Ali Hazelwood - Love on the Brain
5⭐
Genre: Romance, STEM, Academia, Contemporary Romance
Pages: 362
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Sphere
Date Published: 23rd August 2022
Book Blurb:
Like an avenging, purple-haired Jedi bringing balance to the mansplained universe, Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project-a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia-Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward.
Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. And sure, he caught her in his powerfully corded arms like a romance novel hero when she accidentally damseled in distress on her first day in the lab. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school-archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away.
Now, her equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and Bee finds her floundering career in somewhat of a pickle. Perhaps it's her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas...devouring her with those eyes. And the possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there's only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?
My Review:
Unpopular opinion but I loved Love on the Brain more than I
loved The Love Hypothesis. Oops! Yes, there were some similarities between the
two books but I felt that most of the book was different. Adam and Olive were
fake dating, whereas Bee and Levi were more enemies to lovers/ second chance romance.
Also, the book setting was completely different, which for me made a huge
difference.
This story follows Bee Königswasser, a neuroscientist who is
invited to work on an exciting new project called BLINK at NASA in Houston. The
success of this project will mean Bee can have an amazing career in research
but if she fails then all those years put into becoming an academic will be
wasted. However, she soon realises that she will have to work with her archnemesis
from her graduate school years, Levi Ward. Levi Ward is a tall and brainy
engineer who for years worked at NASA. Once the project starts Bee notices that the equipment she was promised is missing, other people on the project refuse to
listen to her and Levi after all these years still cannot even look at her or
even be in the same room as her. Bee now needs to either confront her enemy or
lose her dream job and subsequently her career….Or maybe after all Levi might
become an ally to Bee in search of who is messing around with the success of BLINK.
I really liked the fact that Bee is quirky and geeky, as
well as completely in love with cats. She also fangirls after Marie Currie and runs
an undercover Twitter account What Would Marie Currie Do?, where she discusses
all the challenges and barriers in the academic environment with other academics.
It just felt that Bee was a more developed character than Olive in The Love
Hypothesis, as Bee actually has a life and hobbies outside her research,
whereas Olive didn’t really.
I also loved that Hazelwood discusses misogyny in STEM and
how even though you are an intelligent female who achieved a lot in their
respective academic field, you are less likely to be listened to or given authority
in comparison to a white male academic. It is sad but it's true and I love that
Hazelwood shines the light on these problems through her novels.
All the scientific aspects of this book made me so geeky and
nerdy. I loved it! There was so much more science in this book and I am
all here for it!
I also think that this story was more authentic than The
Love Hypothesis. The premise of how Bee and Levi knew each other and how they
became ‘enemies’ is more real than the one of how Olive started fake dating
Adam. The characters in this book were also more relatable, especially the fact
that before romance there was a genuine friendship that took time to develop happened
between them at first and only then the romance followed.
Overall: Honestly, this book had everything that I love, STEM, Academia, Romance and Spice. What else could I want? It made me smile, made me geek out, filled me with joy and was just a feel-good book to read. You should definitely read this if you want an easy, quirky romance with a bit of spice and science. I, however, can’t wait until Loathe to Love You in January 2023 and Love, Theoretically in June 2023! So excited!
About the Author:
Ali Hazelwood is the pseudonym for an Italian neuroscientist and writer of romance novels. Her main characters are women in a variety of different STEM fields and in academia. Her debut novel, The Love Hypothesis, was a New York Times best seller. In 2022 she has published three novellas: Under One Roof, Stuck with You, and Below Zero. Her second novel Love on the Brain was published on August 23, 2022.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21098177.Ali_Hazelwood
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