The book was fine and a quick read -- unfortunately, nothing really felt fulfilling at the end. It felt like it could have been the premise for an even bigger, satisfying read. Truly, truly felt like the buffer before you hit the true plot if the book. Overall, a solid, quick story.

This book is a very stereotypical YA contemporary. It was enjoyable and entertaining, but nothing made it stand out in the sea of highschoool dramas. Still quite enjoyable, and a quick read.

Two thumbs up from my book club students and two thumbs up fro me! It’s going on our recommended shelf to open the new school year!

I will not be posting a review on goodreads because I was unable to enjoy this book and do not feel comfortable leaving a negative review.

I absolutely loved the idea of this book and felt that it delivered what it promised. Maya was engaging and funny, the writing was good and I found the book an easy and enjoyable read.

Will no longer be reading or reviewing this book due to lack of interest in the title, and the fact that the title has been archived.

A really cute romance. A bit boring and lacking storyline compared to others in that genre. The guys were a bit shallow.

My Review: I am sad to say that this one was pretty boring. I loved the premise as it reminded me of a horror movie that was out forever ago called Perfume. I kind of wished that this one would have gone darker. This was a very interesting idea to do but for this reader, this one lacked the spark to make it a great book.

Thank you to HMH Teen and netgalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Content warnings: death of a parent (prior to the novel), manipulation

Maya's just been broken up with and she desperately wants to get her boyfriend back. She stumbles on her mother's research notes from before she died detailing her experiments surrounding love and attraction. Maya is intent to continue on the research in hopes of getting Whit back.

Honestly, this book was just not what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be a cute contemporary about understanding love through chemistry and whilst there was a little of that it was a bit messier and there was some really questionable behaviour by the MC.

There is a lot of manipulation in this story. Maya treats boys like she can just mess around with their brains with no repercussions. She does come to the realisation eventually that this isn't something that's acceptable and there is a massive ethical problem with her experiments, but she comes to that conclusion a bit too late really.

There is a bit of discussion of grief as this follows Maya's look into her mother's experiments and research, but I felt like it fell a little short in this respect. Maya does find herself feeling closer to her mother but I feel like Goldstein could have delved so much deeper into this part of the story instead of focussing so much on the boys. 

One thing that I did enjoy was the MC struggling with being smart all her life until she hit her wall and suddenly she didn't understand what she was learning. This was too real for me. I grew up excelling in my studies, getting by with barely any effort until I got to my second year of uni where I really struggled and just felt like an absolute moron compared to everyone else. So it was nice to read from that aspect.

I think my biggest problem with this novel, despite the weird manipulative storyline, was just how forgettable it was. There was nothing that great about the writing, the main character was just a bit plain and nothing really excited me. Which I just think is such a shame, given how much I yell about how much I want books about women and girls in STEM.

As a STEM person, any book that mentions science is automatically one I want to read. Chemistry Lessons sounded like it could be a fun read with a lot of potential. However, the characters left much to be desired. Overall, I found this to be a rather lukewarm read.

First of all, I’d change the title from Chemistry Lessons to Love Potion Number Nine, at least that’s the tune I was humming while reading this G rated love story perfect for young teens. A loving family is torn apart when Mom succumbs to cancer. Dad turns to physical activities to work out his grief, while daughter Maya finds an internship transcribing notes at the MIT lab where her mother did research in Epigenetics. A high school graduate, Maya is looking forward to her Freshman year at Cambridge, but the summer is ruined when her boyfriend Whit, already a film major at Boston University, decides he’s ready to move on to greener pastures. Devastated at this betrayal, she turns to her best friend Bryan, for comfort. Theirs is an unusual relationship, with this talented fellow, immersed in the acting world, a pal to not only Maya, but also Whit, and even her dad. Obviously gay, Bryan is a welcome overnight guest, and her father even feels comfortable when Maya finds herself after hours at his place. Of all the characters, Bryan is the most grounded, with excellent advice and a huge shoulder to cry upon.

When Maya discovers that her mom was working with pheromones to manipulate romantic relationships (make love last), she decides, with the help of her mother’s former graduate student lab assistant, to continue the experiment with the hopes of reawakening the attraction of her former boyfriend. In order to make the study more valid, she needs to test the procedure on two other subjects. The selections have results which are definitely a surprise to Maya, but the reader will certainly have a premonition that this scientific query with a lack of definite controls, does not have a foregone conclusion.

A kind of crazy idea for a research topic, but a fun little way to write a teen romance. It was nice to read a story for once involving loving parents, good friends, and moderately behaved teens where higher educated is expected and welcome. Perhaps the scenario sounds like a fantasy, but there’s just enough tension to keep the silly plot interesting. Great for fans of the Boston area and Willy Wonka (two words - Whiff Walk).

