Synopsis:

A calculus nerd enlists her surly classmate’s help to win back her ex-boyfriend, but when sparks start to fly, she realizes there’s no algorithm for falling in love.

Marlowe Meadows understands a lot of things. She understands that calculus isn’t overwhelmingly beautiful to everyone, and that it typically kills the mood when you try to talk Python coding over beer pong. She understands people were surprised when golden boy Josh asked her out and she went from weird, math-obsessed Marlowe to half of their school’s couple goals. Unfortunately, Marlowe was surprised when Josh dumped her because he’d prefer a girlfriend who was more romantic. One with emotional depth.

But Marlowe has never failed anything in her life, and she isn’t about to start now. When she’s paired with Ashton Hayes for an English project, his black clothing and moody eyeliner cause a bit of a systems overload, and the dissonant sounds of his rock band make her brain itch. But when she discovers Ash’s hidden stash of love songs, Marlowe makes a desperate deal to unleash her inner romantic heroine: if Ash will agree to help her write some love letters, she’ll calculate the perfect data analytics formula to make Ash’s band go viral.

As the semester heats up with yearning love notes and late nights spent with a boy who escapes any box her brain tries to put him in, Marlowe starts to question if there’s really a set solution to love. Could a girl who has never met a problem she couldn’t solve have gotten the math so massively wrong?

Serena Kaylor’s latest young adult romance The Calculation of You and Me is just the sweet, fun, and refreshing read I hoped it would be! After a string of adult fiction, I didn’t know how I’d feel picking up a young adult romance, especially since sometimes YA can be too dramatic, too silly, or too cringe for me. But I had no reason to worry. Kaylor manages to deliver a story that kept me turning pages and characters I became invested in.

Marlowe Meadows is neurodivergent. She’s aware of her differences, mostly able to blend in. For the past two years she’s dated Josh, the golden-boy-jock at her school. Thanks to his attention, she’s been welcomed into the popular crowd, attending parties, safely accepted as Josh’s plus one. But when Josh told her they needed a break the summer before their senior year—because he didn’t know if she really loved him—Marlowe was shocked and unprepared. 

Now summer is over, and Marlowe has been dwelling on Josh’s choice of word “break”, hoping he’s ready to pick up where they left off. But on the first day of school, before the first class, she gets an icy reception from Josh and all his friends. After confronting him about it, she realizes his idea of a “break” is a “break-up”. But she doesn’t understand why. She followed all the rules, followed his lead, she thought she’d been the perfect girlfriend. She doesn’t consider herself someone who quits, so she’s determined to win him back, restore her life back to something she recognizes.