CBR14 Bingo: Mind (Bee, as well as Ms. Hazelwood herself, is a neuroscientist and there’s a whole lot of brain science happening in the book)
Bee Köningswasser, a young pink-haired neuroscientist, is offered pretty much her dream job on a NASA project and accepts joyfully. Her excitement is cut short when she realises that while she’s the lead on the neuroscience part, her nemesis from grad school, Levi Ward, is the engineering lead on the same project. Nevertheless, Bee can feel herself wasting away in her current job, with a sexist boss and not exactly supportive colleagues, so off she goes with her surly gloom-cookie research assistant Rocio (think if April Ludgate from Parks and Recreation had a baby with Wednesday Addams).
Bee is determined to do her best on the project and hopefully ignore Levi Ward as much as possible. Of course, while looking around the labs before the project has even officially started, she’s saved from being crushed under a falling pile of boxes by whom else – Mr. Tall, Dark, Handsome, and apparently completely repelled by Bee (SPOILER – he very much does NOT hate Bee). Bee literally swoons (she has a problem maintaining blood pressure and seems to faint every time she gets stressed, scared, or overwhelmed). I think we can all see where this is going – even those of us who may never have picked up a romance novel ever before. If any of my readers actually have picked this as your very first romance novel – congratulations on taking the chance on something with such a vibrant, pepto-bismol pink cover.
Now, where was I? Oh yes, Bee – the perky neuro-scientist who worships Marie Curie, and Levi, the brooding engineer who seems painfully awkward every time he’s anywhere near Bee. They’re co-leads on something called BLINK- a fancy helmet astronauts will use in space, where their brains can be stimulated while they wear it for better performance (or something, I am very much NOT a science person). To begin with, Bee finds obstacles at every turn, her lab isn’t ready, her and Rocio’s computers aren’t working properly, e-mails and meeting invites keep going astray, but after finally getting deeply frustrated and yelling at Levi (who Bee is convinced is causing all the delays), but then overhearing him actually confronting the NASA boss on the subject, she finally seems able to get somewhere with the work. Bee starts to settle in, making friends (there’s Kaylee, the bubbly NASA project manager – think Elle Woods in Legally Blonde and the charming head astronaut on the project, Guy), but still can’t quite figure out what is going on with Levi.
Full review on my blog.
