Thank you for the ARC!
As Marlowe is navigating a breakup, she is told by her ex that she doesn't know how to be romantic so she embarks on this journey of learning how to romance her ex back. In the meantime, as her new friend Ash is helping her with the task, things get blurry and sparks start to fly.
Marlowe is a great example of what a great mc is supposed to be like, in my opinion, likeable and unlikable at times. Her friends are supportive and are by her side through all the ups and downs. I also loved how supportive and patient Ash was (no spoilers so that's all I can say).
The fact that Ash's relationship with his parents wasn't resolved was great in my opinion - I believe it's more realistic that way. The fact that Serena didn't make a big deal out of Marlowe having autist was also great - The autist didn't define who Marlowe was, and it didn't stop her from doing anything, it was just something she has.
However, I still had so many questions when I finished reading the book. I had a lot of "whys?' still in my head, and also foreshadowing/mirroring of Wutgering Heights was just too much.

I'm giggling, kicking the air and squealing. I'm pretty sure I looked unhinged to the ghost of meemaw in my room.

I've fallen in love Marlowe Amelia Meadows right on the first page (probably since the admission of her sticky note addiction). I want to give her a big hug, shake her to consciousness, and then hug her again. I love hearing her thoughts on how she sees the world and she's so relatable in so many ways I lost count.

And then comes Ashton Hayes — tall, symmetrical, sexy. Frying our dear Marlowe's brain with his gentlemanly gestures and rare charming smiles. The playful banter between Ash and Marlowe was hilarious and golden. The romantic tension is palpable in each and every page they are together. Marlowe thirsting after Ashton was also very funny and cute, because same girl, same. If my partner doesn't offer to watch mushroom documentaries with me then I don't want him.

5 stars for bringing my cold, wretched heart back to life. Thank you to Wednesday Books and netgalley for the eARC ✨

As I delved into Serena Kaylor's "The Calculation of You and Me," I found myself transported into a world where numbers and emotions collide in the most unexpected ways. From the very first page, Kaylor's unique storytelling captivated me, blending mathematical precision with heartfelt emotion in a way that felt both refreshing and deeply resonant.

The protagonist's journey of self-discovery struck a chord with me, as I found myself drawn to her relatable struggles and triumphs. Kaylor's portrayal of relationships, both romantic and platonic, felt authentic and nuanced, reminding me of the complexities and joys that come with connecting with others.

What truly sets "The Calculation of You and Me" apart is its exploration of the intersection between logic and love. Through the protagonist's journey, Kaylor deftly navigates themes of risk, vulnerability, and the importance of taking chances, reminding readers that sometimes the most meaningful experiences come from stepping outside of our comfort zones.

As I turned the final page of "The Calculation of You and Me," I couldn't help but feel a sense of warmth and hope wash over me. Kaylor's novel is a testament to the power of love, friendship, and the beauty of embracing life's uncertainties. It's a book that left me pondering the connections that shape our lives and the infinite possibilities that lie ahead.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

Six stars please. My first five star Goodreads of 2024.

Simply, the plot entails Marlowe Meadows, still reeling from a breakup from her ex, Josh, making a pact with the school goth boy, Ash, to help her win Josh back. But it was so much more.

Marlowe, neurodivergent, sees the world a little different and full believes her ex’s breakup spiel, that she is bad at love. So while Ash and Marlowe are paired up on a school project, they swap help of revamping Ash’s band website for lessons in Romance.

Kaylor wrote Marlowe and her cast of characters so beautifully, I never wanted the story to end. What a wonderful journey to see Marlowe go through. Loved every second of it.

4.5 stars

I’ve had some time to process and I really just love the way that Serena Kaylor writes her leads. This is a book you grow into. Marlowe is such a beautifully intense main character and I’ve really grown to love her. I’d love to be her friend.

I thought the characters in Marlowe’s inner circle were very well rounded and I loved the progression of seeing her fall for Ash and how her realizations mirror Wutgering Heights when looking from a critical lens. Kaylor always makes my lit loving heart happy.

I also appreciated all the love for romcoms!! I love seeing others love my comfort genre.

We’re losing half a star here because the first third felt very slow in comparison to the rest of the novel and while the inner circle of characters felt beautifully weird and fleshed out, the wider cast (including our antagonists) felt pretty bland and basic. Not every novel needs to give us a nuanced popular girl, but I can dream. 😅

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I like to thank the publisher and the author for allowing me a chance at reading this.

