Perfect for fans of Ali Hazelwood and Christina Lauren, a STEM academic-rivals-to-lovers rom-com set at a New York conference about two neuroscientists who are forced to pretend they’re dating, leading to unexpected chemistry and a heartfelt journey of self-discovery.
Neuroscientist Dr. Frances Silberstein has success on the brain. As a grad student, she was offered a job by her brilliant boyfriend, but determined to make it on her own, she turned it—and him—down. Now, stuck in postdoc purgatory with no job security and no personal life to speak of, Frances is desperate to make a breakthrough. Her best shot is a summer conference packed with her field’s leading scientists. The only problem? It’s organized by her ex, who has found the success that’s eluded her. But backing out is not an option, because Frances desperately needs to network to save her career.
Enter Dr. Lewis North: her perceptive, meticulous, and inconveniently attractive rival. When their academic sniping gets mistaken for flirtatious chemistry, Frances doesn’t deny it—putting her integrity and career on the line. As soon as her prefrontal cortex is operational again, Frances realizes she needs to keep up the charade, or risk everything she’s worked for. Faking data is out of the question, but fake dating? That might just be the solution she needs.
But as Lewis starts to make her reward centers spark and a major setback has Frances questioning everything, she must confront what she’s willing to chase—for love, for science, and for the future she thought she wanted.
Neuroscientist Dr. Frances Silberstein has success on the brain. As a grad student, she was offered a job by her brilliant boyfriend, but determined to make it on her own, she turned it—and him—down. Now, stuck in postdoc purgatory with no job security and no personal life to speak of, Frances is desperate to make a breakthrough. Her best shot is a summer conference packed with her field’s leading scientists. The only problem? It’s organized by her ex, who has found the success that’s eluded her. But backing out is not an option, because Frances desperately needs to network to save her career.
Enter Dr. Lewis North: her perceptive, meticulous, and inconveniently attractive rival. When their academic sniping gets mistaken for flirtatious chemistry, Frances doesn’t deny it—putting her integrity and career on the line. As soon as her prefrontal cortex is operational again, Frances realizes she needs to keep up the charade, or risk everything she’s worked for. Faking data is out of the question, but fake dating? That might just be the solution she needs.
But as Lewis starts to make her reward centers spark and a major setback has Frances questioning everything, she must confront what she’s willing to chase—for love, for science, and for the future she thought she wanted.
Title: Love and Other Brain Experiments
author: Hannah Brohm
Publisher: Atria
Expected Publication Date: February 3, 2026
Review:
Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
If you throw a book at me that in any way reminds me of Ali Hazelwood or is compared to her AND Christina Lauren, I'm gonna grab it and hope to gobble it all up. That was this book. The blurb was so promising and definitely gave me vibes of two of my favorite authors. Plus, I really love any books that are grounded in STEM. STEM characters are always quirky and fun.
Frances is definitely a quirky character. While she's super smart, you can see she really has a hard time in social situations. This is often the case with characters who are grounded in academics/science. Like most characters I've read in this type of situations, she finds herself unable to know what to say much of the time. Or she doesn't say the "right" thing because it's just not how her brain functions. I did see it, I really did. But I wish I could have seen it more. I wish I could have been shown how this truly affected her. There was a lot of telling about her anxiety or how she wasn't sure how to act here or there. But I don't want the characters to tell me about it. I want to see it. It made it hard to connect with her or truly like her and be invested in her story.
I liked Lewis a bit more. Though I think I would have liked him better had I gotten his POV. It was a bit hard to understand him or feel for him when it was only Frances telling us about him. For me, a rom-com really needs to have both points of view to hit the mark. I have read a few that were not that I enjoyed but for the most part it's so much easier to understand the story when both characters are showing you their side. Also, he flipped a bit too much between being grumpy and then suddenly turning nice.
The tension between Lewis and Frances is understandable given the story line Brohm presents. But it remains a bit of a mystery throughout the story and made it hard to understand how deep their rivalry actually went. Or to even make it totally believable. Is there miscommunication (often times my most hated trope)? Yes, there is. But at the same time there's barely an attempt to resolve it.
My favorite part sof this book were the meet cute, fake dating, and the tackling of sexism in academia. The meet-cute solidified for me the character's overall personalities and I was hoping to see more of this throughout the book. But then it was not carried through and I didn't get the same vibe between them once the story started to unfold. The story definitely reminded me of The Love Hypothesis by Hazelwood. It has an extremely similar vibe. I can see how Brohm's story was influenced by that title. A little too much, if you ask me. I wanted it to be a bit more unique, but it wasn't. However, the fake dating part of the story was done fairly well. Practice kissing, calling each other pet names and acting the part around others, and then the muddled feelings which ultimately leads to real feelings and confusion. Brohm absolutely tackled academia being geared toward the male genre. She did a good job of showing how it is hard to be a woman in this profession.
Like Hazelwood's books, you can see this book was written by someone in STEM. The overall tone just jumps off the page as such. And I do love this idea. But unlike Hazelwood's stories, I just felt like this one was missing all the right elements to make it funny and entertaining. It felt like the author was trying to hard to have it be a Hazelwood story. It was fun and nerdy but needed more character development to make me feel invested in Frances's story. I struggled to truly connect with or care about the characters, Overall it was worth the read and I do think people will find it entertaining. And, seeing as this is the author's first book, I would give her writing another try in the future to see if she figures out how to flesh out her characters and make her storyline a little less clunky. Her writing has a lot of promise for me.
Author:
Hannah Brohm penned her first novel when she was a teen, and yes, it was about vampires. After studying psychology in university and graduating with a PhD in neuroscience, she rediscovered her passion for storytelling and swapped writing articles about brain science for swoony romance novels. Born and raised in Germany, Hannah lived in Portugal, the Netherlands and New York City before moving to London, where she now lives together with her husband and an ever-growing collection of books and handknit sweaters.
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