Three stars and a thank you to Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review also appears on my blog, Gotta Read:
https://ellenk59.wordpress.com/2018/08/13/chemistry-lessons-by-meredith-goldstein/

Chemistry Lessons by Meredith Goldstein tells the story of friends Maya, Kyle and Yael. Maya suffers from a breakup, so she dives into the research that her deceased mother left for Maya in her will. The research is to create a prescription that boosts physical chemistry for couples. Ann, her mother’s intern, helps Maya with pheromone experiments. The research causes extreme confusion in Maya’s relationships and hurt feelings. Maya discovers a lot about herself along the way and she grows to understand her acquaintances better and sees her parents in a new light. Food for thought, this realistic fiction story with a touch of science earns 4 stars!

I definitely liked the synopsis better than the book on this one. It was a cute idea and an easy read but it ended up falling short.

Chemistry lessons was a quick read, but unfortunately the plot was a little flat. I wish we got to know the characters better. It would've become a much better story. I couldn't understand Mayas feelings at all.
Meredith Goldsteins plot idea was different but her writing performance wasn't strong.

Maya thinks her life is on track, she will attend MIT in the fall, she has a great internship and new friends and she will lose her virginity to her boyfriend Whit in a month. Except, her boyfriend unexpectedly breaks up with her because "there is someone else". Heartbroken, Maya plans to wallow. That is until her aunt reminds her of her mother's research...her secret research about love and pheromones. What if Maya can figure out her mother's research and get what she wants? After all, what is love except a chemical equation?

I found Chemistry Lessons to be a fast, cute and super quirky romance. Perfect for older teens and adults, it was easy to jump into this read and blow through it in just one sitting. I related to the science and theories thrown around maybe since I have a degree in biology, but I think that anyone could get behind the idea of creating love and lasting relationships through a formula or pill- an easy fix for a difficult problem. I think Meredith created the perfect blend of heartache and grief mixed with love and hope to deliver a great YA contemporary romance about how to get over heartbreak- with a plan and some smarts!

I really enjoyed getting to know Maya and how her very factual and scientific brain would break down every situation and problem, making it into a math or science equation instead of an emotional issue. Of course a blooming scientist would try to cure her heartbreak with science and it was fun for me to watch her struggles and personal realizations. It was so realistic how hyper focused she became on this one goal, that she could not see other kinds of truths right in front of her until they smacked her in the face with the truth. I found Maya interesting since she was a little socially awkward yet tried hard to make new friend and be a good friend in return.

The side characters and Maya's relationships with them I think really helped to make the story feel so real. Her best friend Bryan was probably my most favorite character in the book, with his grounded approach to life, random playlists, complete understanding of Maya and the way he casually interacted with her dad (and everyone else in the book!). He really was the best friend a girl could have and his get over heartbreak playlist idea really was genius. He may have not been one of her scientists, but he was the smartest person she knew towards her. The other side character helped Maya to discover tidbits about herself and life that helped push the plot forward and make the story endearing and fun.

This book had been popping up everywhere I looked a few months ago (the eye catching cover kept luring me in), all over social media, Goodreads and Netgalley so I took it as a sign when I was handed a copy of it at YallWest that we were meant to be. And yep, reading Chemistry Lessons was a great idea. There was heart, there was humor, there was love of all kinds and there was friendship- the perfect formula for an enjoyable read (sorry, couldn't resist the nerdy comment!).

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I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
This was a cute YA read with some deeper thoughts on family and friendships.

I tried to fall in love with this book, but it didn't happen. It just wasn't my type of book. I sure someone will love it.

'The truth was that it was about Whit and Kyle, and about lying to friends and wishing I could travel back in time to the start of the summer, when everything felt normal. It was about Bryan going to college five hours away. It was about people disappearing.'

When Maya's boyfriend Whit breaks up with her, she's heartbroken. They were planning to sleep together for the first time in a matter of weeks, and now he's leaving her for Andrea Berger?! This is not the way her last summer before college was supposed to go.

Maya confides in her Aunt Cindy, who suggests that she look into the research her mom was doing just before she died. Turns out that Maya's mom was trying to develop a serum that would renew attraction in couples, making it less likely that they would separate.

After she discovers the research, Maya runs straight to her mom's old work partner, Ann. Ann begrudgingly agrees to continue Maya's mom's research, on the condition that Maya find a friend and a stranger that they can use the serum on as control subjects. Maya is overjoyed. In a couple of weeks, she'll be able to remind Whit of why he fell in love with her in the first place, and everything will be back to the way it should be...

