This book just wasn't my cup of tea. I ended up DNFing due to the cringey southern accenting and confusing writing style. This was just my initial reaction and suggest you give the book a try yourself if you're drawn to it!

Marlowe Meadows, Lo to her friends and family, is looking forward to her senior year. Even though her relationship ended at the start of the summer, when popular boy Josh said he thought they should take a break for a couple of months. He had gone away for the summer, but Lo was ready for him to come back to town and tell her that he’d reassessed their relationship and he was ready to get back together. Someone who understood social cues might have thought he’d broken up with her. But Lo is autistic and hopeful, and she thinks she can convince Josh that they belong together.

But when school starts, he doesn’t call Lo over and tell her he’s ready for them to get back together again. In fact, when she confronts him, he says he wants to think of it as a breakup, not just a break. And then Lo has to put up with the humiliation of being paired with him in AP English on a team project. To dissolve the tension in the room, Ash Hayes offers to trade places and work with Lo. Lo is surprised but glad to get out of the difficult situation, and very happy not to have to work with Josh on a long-term project.

Lo doesn’t know Ash very well, but he seems smart. And he seems smart with words, not just with numbers, which Lo prefers. And they’re faced with having to do an in-depth study of a romance novel. Lo is not excited about that, until she realizes that romance novels may hold the key for her getting back together with Josh. He had told her that she wasn’t romantic enough for him, and Lo thinks that reading romances can help give her ideas for being more romantic. Ash thinks it’s a bad idea because he has a low opinion of Josh, but he does work in a romance bookstore and reads a lot, so he’s willing to help her out.

Ash will pick out novels he thinks will help Lo and offer some fieldwork training, so Lo can feel more comfortable on dates. In return, she will revamp the website for his band, Never Mind the Monsters, and help with their social media presence. She will also take photos of the band for the website and post some videos of their songs, to try to help them get attention and some gigs, and get them set up on some streaming services.

As the weeks go by, and Ash and Lo spend more time together, Lo finds that she enjoys spending time with him. He has good taste in novels, and his bandmates are all good friends who are excited about her changes to their website. Ash never makes Lo feel less than because of her autism, and he does his best to meet her where she is. Meanwhile, Lo is trying to woo Josh back with anonymous love letters.

But the more Lo learns about what love really is, the more she questions what she had with Josh. Is that really the relationship she wants, or does that just not add up anymore?

The Calculation of You and Me is a sweet YA rom com about being a neurotypical teenager in a typical high school. Lo, her struggles with relationships and her obsession with mushrooms, is honest about what she’s thinking and feeling, her logic providing a different perspective on teenage relationships. This story has tons of heart, many laughs, so many romance novels, and a lot of mug cake experiments. And of course, there is a happily ever after ending.

I was really impressed with this novel. I am someone who is not neurotypical, and I found myself nodding along with Lo as she got into challenging situations by not being able to read the room and not understanding when people would say one thing but do the opposite. High school was confusing for me, like others had gotten some kind of rule book that I missed out on. I thought author Serena Kaylor did a really good job of putting the reader in Lo’s shoes, and this novel is itself a good novel to read to learn more about what love is and what it isn’t. I wish I could have read it when I was a teenager, but since time travel isn’t a thing, I can just be glad that I got to read it now.

Egalleys for The Calculation of You and Me were provided by Wednesday Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy of this novel.

Marlowe starts off her senior year of high school looking forward to her last year. Her popular boyfriend, Josh, had suggested that they take a break while she went to her dad's for the summer. When she gets back, she expects things to go back to normal, but is confused to find out that the "break" Josh had told her about, he wants to make permanent. He says that she doesn't do love correctly.

Stung by this revelation, she is determined to learn all about love to win Josh back. She enlists her best friends and reluctantly drafts her English partner Ash to help out. In exchange for his help to show Marlowe how to be romantic, Marlowe will help Ash's band get some social media exposure.

The Calculation of You and Me by Serena Kaylor is a fun and entertaining book about finding out who you are and figuring out that you should find yourself instead of twisting yourself to fit into someone else's ideal. I really enjoyed it and hope it gets the attention it deserves.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I was only able to get through about 20%--what I always make myself read to. It was just a matter of not connecting with the main character. The writing wasn't bad. The story just wasn't for me, personally.

What a fantastic YA romance book!! Marlowe Thompson had been dating Josh but Josh dumped her out of nowhere. He told her that she didn’t love him the way he wanted her to, he wanted her to be more romantic. Determined to win him back, after Marlowe is paired with Ashton in English class for a project, she makes a deal with him wherein he helps her learn about being more romantic. But what does Marlowe really want?

I really loved this book. It is such a well written YA romance novel. There isn’t a dull moment at all, and I really enjoyed seeing Marlowe’s growth. Marlowe goes from being obsessed with getting Josh back to realizing that maybe he wasn’t who she thought he was. Ash does that for her. Ash is a singer in an emo band, wearing black, with a lip ring, and wears eyeliner (so really every guy I liked when I was a teenager haha).

