I am not a traditional romance reader but I picked up "The Love Hypothesis" after seeing it on every BookTok and Bookstagram account and I honestly loved it, so when I spotted the opportunity to get an advanced reader copy from Little Brown via Netgalley I was so excited and even more so when I was accepted!!!

I devoured this book in one sitting, could not put it down- Bee the main character in the book is a purple haired, tattooed, pierced neuroscientist who is instantly likeable who finds herself landing her dream assignment project managing (co project managing) with her arch nemesis from grad school and would a book be entertaining if it all went to plan?

I loved that Bee being a Marie Curie mega fan meant that I learnt a whole heap of new facts about Madame Curie but by the end I did feel a little Curie'd out and the book cleverly weaves in so much science that you are learning even during the spicy scenes- which are in my opinion spicier than the Love Hypothesis!!!

The characters in this book are great my favourite was Rocío who is absolutely the best friend I've never met even down to the disdain of the remake of "Let the Right One in."

Expect to laugh, cry, get hot and feel a little let down by the world of STEM and the not so great attitude to women! learn yourself some science and real life skills like how to deal with your cats anal glands ha.

Ali Hazelwood smashed it!

Romance isn't usually my genre but oh my god Ali Hazelwood is incredible and has completely converted me. The way she writes is incredible and the characters are wonderful, fully formed characters that you genuinely care about. I'm fully engaged from the first page with the funny, moving and entertaining story she's written. When does the next one come out?

First of I want to say that this just wasn't for me and while I wasn't the biggest fan there is definitely an audience that will fall in love with this book.
I'll start with what I did like about this book and that was the writing and the humour. I'm a sucker for some good humour in a romance book and this book definitely delivered with this book.
However, what I didn't like about it (and this is just my opinion) is the maturity difference and the size difference between Bee and Levi. The size difference was mentioned so many times that it got so annoying and started to feel like it was the only thing I should care about. The size difference however is something I wouldn't care too much about other than being slightly annoyed by it if it wasn't for the maturity difference between them which was so clear that it started to feel slightly creepy to me.
The other thing I didn't like about it was the side characters. I didn't care about any of them unlike I did in Ali Hazelwood's other book and didn't feel like they were very well written. And the twist at the end, when it turned out that one of them was secretly sabotaging them from the start was so far fetched that it made me roll my eyes.

Love on the Brain was my first book from Ali Hazelwood and it definitely will not be my last. I absolutely loved this. I quite literally devoured Love on the Brain. It took me just under 24 hours to finish, which at the moment is incredible for me. I stayed up to around 3 am on the day I started it because I didn’t want to put it down. Although I wasn’t quite getting on with it at first. Well, it was Bee I wasn’t liking, please excuse the next two rant-filled paragraphs.

Bee is very judgemental of other people doing things that aren’t “planet friendly” but when it comes to wanting to taunt Levi she thinks about doing laundry every day (not great for the environment) just so she can wear a dress he supposedly despises. Doesn’t sound very green to me, it sounds hypocritical.

Also, there’s a moment where Bee and Levi are talking outside the Discovery Institute about a quarter of the way through and Levi calls her by her name. Bee then has this inner monologue about how it’s the first time he’s used her name. Well, that isn’t true, he said it about 15 pages ago. This might be an error that’s changed from the arc before publication, but if not it’s a slight plot hole. Insubstantial really and it annoyed me a lot more than it should have. I have gotten over this now you will be happy to know.

The last point that I found a little tiring was how often Levi was referred to as ‘huge’ or ‘big. The man is a unit we get it. Also, what is it with romance books and the male main character having to be an actual giant? I’m not complaining just curious.

He was a great character though with a surprising amount of depth for being the love interest. Big love for the big guy.

Now you’re probably wondering why I’m giving this five stars if I have negatives to say, well nothing is perfect, but this ended up ticking a lot of boxes for me. One being that the plot was fairly obvious, which sounds like a negative, but when it comes to romance I like this. I liked that I knew where the story was going and guessing shocking plot twists makes me feel smart. I will say there is one twist that I never would have guessed though.

The romance was pretty cute and I appreciate that the first steamy scene makes an appearance at 69%. Don’t know if that was intentional but it's very funny, I literally laughed out loud. These scenes were written well and nothing about them was distasteful. They didn’t feel out of place or just chucked in for the sake of adding a bit of smut.

The narration was done very well, especially the parts about Marie Curie. I found them so interesting and it was endearing just how much Bee loves her. The chatty/rambling style of narration suits me very well as if you hadn’t noticed already it’s how I write. I like that you really feel like you know the character and this was done well in Love on the Brain. I think this is what made me really like Bee in the end. Her character came a long way and she started to get less self-absorbed and judgy and instead became the cute neuroscientist you were promised.

