Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

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Title: Love on the Brain
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Series: The Love Hypothesis #2
Published by: Berkley
Release Date: August 23, 2022
Format: Audiobook, eARC
Pages: 368
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Source: Kobo Audio, NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2022 COYER Fall, Lenoreo's 2022 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository ✩ Libro.FM
My rating:

Blurb:

A STEMinist rom-com in which a scientist is forced to work on a project with her nemesis--with explosive results.

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:

I received a free copy through Kobo Audio, NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4.5 stars — I wholeheartedly enjoyed this book even more than her debut novel, it just seemed to hit the right spots with me.

I both listened and read this book, and the narrator was not bad, but made weird choices sometimes.  I found I just preferred to read it myself, purely personal taste.

Bee was kind of adorable.  She could be so strong and sassy and forthright, but she could also not stand up for herself all the time, and she was profoundly damaged by a few events in her past that made her averse to letting her heart out of its self-imposed cage.  Understandable, but occasionally it felt a bit too long.  Might have been just me though.  Despite that, I really appreciated her journey and felt like it was realistic.  I’m not a fan of the miscommunication thing in romance books in general, even though they are everywhere.  And I was a bit worried about this one, but for some reason I was okay with the way the timing played out.  It didn’t drag out so long that I lost interest in our characters and their love story.  And it left me with enough time to love them together.

I really appreciated that while there was no Levi POV, there were moments where we were able to see him and know him through his own words.  He was damaged himself, in very different ways, but he didn’t give up on love.  He was absolutely adorable in the way that he adored Bee.  He was also wickedly smart, not afraid of women in STEM, and once the misunderstandings were cleared up, basically pretty awesome.

I wouldn’t call this one slow burn necessarily, but there was a lot of time for that tension to build up.  And given the circumstances between them, it all felt right.  I loved that their chemistry just seemed to explode like someone threw gasoline on them or something.  And damn, some of those steamy scenes??  Hoo boy.

Some great secondary characters (and cats).  I especially loved the absolutely bizarre Roçio, and Bee’s hilarious twin sister.  And heck, Marie Curie was almost her own character.

It was delightfully nerdy, and while I didn’t know some of the words, I didn’t feel like I got lost with them…it didn’t go completely over my head.

COYER Community: I buddy read this book with Sophia, and she gave it 4.5 stars as well (her review).  This time I only fell a little bit behind her, and we had a great time talking about different scenes, and whether we saw certain plot parts coming, or were surprised!