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Love and Other Unknown Variables (Entangled Teen) Kindle Edition
- Reading age12 - 18 years
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level7 - 12
- PublisherEntangled: Teen
- Publication dateOctober 7, 2014
- ISBN-13978-1622664672
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Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Review
"A heartwarming YA story of love and entering the unknown territories of adulthood." ―Kirkus Reviews
"A quirky and heartbreaking coming-of-age novel. Fans of The Fault In Our Stars will fall in love with Charlie and Charlotte's story!" ―International bestselling author Julie Cross
"Heartbreaking and real, Love and Other Unknown Variables will have readers experiencing the soaring heights of first-time love with whip-smart characters reminiscent of a John Green novel." ―Swoony Boys Podcast
"It took me 1.00749 seconds to fall in love with this book. Love and Other Unknown Variables shines with the light of a thousand stars, and Sharon Lee Alexander's smart and emotive storytelling creates a chemical reaction called: Love At First Sentence." ―Regina at Mel, Erin, & Regina Read-A-Lot
"(Humor + Snark) x (Love + Strength) / Tears = a book that I couldn't put down. Not once in my life did I ever think I would stay up all night reading a book that involved math, but it happened. Shannon L. Alexander has written a story that will stay with me for a very long time." ―Flutters and Flails
"Brilliantly poetic and touching, this book ripped the heart out of my chest, stomped on it, and then fluffed it back up and stuffed it back inside me." ―A TiffyFit's Reading Corner
From the Inside Flap
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).
From the Back Cover
About the Author
Find her at shannonleealexander.com
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Love and Other Unknown Variables
By Shannon Lee Alexander, Heather Howland, Kari OlsonEntangled Publishing, LLC
Copyright © 2014 Shannon Lee AlexanderAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62266-467-2
CHAPTER 1
Beginnings are tricky things. I've been staring at this blank page for forty-seven minutes. It is infinite with possibilities. Once I begin, they diminish.
Scientifically, I know beginnings don't exist. The world is made of energy, which is neither created nor destroyed. Everything she is was here before me. Everything she was will always remain. Her existence touches both my past and my future at one point — infinity.
Lifelines aren't lines at all. They're more like circles.
It's safe to start anywhere and the story will curve its way back to the starting point. Eventually.
In other words, it doesn't matter where I begin. It doesn't change the end.
CHAPTER 2Geeks are popular these days. At least, popular culture says geeks are popular. If nerds are hip, then it shouldn't be hard for me to meet a girl.
Results from my personal experimentation in this realm would suggest pop culture is stupid. Or it could be that my methodology is flawed. When an experiment's results are unexpected, the scientist must go back and look at the methods to determine the point at which an error occurred. I'm pretty sure I'm the error in each failed attempt at getting a girl's attention. Scientifically, I should have removed myself from the equation, but instead, I kept changing the girl.
Each experiment has led to similar conclusions.
1. Subject: Sara Lewis, fifth grade,
Method: Hold her hand under the table during social studies,
Result: Punched in the thigh.
2. Subject: Cara Whetherby, fifth grade, second semester,
Method: Yawn and extend arm over her shoulder during Honor Roll Movie Night,
Result: Elbowed in the gut.
3. Subject: Maria Castillo, sixth grade,
Method: Kiss her after exiting the bus,
Result: Kneed in the balls.
After Maria, I decided my scientific genius was needed for other, better, experiments. Experiments that would write me a first-class ticket to MIT.
I'm tall and ropey with sandy blond hair so fine it's like dandelion fluff — the kind of dork that no amount of pop culture can help. Which is how I already know how this experiment will end, even as my hand reaches out to touch the girl standing in front of me at Krispy Kreme donuts.
There was a long line when I walked in this morning, so I'd been passing the time by counting the ceiling tiles (320) and figuring the ratio of large cups to small cups stacked next to the coffee (3:2). I'd been counting the donuts in the racks (>480) when I noticed the small tattoo on the neck of the girl in front of me.
It's a symbol — infinity. There's a cursive word included in the bottom of one of the loops, but I can't read it because one of the girl's short curls is in the way.