I think it's the first where I enjoy the plot of the book... but the main character was so boring. I can see now why the boyfriend (albeit harshly) said she wasn't romantic enough. Autistic people can find romance, and yet... the chemistry was just non-existent on her side. The goth boy lead that she was falling in love with was going overtime with helping her but also carrying the relationship / romance on his back.

Also, people who are autistic are not sneaks / go on others computers or do things without permission. I was kind of shocked over the amount of times she invaded personal space / boundaries like it was no big deal. If it was a quirk on her end, she needed to stop with that.

I also found the friends to be more interesting but their stories were lacking. I was more interested in the female / female relationship with the moody guitarist and her friend.

A lot of people seem to be fans of this author. I went in blind and approached it from non-bias standpoint. I appreciate it, but I feel that it has a difficulty of resonating with the themes and romance angle.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was an utterly delightful YA rom-co. My teenage self fell in love with Ash Hayes, goth rocker with a heart of gold. Add in a neurodiverse main character, and I'm hooked. I read this in a day and loved every minute,

thankyou netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. all opinions are my own!

SERENA KAYLOR ATE AND LEFT NO CRUMBS!!

The Calculation Of You And Me has all the ingredients to be a perfect YA romcom.

this was so freaking adorable, good heavens!!
this book was full of fun and heartwarming moments that i never wanted to end.
Marlowe and Ashton were so likeable and dorky, just like actual teenagers. Ashton won my heart! legit, this boy was so sweet and respectful towards Marlowe, it was enchanting.
Their relationship development was so worth it and satisfying ugh I LOVE THIS BOOK SM!! 😭❤️✨🫶

Withholding review due to the at martins review press boycott. I appreciate the ARC but as a queer BIPOC reviewer I can’t in good conscience review or post about any books published by St. Martins Press no matter how much I want to. Please. Just resolve this

This was everything a YA romance should be. The friendships were perfect and I enjoyed Marlowe's mom and sister too. I actually laughed out loud a few times because the writing was genuinely funny and smart and timed just right.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am going to be screaming about this book until the end of time. A darling and delightful and hilarious neurodivergent MC and her hot sulky goth love professor taking a (healthy and destigmatized!!!) journey through romance tropes? I was sold from the second I saw the synopsis, and I finished this book a changed person. An iconic love interest intro, god tier banter, hilarious jokes, mushroom facts!!! Don't even get me started on the cast of characters, because I would die for every single person who loves Marlowe (and every one of the Monsters).

Marlowe may be on her journey for the perfect mug cake, but Serena Kaylor got every ingredient right in this one. IT IS LITERALLY A PERFECT BOOK!!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an arc of this book which I voluntarily read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had a great time reading this book. It was sweet, fun, but also covered a few serious topics and had a neurodivergent mc.

I am a reader who is very driven by characters. If I don’t like them, then I can’t like the book. I genuinely liked Marlowe, her two best friends, Ash, his band, and Ash’s colleague Sloane. The characters we were supposed to dislike were realistically (mostly) terrible. Plus, I want to go to the bookstore where Ash and Sloane! It sounds amazing.

One of my favorite things in this book was that Marlowe was not a fan of the romance genre at the start but dove in after being convinced to give them a try. Seeing her joy at reading was a delight. The growth of her relationships, with her friends, mother, sister, and Ash, kept me hooked. I was honestly rooting for each of them.

I definitely recommend this book if you want a charming YA book about learning who you are and what you deserve.

Serena Kaylor’ writing is like a warm hug, and the mix of academia tinged with some romance made quite a compelling story that kept me invested till the very end. I so loved and enjoyed it.

I enjoyed this! My favorite part was Marlowe herself: her voice, her humor, how she approached the world. Her autism is different than mine, but I really enjoyed how it came through on page and impacted how she engaged with situations without being overblown or a caricature. She's confident and matter-of-fact and a delight to read.

I also loved Marlowe's family. Her mother and stepfather are so supportive, even if they're very different than Marlowe, and her relationship with Blue was so quintessential sibling and I loved the push and pull and love and frustration and misunderstanding. Her friendship with Poppy and Odette was also fun and supportive.

I liked Marlowe's dynamic with Ash, even if it wasn't the highlight for me. I like how he clearly likes her sense of humor and rolls with whatever she puts out, and he works so naturally with her style. And it's really understandable how he'd be frustrated with how she keeps following Josh when from his perspective it wasn't a good relationship, and how he has a hard time seeing it from Marlowe's perspective because he was biased because he liked her. Their dynamic was fun and I liked how it wasn't really denied or a secret to either of them that they liked each other.

