I’m still
recovering from the shock of discovering who was behind all the commotion that
affected Bee. I was even more shocked when said suspect, who turned out to be
the actual suspect, went far enough to cause harm to themselves to reach their
motive. I was even more shocked when that person pulled out a weapon. It was
STEM romance meets thriller. Diabolical.
Let me back it up and give you some context of course.
I’m very quickly
actually working through Ali Hazelwood’s STEM romance books. Each one is better
than the last, and after crying over Love, Theoretically, you didn’t
have to ask me twice to get my nose buried deep into the pages of Love on
the Brain. We have two misunderstood enemies, or nemeses as they like to
call each other. A neuroscientist called Dr. Bee Königswasser and NASA engineer
Levi Ward have come together to work on a project called BLINK. It was a
collaboration between NIH (where Bee currently is) and NASA.
Miscommunication
seems to be the bane of their life. Whilst Bee, and literally everyone who knew
them at university, assumes Levi hates her for unknown reasons, he actually
just didn’t know how to be social, so instead of dissecting his feelings, he
avoided her at every step of the way. It was to the point where, when paired up
to do a group project during undergrad, Levi pleaded not to work with Bee, who
overheard, and so you know how the miscommunication goes. To be fair, Bee did
better than me; I would’ve cried myself to sleep.
Okay, Tim is a
little something. He reminds me of Nevel from iCarly, who would always
say “I rue you.” He caused a lot of miscommunications, and oh boy, when
Levi found out (whose collaborator was Tim), did it get juicy. Tim was a Tom
from The Love Hypothesis but more stupid. Long story short, he was Bee’s
fiancé, and then thankfully, she found out he cheated with everything that
breathed, including her best friend, Annie. Okay, so this is where me and Bee
differ. If someone crosses me once, that’s it, we are done. I refuse to go to
Break Vivian’s Heart Valley ever again, but Bee? I was ready to jump into the
public restroom with her when Annie showed up. How could you do that to a
friend? How could Bee even stand communicating with her? It was very nice (and
I say that loosely), and let’s just say I’m very glad these characters were
fictional because God forbid, we had a real-life Annie. I wasn’t on about Bee.
God no. We all need a Bee.
The couch to 5K
was oddly motivating. I’ve always wanted to start running, but I need a
partner. It’s not something I’m going to attempt alone because if I could be
motivated alone, I wouldn’t need a partner. Which leads me to the first
interaction between Levi and Bee. Well, during their first interaction, Bee
fainted and Levi had to catch her, but this was the first real one. Bee decided
to go running in a cemetery, which got locked, and as a result, she rang Levi
Ward, who came to her rescue with a ladder and a truck, and she stayed the
night at his house.
Other mentionable
parts. Bee had a twin sister I wasn’t too interested in, and Levi’s ex and her
daughter, who had epilepsy, Penny, were a nice touch. Sullivan was Samantha’s
husband who died, and it was his dream to finish this project, hence why Levi was
so keen to be on it, and of course, Guy had to be a little pedigree about it.
Honestly, just lay off it. The guy called Guy — of course it was him. If we go
back to Penny for a second, nice kid, and Penny bringing out the spider when
she found out Bee faints easily and started to draw it on every surface?
Hilarious. It’s something so kidish and that I would do as an adult, so double
fun.
I did really enjoy
reading Shmac and WWMCS talk to each other about each other without knowing it.
When Shmac (aka Levi Ward) declared his love for Bee to Bee without knowing it
was her took my own breath away. The only other time I read something similar was
in The Fine Print by Lauren Asher. A micro tope you could call it I
guess that I personally liked.
I wasn’t
necessarily interested in Bee’s RA and Kaylee. Her RA (whose name I can’t
remember, oops!) was a little bit too in your face. Kaylee was fine, I liked
her, but Rocio (maybe that was her name?) was just a little… borderline
irritating.
