Love? Maybe (review)

Valentine's Day may be approaching, but Piper's largely a cynic about the holiday and love in general. Things start looking up when Piper begins dating the widely lusted after Ben Donovan—or at least she feels things ought to look up, but her time with Ben is actually kind of flat and dull, and she'd rather spend time with her friends Jillian and Claire and her neighbor and longtime buddy, Charlie. Readers familiar with the rom-com genre will know where this is going right from the start (or at least from the introduction of Charlie, clearly destined to be Piper's guy); while the story doesn't offer the sparkling enhancement to the genre that the author's Dream Factory (BCCB 6/07) does, it proceeds cozily and reassuringly through its paces. Piper's employment in a candy shop, where her friends often pitch in, provides a tasty device for exposition, ranging from the insertion of a spicy love potion (Jillian's idea) into truffles to Piper's creation of cynically stamped "consternation hearts"; that's particularly appropriate for such a sweet-natured book, wherein the wrong guy is merely a mismatch, not a jerk, and where snarky Valentine's candy hearts raise eyebrows from concerned friends. The notion that Piper's skepticism about romance is a self-protective response to having had a father and a stepfather leave her behind isn't overplayed, so it adds a little depth without taking away the general sunniness. This will please romance fans who prefer to steer a course between the fluffy and the snarky.