Before I realize what I'm doing, I sweep away the hair at the nape of her neck. She shudders and spins around so fast that my hand is still midair. Flames of embarrassment lick at my earlobes, and I wonder if I should be shielding my man parts from inevitable physical brutality.
"What's your problem?" Her hand cups her neck, covering the tattoo. Her pale skin flushes and her pupils are black holes in the middle of wild blue seas, but since I'm not coughing up my nuts, I'm already doing better with this girl than any before.
She's waiting for me to explain.
It takes too long to find words. She's too beautiful with that raven-hued hair and those eyes. "I wanted to see your tattoo."
"So, ask next time."
I nod. She turns back around.
The curl has shifted.
The word is "hope."
"Rapido, Chuck. J's pissing his pants because we're going to be 'tardy,'" Greta says, using her shoulders to wedge the door open so she can make air quotes around James's favorite word. "God, it smells good in here."
Greta McCaulley has been my best friend since our freshman year at Brighton. On the first day of Algebra II, Mr. Toppler held a math contest, like a spelling bee only better. I came in second, one question behind Greta. Since then, her red hair, opinions, and chewed-up cuticles have been a daily part of my life. She has a way of ignoring the stuff about me that makes others want to punch me. And she's equal parts tenacity and loyalty — like a Labrador/honey badger mutt.
She'd also beat the crap out of me if she knew I'd just thought of her as a hybridized breed of animal.
Outside, her boyfriend James unfolds himself from the cramped backseat of my car, and rips open the heavy doors. "People of Krispy Kreme, I will not be made tar —" He takes a quick breath and loses his concentration. Krispy Kreme's sugary good smell remains invincible.
Greta stands beside me in line, while James drifts toward a little window to watch the donuts being born in the kitchen. Greta and James have been together since the second quarter of ninth grade. If I wanted to continue to hang out with Greta, her Great Dane of a boyfriend would have to become part of my small circle of friends.
Actually, it's not a circle. It's a triangle. I'd need more friends to have a circle.
The girl with the tattoo steps up and orders a glazed and a coffee. She's about our age, but I don't know her, which means she must go to my sister's high school, Sandstone. It's for the regular kids. I go to Brighton School of Math and Science. It's for the nerds.
Greta leans into my shoulder, and I know I'm not supposed to notice because a) we've been friends for a long time, b) James is four feet away, and c) I just fondled a stranger's neck, but Greta's left breast brushes against my arm.
"So what's with the girl?" she asks. "I saw her turn and —"
My ears feel warm. "Shhh."
Mercifully, Greta whispers, "I thought she was going to punch you."
"Me, too."
"What'd you do?"
"She has a tattoo," I say, shrugging.
"And?"
"And, I may have touched it."
Greta's mouth hangs open, a perfect donut.
"Fine. I touched it."
"Where?" Greta quickly turns and scans the girl. "Oh, thank God," she breathes, touching the correlating spot on her own bare neck. "I thought maybe it was a tramp stamp."
I must look blank because Greta points to her lower back, just below the waistline of her khaki uniform skirt.
"God, no," I say, too loudly. The girl with the hope tattoo glances over her shoulder. Greta and I both look at our shoes.
James steps in front of us, and for once I'm thankful that the width of 1 James = 2 Charlies + 1 Greta. His large frame blocks us from the girl's glare. James taps the face of his watch.
"I know," I say. "Look, both of you go back to the car. I'll be right there. We have plenty of time to make it before the first bell."
They turn to leave just as the girl is stepping away from the counter, coffee in one hand and donut in the other. I should let her walk away and be thankful she didn't punch me, but without thinking, I touch her arm as she goes by. I can feel the muscle of her bicep tighten under my fingertips.
I'm locked in place, like when an electric shock seizes all the muscles in your body so that the only thing that can save you — letting go of the electrical source — is the only thing you can't do.
"Yes?" she asks, her jaw looking as tight as her bicep feels.
"I wanted to apologize."
"Oh," she says. Her muscles relax. "Thanks."