I would say my
top three moments would have to have been when Bee realized Shmac was actually
Levi, their first date (I felt like a proud mother), and oh, I know. I normally
don’t mention a spicy scene in my top three, but I couldn’t not. That scene
when Levi traced the tattoo on Bee’s back whilst he was appreciating her from
within still makes a guest appearance in my brain all the time. Yes. That was
the one. I like that one. Also, Bee came from a hard life. Losing parents and
having nothing concrete. I recently lost my mother and have a big family and still
feel lonely. I emphasise with everyone who has a family and doesn’t feel like it
or loses theirs. It really did hit home a bit.
Moving on because
I am blushing. As soon as she opened her Twitter, I knew that the other user
she was messaging was in fact Levi Ward, aka Shmac! That was it. I knew it from
the get-go, and feeling like a detective when reading makes you feel like you were
with the author when they wrote it, so you best believe I was shimmying my
shoulders and had that smug look on my face as if I, in fact, was the only
person on earth who solved the world’s most difficult riddle and am the living,
breathing female James Bond.
When Levi said he
probably hates cats, I knew he knew about the cat that made special appearance only
for Bee……..and that he had his own cat. It was a given. I did love when Levi
messed a bit with Bee though and used to say the cat was imaginary. I especially
loved it when he said to Penny that Bee’s cat was “see-through”. Predictable
reads are the best reads. Shall I tell you what was not predictable? The person
who tampered with everything between Bee and Levi and NASA in general.
Guy! I was Guy?!
Oh my God, I was so sure of it, but then I was thinking, but no, it couldn’t
be. Not only did he out Bee as the account holder of @whatwouldmariecuriesay
(check spelling), but he also photoshopped fake messages and sabotaged the
whole campaign for graduate exams. Manipulator, psychopath, and narcissist
number one. I will say though, my heart dropped when he pulled out the weapon,
and I’ll be honest, I didn’t see the cat coming. Thank God she did.
Guy also went to lengths
to sabotage himself so he could prove Bee was a bad fit, I hated Trevor for
making Bee leave and I didn’t feel so bad when Boris came to welcome Bee a
position and an offer to come back to work on BLINK. Especially didn’t mind
when Rocio pointed out, he was in fact standing when he said “…. I am begging
you on my knees….” It was the only time I marginally enjoyed her appearance. It
the small things I tell you.
Oh, Marie Curie
had a devoted number one fan, and it was no one else other than Bee herself. As
soon as I heard she turned up to her wedding in her lab coat, and Bee did the
same in the epilogue (it was actually the Target dress Levi loved on her, and
remembered from memory), I just knew I was going to swoon. The epilogue was
lovely, and I believe it was the first I have read from Ali Hazelwood in which
it does end in marriage.
I wouldn’t say I
have anything negative to say about the book other than the fact that I’m used
to reading about students, I guess, so moving away from that was a bit foreign.
I saw this galaxy leggings commotion on TikTok but I really wasn’t bothered. Point
in case, I’m currently reading Check & Mate, and I am so struggling
to get into it because it’s so far detached from Stanford. I know, call me a
simp or creature of habit, and I will happily take the crown. 4.5 stars easily.
What would make it a 5? Dr. Adam Carlsen.
Wow. That was a
lot to unload. Levi is not my thought-about loved Ali Hazelwood MMC (that would
be Dr. Adam Carlsen) or the most dirty-mouthed (that would be Lukas Blomqvist)
or the most enemy (that would be Jack Smith-Turner), but he is my comfort blanket,
and that is the best type.
I’m actually
reading Check & Mate alongside The Defender by Ana Huang.
It’s nice switching escapism.
In other news,
I’m getting braver on my blog and LinkedIn, whilst my Instagram takes a gentle
backseat. It’s hard to get a job, guys, even in retail, so if you have a job,
keep it. Alas, persistent is the key to access, right? Right.
Let me know if
you have read Love on the Brain and if you liked it.
Until next time.
Mwah.
Vivian.
Comments
Post a Comment