Love on the Brain was such a fun and easy read that I just had to rate it five stars. A book hasn’t captured my attention like this in quite a while and it was refreshing to have the want to pick up a book constantly. Right, I’m now off to read The Love Hypothesis as I can’t get enough of Ali Hazelwood. Who’s with me?

If you LOVED The Love Hypothesis and want to read a similar book, Ali Hazelwood's second novel is definitely the one to pick up!

Love on the Brain is about Bee, a neuroscientist, and her nemesis Levi, an engineer. They are co-leading a very important project for NASA. Bee thinks he hates her. He thinks he's hiding that he's in love with her effectively. She's obsessed with Marie Curie. He is encouraging her to run a 5k. They engage in Ali Hazelwood TM sex. As good as the book is, as much as I would have adored this if it was the first of her books I had read, this all just felt extremely... familiar.

I would love to read a dual POV about a couple of similar physical sizes. I'd like to know what she could do with that situation and how different that book might feel from her.

This was an easy read, perfect for summer holiday reading though. I also love the focus on women in STEM - the book manages to stand for female experience in many different kinds of environments and the conversation is important. As is the conversation about Levi needing therapy because of an emotionally unsupportive upbringing.

There's so much to love in this book, just don't expect it to break the mould too much.

My feelings on this book are conflicting as I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it as much as I know others will.

The romance was fairly believable, I really enjoy an enemies to lovers story, and this ticked that box. I feel as though the ending was very rushed, and could have been explored a bit better. It's clear that Ali Hazelwood has a thing about height, with women needing to be teeny tiny, and the men are big, tall and strong. Yes it'll do it for some, but the fact it's in every single book she writes is really offputting to me.

It's enjoyable, and an easy read. I know people are going to love this as much, if not more than the love hypothesis, and it'll be the perfect romance for others, just not me.

**review will be posted to GoodReads on 09/08/2022**

Love On The Brain by Ali Hazelwood
I give this book 4.5 stars

Scientist Bee Königswasser
is forced to work on a NASA project with her nemesis Levi Ward - with explosive results

Did l love this more the TLH……YES!!
A special mention goes to the cover to.
This is another extremely well written science lab rom com from this author and l devoured it in just over 24 hours.Has enemies to lovers become my favourite trope….. l think so! I loved both Bee and Levi’s characters equally but for very different reasons and their chemistry/ interactions/dialogues are so awkward,funny,sexy (eventually) and totally addictive. There are plenty of important side characters that all play their part in making this a truly amazing and entertaining read.
Favourite parts ……Marie Curie obsession and 2 cats!
This author has become an auto read for me and l predict this to be a Summer Smash Hit!
With thanks to Netgalley,Ali Hazelwood and Little, Brown Book Group UK, Sphere for my chance to read and review this book

I thoroughly enjoyed The Love Hypothesis so I had really high expectations for this book and it just didn't live up to the hype of the first book. Here are some issues I encountered:

- Harry Potter references should be retired, Is there no regard for trans individuals?
- The 'he's mean to you because he likes you' trope should not exist. It's degrading and misogynistic.
- The shooting incident is so unbelievable that I had to take a minute.

Other than that, this is a great, light-hearted steminist romance that will fly off the shelves and will be super easy to sell to customers. It has a great cover and a really intriguing premise.

Ali Hazelwood did it again. This is a classic romance, full of the tropes and themes you'd expect in a novel like it. Still the characters were charming individuals and I couldn't put the book down after I started reading it.

Love on the Brain - Ali Hazelwood - 4/5 ⭐️

I finished reading Ali Hazelwood’s upcoming book today and i enjoyed it so much! I might have enjoyed it even more than the Love Hyothesis (even so noone will ever be able to compare to Adam Carlsen). I liked that it was written from a first person perspective and the third act conflict didn’t seem to be created just to have a conflict but was actually really interesting!

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group for this ARC.

Let me just start by saying I have been a huge fan of Ali Hazelwood since I read the Love Hypothesis earlier this year. I was a bit apprehensive to see if Love on the Brain would be as good, but I got to say that I enjoyed it even more!

The characters of Bee and Levi were perfect for me - from Bee's quickness to Levi's monologues. Once again this book made me invested and interested in science in an effortless way!

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC of Hazelwood's Love on the Brain.

This book was everything The Love Hypothesis was but better! There was so much content and reference to popular culture that made me laugh, and I found Bee to be a very relatable character.

