I finished Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood last night. It was an enjoyable read, but my lest favorite of Hazelwood’s work thus far. I’ve only read two other books by her (The Love Hypothesis and Love, Theoretically) but it felt very clear to me that Love on the Brain was of her earlier works. The characters were interesting and well-matched, but I think Hazelwood missed opportunities to ratchet up the story’s tension. I think this was true in almost every area of the story—Guy’s motivations were not as adeptly presented as I would have liked and didn’t feel like they appeared until way too late. Levi and Bee were interesting characters, but I felt they were a little too similar to one another. Their relationship didn’t have the oomph that the leads in Hazelwood’s other books have, and they don’t have quite the chemistry as the others, either.
I want to be clear: I did enjoy the book. But throughout, I thought of her other two and the ways in which they blew this one out of the water. It read to me like a piece of work in an author’s cannon whose most notable addition is demonstrating the author’s technical growth. To that end, I really enjoyed this book as a case study of authorship and skill progression throughout a career.
The book did what I intended it to do; it helped keep me excited about reading. I thought of this book while I was at work and read it during my breaks. I was excited to go home and read, even if it wasn’t my absolute favorite book in the world. I will certainly read more of Hazelwood’s works and I am sure I will enjoy them, just as I will keep enjoying seeing her skills and career progress.
