Hey y’all!
It feels so good to be back with ya’ll with another book review. This time, I’ve just finished “Love on the Brain” by Ali Hazelwood. If her name sounds super familiar, it’s because she’s the author of “The Love Hypothesis” and several novellas. She is awesome. When she announced this book, I went right ahead and pre-ordered it. I was super excited because I loved her first book and so I just had to have this new one. I did enjoy one of her novellas that I listened to on audio.
So, did this book live up to her last? Read on to find out!
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Synopsis
Like an avenging, purple-haired Jedi bringing balance to the mansplained universe, Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project–a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia–Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward. Sure, Levi is attractive in a tall, dark, and piercing-eyes kind of way. And sure, he caught her in his powerfully corded arms like a romance novel hero when she accidentally damseled in distress on her first day in the lab. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school–archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. Now, her equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and Bee finds her floundering career in somewhat of a pickle. Perhaps it’s her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas…devouring her with those eyes. And the possibilities have all her neurons firing. But when it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?
Review
Where do I begin? First of all, I said before and I will say it again: I love it when men or the characters in general are in therapy. As someone who struggles with my own depression and anxiety, it is so refreshing when I see characters talk about going to therapy. I know it may seem like a small thing to others but to me, it’s totally awesome! I want going to therapy and talking about mental health normalized and when authors mention it in their books, it warms my little heart.
The banter. I loved how they talked with each other. The flirting. Plus with how he was so protective of her like pardon me while I faint. I loved it. One thing that did slightly annoy me was that and this maybe a spoiler….but an exchange was happening and neither person knew it was the other person and I was like what the heck! I just also loved how protective Levi was of Bee like with her ex or when she was leaving the graveyard…just the little things. It was super cute.
I felt connected with Bee because she talked about loneliness and trying to distract ourselves with other things and how she wanted to not feel lonely. There’s a quote in the book and it says “Lonely people brains are shaped differently…I want a healthy, plump, symmetrical cerebrum. I want it to work diligently, impeccably, like the extraordinary machine its supposed to be. I want it to do as it’s told.” and yes girl SAME!!
The spice level. I guess she’s gotten really comfortable writing sex scenes because holy smokes there were a lot more sex scenes in this book. I’m not really used to reading books with sex scenes or a lot of sex scenes so this was like a medium level I’m guessing because this is not stuff that’d I’d categorize as smutty but there is smut in this book.
Finally…cats. The book has cats. I was so excited and Levi had a black cat at that! Like how amazing is that? Black cats need more representation in books or in the media because they’re still looked at a bad luck so anytime there some positive representation, I’m hype! I personally love black cats. I have a black cat. So any books that paint them or cats in general in a positive light is a-okay in my book!
I gave this book 4/5 stars. I highly recommend this!!!
Title: Love on the Brain
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Genre: Romance
Buy it here: Amazon and Bookshop.org
Who is an author whose book you’d automatically buy?
XOXO,
Nessa D
Nessa D 