She smells amazing. At least, I think it's her and not the warm donut in her hand. Either way, I have to force myself to focus on what I was about to say.
"So, I'm sorry." Now, walk away. Go, Hanson. "But I'm afraid you're mistaken about infinity. Infinity is quantifiable. Hope is immeasurable."
Her expression shifts, like Tony Stark slipping into his Iron Man mask. She shakes her arm free from my slack grip. "So if it can't be measured, I shouldn't count on it? That's bleak, man. Very bleak."
She turns and pushes through the door.
Subject: Girl with the hope tattoo, first day of senior year,
Method: Grope her neck. Follow with a lecture on topics in advanced mathematics,
Result: No physical harm, but left doubting whether I'll ever figure this relationship stuff out.
CHAPTER 3I pull into the school parking lot as James finishes the last of his donuts. He ate all six. He also ate one of mine. Greta hasn't touched hers yet. She'd been fixated on the scenery of the suburbs dying off and the city rising up, the same scenery we've seen every day for three years. The early morning sun winks through the haze of southern humidity clinging to the buildings like a wet blanket. I guess it is hard to believe this is our last first day of school at Brighton. Only 179 more morning drives like this one.
I spent the time wondering what someone would do with boundless hope. I mean, that's a lot of hope.
"What'd you think of that tattoo, Gret?"
Greta turns away from the window, one ginger brow arched. "I think it's none of our business."
"Yeah, but don't you think that's maybe an excessive amount of hope?"
"Depends what you're hoping for. Why do you care? And what was with that stellar display of social ineptitude back there?"
"I don't care." Except, why hope? And why can't I stop thinking about the way the soft skin of her neck felt under my fingertips? And why did she look so sad just before she stormed away? I need more data. "Let's just call it an experiment."
James laughs, leaning forward between the front seats. "Thought you'd agreed to let the big boys do that research," he says, flexing the thick muscles of his forearms.
Greta snorts, but I catch her watching the muscles dance.
"I'd offer to get y'all a room, but I wouldn't want James to be tardy." They both blush. "Oh, but look at that," I say, pulling into an open spot, "three whole minutes to spare. Maybe I should have stopped?"
And the punch I've been waiting for all morning finally lands on my shoulder, solid enough to rock me sideways a bit.
"Oh, shut up, idiot," Greta says, shaking out her fist, "or I'll destroy that proof you've been working on in seven seconds flat."
"You can't disprove shit," I say, but a sliver of doubt wedges in my mind.
That proof is my ticket to winning over Dr. Martin K. Bell, god of mathematics, who will take me under his wing at MIT next year and mentor me, until one day he'll proclaim, There is nothing more for me to teach you. The student has outshone the teacher. Shortly after, I'll receive the Nobel Prize.
I've got a lot riding on this proof.
"I only need six seconds," James counters, a wide, white smile lighting his dark brown face.
They bicker about who can dismantle three years of my work the fastest as we climb out of the car. Eager to change the subject, I point at Greta's uneaten donut.
"Ungrateful much, Gret? 'Take me to donuts,' you said. So I did." I fold my arms across my chest in mock protest.
James swoops in and tries to pluck it from her hands. "I'll eat it. I'm still hungry."
Greta's attention is diverted. "How can you be hungry, J? You've eaten more calories than a cheerleader eats in a week."
"What cheerleader?" James says, pretending to look around for one. Brighton doesn't have cheerleaders. We'd need sports teams to justify them. Mathletes don't count, even if they think they do. "Show me the cheerleader?"
They're a teenage version of a middle-aged married couple. She shoulders her large bag, and sighs. "Why do I put up with him?"
I shrug. "Beats me, but someone may as well enjoy that donut. I almost got beaten up by a girl getting it for you."
"If it means that much to you ..." She shoves the entire donut in her mouth at once, and smiles at me, her freckled cheeks full of donut.
"Did you see that?" James asks as she walks away, his voice soft, maybe even reverent. James thinks most everything Greta does is amazing — even the gross stuff — which gives me hope for a positive experiment result in the future.
Not infinitely hopeful, of course. That's just nonsense.
