October 16, 2014

Review: Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander


Title: Love and Other Unknown Variables
Author: Shannon Lee Alexander
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Release date: October 7th 2014
Source: Publisher
Format: eARC

Rating: 3.5/5

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Charlie Hanson has a clear vision of his future. A senior at Brighton School of Mathematics and Science, he knows he’ll graduate, go to MIT, and inevitably discover solutions to the universe’s greatest unanswered questions. He’s that smart. But Charlie’s future blurs the moment he reaches out to touch the tattoo on a beautiful girl’s neck.

The future has never seemed very kind to Charlotte Finch, so she’s counting on the present. She’s not impressed by the strange boy at the donut shop—until she learns he’s a student at Brighton where her sister has just taken a job as the English teacher. With her encouragement, Charlie orchestrates the most effective prank campaign in Brighton history. But, in doing so, he puts his own future in jeopardy.

By the time he learns she's ill—and that the pranks were a way to distract Ms. Finch from Charlotte’s illness—Charlotte’s gravitational pull is too great to overcome. Soon he must choose between the familiar formulas he’s always relied on or the girl he’s falling for (at far more than 32 feet per second squared).

Although Love and Other Unknown Variables wasn´t what I expected, I enjoyed it and what I liked the most was the main character - Charlie mainly because he reminded me of Sheldon Cooper mixed a bit with Leonard (The Big Bang Theory - TV series).

Charlie is a senior at Brighton school math and science, which is a school for very smart kids and he´s is among the top in his class. He´s very intelligent and his specialty is mathematics, so when he´s bored he spends doing mental exercises or counting things, he´s very literal, direct and not very good with sarcasm and lack of social skills except for his best friend Greta and her boyfriend James with whom he spends most of the time. He has his whole future planned, that is until he meets Charlotte.

Charlotte meanwhile is Charlie´s sister best friend, new in town and attends another high school and becomes very interested in Charlie when she discovers that he attends the same school where her sister teaches English, a class not very popular in Brighton and where students usually make pranks to the teacher, that´s why she ask for Charlies help because she wants her big sister - Ms Finch distracted and not always aware of everything she does, Charlie decides help her and do the pranks, just to help her but this gets him in some trouble.

The story is told from the point of view of Charlie, so we're always inside of his head and see the attraction he feels towards Charlotte, but I never felt the attraction of her to him, I felt more like acquaintances-friends, than a romance.

When its revealed that Charlotte is ill, I felt bad for her, but I didn´t connect with her. What I enjoyed most of the story, it was Charlie's friendship with Greta and James, their interactions at school and some of the jokes/pranks and I liked the character of James and it amused me to be in Charlie's head.

9 comments:

  1. it's not the book i need at the meoment..; i don't know i fear it will be too sad and from your review it looks like the romance is not reciprocated and i don't know i don't think i could connect with teh characters

    thank you for the honest review

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  2. hmm.. i often struggle with male POV books but sometimes some are pretty good. However this seems a bit childish? I don't like the whole pranking thing..

    great review
    - Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf

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  3. I recently read this book and I kinda enjoyed it. Glad to hear your thoughts and make a comparison.

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  4. I have been hearing SO MUCH about this book lately
    I am definitely going to have to pick it up someday
    GREAT review
    Your reader,
    Soma
    http://insomnia-of-books.blogspot.com

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  5. This is very different from my normal read, but it sounds too cute. And the comparison to Sheldon and Leonard was pretty much all it took to get me ready to read this one. And the cover is very cute, too!

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  6. Great review, I would love to read this book!

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  7. Thanks for review, one book again to consider :)

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  8. Aww I really love Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. If Charlie kind of reminds you of him, then I can't wait to read him in book form. I'm loving that this is such a geeky kind of read. We need more cute stories like this. It's hard when you can't connect with a character. Makes it that much harder to like a book don't you think?

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  9. I just checked this book out from the library and your review made me excited to read it!

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