Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
Bee Knigwasser 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 - 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. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school - archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas… devouring her with those eyes. 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 Konigswasser do?
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I’m not going to lie, after the short novella series this author put out, I wasn’t very excited for this next book no matter how much I loved The Love Hypothesis so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this read. I do feel it was different enough from her orignal to stand alone, however there was no mistaking that it was another Reylo story. Just like all the ones before. Don’t get me wrong, I love that trope. I could read 1,000 fics about that pairing. But when I’m looking to actually purchase a romance novel, I’d like some variety. There were enough differences that the plot felt very original however, the two leads were definitely copy and pastes of all her other leads. I liked the story, but I wished it were a little more of a standalone. If this came out first then I’m betting I would have loved it but having seen this done before, I was a little underwhelmed.
I loved the characters, Hazelwood does a great job of connecting us with her characters and making them funny and relatable. She’s also fantastic at the angst. I get to points in her book where I literally can’t put it down because I need to know how everyone reacts to the big “uh oh” moments. Even though her leads tend to be similar throughout all her books, I do feel like, on their own, they stand out. But together, they fall into the same mold. Bee is spunkier an livelier than Olive…but to the core, she’s Olive. Levi is a bit softer than Adam but he’s still … Adam. You know? I think her characters could have such a great chance if the dynamics didn’t stay the same throughout each book.
The plot was great. I really liked the NASA aspect of it and it being OUT of University because it felt like more of an adult story. I think the build up was great, I really enjoyed the slow “get to know” one another and the subplots involving Marie Curie and the famous Twitter account. My one hold back, the feminism was strange in this one. I don’t know if it’s been like this in all her books but this book felt especially “I’m a feminist but only because I say I am and not because I actually show it”. It’s mentioned countless times how unfair the playing field is for women in STEM. But besides hiding behind a fake online persona, Bee doesn’t really take great strides in doing anything about it. She allows others to do it for her. It felt a little performative to me. I also hated how, the toxic best friend was forgiven because WOMEN. Just because women should stick together does not mean you need to let a toxic, backstabbing friend back into your life. That irked me so much that it took off a full star on the rating for me. To me, that didn’t show growth. Sure, forgive and move on. Don’t become best friends with that person again when they haven’t shown that their character has changed. That’s not growth. That’s stupidity.
Overall, enjoyed it enough to read it and have a good time, but I think Hazelwood needs to break the mold a bit and start with some new content (and new characters). 3.5 stars for this one.