Love and Other Brain Experiments: A Novel

When Dr. Frances Silberstein swore off her brilliant ex-boyfriend six years ago, she told herself it was in the name of independence. Now, stranded in postdoc purgatory with her career flatlining, she's starting to wonder if that decision was less about ambition and more about fear.

Frances needs this summer's premier neuroscience conference in New York. It's her best shot at breaking out of academic obscurity and finally landing the research position she's spent years chasing. There's just one catastrophic problem: the conference is organized by Dr. Callum Reid—her ex, her former rival, and the man she once chose her pride over. He's brilliant, infuriatingly accomplished, and apparently still capable of making her forget how to think like a scientist.

When a misunderstanding at the welcome reception spirals out of control, Frances and Callum find themselves doing something neither of their logical minds can fully justify: pretending to be a couple. It's a temporary arrangement, purely strategic. Except that somewhere between heated debates over research methodologies and stolen glances across crowded lecture halls, the experiment starts producing unexpected results.

Hannah Brohm crafts a sharp, witty STEM romance that proves the most dangerous hypothesis is believing you've stopped loving someone. Fans of Ali Hazelwood will devour this whip-smart, warmhearted story about two neuroscientists who understand the chemistry of the brain but haven't got a clue what to do with the chemistry between them.