Love on the Brain

Introduction

Love on the Brain, written by Ali Hazelwood, was published on August 23rd, 2022, by Berkley Books publishing company. When I read and love a book by a new author, I tend to seek out the rest of their work. I’ve done the same thing with Karen M. McManus, Rick Riordan, and Sarah J. Maas’ works, and I can now add Ali Hazelwood to my growing list of favorite authors. If you have yet to read Love on the Brain but enjoy romance books or books about women in the STEM field, I highly recommend starting there before continuing with this review, as the Thoughts section will contain spoilers.

If you’d like to keep up with Ali Hazelwood, you can visit her website, https://alihazelwood.com/, or follow her on social media @alihazelwood.

Plot

Told through a first-person point of view, Bee Konigswasser finally gets the opportunity she’s been waiting for - the chance to work for NASA. Unfortunately, this seems much less like a dream when she is forced to work alongside her grad school nemesis, Levi Ward.

Thoughts

With romance books, I like to identify the different tropes as I go, and Love on the Brain is full of them. It consists of enemies to lovers; miscommunication and misunderstanding; he fell first, but she fell harder; and workplace romance that results in forced proximity. The thing is, Hazelwood does all of this very well with comically written characters. Nothing feels forced, and while it may seem cheesy at times, it doesn’t quite cross the line over to cliche.

Bee is an incredibly witty main character, and she is much less reserved than Olive was in The Love Hypothesis. She knows she’s smart, and she does what she can to demand the respect of her colleagues rather than attempting to blend into the world around her. Her purple hair and unique sense of style also make her stick out. Sometimes characters like Bee can feel like they were written to be “not like other girls,” but Bee’s witty and painfully punny sense of humor make her feel far more natural. I loved that she did a lot to support the women in STEM community through her secret Twitter account, What Would Marie Do? Maybe it’s because I’ve been around this block a time or two, but I knew almost immediately that her online friend Shmac was Levi. Even still, the juxtaposition between “Marie” and “Shmac’s” banter and that of Bee and Levi was amazing, and it did a good job of setting up Levi’s eventual confession.

There is, of course, the prevalence of her experience as a woman in a STEM field largely dominated by men. While characters like Rocio and Kaylee are other great representations, they don’t take away from the sometimes-overwhelming feeling of male dominance. Certain trademarked terms such as “sausage referencing” are very clever ways of disguising the irritating reality many women face. It comedically highlights the problem of men being willing to respect other men while respecting women only because other men say so. There are many other examples of similar themes throughout this book and the rest of Hazelwood’s work, and I like that it sheds light on serious and relevant topics while not feeling like she’s forcing her own opinions onto her audience.

Another thing I love about Hazelwood’s work is that the characters’ fears feel realistic and justifiable. Olive being worried about dating a professor while she was still in university - a professor who was not known for his kindness - was completely understandable. Alternatively, Bee both longing to put down roots while also being afraid of the inevitability of impermanence makes sense. So much in life is unknown, but loss is certain. People leave, and even when they stay, everyone dies eventually. Being someone who lacked a foundation for her entire adolescence makes Bee afraid of starting something that could crumble underneath her.

The ending threw me for a loop. I was not ready for how high stakes it would feel, and Levi showing up at exactly the right moment to save Bee’s life did feel a bit over the top and convenient. While Guy being the one to sabotage Bee did not come out of nowhere - it honestly made the most sense given that Bee herself acknowledged that he would have every right to be envious of Levi for overtaking the BLINK project - the action-packed ending felt almost too much for an otherwise (mostly) relaxing romance. The epilogue did save it, and I did find it cute and fitting for the rest of the book. It was much more similar to what I expected from the ending.

Overall, I did enjoy the plot, characters, themes, and successful use of various romance tropes, but I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it more than The Love Hypothesis, and the ending did leave something to be desired. Because of this, I am going to rate Love on the Brain 8.5/10.