Title: Love and Other Brain Experiments
Author: Hannah Brohm
Page Length: 384
Pub. Date: Feb. 3, 2026
Synopsis: 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.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The deep conversations, the fake dating, and the layered characters and relationships were all great.
The romance between Frances and Lewis is complex and blurs the line between fake dating and reality in a way that feels both messy and compelling. Their chemistry is fantastic from their first airplane meeting, and I really liked the enemies-to-lovers vibes. Frances and Lewis face plenty of challenges in both their professional and personal lives, and the author does a great job highlighting the pressures and uncertainties that come with working in academia. The STEM and academic setting is really well done, too. The conference politics, nerdy humor, and statistical jokes made it feel authentic and fun.
The only part I struggled with was the third-act breakup. That section got a little ugly, and Lewis makes a lot of excuses. He needed to grovel way more than he did, especially considering he’d hurt her badly twice at that point. I also didn’t love how he and Frances’s sister turned things around on Frances. I understood the sister’s feelings, but the timing felt awful and insensitive. That said, the fallout does ultimately push the characters toward some important growth, so even though the emotional blow-up went a little too mean for my taste, I like that it led to genuine healing and meaningful change. I enjoyed seeing both characters come into their own, professionally, emotionally, and in their relationship.
Overall, I thought this was a fun STEM romance with humor, smart dialogue, and strong messages about forgiveness, taking chances, fighting for what you want, and more. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.
- Enemies to lovers
- Fake dating
- STEM romance
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.