Marlowe is also autistic. Josh doesn’t seem to be understanding of that, but Ash is thoughtful. He also doesn’t treat Marlowe as “a person with autism,” he treats her as a person. It’s really beautiful. Ashton is thoughtful, and caring. He takes a step back for Marlowe. I love Ashton and Marlowe together. He made her open her eyes to what a relationship was really like, a healthy relationship.

The ONLY thing I wish.. was that I got more after the end! I wanted to see more of Ash and Marlowe together. They will be living rent free in my head for a while.

This is a MUST read for any fans of romance books.

This was adorable. It gave me "She's All That" and "10 Things I Hate About You" vibes. It was a lot of fun! Marlowe and Ash were a great balance to one another, and the comedy elements were great. I also thought Marlowe's friends were hilarious and loved how much they supported her.

This has a great balance of romance, comedy, friendship, family, and mental health elements. I enjoyed it from start to finish and definitely recommend it to anyone looking for their next YA contemporary romance!

Another sweet, thoughtful, joyful read from Kaylor, as she follows up Long Story Short with a story about a girl trying to win back her ex with the help of a goth, romance-book-loving musician who pens meaningful songs and knows a thing or two about love. Maybe from the books. Maybe from the songs. Maybe from a crush he’s been harbouring since long before the story began. While love letters are written and romance tropes are explored in date-like “field work,” the heroine rethinks the notion that love has to be all-consuming, full of grand gestures, and defined by heartfelt outpourings of affection. I enjoyed the meta-conversation about romance as a genre—the tropes, the characters, the commonalities—and the look at Wuthering Heights as a questionable template for love, which anyone who’s studied Bronte will resoundingly agree on, and Bronte, herself, is likely cheering from the grave. The affection the leads here share for one another is obvious from the start, and Kaylor does a great job keeping us in the emotional space of her heroine, even while she *thinks* she’s still interested in someone else. We know the truth. The other characters know the truth. But like all good stories, the heroine has a journey to go on. And what a lovely journey it is.

Serena Kaylor has become an auto-read author for me & The Calculation of You and Me was such a good coming of age story about finding yourself & finding love from the unexpected.

I love Marlowe’s character, especially with the growth & development, and I really loved Ash - the boy in black, who wears eyeliner, and surprisingly writes love songs. Although, I hated how much time that Marlowe spent pining over her ex.

I also loved the neurodivergent representation & I thought it was beautifully done.

Huge thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. And thank you to LibroFM for the ALC!

An absolutely fantastic teens in love story. It reminded me of how I adore stories of teens figuring out their problems and reacting to dilemmas that arise in the halls of high school. Add in an autistic girl trying to win back her ex-boyfriend and the goth boy who is helping her and the plot to a neat story begins.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Marlowe, neurodivergent and uncertain of herself in social situations, is told by her boyfriend Josh that they need a break. According to Josh the jack wagon, she doesn’t know how to love someone or even what love is.

She decides she needs a little help, and here we have an English class studying classics, plus a tall, hot musician who offers to help her write letters to get Josh back.

In the course of this letter writing, plus working on a project for English class, Marlowe begins to see that maybe she is not the one who knows nothing of love. But she's learning fast--and not with the stinker Josh.

There were so many funny moments, great characters, and terrific discussions about love. I loved the lead to the end more than I liked the denouement as I'm not really convinced that confessions of love ought to be performance art, but that might be my age. The rest of the book was a delight

4.5/5 stars

WOWEE I loved this.

Serena Kaylor managed, with this story, to tell a story that was hilarious and swoony, with the perfect amount of tension, conflict, and romance.

THE CALCULATION OF YOU AND ME is the story of math whiz Marlowe, who, after a rough (and insulting) breakup with her boyfriend Josh, enlists the help of her class partner, the school mysterious emo grump Ash, to win Josh back by increasing her romantic skills. But the more time she spends with funny, musical, kind Ash, she starts to wonder what she really wants in a relationship—and in herself. Over band practices, kissing for “research,” laser tag, stacks of romance novels, and arguments about Heathcliff, sparks fly between Marlowe and Ash, leaving her with lots of confusing feelings about Josh, love, and herself that she has to rearrange her long-held equations for.

First of all, I didn’t think I was into emo boys until this book. Serena did that. She has me drooling over a lip-ring and black-clothes clad, eyeliner-wearing rock star with a heart of gold and a mind full of romance tropes and I regret nothing! I love the “dating coach” trope and I loved these characters. I loved that it was funny and romantic, while still managing a believable emotional depth—it was smart and intentional, meaningful and touching. I was captivating by this book early on and I absolutely loved the reading experience.

The only (minor) issue I had was how quickly the book wrapped up — I wanted a little more of a developed conclusion (honestly, just wanted more of this story!), but overall, it was an incredibly readable, swoony story! Highly recommend!

