The Chemistry of Love. Sariah Wilson. 2023. Montlake. 347 pages. [Source: personal copy.]
The Chemistry of Love was a no-brainer for me to check-out. I love a good fake relationship trope, and this one seemed especially messy. Anna is a mousy cosmetic chemist who feels stuck in a role that doesn’t allow her to explore her innovative ideas for beauty products. Instead, she’s stuck pining over one of her bosses, hoping he’ll figure out that she’s in love with him. Lucky for her, he’s got an older brother who’s the CEO of the company. One who’s hatched a plan to fake a relationship with Anna in a play against his competitive nature … for the sake of business, naturally.
Sadly, my initial impressions of Anna were negative. In fact, I spent a nice chunk of the book actively disliking her, and questioning exactly how delusional she was for her views toward Craig. She also lacked assertion in her relationships at work and home, which made her come across as unreasonably weak and insecure. But what stood out to me was her obsession with her company CEO. She frequently references being in love with him, but she’d only had one substantive interaction with him, before the second which led her to a rash decision. She even states at one point, “I know the difference between reality and fantasy.” Ma’am, I beg to differ.
That being said, the story kept me pulled in. Anna’s interactions with Marco were entertaining and endearing, so I appreciated seeing their connection grow, especially as they developed a sense of trust and loyalty. Marco’s background has a lot of depth to it, which drives much of the plot of The Chemistry of Love. I would say that I ended up liking Marco a bit more than Anna; I found him more well-developed than she was and more relatable.
A surprise for me came in the form of the book’s secondary characters. Anna’s grandfather keeps a menagerie of birds with pop culture-inspired names like Feather Locklear and Parrot Hilton. I thoroughly enjoyed any references to them simply to see how outlandish they’d be. The secondary characters in this book were hilarious. Anna’s best friend Catalina is a great logical and comedic foil to Anna. But the stars were really the birds. With names like Feather Locklear and Parrot Hlton, I enjoyed getting a good chuckle everytime one of the many birds from
An unexpected aspect of the book is that many of the characters are nerds, but aren’t presented in a way that ridicules or demeans them. Anna is in a STEM career, working in a male-dominated company despite their customer base largely targeting women. But along with her, she’s got solid relationships with colleagues with shared interests and experiences. Anna is a nerd through and through, and I loved seeing the author weave references to well-known games, movies, television, and books throughout to bring individuality to all of the characters.
The Chemistry of Love is a cute read. There’s plenty of drama as Anna and Marco try to trick Craig into wanting Anna; they’re not the only manipulative ones, and at times it feels like a battle of wills. The result is a story that has all the trappings of a typical romance with the plus that it centers characters I don’t always read about while they look for their happily ever after. It’s fun, quirky, cute, and worth a read.
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