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

 

4/5 stars  

*Spoiler alert!* 

“Science is reliable in its variability. Science does whatever the fuck it wants. God, I love science.” 

Love on the Brain gets four stars instead of five stars because of the ridiculous stretching of the no-I-don't-hate-you-I-actually-love-you trope in this one, but overall, I still enjoyed it. I also loved Hazelwood coming out swinging again in defense of women and minorities in STEM careers, the downsides of standardized testing to get into graduate school, and overall systemic racism and sexism. Bee is also a fantastically nerdy protagonist, and I love her, and her best friend and research assistant, Rocío.  

“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.” 

I’ve seen some reviews where readers complained Rocío was annoying, but I loved her too, and her cute grumpy-meets-sunshine romance with Kaylee, another research assistant. Rocío was like April Ludgate from Parks and Recreation, and it was like the Spidermen-pointing-at-each-other meme for me. A conversation between the two of them would be legendary.

“She’s so mean. I love her.” 

Me too, Bee. Me too. 

“The real villain is love: an unstable isotope, constantly undergoing spontaneous nuclear decay. And it will forever go unpunished.”

Anyways, yes, back to Bee and our hunky grumpy-grump Levi. They are the main couple, after all, even if some of the characterizations of both characters were a bit annoying and unrealistically lacking in emotional intelligence. It took forever and a bunch of hilarious misunderstandings before Bee finally recognizes that, one, Levi doesn’t hate her, and two, enjoys working with her as a colleague on their NASA neuroscience-engineering project.

“This is the equivalent to someone buying their own ‘World’s Best Boss’ mug. Congratulations, you’re officially NASA’s Micheal Scott.” 

It took me a bit, but Levi eventually won me over. I’m glad he got therapy to help him with his inability to express emotions in a healthy way, and let his goofy, nerdy sides out. I also get that Ali Hazelwood apparently has a type and that’s tall, dark, and handsome. Oh, and apparently a lumberjack, with big hands, if you know what I mean. But I found myself having to not roll my eyes at this typecasting of the male love interest, and all the other predictable tropes present in the story, but oh well, I fell in love with Levi also. The Star Wars and Office references may or may not have helped smooth the way.  

“Science, I tell myself in my inner Jeff Goldblum voice, finds a way.”

 

But Bee is still number one for me. She reminds me a lot of Olive from The Love Hypothesis. Smart as hell and not afraid to show it. They both also make terrible puns. The point is I could relate to them both in more than a few ways, even if I’m not a cancer researcher or neuroscientist, or particularly sexual. Probably more asexual, but I respect women who are in charge of their romantic lives.   

“‘I will slay a murder of dragons for you.’” 
“‘I looked it up,’” Levi says from the doorjamb. “‘It’s a thunder of dragons.’” 

Speaking of which, the steaminess factor was upped quite a bit in this one, where I was, “I’m so happy for you guys, but wow!” And it’s totally my complicated feelings about sexuality, and nothing else. Again, no judgment on my part. Women can do what they want. It’s 2024.  

I still enjoyed the story and the happy ending for both of our imperfectly loveable nerdy protagonists, even if I could see it coming from page 1 of Love on the Brain. Alas, it’s on to Love, Theoretically! 

Happy reading! 

--BookOwl