How can Anna Ellis, a geeky, brilliant, and hopelessly smitten cosmetic chemist possibly win over Craig Kimball, the man of her dreams—who also happens to be her boss? The answer is Craig’s empathetic (and handsome) CEO half brother, Marco. The makeup mogul knows Craig for the ridiculously competitive rival he is. Whatever Marco has, Craig wants. That can be Anna, if she’s game to play. All Anna and Marco have to do is pretend they’re falling in love and let the rumors begin. If the experiment in attraction works, a jealous Craig will swoop in and give Anna her happily ever after—if it weren’t for one hitch in the plan. There’s more to Marco than meets the eye. With every fake date, Anna’s feelings are starting to become dizzyingly real.

Chemistry of Love (Amazon US) (Free with Kindle Unlimited) (Amazon UK) (Audible) (AbeBooks) was an Amazon First Reads selection for January 2023. I decided to spend the $1.99 to get the Audible version and found it to be an okay investment.

Anna is a twenty-something single girl working as a chemist for a cosmetics company. She’s had a major crush on Craig, the VP, for the past two years despite the fact that they’ve only interacted once in that whole time. When her best friend, Catalina, tells her he’s got a terrible reputation with women, Anna won’t listen. In fact, she gets the crazy idea that he will love her if she quits her job so there’s no conflict of interest. What?

Anna still goes to the company party where it’s revealed that Craig, her true love, is engaged. But have no fear, his half-brother Marco is there and hatches the most amazing plan: Marco and Anna will date and hang out with Craig in order for him to see what a catch Anna is, dump his betrothed, and fall into her arms. What could possibly go wrong with that?

What I liked best about this book was the concentration on Anna’s job as a cosmetic chemist and all the STEM concentrations, and the references to nerdy pop culture icons like Star Wars and LOTR. Anna also has a Grandpa who tells groan-inducing one-liners that are actually very charming.

This story is a very cliche’ romance, yet it has it’s charms. Of course, it turns out that Craig really is a slimeball like everyone told Anna, and Marco is much cooler than him by a mile. The forced romance turns into something more, and we’ve got a humorous rom-com with a happy ending. If you can suspend your disbelief with some of Anna’s actions and just go with it, you’ll enjoy this affordable, light and easy read.

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