Love on the Brain

So I didn’t realize I was reading the books out of publishing order (not that it matters until you get to the acknowledgement section!) BUT I think is one is my favorite Hazelwood so far. Which is saying something since I think I AM Elsie in many ways (Theoretically) and just CANNOT get enough of Adam (Hypothesis) and Ian (Below Zero). I am a nurse, so I feel about anatomy and physiology and pharmacokinetics the way Hazelwood’s book characters feel about their fields of science. I am currently working on my masters degree, and dream of joining academia teaching someday and maybe publishing before I die (dreams). These books feel like the world I wish I lived in, and are very real comfort blankets for my brain and emotions. So why is this one my favorite?First, can we just acknowledge that in a world where women are often required to the emotional heavy lifting for their partners and everyone else around them, Hazelwood’s stellar leading ladies are often lacking in that department yet have male partners that are grounded and capable of doing and holding emotional space where they can’t? It’s a running theme now, and I AM HERE FOR IT! It’s not just that they aren’t sexist or are willing to give women credit for their work. They go to therapy. They own up to mistakes, take perspective from others, and are often more open and capable of being emotionally available and vulnerable while the ladies have more work to do, make more errors, and are less capable in this arena. That is just spectacular and not always seen in romance.Second, Bee is such a believable character because she is so honest about how she loves studying the brain and neuroscience, yet reluctantly admits that exercise is good for the brain. It’s so human to be so dedicated to the science and yet resist or even ignore evidence because of fear, experiences, and more. In some ways, she has the shortest lag time for realizing she wants her happy ending, though, which is nice to see. The consistency with some variation of Hazelwood’s leads being afraid of commitment, love, and romance are interesting. A flow chart may be needed at some point.Third, I like that in a short span, Bee gets to see so much of Levi’s life. It’s nice to give context to him and round him out in a way that does more than just clear up misunderstandings. He has a world before she gets there. It’s always more interesting when the characters have more of a world than just the two of them in bed.My only real criticism is that while we all love the fantasy of tall, built men who also are geniuses at NASA or running research labs, in reality…I don’t know. I want there to be a way for average men who are not 6’ 4” to also be emotionally mature, get the girl, and be amazing? If I could write myself I would. But I can’t, so I need other amazing people to help me out, ya know? Anyway, it’s another rock-solid story from Ali Hazelwood. I really need to just pre-order her stuff. I have yet to be disappointed.

I absolutely love the nerd language and humor that Ali Hazelwood injects in her books. But after having read all 3 of her STEMinist novellas, this book shares so many similarities with them that it doesn't particularly stand out other than being a full length novel so there's more fleshed out character development. Bee is the neuroscientist hired on to work at NASA in Houston and will be co-leading than none other with Levi Ward, the head engineer on the project. Ali always make sure to pair up the best of the best in the field when she matches up the hero and heroine so there's no dispute that one is more intelligent than the other, because in the end, they always make the finest team. The same could be said for these two. Their Ph.D. studies overlapped briefly in grad school where Levi was a few years ahead of Bee, and during that time, it was pretty obvious to Bee that he loathed her on sight. While she dreads collaborating with him, she also knows this is an opportunity that she cannot pass up.This book made me laugh and there was some good angst and steam, on top of all the intellectual dialogue and monologue with additional quirky aspects. I was entertained and amused, I loved Levi and Bee together, but the romance formula does mimic the novellas so I wasn't especially surprised by anything that came about, even towards the end with the slight twist. Still, I enjoy this style of writing and look forward to more of Ali Hazelwood's books in the future.

I wasn't ready to jump into another fantasy because the last few fantasies I read has just been heavy and I needed something lighter. Love on the Brain did not disappoint, Ali Hazelwood's writing always makes me smile and so so happy. I love the audiobook as well.

For all that this is not the type of book I generally read, I enjoyed Ms. Hazelwood’s last novel quite enough to give this one a go. Granted, my expectations were not stratospheric. That said, this story has a lot of problems.The big thing: every single thing that is going to happen here becomes obvious early on. Not obvious in the sense that we expect the boy and girl to get together at the end. That was true in Ms. Hazelwood’s first novel, The Love Hypothesis. There, however, the obstacles seemed mostly realistic and character-driven. Here, on the other hand, the mysteries are artificial and the obstacles artificial.(If you are the kind of reader who fears spoilers, then you might want to skip this paragraph.) Everything about what is going on here is obvious to the reader but our protagonist, Bee Konigswasser, Ph.D. in neuroscience, has no clue. Clearly, her work is being sabotaged. Clearly, her “unknown” online pal is her lover, Levi. Clearly, when she gets together with Levi about halfway through the novel, he loves her and wants to marry her. Somehow, she refuses to acknowledge this. The reason all of this irritates me is because this makes our supposedly brilliant Bee look very stupid.Still, I cannot completely trash this novel. Ms. Hazelwood writes with a joy that is rare. I love the way her prose just bounces along with a verve that doesn’t diminish even when her characters are in tragedy mode. Plus, she writes about science with as much love as she does about love, which I also think is fantastic. She’s upped the sex scenes from one last time to three this time, and they are better here. Of course, I don’t know where she went to graduate school where the male scientists are towering strong men with six pack abs, but I’ll accept this necessity of the genre even as it makes me feel somehow inadequate. She’s always got a bone to pick with science culture. This time it’s the GRE, which worked much better than her Title IX obsession last time. And I enjoyed the recurring Madame Curie stories, even if I did know most of them already.This couldn’t quite save what I considered the diminishment of Bee. Still, Ms. Hazelwood is two-for-two in the fun department. Her novels are light and fun to read. I’ll check in to see what she does next time.