CHAPTER 4At lunch, we eat under an apple tree in the courtyard. There is a plaque dedicating the tree to a former principal with her favorite quote, "Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why."
James leans against the plaque as he compares our schedules for this year. He and I had a class together this morning. I've got advanced physics with Greta after lunch, and we'll all meet up again at the end of the day for senior English.
"Wonder who the new target is this year," James muses, cramming his schedule card back in his pocket.
The target in question would be the English teacher. Brighton goes through English teachers like Hogwarts devours Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers.
"We can deduce it's a female," I point out, tapping the name on my schedule card. Ms. Finch — Senior English.
"Hope she's not like Ms. Kelly the fem-bot," James says with a shudder.
Greta is busy finding something in her bag. "Not this already," she says. Her face is mostly buried in there, but the part of it I can see looks annoyed. "Promise me you dorks will stay focused on what's important."
"I am always focused," I say.
Greta looks up. "True," she says, a flicker of her fierce protectiveness crossing her face. Two years ago, I took on too much — too many classes, mathletes team captain, a junior internship with the university physics department, and a shot at the national science fair. I failed an assignment in chemistry. I'd never failed before. My mind went a little berserk.
I only remember pieces (which Dr. McCaulley, Greta's psychologist mom, says is normal), but I was convinced I could work out the glitch in my chemistry experiment if I could give it one more try. Of course, in order to do that, I needed to break into Dr. Stormwhiler's lab. It was one a.m., and I may have triggered an alarm when picking the lock on the disused gym door.
Alone inside the school, I panicked and called Greta. Her mom called the police and met them here. Greta found me, catatonic by that time, in the storage room off one of the labs.
If Greta hadn't been there to pull me back from the edge, and tell me to stop being a whiny quitter, I'd have left school and given up on all my ambitions.
Turning her attention toward James, Greta says, "You promise to stay focused." She punctuates the sentence by poking him in the arm with a pencil she's just pulled from her bag.
"Hey, I'm focused."
Greta scoffs. James scowls at the apple he's about to bite into. "Whatever."
Satisfied, Greta starts scribbling computations in her notebook while James rubs a bruise on his apple and mumbles loud enough for me to hear, "I'm focused. Focused on carrying out a proud high school tradition."
Brighton is a STEM academy. The mission statement, emblazoned on another plaque by the front office, states our time here is meant to prepare us for futures in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Our motto (yep, another plaque) is Aut viam inveniam aut faciam. Meaning, "I'll either find a way or make one."
So, we've found a way to reduce the time we have to spend on things like poetry and literature by making the English teachers hate their jobs here. It's not hard either. It only takes a little shove to start a ball rolling before inertia takes over. The constant tide of teachers means that little learning goes on in the English classroom.
It's a simple equation. No teacher = no English. No English = more time for things that matter. Like math.
We take seats near the back of the English room. I study the bookshelves lining all four walls and crammed full of books. I don't recognize any of the titles, which isn't saying much. Above the bookshelves are paintings. Big ones of trees with people laughing as they hang in the branches. Small ones of books stacked neatly. Tall paintings with stacks of books in the act of tumbling over. Forty-two paintings. They are all different, but the same.
Forty-two paintings, but zero teachers.
At Brighton, class starts on time. In fact, the advanced physics teacher, Mrs. Bellinger, will write you up for tardiness for being on time. She says "on time" is late. James is in love with Mrs. Bellinger.
(Continues...)Excerpted from Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander, Heather Howland, Kari Olson. Copyright © 2014 Shannon Lee Alexander. Excerpted by permission of Entangled Publishing, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- ASIN : B00IWUXU7A
- Publisher : Entangled: Teen (October 7, 2014)
- Publication date : October 7, 2014
- Language : English
- File size : 1882 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 339 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,010,405 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Shannon Lee Alexander is a wife and mother (of two kids and one yellow terrier named Harriet Potter). She is passionate about coffee, books, and cancer research. She spent most of her time in high school hiding out in the theater with the drammies and techies. Math still makes her break out in a sweat. She currently lives in Indianapolis with her family.
