Charming, witty and full of heart Love on the Brain is Ali Hazelwood's somophore novel and doesn't disappoint in the slightest. Following Bee, an up and coming neuroscientist who gets roped in to help NASA on a project that could make her career - the only problem is her archnemesis from grad school, Levi, is going to be co-lead on the project with her.

This book had a lot to live up to given how much I adored her first book, the love hypothesis, and how hyped up that book is. However love on the brain blew my expectations out the water and I actually think I very slightly liked this one more because it felt slight more realistic (to an extent lol) and I prefered the love interest and overall cinnamon roll relationship dynamic.

Bee as a main character is so easy to love and enjoy reading from her POV. She is quirky, but not in an annoying way (thankfully lol) and cares a lot about other people and the world but is afraid of letting herself get too attached to anyone after a bad experience with her ex-fiance cheating on her with her best friend. Her fears of abandonment were very relatable and the reaction not to trust anyone to closely so as not to get hurt hit me in the feels. Interestingly to me (at least) I'm such more similar to Olive than Bee in personality however I think I prefered reading from Bee's POV - I'm not sure if this is just because Ali Hazelwood has grown as an author but Bee is such a compelling character to follow.

Additionally I think the sex scenes in this book are a real step up from TLH, they felt less fan-fictiony (not that there is anything wrong with that) and more like a actual romance book.

As this is a romance I loved the main relationship so so much!! It is riddled with misunderstandings at the beginning but the dynamic and chemistry between Bee and Levi was so much fun to read about. I loved their banter and seeing them both slowly come out of their shells and learn to communicate better. Levi is such a cinnamon roll love interest and I always love it when the men are complete simps lol.

Also this book has one of my FAVOURITE EVER tropes where the two characters who know each other (and in the case dislike) in real life have secret personalities/alter egos, in this case online personas where they are friends and are always messaging each other about their lives. Bee is obbsessed with Marie Curie and runs a twitter account called what would maire do where she discusses various issues facing women in STEM and she is friends with another twitter accout who unbeknowest to her is run by Levi.

As ever there are some really great women in STEM and feminist themes which I think elevates this book a little above your typical romance. I think STEM fields are definitely under-represented in books (especially romance) and Ali Hazelwood clearly has a background in it as it reads very authentic and I really appreciate all the little details she puts in.

On a similar point one thing I absolutely adored about this book which I'm sure most people won't really care about unless you come from a neurosciece/medical background is the fact that all the chapter titles are named after parts of brain anatomy relevant to events occuring in that chapter. Despite giving me horror flashbacks to the anatomy lab in my early years of medicine lol I really loved this little detail and it made me so inexplicably happy.

In conclusion if you love cute romance, taking down the patriarchy, lots of angst and yearning, steamy sex scenes and mischievous cats then this is a must read!!

I loved this book and thought it was a fantastic second book after a hugely successful first.

I really enjoyed how the strong female aspects of navigating a male dominated work environment continued in a new story that still felt completely different from the last.

There were twists that made you feel smarter than the two scientific leads, and ones you didn’t see coming.

A very enjoyable read!

Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group for the ARC.

Ali Hazelwood is excellent at writing enemies to lovers in a workplace environment and this story is just as steamy as “The Love Hypothesis”. Don’t do what I did and try read it on the bus because you’ll be wanting to open all the windows to cool down!

Now, I ADORED “The Love Hypothesis” and was super excited for this one. However "Love on the Brain" seemed a bit bland in comparison and lacked substance to me. It didn’t feel like much was happening and then suddenly everything went far too quickly at the end. Levi is a copy paste of Adam, not going to lie. The tall and short dynamic is present once again. It just felt very same-y to her previous book. The side characters also felt slightly one-dimensional.

Overall, I still enjoyed the story but it felt a little OTT. It seemed like the author was trying to make it as good as TLH and put too much into this one.

It’s official. Ali Hazelwood is my queen of romcom. I thought it would be difficult to love a book as much as I love The Love Hypothesis. But I do this new book😍🥰

Ok, Adam lifting a car in The Love Hypothesis remains the most hilarious moment in my history with romcom novels to this day😂 But this book is just as charmingly ridiculous and hilarious. Oh, how I love the banters in Hazelwood’s books!! If you loved the LH, this book will not disappoint you!

The first half is very similar to the LH in terms of setting and characters. But I think this book starts going its own way from the second half which I think adds more depth to the story than the LH.

👉What’s similar to the LH:

STEM academia setting
Grumpy x Sunshine trope
Humourous banters
Chariming ridiculousness

👉What’s different from the LH:

No fake dating
Characters with more complex background
More depth in the relationship development

This book made me smile, laugh and cry. It gave me such a wholesome reading experience. It made me really happy. 🥰

I highly recommend it even to people who didn’t enjoy The LH!

(I’ll post reviews on social medeia closer to the release as the publisher requested)

Steamy, smart, and featuring strong female leads, Ali Hazelwood does not disappoint with her second novel! Meet Bee Königswasser, successful neuroscientist inspired by the one and only Marie Curie, leading the way in the STEM field. Cue her devastatingly sexy university arch nemesis and engineering extraordinaire, Levi Ward, who she is now collaborating with after being selected to lead NASAs new neuroengineering project. What could go wrong?

From day one, Bee finds herself meeting roadblocks, from delayed equipment to missing emails, which are putting her career and future as co-leader on the project in jeopardy. But is it possible that sworn enemy Levi is actually an ally?

I give this book four stars. It was entertaining, steamy, and had many relatable moments. Bee was the perfect quirky, smart female scientist needed to tell this story. There were some predictable plot elements that kept this book from being a solid 5 stars for me but it was close!