Some Kind of Magic

November 14, 2016
Fictional love potions date back at least to the tale of Tristan and Isolde; in contrast to that heavy tragedy, this love-potion romance, which pairs up the lead singer for a rock band with a biochemist who’s also an amateur singer/songwriter, is light and fluffy. When Eden Sinclair meets a lanky and tattooed musician named Adam Copeland, she has no idea he’s that Adam Copeland, a megafamous rock star. They spend a passionate night together and make plans for more. But when Eden discovers that the scent she wore when they met—one taken from the lab where she works—may have been a powerful aphrodisiac, she wonders whether their new romance was chemically induced. Adam’s screaming groupies and a fake fiancée cooked up as fodder for the tabloids play into her insecurities, and she can’t bear to tell him the truth. There’s a funny running gag of Erin’s mother’s horrendous attempts to set her up with inferior men, including a dentist who takes her to Applebee’s for a date (and orders for her), but debut author Marlowe offers little in the way of tension or conflict beyond some interference from a stereotypically snarky coworker of Erin’s.

Starred review from January 1, 2017
Twenty-eight-year-old Eden Sinclair is a biochemist at a company that creates erectile dysfunction drugs. She spends her days analyzing mice sperm while considering grad school. Eden is singleand tired of being set up by her motherbut dating is the last thing on her mind, especially given her strict criteria. Meanwhile, her brother, Micah, is making a name for himself with his band, headlining at a local club. Eden, with a (secret) panache for singing, sometimes backs him up onstage; otherwise, she runs the merchandise table. One night, she finds herself insanely attracted to a grungy, skinny guy named Adam. They end up having hot sex in his housevery un-Eden-like. What Eden forgot to mention is that before she left work that day, she spritzed herself with a pheromone-enhancing perfume that her coworker was developing. What Adam forgot to mention was that he is actually Adam Copeland, international rock god. What evolves is a whirlwind romance, fueled by love, betrayal, lies, and enough gossip and paparazzi to make even the most famous of celebrities think twice. Marlowe makes a name for herself in this hilarious and sexy debut, the first in a planned series. It's filled with frisky sex scenes set to the backdrop of rock music, and Marlowe makes the chemistry scientific and literal in this fun read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)