I was thrilled to win a copy of Mary Ann Marlowe’s debut, Some Kind of Magic, through a Twitter giveaway. (Can’t say Twitter never gave me anything.) The timing was perfect since I had this book on my TBR list. 🙌 to Twitter.
Eden Sinclair, biochemist and reluctant musician, suffers from the ennui of her late twenties without direction in her professional or personal life. Content to live just offstage of her brother’s musical success, she’d rather a steady paycheck than the thrill of following your dreams and the instability that it brings. One fateful evening she samples a new perfume from her lab and heads to one of her brother Micah’s shows. There she meets the handsome, tattooed musician Adam. Though he checks off exactly none of her relationship must-haves, she enters into a romance only to discover that he’s the famous Adam Copeland. When Eden realizes that the perfume she was wearing was actually a phermone enhancer, she begins to doubt that Adam’s feelings are genuine even as her own attraction to him grows more intense.
I really enjoyed the romance between Adam and Eden. The ultimate wish fulfillment of a rock star falling for a regular girl was one aspect that really pulled me in. I grew frustrated with Eden’s insecurity, though it was understandable given that she may have dupped her boyfriend with the science perfume. She was clearly a smart, attractive, talented woman; her insecurity was unwarranted and created more drama than necessary.
As someone who can’t sit by and let things happen to her, I was rooting for Eden to grab the reigns of her life and start taking some action. Eden’s dynamic with her parents was infuriating at best. I found myself unable to read the scenes where her mother was trying to set her up with a known alcoholic just because he was an MD. Watching Eden grow and learn to trust her own instincts instead of the flawed advice of dubiously well meaning parents was worth the wait.
Overall, I enjoyed spending time with Eden and Adam and am excited to see where this series goes. I’d recommend Some Kind of Magic to anyone who has ever wondered “what if” at a concert.
Katherine Laurin 