“Love on the Brain” by Ali Hazelwood

Description: “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 – 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 Königswasser do?”

Review: I had a hard time getting into “Love on the Brain.” I really enjoyed “The Love Hypothesis” so I was hoping for something similar (but not identical). Overall it was an ok book; not the best but also not the worst. The first half of the book was really slow. Not too much happened except for a lot of miscommunication and whining. I was looking for more action and character development in the beginning.

My main issue with the book was the main female character, Bee. Bee is an intelligent, independent woman in a male dominated field but yet she seems pretty clueless at times. She’s a neuroscientist that can map the brain but can’t figure out when a guy likes her. I wanted to connect with Bee but I just couldn’t. I was often frustrated with her and annoyed by her behavior. I wanted her to stand up for herself! I will say that Bee has some great one liners and I loved her witty internal dialogue. Some of my favorites being “sweaty crotch of a trout” and calling someone a “walnut.”

I couldn’t get into the book because there were too many outrageous misunderstandings. It was obvious from the start what was really going on with Levi and it was frustrating that Bee refused to see it until the very end of the book. Anyone with eyes (and every other character in the book) could tell that Levi had feelings for her but she couldn’t see it. The plot was too predictable to be enjoyable and the ending was very rushed and over the top.

There were some aspects I really enjoyed. I loved the side character of Rocio, she was hilarious. I want to read a whole book about Rocio and Kaylee. I also didn’t guess the villain of the story in the beginning which is always nice. I felt like towards the middle it became more obvious what was really going on. I also loved that Bee has a secret popular Marie Curie twitter account.

For me this book was a solid 3 stars. I would recommend to anyone who likes lighter rom-coms, fans of Ali Hazelwood and people who enjoy an enemies to lovers troupe.

*please note that I received an advanced copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.