LOVE ON THE BRAIN by Ali Hazelwood – C+ – Ali Hazelwood does Ali Hazelwood. In Reid’s original book, isn’t the *heroine* the titular “neanderthal”? Nevertheless, if this series reimagining makes it to Fiona’s book, I’ll still give that a try because I love a marriage in jeopardy romance. The writing was a little arch, the history (as you can imagine) was fast-and-loose, and I was continually distracted by the title. The whole gimmick here is that this translates Reid’s Neanderthal Seeks Human to a nineteenth-century British setting and I just lost patience. NEANDERTHAL SEEKS DUCHESS by Laney Hatcher – DNF – Laney Hatcher does Penny Reid doing an historical romance. My problem with that? His input was identical to her female best friend’s, so a moment that I imagine was supposed to demonstrate the heroine’s growing trust in the hero instead feels like a Patriarchal Stamp of Approval and betrayal of feminism. Not only did her crisis of conscience create narrative drag, but it’s also only resolved when the hero chimes in with his wisdom to make her feel better about it. Meanwhile, I didn’t like the heroine’s endless dithering over the ethicality of boosting her online presence by producing TikTok videos using trending…erm, trends to suggest a fauxmance with the hero.

It’s as if Reid retained an early brainstorming idea and couldn’t bear to let it go. (Inappropriate behavior? Yes, but I could envision how easily that moment could go viral, and I liked the hook.) But it turns out his inexplicable action is totally out of character with the hero’s personality in the rest of the book (or at least to the 85% mark, when the library grabbed it back from me). I really liked the first scene, where the reclusive bestselling author hero glomps on the heroine while she’s live-streaming a science demo and stirs up a viral sensation.

TEN TRENDS TO SEDUCE YOUR BEST FRIEND by Penny Reid – B – Penny Reid does Ali Hazelwood.

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