Meredith Goldstein knows the Boston area and teens’ complex anxieties and coping mechanisms. So the setting and characters work. The story is cute, a bit typical, in that love interests get tied up in the drama of guessing who will end up together while knowing it all along.

High school senior Maya works in her deceased mother’s university lab as a summer intern transcribing notes for her mother’s research partner.  Then her ideal boyfriend dumps her for another. In her grieving she stumbles on to research left her by her mother who was studying methods to keep relationships alive with love and attraction. As a way to win back her boyfriend, she becomes the subject of formulas to make another attracted to you. Three young handsome men and a summer of trials leads to the discovery that there are other factors involved in attraction than chemical compounds. A slightly different take on the the YA romantic novel, Maya is a smart young woman with college plans and an independence many will like.