Friday, June 9, 2017

Review: Love Potion Number 10 by Jennifer Conner

The cover of this less than 100 page story says, "Be careful what you wish for" and all I have to say is that I should have taken that to heart. I don't know if the author intended this to be a short story, a novella, or a full novel, but in any form, it was terribly disappointing.

Everett has a crush on her boss, Felix. Since he doesn't seem to be noticing her at all, she decides to go to a fortune teller and pay for a love potion to make him fall in love with her. When she tells her friend in the office, their co-worker, Royce, overhears them. He has a crush on Everett and knows what a jerk Felix actually is but he's nothing but wallpaper to Everett. When Felix offers Royce one of his two tickets to the symphony (with an ulterior motive, of course), Royce suggests that he offer the other ticket to Everett knowing she loves music.  She is delighted to accept the invitation.  Expecting Felix to be at the symphony with her, it surprises her that her seat companion is Royce. And she is further surprised that they share a wonderful, sexy evening together. Now she's worried she gave the love potion to the wrong person and she has to figure out how she's going to fix everything.

The plot is very simplistic and barely more than an outline. The character development is scant and the sudden connection between Everett and Royce is unbelievable. She's never noticed him before other than to consider him "harmless" but finding him in the seat next to hers at the symphony, all of a sudden he's "sexy as hell" and she's not only extending their non-date but finding him so delectable she can't keep her hands off of him. There's absolutely no development of their relationship, the chemistry between them is non-existent, even their conversation is dull. The resolution of the little problem of the love potion cookies is completely and totally ridiculous and I actually snorted when I read it but I don't think it was meant to be farcical. If the statement on the cover wasn't warning enough, I should have realized that this book and I were not going to coexist well when I read the first line: "I need a love potion," Everett asked, as she tried not to breathe." And the writing doesn't improve. What could have been a cute premise unfortunately didn't deliver on any front.  On the plus side, it's a really quick read.

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