Love on the Brain

Hazelwood’s feministic approach to contemporary romance just keeps getting better.

Bee is a talented neuroscientist who gets an amazing opportunity to work on astronaut helmets for NASA. She’s thrilled! That is, until she arrives to find that someone seems to be trying to sabotage her new project and she will be co-leading with a man who despised her in grad school, Levi Ward. When her efforts to get along with Levi are fruitful, she must juggle her fears of abandonment and loneliness in order to decide whether it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. 

The tropes in this story are my kryptonite: enemies turned lovers, damsel in distress, pining, etc, etc, etc. The themes of feminism and women in STEM are, once again, excellently presented and very prominent. Hazelwood touches on issues relating to sexism, discrimination of entrance exams, and the importance of people holding positions of power serving as allies for others. The characters were excellently three dimensional, loveable, funny, and flawed. The romance made me swoon. The second pinch had me sitting anxiously on the edge of my seat. The ending warmed my heart. 

The plot was a bit predictable for me personally, however it did sneak up on me at the end (I suspected SOMETHING, but not quite that). That said, the plot was very satisfying and familiar in a comforting way. Some of the characterization didn’t run quite as deep within the story as Hazelwood has done in the past (i.e. The Love Hypothesis); in some ways, this was good because the characters themselves didn’t over-ruminate on these things. There were also fewer areas of the plot directly tied to the sociological issues and discrimination in STEM, it was more of a side plot of it’s own. Again, this isn’t so much of a complaint as an observation. I am glad these things are being addressed more forms of media. 

This was such an enjoyable read and I’m currently experiencing a horrid good-book-hangover because of it. I cannot wait to get my hands on whatever Ali Hazelwood comes out with next. I’m going to be reflecting on this book for some time to come.