There's just something so great about reading a YA book as an adult that you know you would have ADORED as a teenager. That was what reading The Calculation of You and Me was for me. Marlowe is fresh off a break-up with the Josh, the popular jock. She's always been the "smart girl" so this relationship meant she was in a whole different social experience. Her English class finds her paired up with Ash, the emo kid. Ash agrees to help her win Josh back, but as the story goes, Marlowe starts to wonder if that's really what she wants. This was just a delight of a read, and I love the way there was humor and honesty sprinkled throughout. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this June 2024 release!

Serena Kaylor writes the books I want to read. Romance and swoony moments are fantastic, but her creation of real and relatable characters are really what make her writing magical. I can give this book to many of my students and they will see themselves in the diverse and entertaining cast of characters. I devoured this book, waiting for Marlowe to realize her value and that it is ok to ask questions and learn about the world, while not letting her autism put her in a box. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Very clever book while still having the warm familiarity you want in a YA romance. There’s a romance bookstore as a major setting, what more could you want? Was saddened by the acknowledgments that the author doesn’t feel like a real author, I think the author did great and should be proud of themself!

Positively delightful. I smiled through this entire book and finished it in record time. Marlowe and Ash were so fun to read and the side characters like Poppy and Odette really make every scene enjoyable. I liked it so much I wanted to go see what else of the author I could read only to discover I’d already read, and loved, long story short. Will absolutely read whatever this author puts out next.

When I first read the blurb for The Calculation of You and Me, it hooked me in and I couldn’t wait for its release. And so, I was super excited to receive an ARC! I was also a huge fan of the author’s debut novel and was hoping her second release would be just as good. And thankfully that was the case. This book was full of so many fun and heartwarming moments and I never wanted it to end.

Marlowe was an interesting protagonist. She was smart, funny and determined. Her heartbreak was also written in a way that felt real and honest. I related to her wanting to hold onto Josh, who represented the safer and more familiar option. He was her first love and that is sometimes a hard thing to let go of. It took her a while to realize he wasn’t the right fit for her, but she eventually got there. I admired her growth and how she learns to stand up for herself and recognized that she deserved better than Josh.

And Ashton!!! He was amazing!! He was so sweet beneath that gothic persona he projects to the world. I loved how respectful, protective and kind he was towards Marlowe. Their relationship developed in a way that felt super natural. And I was really rooting for them. They had excellent banter and chemistry and brought out the best in each other. I just loved the two of them so much and wished we could have gotten more moments of them as a couple before the end of the book. There were also some cringey moments as Marlowe did not always have well-thought out plans or ideas, but they were still really entertaining to read about.

All in all, I loved this book so much and would highly recommend it if you are looking for a YA romance novel. Serena Kaylor has definitely cemented herself as one of my favorite YA authors and I can’t wait to see what amazing story she puts out next!

Thank you again to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

“What do you want, Marlowe?”

Thanks to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the eARC!

This book is the ultimate love letter to the autistic teen and the autistic experience in general. I was never diagnosed with autism and tbh, I don’t know that I am, but I see SO much of Marlowe in my son - and have learned a lot about him, myself, and autism in general over the past few years and this book just makes me so happy… To learn more through another’s eyes. I love Serena Kaylor’s ability to show us Marlowe - not read us textbook definitions of ASD, but let us see the world through her eyes. And it’s so beautiful and inspiring.

I absolutely loved the discussions about toxic love, about learning what you want, figuring out your own life story and not letting anyone be your crutch. And I adored the discussion between Marlowe and her mom, Bunny. It’s so beautiful to read a YA book with supportive parents, especially with a neurodiverse child.

Then, there’s this lovely supportive (and slow burn) romance between Marlowe and Ash. You want nerd/emo he-falls-first? Here you go. It’s the teen romance of my dreams. God, Serena really knows how to hit the right notes: I also loved the romance in Long Story Short. And what I love about this one is that it wasn’t a copy-paste. Neither character felt like a rehash of her old ones.

All in all, there are no words I can use to describe how much this book truly hit me in my gut. And I LOVE that YA authors are now making books about neurodivergent characters- teens who don’t understand social cues, who need more time to process information… it’s so wonderful that teens nowadays get to see themselves in these books or learn more about others through them.

All the props, Serena. You AMAZE me. Looking forward to anything and everything you write.