Courtesy of Cupid, mglit that asks what if the God of Love was your daddy?

Courtesy of Cupid disappeared from my book queue. It’s nothing fancy, just a series of books stacked up on top of one another, but I knew that something was missing. After a couple of days, my wife said, “This book is really good.” After a couple more days she let me know that Courtesy of Cupid would be leaving the house. It was going to someone else’s house so that they could read it. The finest form of book flattery is when it travels from house to house before eventually landing on my desk once more.

As much as it pains the stereotypical me, my wife was right on the money, and Courtesy of Cupid is a very entertaining book. Cupid is real, has a daughter and once she turns 13 will inherit the power to make people fall in love. It’s like Groundhog Day, but with love and in real-time. This is Bewitched, except Samantha can only make people fall in or out of love. Both of those aren’t what happens, but it’s where my mind, and possibly yours, immediately went.

E.J.’s mother has planned a birthday party for her. She has a nice variety of friends, a best friend that she can confide in about everything, a girl (who just might make a great boyfriend to him) and a rival in Trevor Jin who can seemingly do no wrong. He’s tall, very smart, cute and in competition for everything that E.J. is. It’s not because he’s jealous of her. Essentially, she may be making him out to be a villain when in fact he’s just an exceptional guy that’s marginally better at her in everything.

It all comes to a head when she has her 13^th birthday party at her house and everyone involved in her life is there. E.J.’s mother is an author and takes the time during the surprise party to announce that the two main characters in her next mglit book are Erin and Trevor. This is extremely embarrassing for E.J. because the character is named after her and Trevor is Trevor. Her mother meant it as a way to compliment her, but she’s not taking it like that.

The morning after her party she goes to school but feels very different. She sees two of her teachers, thinks to herself that they’d be a good couple and by the end of the school day they’re hanging out with one another and acting like a couple. E.J. innocently asks herself if she and Trevor would be a nice couple, but that’s an impossibility, isn’t it? She also thinks that her best friend might be a good match with this other girl who he’s always pined for.

At home after school she starts telling her mother what a strange day it was with all of the people around her seemingly becoming more romantic before her eyes. It’s here when her mother tells her about her father, who has never been in her life and has always been a mystery. Her mother once had a relationship with Cupid and there’s a list of rules that any daughter of his had to obey to use their powers responsibly. These love commandments operate in a way that adds affection, has a caveat or limitations as to what they’re able to do.

At first, she thinks that her mom is part of a hidden camera show. After seeing a couple of pieces of paper that make her realize this new role in her life she’s not sure what to do or how to handle it. She’s still in middle school, has class projects to complete and needs to focus on her life and not that of the previously thought to be fictitious dwarf with an arrow.

Trevor and her start to hang out. They’re both running for the president of a school club and have been partnered together for a school project. There is romance in the air and E.J. is very much aware that they’re getting closer, but is it all due to her thinking that thought? There are rules for being a Cupid and her powers are cool, but don’t explain all of the romance or breakups happening around her. It’s also worth pointing out that there is a lot of pressure in middle school, and even more when you think that you’ve made people that you care about fall in love.

Courtesy of Cupid is a rollercoaster of love and emotion. Some of the relationships are platonic in nature, but still ebb and flow due to how humans naturally act. The more romantic relationships grow and recede, with some of them fueling or taking away oxygen from other areas. Are E.J’s actions having a Butterfly Effect on others? Does she have any real effect on making other people attracted to them? This is a fun book that reads like a Hallmark Movie, one that’s not too sappy. It’s an exercise in relationships that provides comfort food to ages ten and up. The content is fine for those younger ages, but will really take off for middle and high school readers. Those older readers (or even their parents) will smile as they read it, remember the awkwardness of school, revel in the awkwardness that they experience every day in school, or think about the God of Love who could influence, or excuse the actions of others. See, it’s fun to think about and Courtesy of Cupid is mglit that will make its way through your circle of friends too.

Courtesy of Cupid is by Nashae Jones and is available on Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

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