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. THE CALCULATION OF YOU AND ME is out now!

This was SO FLIPPING CUTE.
We get romance tutoring for our sweet genius autistic FMC, a hot goth and IN A BAND bi/pan mmc, and analysis of the absolute chaos that is Wuthering Heights all in the same book?? MORE LIKE THIS PLEASE.

I absolutely loved it and I need to go back and read the author’s other book now.

10/10 recommend. 😍

I received an advance copy from the publisher, all opinions are my own, and a review was not required.

This is an extremely enjoyable novel. At first, the character of Marlowe is rather annoying. It is infuriating how desperate she is to get back a jerk like Josh, who is clearly unworthy of her love in the first place. He makes her think that she is not good enough.

On the other hand, it is clear from the beginning what a good guy Ashton is. He clearly cares about Marlowe much more than she even realizes at first. Their relationship grows slowly and sweetly. The more it grows, the more Marlowe's confidence grows and she comes into her own and becomes a better person and a more likable character.

Both main characters in this novel could easily be dismissed as less than worthy, unimportant, or not good enough by many people. Marlowe is neurodivergent. Her brain doesn't work like other people's She is unnaturally obsessed with math, she tends to ramble on about things like mushrooms, and more. Ashton is a gothy teen who dresses in black and wears eyeliner. However, the author fully fleshes them out in a way that takes away their otherness and makes them relatable.

The book is also full of a lot of terrific secondary characters. They include Marlowe's two best friends, her mom, her dad, her stepdad, and her younger sister. All of them are extremely supportive of Marlowe. Their presence in the story and their great relationships with her serve to make what was already a good book even better and more satisfying to read

This was such a cute book! I'm glad it exists in a world where people who need to see themselves represented can have that.

I really enjoyed this fun & sweet YA! Marlowe wants to learn how to be romantic to win back her ex-boyfriend so Ash agrees to help her learn all about romance. I absolutely love that Ash used romance books to help her learn the difference between romance and toxic love.

*2.5 stars
I didn’t dislike this book heavily or anything, but I did just feel disappointed reading it most of the time. The characters were mostly fine, but they annoyed me sometimes. I also wished we focused more on Marlowe’s love of math considering it was mentioned in the summary as much as the romance novel reading aspect, but we didn’t get a lot.

Nerdy math-centric Marlowe is on a break with her boyfriend but their future is all but written. Only he wants a permanent split because she's not romantic enough. Her unexpected love coach is none other than Ash, the boy in black with a rock band and a secret stash of love songs.
Marlowe is pretty lovable and I very much enjoyed how Serena wrote her character. I thought it was very clever to use Wuthering Heights to help Marlowe dig into emotions and see Ash as more than his façade.
I had the opportunity to meet Serena a few months ago and won a copy and cute swag from a giveaway. I was able to tandem read with the audiobook (only the best way to read 😉). The narrators did a great job exploring young love in this coming of age story.
Loved the nerdy girl and the misunderstood boy coming together and how Serena took care with her autism. Didn’t love how long it took for Marlowe to get her head out of her bum with how terrible her ex is and I wanted just a tad more from the supporting cast, particularly her family.
Thank you to @wednesdaybooks, the author, and @librofm for the advanced copies and audiobook. All thoughts are my own.

The Calculation of You and Me by Serena Kaylor is a charming exploration of love, logic, and unexpected connections. The main character, Marlowe Meadows, is a math whiz navigating the start of a new school year after her breakup with high school golden boy Josh. Determined not to fail at romance, Marlowe strikes a deal with Ashton Hayes, a moody and enigmatic classmate, to help her win Josh back with love letters in exchange for making Ashton's band a viral sensation.

As Marlowe and Ashton spend more time together, their relationship takes an unexpected turn, challenging Marlowe's preconceived notions about love and its equations. The book beautifully captures the twists and turns of their relationship and proves that love is often found in surprising places.

Kaylor's writing is humorous and engaging. It captures the highs and lows of teenage emotions—especially in a world that can be difficult to manage. This heartfelt and memorable story leaves a lasting impression and the desire to read more.

Cute teen romance. Heterosexual but include lgb characters. The basic premise is that this girl gets dumped for being “bad at love” and she wants desperately to get the guy back. But the guy she enlists to teach her about romance ends up being the right guy for her. Who is shocked? Absolutely nobody. But it’s still a fun read. G-rated. I will likely recommend this to my 12 year old daughter.
Thematic inclusions: autism, high school.

I received an eARC of this book free from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This book was so cute and impossibly sweet- I loved the autism rep with our main character Marlowe and the way she interacted with her people and her world. So empathetic and such an excellent story to have in the world to connect to! And Ash- wow- I found my inner child swooning over how sweet his little romance loving, edgy goth heart was. I loved the journey the story took us on and the way Marlowe was so supported by her friends and family and how they never shamed her for what it took for her to figure out how things had been with Josh. There was just the right amount of pining and angst and I was rooting so hard for this happy ending!