Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 Love is the Drug is a thrilling YA science fiction book with a great romance. The only reason I think it's not, technically, a "Romance Novel" is that in a romance novel I care more about romance than anything else. In this book, I cared about the romance, but really I just wanted the main character, Emily Bird to be happy, because that girl is MADE OF WIN. 
 This book is set five minutes into the future. It's just barely science fiction. Emily Bird is a Good Girl. She gets good grades at her prep school, and she has "good" (relaxed) hair, and she lives up to her mother's high expectations, which include dating an ambitious boy named Paul despite having a huge attraction to Coffee. Coffee is the school drug dealer. He sells pot, Adderall, and some hallucinogens to other students, all of whom love his product but look down on him for his own lack of ambition. He's also a chemistry genius. 
 I loved this book for the conspiracy thriller angle that kept me turning the pages and because Bird was such an engaging character. It was very easy to relate to her need for approval and to her desire to play it safe and make everyone around her happy, versus her need for truth. I also loved it that as Bird matures she begins to accept the adults in her life as flawed human beings. Her uncle, who Carol hates and who Bird adores, really is adorable, but Carol has a point in that her uncle is kind of lazy. Her mom is often cruel and abusive but she's also desperate to see her daughter achieve the kind of safety that can only come from being socially and economically powerful. It's a coming of age story in the best way - not a whiny, angsty way but one that involves a character growing to become someone more powerful and more compassionate. 
 - Carrie S.