Review: "Love on the Brain" by Ali Hazelwood ★★★★

Review: Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

This amusing slowburn rivals-to-lovers STEM rom-com with a touch of mystery and “You’ve Got Mail” vibes is an arguably predictable and typical story from Ali Hazelwood but one I enjoyed immensely!

I roll my eyes. “I always knew you hated me.” I grin up at him. When he smiles back, my heart picks up.
I love you, I think. And you are my home.

PLOT SUMMARY
28-year-old neuroscientist Dr. Bee Königswasser has always been chaotic: she had an unsteady upbringing (moving from place to place with her twin sister Mareike after the death of her parents), and a rocky ex-fiancé fiasco (textbook narcissist and cheater). Now, she has been offered her dream career: working for NASA as a lead neuroscientist on project BLINK to design astronaut gears!

Life is good until Bee discovers she is actually co-leading the project – with none other than her grad school nemesis and engineer, bitter and introverted 32-year-old Dr. Levi Ward. He used to avoid her at all costs (yikes) and refused to work with her back then (big yikes!). It totally doesn’t make things even more awkward that her first day at work consists of nearly being crushed to death had she not been saved by Levi. And that she insults him. And that he steals her vegan donut.

Bee’s department is riddled with sabotage: equipment orders cancelled, emails missing, projects disappeared. She finds an unlikely friend in Levi as they work together to not only solve the case but to produce their products ahead of rival company MagTech. With the forced proximity, unexpected feelings surface: but Levi thinks that Bee is married, and Bee thinks Levi loathes her. And if they were to do anything it would only be casual.

Not for the first time does she wonder: what would Marie Curie (physicist and chemist from the 1800s) do? Bee has a secret anonymous Twitter account under the same name @WhatWouldMarieDo which supports STEM women and has millions of followers. But when secrets threaten to reveal themselves, both her job position and hobby endangered, she must open her heart before it is too late. Before she pushes away the one person who truly understands her.

This is told from the first-person past-tense narrative of Bee.

Levi Ward, His Wardness, Dr. Wardass, despised me. Me. Specifically me.

OVERALL OPINIONS
Interestingly, Ali Hazelwood studied neuroscience herself and has been a writer for peer-reviewed articles about brain science. So clearly, this is something she is knowledgeable on and passionate about so chose to write this. You might even say it was on her mind for a while (oh yeah, the puns in this book were great, by the way – mostly cat puns).

As I’ve mentioned in every previous Ali Hazelwood review, Ali has this blueprint: grumpy, intelligent, rich, tall, dark, buff, all-around big boy who tend to wear Henley tops when they’re not in a suit meets short, broke, smart but conclusion-jumping PhD woman in stem. This man is 6ft 4 and our heroine is around 5ft tall. Don’t get me wrong, I love the short girl rep because I myself am the same height as her. (But I would break my neck IRL looking up at that!)

Published in 2022, this would have been Ali’s 2nd book, therefore what I should have read after The Love Hypothesis. If I were to look at it from that perspective, it is significantly different in terms of plot, and there was a decent amount of mystery to keep people guessing about who the culprit was. However, looking at this from this perspective, where I have read 5 of her novels (and a novella but that doesn’t count here), the plot was predictable. She literally copied and pasted this into Love, Theoretically and hoped people wouldn’t notice: FMC is mad at her nemesis MMC, jumps to numerous conclusions (just like Elsie), weirdo best friend of FMC (Rocío is arguably crazier than Cece), sexist workplace, nice person who FMC either looks up to or gets on with is actually the villain.

For me, I put together all the things Ali was hinting at: who the online friend Shmac was, why Levi thinks Bee is married, what had caused the fallout between Bee and Annie, why Rocío was acting weird around Kaylee, who the villain was. I think anyone could have done that, to be honest. The only thing I didn’t expect was his motives, the thriller-like vibes – and the surprise Félicette attack, that was brilliant (good kitty)!. I joke you not, when I was annotating I said “this guy’s nice – that’s sus lol”. Wasn’t wrong. The only time I wondered if it might not have been him was when the test goes wrong.

My point, from all the above, is that I would have rated this higher if it had been less predictable. I loved the story but there was no thrill because I had everything worked out and I was just waiting for the story to play it out. Overall, I adored this as there was a lot of humour and heart to this. I like how supportive Bee and Levi are of each other, their teamwork, how he treats her.

Ali desperately needs to break her mould of STEM characters. If not, stick to reading her novellas, The Love Hypothesis and Love, Theoretically. KEEP CALM AND CURIE ON.

<< Positives >>
🠚The interesting yet complex chapter titles. They all begin the name of a part of the brain, then something usually related to this. One example is Chapter 8: Precentral Gyrus: Movement.
🠚The humour was great, as always. I loved some of the pop culture references like the Mean Girl vibes and the edited Pride and Prejudice quote: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a community of women trying to mind their own business must be in want of a random man’s opinion. The cemetery scene had me chortling. I laughed at this scene too:

I’m going to screech. Whatever Levi says, it’s going to make me yell with rage. I’m already vibrating with an un-screamed howl. It’s rising up my throat. “I want you to let her do her job.”
Up and up and up my larynx, through my vocal box, and—wait. What? What did Levi say?

🠚I love the You’ve Got Mail vibes,that Bee and Levi have no idea they are messaging each other.
🠚The chemistry and spice was excellent. I loved their making out session, I was kicking my feet.
🠚I learned so much about Marie Curie and GRE (Graduate Record Examination). I especially liked the parallels between Marie Curie and Bee, especially when things go wrong.
🠚Lesbian representation via secondary characters.
🠚The cat! The cats. The CCTV of cats.

