It Must Be Love On The Brain

I recently finished reading Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood.

*POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT*

  Rating: 4.25/5 stars

"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 of 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?"

Bee has a PhD in neuroscience, but she's struggling to find recognition and funding for her projects. So when she gets the call from NASA to work on one of their helmet prototypes, it sounds like a dream come true. The only catch: she has to work alongside Levi, her archnemesis from grad school. But as she spends more time with him, she starts to realize that maybe they don't really hate each other after all and it's actually something else altogether.

If I had to pick the one thing I enjoyed the most about this book, it isn't the romance. Rather, it's the writing. There's something about Ali Hazelwood's style, with its blend of snark and humor, that just completely has me in its thralls. Often I would find myself grinning from cheek to cheek, chuckling to myself while Bee held some amusing and sarcastic conversation or inner dialogue. I think it's because she says all the things I want to say if only I were quick and clever enough to come up with it.

And there were so many puns! Science puns, cat puns, Marie Curie puns. I love a good pun (or a bad one, I'm not that discerning), so I was in pun-heaven.

I have to mention the science in here. I wanted so badly for the technology in here to be real, so that I could marvel at how cool it is and totally nerd out learning more about it. Add in the NASA/astronaut angle, and your resident space-science fangirl here was swooning.

In terms of the romance itself, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite thing about this book. I found the transition from we're-frenemies to we're-getting-it-on to be a bit sudden. It seemed like they were solidly in the former category, and then all of a sudden, they were in the latter category. I guess I wanted more of a slow progression and steamy anticipation than what I got.

Still, the coupling of Bee and Levi was a fun one. Of course, due to their previous interactions, Bee would assume that Levi hates her. And of course, she'd be slow to figure it out, resulting in rather funny misunderstandings between them. However, I can totally see the pitchforks coming out for this couple—how it's completely unrealistic, how there's no way it would take her this long to come to her senses. I mean, sure, it's unrealistic, but that feels like the entire romance genre to me. It always necessitates a certain suspension of disbelief to enjoy, which totally worked for me here. Your mileage may vary.

As an aside, I was checking out some articles about the author and found out Ali Hazelwood is a pen name. Apparently, in her real life, none of her colleagues or students have mentioned her books to her, so she thinks no one has made the connection yet. Ha, imagine that! 

Check out Love on the Brain, and take on the task of NASA and the brain.

Happy Reading :)