Love on the Brain, Ali Hazelwood’s second novel in her STEM romance series, is just as cute and funny as The Love Hypothesis. It takes a slightly different route with industry positions and company rivalry mudding the waters – not to mention past beef between our main characters – but the romance is just as magnetising and the drama will have you gasping out loud.

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 – 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. But Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school – archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. But when her equipment starts to go missing and the staff ignore her, Bee could swear she sees Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas… devouring her with those eyes. 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?

Bee is all sorts of amazing, radiating millennial energy with her anon twitter (I suppose I should call it X, but I am a stubborn Gen-Zer who wants to go back to living in my teen years so I’m calling it Twitter) and being one of the coolest characters I’ve come across. There is something genuinely fascinating and encouraging seeing characters like Olive and Bee (and Elsie and Rue, given I’ve read more of her books before this post goes live) in fiction books that get wide reception and acknowledgement. An important part of media and stories is representation, so seeing these women absolutely rocking it in STEM fields gives me hope that more girls and young women (and middle age and older, because you can always learn new things) will feel comfortable, excited, and interested in STEM fields and careers. Levi, because he deserves to be discussed, is a sweetheart. He has his weak points, which he admits and has worked on across the years, but I appreciate the fact he does what is right instead of what is easy. Similar to my enjoyment seeing women in STEM, I liked the representation of men in the field who support women rather than tearing them down or sitting aside and letting them be ridiculed and questioned. He isn’t perfect, I doubt any character is, but e certainly deserves some love and respect.

As for the plot, I love a good NASA story. I appreciate the step away from the academia setting and seeing how this STEM romance works in a workplace setting. I do prefer the academia setting as I am in academia myself, but this is just as entertaining to read. There are moments of frustration, moments of cuteness, and moments where I could not turn the page fast enough. I feel it is safe to say you don’t need to know the ins and outs of science, engineering, or any high-level jargon in the field. At the core, Love on the Brain is a romance between archenemies who are forced to work together on a project. It is tense, hilarious, and well worth the read.

The more romance books I read, the more I find myself wondering what tropes I like, which ones I don’t mind, and which ones I don’t want to see in my reads. Love on the Brain includes several tropes I thought I wasn’t a fan of, namely enemies-to-lovers. I don’t know what it is about bookish social media and general book promotions, but I have lost faith the blurbs and synopses reflecting what the stories actually contain. There is so much more heart and soul to these romance stories that transcend the simple tropes and taglines for promotions. After understanding this, I have become more interested in reading romance books, and I know that there are a lot to choose from after the boom in romance books thanks to bookish social media over the last ten years or so.

Ali Hazelwood is an author whos narrative voice and style I quite enjoy, especially when it includes scientific jargon and academic mindsets that spread into the structure and formatting of the novel. Love on the Brain is a lovely little novel that makes me feel not only excited about expanding my reading genres but determined to become more openminded in 2025. For those romance readers that haven’t read it, I highly recommend picking Love on the Brain up in your next library visit – it is a tale well worth your time.