A review by leahfoko
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
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