Book Review(s) | Love on the Brain + The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Summary: Love on the Brain: 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 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?

The Love Hypothesis: As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships — but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees. That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor — and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs. Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

My Thoughts: I absolutely loved both of these books. If I had to pick one over the other, I would say The Love Hypothesis, only because that one made me cry.

Love on the Brain: I adored both Bee and Levi. I wish Levi would have told Bee how he felt earlier on, but the story was a bit predictable. I knew who was sabotaging Bee and why basically from the beginning. I still read this in less than one day and it was a feel good love story for me.

The Love Hypothesis: ugh. This one was all the feels. Happy, sad, angry. Everything. Olive and Adam. The fake dating…not my favorite romance trope to read, but you could obviously tell Adam was way into her, so it worked for this.

I kind of wish I could read both of these for the first time again.

Five stars for both of these books.