[BLOG TOUR] NICOLE'S REVIEW: Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Title: Love is the Drug

Author: Alaya Dawn Johnson

Format Acquired: ARC

Publication Date: September 30 2014

Publishing House:  Arthur A. Levine Books

ISBN: 0545417813

Source of Copy: Pinoy Book Tours

Summary: 

Emily Bird was raised not to ask questions. She has perfect hair, the perfect boyfriend, and a perfect Ivy-league future. But a chance meeting with Roosevelt David, a homeland security agent, at a party for Washington DC's elite leads to Bird waking up in a hospital, days later, with no memory of the end of the night.

Meanwhile, the world has fallen apart: A deadly flu virus is sweeping the nation, forcing quarantines, curfews, even martial law. And Roosevelt is certain that Bird knows something. Something about the virus - something about her parents' top secret scientific work - something she shouldn't know.

The only one bird can trust is Coffee, a quiet, outsider genius who deals drugs to their classmates and is a firm believer in conspiracy theories. And he believes in Bird. But as Bird and Coffee dig deeper into what really happened that night, Bird finds that she might know more than she remembers. And what she knows could unleash the biggest government scandal in US history.

        (Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review: 

I've been meaning to get into the Summer Prince ever since I purchased a copy last year but I could never bring myself to read it. I don't know why. Lucky for me, PBT was planning on touring Love is the Drug and I thought, why not? 

Emily strives to be the perfect daughter the way her mother raised her. Everything was routinary until she woke up after a party with her memory in fragments and the world in shambles. A deadly virus is spreading and it's all quarantines and curfews and martial law and this creeper named David Roosevelt who insists Bird knows more than she lets on about her parents and their top secret government work. The only one she can trust is Coffee, drug dealer, genius chemist and the guy who calls her out on her bull and rips blinders off her eyes. But as Bird and Coffee try to unravel the events of that fateful night, they both start to realize that those conspiracy theories Coffee believes in might not be theories at all.

Truthfully, Love is the Drug is incredibly hard to rate. I'm fluctuating between a 3 and a 3.5 as I type. I mean I enjoyed this book, seeing as how my co-blogger and I are fans of conspiracy theories. And Johnson wrote this in such a way that it was actually believable and I really wouldn't be surprised if this happens. 

Aside from that, Love is the Drug focuses on Bird and the relationships she has with the people around her. How she's constantly trying to prove herself to her parents, to figure out her way in life. She doesn't want to disappoint them but that means giving up on what she wants because anything worth doing should not be done in half measures. She's trying to make sense of these in between trying to regain her memories and figuring out what the creepy Roosevelt wants from her. 

Bird is a likable heroine. She's not the best and yeah, she let herself get dragged around like a good little girl by her parents and her jerk ex-boyfriend, and she's constantly fighting herself over who she wants to be and who she's supposed to be but when she managed to find her backbone and decided to just be Bird, it was a moment to behold. I mean it's not exactly the easiest thing in the world to navigate through all the angst and drama of high school when the world threatens to crumble around you and succumb to a deadly virus.

The book's overall pacing was good. A little slow and slightly confusing when it started but easily overcome once you've reached the scene where Bird wakes up from her drug-induced coma. Some parts were a little predictable but that didn't take anything away from my enjoyment of the story.

The book is a standalone, the ending was wrapped up a little too nicely. All the T's crossed and the I's dotted but that was okay too. Now I'm off to dust off my copy of The Summer Prince because Johnson's writing has me intrigued.

Rating: