Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
(2022) 350 pages

Love on the Brain tells the story of whiz-kid neuroscientist Dr. Bee Königswasser, a fizzled out NIH employee who embarks on the highlight of her professional career: working for NASA. Bee also works with gothic, Wednesday-Addams like Rocio- who was the most refreshing character in the novel. Together, the two take on Houston together- but not without a few asteroids in their way; the biggest one being that the second co-lead on the project is Dr. Levi Ward, who has a complicated history with Bee (the complicated part being that Levi detests Bee’s existence, or so it seems to be). As is often the case in STEM work, there are delays and the NASA position is not living up to what it should be, which has Bee convinced Levi is trying to thwart her job and get her fired. The tension between the two develops until they start to acclimate to each other, slowly beginning a friendship. This friendship turns into something more but in a very realistic progression (not going at the speed of light 😉 

3 likes 

1. The humor. Bee is incredibly upbeat, and it plays well with Levi’s cool, collected demeanor. The humor makes for a very swift read, while still contributing to Bee and Levi’s character development. 

2. Levi. One of the best male characters in Hazelwood’s works, Levi is such a well-written character. His story doesn’t focus on him being physically attractive or just his intellectual capabilities but rather his life as a whole- his motivations, his family dynamic, his life outside of work. 

3. The realism. Bee struggles as a woman in science due to lack of funds and not being taken seriously by male peers. The struggle for women is real in academia settings- a struggle Hazelwood does not shy away from. 

3 dislikes  

1. The villain. At the end of the book, Bee is held hostage by one of the astronauts who has been screwing with her project this whole time out of his own spite. Yet, this climax seems hastily put together as there isn’t much lead up to this confrontation. Not every book has to have a villain. 

2. The fainting. The fainting was sporadic, had no medical sense (if she passed out so many times before why was she hospitalized at the end of the book???) and did little to develop Bee outside of being a “damsel in distress” character. 

3. The Marie Curie References. There is a whole subplot about how Bee being behind a Marie Curie fan account on twitter, and how Levi also has an anonymous account dedicated to STEM (the two of them are friends on Twitter for a long time before the book begins). It’s just irritating to see how thinly veiled Bee and Levi’s identities are, and it doesn’t do anything towards the chemistry of the characters. 

Score Breakdown: 

Creativity of the Story: 2/10 – Hazelwood’s stories all follow the same format of small, sunshine STEM woman falling for a big, broody, STEM man. It was nearly impossible to find anything unique about this book compared to “Love on the Brain” or “Love, Theoretically” 

Humor: 7/10 (a good number of chuckles) 

Realism: 7/10 

Plot Twist: 4/10 (unnecessary and ridiculous)  

Side Characters: 8/10 (Rocio’s story was interesting to keep me locked, and 

Overall rating: 5.6/10