I've been working through Ali Hazelwood's oeuvre ever since my book club chose to read The Love Hypothesis. These aren't my favorite romance novels, but I like Hazelwood's feminist, science-y women and the books are pretty entertaining. I'd been waiting for a while for her latest, and I was happy when I was finally able to pick up Love on the Brain (2022)--Hazelwood's second full-length novel.
Bee Königswasser has an unfulfilling job with a terrible boss when she is offered the lead on a neuroengineering project at NASA. She has recently broken up with her fiancé after he cheated on her with her best friend. It's her dream come true, but the only problem is that her co-lead is Levi Ward. She and Levi were in grad school together for one year, and he was weird and mean. Bee is convinced that he hates her, but the opportunity is too good to pass up.
Any wish that their working relationship would be better than in grad school disappears as soon as she arrives. Levi cancels her equipment, ignores her e-mails, and doesn't invite her to meetings. He even spitefully eats the only vegan donut in the box--leaving her with nothing to eat! When she tries to talk to him, he will barely look at her.
Finally, she confronts him, and she begins to realize that there are a lot of miscommunications and misunderstandings that underlie their relationship--beginning in grad school and continuing to the present. In addition, Bee is the secret author of a political twitter account called WWMD "What would Marie Curie do?" where she encourages women in science, calling out those that need to be called out. She unknowingly messages with Levi's handle and they get along great on Twitter. This does come into play later.
The book takes on a bit of a crazy turn later, but on the whole it was fun and enjoyable. I did not think the cat's role in the story was at all realistic. My primary nitpick with Hazelwood's books (all of them) is that her love interests are obsessed with her protagonists for years with no real connection or communication. In real life, men that smart, nice, and good looking would have found someone. In real life, men that secretly obsess over women they barely know for years are pretty creepy. I realize romance novels are all about wish fulfillment, so I can kind of see it, but it's always a bit overdone for my tastes. In addition, her protagonists are always insanely clueless about picking up on the fact that someone likes them.
Still, I enjoy Hazelwood's books, and I'm definitely picking up her next one that is apparently coming out in 2023!
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