Making use of enemies to lovers, insta-love, and miscommunication tropes, I think this book will fly with TikTok audiences.

Ali Hazelwood has a hold of my money and I think I will buy everything she writes!

#LoveontheBrian #NetGalley

Yet another entertaining story from Ali Hazelwood. I absolutely adored the Love Hypothesis and this one really was just as entertaining and lived up to every expectation I had. As far as characters go I really enjoyed Bea and Levi, even though at times Bea was a little bit much she was still very entertaining to read.

I love that all these books are based around women working in stem I feel like I learned a lot! Even though these books include a lot of science stuff I didn’t feel like I couldn’t keep up or understand it as it was all very well explained.

Highly recommend!!

I love this book. I remember when The Love Hypothesis came out and when it came and blew up. I read it and fell in love with that and was so excited when this got announced.

There is something about Ali’s writing that I just love. The story just flows so nicely and it just captivates me from the beginning and I couldn’t put it down once I started.

In this book we follow Bee who is a neuroscientist and she has been chosen to work with NASA on a new project. Exciting right? She is excited but then realises who she’s co-leading with, Levi. They know each other from grad school but Bee has always thought Levi hated her and now with this exciting project she needs to put things behind her to get this done but of course, they have some obstacles thrown in their way.

One thing I love about this book is the scientific side. It’s something I wish I payed more attention too in school but these books just fill me with so much joy.

Bee and Levi couldn’t be more different. Bee thinks Levi is trying to throw her under the bus and doesn’t like her but, he could be hiding something himself and it might not be hatred he felt towards her. I love the chemistry between these characters. Bee has had her heart broken before so, is she ready to take the leap and open it up again?

A wonderful story from Ali and I cannot wait to see what she writes next. I enjoyed every second off it and really enjoyed Bee who was just a wonderful, fun main character and Levi is the broody grump and together they are a force.

One of the best romance books I’ve read in a while. I didn’t think The Love Hypothesis could be topped but Ali managed it with this book. A lot of the plot was very predictable but it didn’t even bother me because the writing and characterisation was so great.

Eh, this was okay, I'm not one for predictable romances, and wanted to like this more than The Love Hypothesis. I do like it more, but not by much. Would recommend for romance readers, but not my thing really

Ali Hazelwood writes the most amazing sexual tension and quirky characters. having read The Love Hypothesis, I was keen to read this and it didn't disappoint, merely confirmed her talent. I loved the NASA background which was fascinating and very original. I've seen a few comments about the heroine being slow to cotton on to what was going on but that's the whole point, she's so lacking in self-awareness and confidence. There's a great storyline underlying the romance along with academic rivalry and politics.
This is a fantastic read. Original, smart, sassy and funny.

Although I preferred this plot over Hazelwood’s previous book, I thought the characters were pretty much copy and pasted from the love hypothesis’. I very much sunshine girl and emotionally unavailable guy (obviously as a result of daddy issues… again). The only different between Bee and Olive is that Bee has dyed hair. If I had to read how ‘big and large and tall and built’ Levi was or how ‘small’ Bee is comparatively, one more time I think I might simply implode. Being tall is pretty much Levi’s only defining feature. I also found the book very predictable, maybe that was for the purpose of dramatic irony, but for me it just didn’t work because it made the turning points in the book very guessable.

All that being said, the book is extremely readable and touches a lot on double standards, racism and sexism in academia, something I haven’t read about very often. I also really liked that the sections were named after different parts of the brain that corresponded to the emotion that dominated the chapter, i thought that was original and added the little neuroscienc-y spin to the book that helped bump up my rating.

The book is very easy to read, I breathed it all in during one sitting, it’s a page turner and definitely something I’d recommend to someone who’s looking for a light rom-comesque read, to break up an epic series/non fiction, or to get out of a slump.

Thank you to the Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

ali hazelwood writes extremely entertainingly and with a lot of humor, making this book into a perfect feel good read! sometimes the protagonist's stubbornnes got to be quite annoying and the misunderstandings felt very far fetched at times, but the story finds a satisfying end while still managing to be gripping until the last chapter.

Smart women in STEM is just such a great topic.
I loved Bee and her sister and her fantastic assistant. I adored Levi and his awkwardness and I even loved the cats.
Everything in this book was sweet and funny and I was in love with the various Marie Curie facts sprinkled throughout. I didn't realise that I needed such a nice uncomplicated romance until I read this. Although parts of it were obvious and full of cliched tropes, it was done so well that you really didn't mind.
The plot was realistic and the science speak went WAY over my head.