't think it was as painfully similar to The Love Hypothesis as I was expecting going in. I mean, the characters were, for sure (if Hazelwoods fixation on big-tall-hulking man with small-tiny-helpless woman wasn't clear before, it sure is now, and add in a proclivity to fainting for good measure), but the plot did feel different enough that I was compelled to finish it.
Speaking of the characters though, I find it truly hard to believe Bee wasn't being intentionally obtuse for the majority of this book. I can understand misreading social interactions and catastrophising in assuming people dislike you, but this was next level. That, and her insistence on informing Levi how much he clearly dislikes her at every possible opportunity (and despite his denial), it just felt so forced. Don't even get me started on all the "arch nemesis" and the constant ™ naming of things, she didn't even feel like a real person half the time. And on that note, Rocío felt like a charicature of a person, and almost all of her and Bee's interactions felt unnatural.
I think there was missed potential here, because the circumstances of their relationship felt much more plausible than that of The Love Hypothesis, but the misunderstandings and lack of communication were so drawn out (and continued even when they had admitted their feelings), it ended up feeling less realistic.
All that said, I still found it fun. It was a quick little romp of escapism, which I suppose is what a romcom should be.
Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for my e-arc of this title, recieved in exchange for an honest review.