<< Negatives >>
🠚There was not a great deal of enemies-to-lovers like the book was described. Most of the conflict was from misunderstanding. And then the final conflict is just because our girl has had enough with her job and wants to pack up and get the heck out of there. And that’s the time Levi calls out her avoidant attachment issues and is essentially like “you’re afraid to commit to anything or admit you love me”. Sir, respectfully, what? Your girl just had a really awful day in the office and online, it’s the wrong time to confess love, leave her be (or should I say leave her Bee? Hehe sorry.)
🠚The grandmother wedding ring misunderstanding. Fine, this had to be done for the plot, there had to be some way to get Levi to think that Bee is married. But I don’t know, it felt so random and ridiculous. I actually thought Tim was going to be in the story more, to make Levi think she was still with him just because he sees them together or something. But nope. Another wasted plotline? Perhaps.
🠚The reveal that Levi and Bee were the ones behind the Twitter accounts – it did not amount to much, I thought some of the later-on conflict would be through that but there was not. There did not seem to actually be much point to it. I like Bee’s Marie account, and that it helps women in STEM and promotes the issues of GRE. It is giving Whistledown vibes.
🠚Annie and how she messed up her friendship with Bee over Tim (ew!). The implication is that there is still a long way to go before forgiveness but I could never meet up with my ex-friend to have lunch let alone consider forgiving them if they had been the person my ex cheated on me with. This opinion comes from experience. I like the message of mending old broken friendships, but this was not the move, Ali.
🠚Some of Ali’s chapters felt as rambling as Bee herself.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Bee꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Bee has jumped to conclusions in this book more than I have eaten pasta in my lifetime (let me tell you, that is a looot!). And she was incredibly stupid, it was clear that Levi liked her – and he says more than once that he doesn’t hate her. Now, I know that some people can academically be intelligent and not when it comes to emotions or common sense, but come on you cannot be a neuroscientist, studying the brain, and not realise. Acting like a Beech to me.
🠚I relate to how she looks up restaurant menus online and how she rambles on, even though I cringed every second. She is meant to be older than me, but acts like she’s in high school. And the galaxy leggings. Bee, really?
🠚I do like her kindness, the way she likes Levi so much she stands up for him in front of his family, something nobody has ever done for him before. I love how she keeps looking after this cat that nobody else notices.

Science doesn’t give a shit. Science is reliable in its variability. Science does whatever the fuck it wants. God, I love science.

-ˋˏ ꒰ Levi꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Of course, I hated him to begin with. He has a Mr. Darcy character arc, really. Hate him to love him. His horrid family, who have always seen him as a disappointment, made him the unsocial unapproachable way he is. He’s a great nerd, I love he has a Yoda Best mug haha. And I like the twist that he’s vegan so that’s why he took her donut.
🠚Ali didn’t need to paint him as a bad person for only listening to music by men. That doesn’t make him a misogynist – look at his Shmac Twitter account helping Marie’s account, standing up for her not even knowing it was her.
🠚I love that he values her opinion and ensures that his coworkers treat her with respect.

I want to tell her that she’s luminous, she’s so bright in my mind, sometimes I can’t focus... I want to buy her flowers, food, books. I want to hold her hand, and I want to lock her in my bedroom. She’s everything I ever wanted and I want to inject her into my veins and also to never see her again.

FAV QUOTES
• If my shoulder brushes his torso on my way there, I am too busy not kneeing him in the nuts to apologise.
• Look at us. Just two archnemeses, casually standing in front of each other in fake-relaxed poses while tumbleweeds roll their merry way around us. A modern spaghetti western.
• This *is* a bizarro world. More bizarre than I could ever imagine. I’m in the Upside Down, my heart’s thudding in my ears, and Levi Ward just said something *nice* about me.
• while we study each other with equally raw expressions, I experience an odd, transient feeling. Like this is the first time Levi sees me. No, not quite: like this is the first time I see him.
• SHMAC: She’s still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
• “There is no other neuroscientist I’d want to do this project with. Not a single one.”
• “Just follow my lead,” Levi says, gesturing me inside. | “We’re supposed to be co-leads,” I mutter. | The corner of his lip twitches up. “Follow my co-lead, then.”
• I look up and there he is, staring at me with a soft smile as I grin into the ether like an idiot. I should snap at him to look away, but when our eyes meet I only want to grin more.
• The second I see Levi’s house I want to burn it down with a flamethrower. Because it’s perfect.
• “We’re talking about two days in close quarters with the person you most despise in history.” | “Elon Musk is coming, too?” | “No—*me*.”
• “Can you stay? Please? I know you’d probably rather be—” | “Nowhere else,” he says, without skipping a beat. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
• The green of his eyes, though, is brighter than before. Brighter than ever.
• “most of the astronauts I know are very down to earth—” | “Down to earth!” I laugh so hard, people turn to stare. Levi shakes his head fondly.
• “What are you wearing tomorrow?” | He gives me a puzzled look. “I don’t know. Is it relevant?” | “Of course! We’re spying.” | He nods in a way that clearly showcases how full of shit he thinks I am. “Something inconspicuous, then. A trench coat. Sunglasses. You brought your fake mustache, right?”
• “I can give you nice. I can give you better than nice. I can give you everything.” He smiles at me, full of hope. “You don’t even have to admit to yourself that you love me, Bee. God knows I love you enough for the both of us. But I need you to stay.”
• Maybe it’s a bad idea. Maybe I should be scared. Maybe I will regret this. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe this feels like home.
• He’s so handsome. Stupidly, unjustly handsome. I want to look at his stupidly, unjustly handsome face for . . . for as long as I possibly can. Could be a minute. Hopefully, it’ll be seventy years.