Chemistry Lessons was a huge disappointment. I will admit that I was primarily drawn to it because of its beautiful cover, but the concept of a serum that could fix relationships was an intriguing one. However, I couldn't see past how unethical Maya's research is. Her and Ann develop three serums using DNA from the test subjects, but none of them are notified about the experiment. Stealing people's DNA? Not only is that creepy, it's seven shades of wrong.

This is paint by numbers YA. So many of the scenes were ripped straight out of other stories - the stereotypical description of the abandoned attic, the 'it's not you, it's me' excuse for ending the relationship... There's nothing new about this book (apart from being based in science, which I've already told you I have problems with). Top it off with a gay best friend who's about to move across the country to college, a swoony YouTube star and a friend who could be more, and you've got one of the most predictable cast lists.

It doesn't help that the writing is basic and undeveloped. All the characters are described in very basic ways: brown hair, brown eyes; red hair, blue eyes; six foot one, five foot two. You can't get emotionally attached to the characters because they're flat. Even Maya's feelings towards her dead mother are bland. Then there's the use of vocabulary, which features more uses of the word 'like' than you can shake a stick at. Yes, people do say 'like' in real life, but not often in every single sentence.

However, Bryan is a gem of a character. Sassy and sarcastic, he had me giggling out loud at a few points throughout the story (especially with his inappropriate attraction to Maya's dad!). If Meredith Goldstein decides to write a companion novel following Bryan to Syracuse, I'll definitely pick it up.

If you're looking to read a YA contemporary that's a bit on the older side, Chemistry Lessons might appeal to you. With characters worrying about going to college and moving away from home, it's refreshing to see those kind of aspects featured in a YA contemporary. Unfortunately there were too many issues for me to rate it any more highly, but if you can see past the unethical nature of the experiment you might have a bit more fun reading Chemistry Lessons than I did.

Maya is an intern for the MIT medical research department. She is heading to college there in the fall and has recently lost her mother, and on top of that her boyfriend breaks up with her. When she searches through her mother's old research in the attic, she finds a formula for a love potion based on a person's DNA. She decides to try the experiment in secret for herself with her mother's colleague in order to get her boyfriend back. Her first experiment is on her friend Kyle. Unfortunately, Maya's experiments may take her further than she wants to go and have unintended side effects...
I thought this was a cute story, yet sad at the same time. I did enjoy the story overall, and I was hoping throughout the story that everything would come out right for Maya. I didn't care for the profanity and the sensual content, but other than that the story was good and the characters ended up learning some positive messages about life, themselves, and the effect people have on each other. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a cute summer read with a bittersweet edge to it.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. A positive review was not required, and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Science answers everything, right? In Chemistry Lessons by Meredith Goldstein, Maya was brought up on science. Her mother was a leading epigenetic researcher. Her aunt is a neuroscientist with a love of botany, and her father is a middle school science teacher. So when Whit, her first love, breaks it off to “see another girl”, she turns to science to get him back.

I don’t think of Chemistry Lessons as a romance, even though the young love is definitely there. There are so many elements to the story that the romance is there as a predictable thread drawing the other storylines together. Maya has recently lost her mom to cancer and is spending the summer between high school and her first year at college interning in the MIT lab her mother built. She’s coping with the loss fairly well, and her father has thrown himself into outdoor activities: hiking, rock climbing, and biking, as well as reading the trashy romance novels his wife read in her final days.

This all factors in Maya’s decision to team with her mom’s former research assistant, the dour Anne, to finish a secret project researching if science can create romantic relationships. It’s love potions for Muggles. Naturally, Maya used herself as the test subject, with the aim of winning Whit back. This had to be scientifically reliable, so a control study was established. I liked the balance of science and narrative. I could follow the science, with the equipment names, etc. It didn’t feel dumbed down, despite the serum having similarities to polyjuice potion. There are flaws in their “study” but the flaws are more from two young scientists trying to re-create the dream of someone they loved and missed, than sloppy writing. The bereavement storyline continues through the amusing process of finding boys to act as control and being a 17-year old. It’s these side stories that make Chemistry Lessons emotional and more enjoyable. Maya’s growth was a little predictable and not unexpected. I love Anne more. She was a little lost with her PhD project stagnating. Because she was standoffish, the others in the lab didn’t really know her, but we see the struggles she had and more depth than just the snobby researcher. Another character, who I haven’t mentioned is Asher. He’s the celebrity YouTuber, but has bigger dreams and more modest than his online persona says. I wouldn’t mind his spin-off story.

Chemistry Lessons is a cute story of love, loss, family, and friendships, with science making a better backdrop than more novels has.