Love on the Brain
Ratings267
Average rating3.8
3.5 stars?
Why you gotta put the miscommunication trope everywhere. For the love of God, let go of Reylo for books. How many more protagonists are gonna be their carbon copy? There's other people in the Star Wars universe.
Might I suggest the author watch Andor?! Fucking masterpiece.
Other than that
This is Adam & Olive all over again, but on steroids. The vegan version, but horny vegans.
I have very little patience with incessant rambling so, yeah, it's a no from me. I despise female characters who do that.
This one is just so... MEH.
This one was such a joy to read, but Bee and Levi are the dumbest geniuses. Complete goofballs.
I didn't think Ali Hazelwood could top The Love Hypothesis for me. Starting this book, it felt too oddly similar which made me worried that it was going to be a carbon copy. That was obviously because it has main characters in STEM with an enemies to lover trope but over time it grew into something even better. I loved every second of it... crushed it in just a few hours. I loved how it showed different types of mental illness trauma. Showcases how it effects our love lives, how we communicate and interact with people. How we can overcome that trauma over time but it doesn't mean it happens over night. It takes weeks, months and years to come to terms with it. That does mean though that there is some miscommunication that comes into play.
Bee is neuroengineer that has been given the opportunity to work with NASA on a top secret project but the only kicker is that she has to co-lead the project with her grad school nemesis; Levi Ward. Over the years in school, Levi showed signed of hating Bee. Never being near her, not acknowledging her existence, being short with her and not wanting to work with her. I think you can tell where this is going.... a lovely enemies to lovers story. Who doesn't love that?
I enjoyed being in Bee's mind. She is funny, smart and speaks her mind. She isn't afraid to tell people how it is and if something is wrong. She would often bring up if someone didn't include enough diversity in their lives, which I loved. Bee's issue though is trust and abandonment. She lost her parents when she was four, she moved around all of the world most of her life till she was able to settle down in her late teens and her sister is never around. She is afraid that everyone is going to leave her so she makes sure that never happens first.
I didn't like Levi at first, obviously. We saw him from Bee's prospective where he treated her like a bug on the bottom of his shoe. Over time, you really get to see how sweet he is and how much he has been pining for Bee the past seven years. About 3/4 into the book, the way he talked about Bee made my heart skip a beat. You could feel the passion from his words and how much he meant them. He was desperate to keep her and make her his.
Overall, this book was chef's kiss to me. Ali Hazelwood has become one of my favorite romance authors. If any of this sounded interesting, pick it up and give it a shot. I want to thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Liked this book so much more then the love hypothesis. No cringy lines and childish behavior. Just grown ups doing grown up stuff. Much better
just give me pinning, hot scenes and drama, and make it STEM? and the book is surely to get me out of a reading block
A steminist contemporary romance about rivals-turned-lovers with the signature Ali Hazelwood misunderstandings that carry the entire storyline.
The book was fine, but I'm just constantly baffled by how Ali Hazelwood manages to come up with female main characters who are supposed to be super intelligent and at the top of their professions but have the emotional maturity of budding teenagers.
I think I read too many Hazelwoods novellas this year. Or my expectations were too high. IDK.
So, take this review with a grain of salt.
Honestly, I had fun listening to it but the repetitiveness ended up being too much. Too much tall/huge or small/tiny physical descriptions, over-the-top stuff happening that made me cringe (seriously, that ending...), and some of the dialogue was just cheesy. LOTB made me glad TLH only had one steamy scene. And I like steam in romance, so that says a lot on its own.
I still liked the science in it, the banter, and the slow burn. There were some funny characters and moments too.
I might need a break from Hazelwood's stories for a while.
3.5*
some parts of this book felt like reading jameela jamil's instagram feed, honestly slaying too close to the sun to the point where it gets annoying.
The summary gives “‘enemies' to lovers” but the book is more of a long stream of misunderstandings and miscommunications. The buildup of an issue in the early chapters is pushed far enough to the side in the middle of the book that the resolution in the last ~4 chapters felt unnecessarily rushed.
Ali Hazelwood could write the same book as many times as she wants and i'd read it anytime.
I do agree with people that this book follows the same formula (ha science):
- He is soo BIGGGG and TALLL
- She is soooo smollll and tiny
- There will be betrayal
- and some smaller things
But even with all of that, it also means that if you like one book, you are likely to like the other.
So the story I liked, and the character aren't total copies of the love hypothesis. I know we were told why there was no communication (see earlier posts on this book) but still, use words. Overall, I liked the book and the history lessons about Marie Curie.
3.5 or a 4 star Im not sure yet.
as a single person currently seeking a vegan partner, despite this books shortcomings it was exactly what i wanted to read so I'm rating it 5 stars
Not for me. I'm a woman in a stem career. Honestly men are not that bad. You got a few bad apples but there's also a few bad apples in the opposite gender. Couldn't relate to main female and the use of cis male....no thank you.
Fun read.
And you know you spend too much time on Twitter if you get all the things that's been talked about in there ^^'
Um, no.
Ali Hazelwood took the enemies to lovers trope (is it really if the guy is in love with the girl the entire time so it makes it miscommunication trope), tall broody dark haired male and tiny, dumb, doesnt enjoy sex female mcs and made it her entire personality.
If you think you're meeting Levi and Bee for the first time, then you're wrong. I'm sure they seem familiar to you because you met them first in:
The Love Hypothesis,
Under One Roof
Stuck With You
Below Zero
They just had different hair colors at most.
I love characters that have niche/nerdy interests. I love when both love interests share these interests. I'm not mad that this book is similar to The Love Hypothesis because it's a formula that works for me. I know who these characters are and I'm rooting for them. I loved RocIo and Kaylee and their goth girl/Elle Woods romance. I just loved this book. The cats, the kisses, and the Curie history. All of it.
Cute!!!! This is a perfect spice level. Almost too bantery, but charming enough to make up for it. I always wonder how books with very era-specific markers (e.g., the protagonist has a Twitter account) will age, but that's not for me to lose sleep over! I found this in the lending library at my laundromat and snapped up another book in Hazelwood's STEMinist series as soon as I saw it, so definitely a worthwhile find.
