Love On The Brain
I finished Love On The Brain by Ali Hazelwood two days ago, and boy am I ready to write about it. Most of you are probably familiar with Ali Hazelwood who wrote the booktok sensation, The Love Hypothesis. I read The Love Hypothesis this past December and loved it, so I absolutely had to read something else by her. I honestly wish I read this sooner because it was just as good and maybe even better!
If you don’t know about Ali Hazelwood, allow me to tell you a little about her because she is amazing. Ali was born in Italy but has also lived in Germany in Japan. She moved to the US to get her Ph.D. in neuroscience. You heard that right! She’s science smart and english smart. **screams in amazement and a little bit of jealousy. Ali writes books about women in STEM, steminist novels if you will. Her female characters are smart, powerful women who overcome misogyny in the workplace.
Love on the Brain follows purple-haired, Marie Curie enthusiast, Bee Königswasser. Bee is a neuroscientist offered the opportunity of a lifetime to lead a neuro-engenering project for NASA. Bee is ecstatic but less so when she finds out her co-head on the project is her archnemesis from grad school, Levi Ward. Bee is positive that working with Levi will be just as terrible as grad school, but when her equipment is missing and her male coworkers are ignoring her, she starts to see Levi as an ally instead of an enemy.
I love Bee Königswasser. I’m in love with Bee Königswasser. If I had to describe her in one word, that would definitely be “strong”. Bee faced so much sexism, insubordination, and disrespect through her job and Twitter account; However, she stood her ground and continued to speak her opinion. One thing about her that really stood out to me is that she never took her frustration of being mistreated by her coworkers out on them. She was a gracious and respectful boss even when she didn’t get the same treatment in return. When she did get mad, though it was justified and done in a matter of speaking her mind. She never insulted anyone or diged deep to hurt someone like a lot of characters in books, and let’s be honest, real life, do. I think Bee’s character is a good reminder of all the good women can do when they stay strong and speak their minds.
The book overall was really enjoyable. It’s medium to fast-paced, and it was an easy, fast read. It’s a pretty typical size for a romance book (around 400 pages), so it’s not too intimidating to pick up. This was a book where I forgot I was reading. I got so into it and felt all the emotions. I got mad for Bee around one thousand times while reading this book. I had to fight the urge to scream and throw my book across the room. I probably would have if I didn’t have a cat who does not tolerate loud sounds. This book definitely had some happy squealing because “omg this is the cutest thing ever”. Ali is great at those moments. One thing I wasn’t expecting in this book was a secondary sapphic romance. I won’t spoil who, but I was very excited to see some queer representation even in a straight romance book. I rated this book five stars given everything above and the fact that I just felt so happy and giddy while and after reading. I definitely recommend giving Love on The Brain a try!
xoxo, taylor