Find her at www.shannonleealexander.com
Sign up for Shannon's newsletter at http://eepurl.com/09Igj
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Charlie Hanson is a nerd. He goes to Brighton which is a school for kids who are excellent in math and science. He has always known what was in his future. Valedictorian and future MIT student. He’s honest and straightforward to a fault. He is also a teenage boy. Charlie looks at the world through his complicated math proofs and that hasn’t worked out for him in the getting a girlfriend department. Charlie’s future is about to change when he touches the tattoo on the back of Charlottes neck.
Charlotte has had a tough life. Being diagnosed with cancer leaves you in the present without any real hope for the future. So that is what Charlotte is doing. She is living it in her present as best as she can. Charlotte is new to town and makes friends with Charlie’s little sister. So now the girl with the hope tattoo is spending a lot of time in the Hanson house. Charlotte notices the hot nerd but overlooks him until she realizes he is the leader the senior class has chosen to take down the new English teacher. Who happens to be Charlotte’s older sister. Now Charlotte has asked Charlie to prank his teacher so that she can live her life.
I am not exactly a book crier. Sure there are books that have made it happen but it’s not something that happens often for me. This book was one that almost did it. Reading some of the other reviews people needed box upon box of tissues so if you are a crier I would get some.
Charlie knows there is more going on with Charlotte than she is telling him but even before their first kiss he his willing to do whatever it takes to make her happy. I have a serious crush on Charlie Hanson. He was sweet and funny. Most of the time he wasn’t even trying to be. Charlie is genuine and so easy to love. There is just so many good things about him that I can’t even begin to list them all. He loves all things science and math but soon he will meet people that will show him there are more things he has left to discover. He knows so much but at the same time he knows so little about the world outside of his math and science.
Charlotte Finch was a great character. She is sick and has been for a while. Now she just wants to live with whatever time she has left. She wants to live it the way she wants to and not in some clinical trial that will take away everything that she is. Charlotte was an amazingly strong character. She manages to be the rock for everyone she loves when it comes to her cancer. I admire her for just wanting to live. She shows Charlie the things that can’t be explained. She shows him that there is more to life than math. There are more things that he needs to learn. She helps Charlie grow and she shows Becca it’s ok to live outside of her books, and that is probably the greatest thing about her.
Shannon Alexander doesn’t just create amazing main characters. There were other characters in this story that you couldn’t help but love. Ms. Finch, the English teacher, takes everything Charlie does to her in stride and finds the humor in it too. She also cares and loves her sister beyond anything else. Becca is Charlie’s sister. She lives in her books until Charlotte showed her that it’s ok to have adventures that are not written in her books. She was sweet and patient with her brother as well. I’m not a huge fan of Greta but I though James was hilarious. They are Charlie’s best friends. James shows him that he is strong enough to love Charlotte and be ok when she’s gone. Greta just rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t really care for her.
Shannon Alexander created a story that pulls you in. Her writing seems effortless and the story flows in a way that is engaging and makes it impossible to put down. The characters, relationships, and dialogue are realistic and genuine with young readers. This was an amazing coming of age story that was handle with care and told by and amazing male POV. The characters are flawed and real. They have to make some difficult choices that change them forever.
I can’t be the only person out there who finds it both happy and sad every time they add another book boyfriend to their list, right? I mean, we build these characters up and then… reality. While this book had so many layers and wasn’t meant to be a Charlie swoonfest alone, swooning is exactly what I did. He’s a nerd with iffy ideals about love. From the very first page you can tell that Charlie almost has a clinical way of thinking, which makes sense as he goes to a fancy schmancy school for smarties.
But Charlie isn’t the only character in this story, and not even the most important, though it is written in his POV.
Charlotte Finch has just moved into town. She quickly befriends Charlie’s sister, and though maybe he’s intrigued he knows he can’t go there. Well, life doesn’t always work out the way we have planned, you know? Charlotte comes into the story and basically rocks its world. She’s THAT girl, the one who’s going to change the boys way of thinking.
This story wasn’t just romantic, it was funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking. Admittedly, I didn’t break down in tears, but I can see how other readers did. I’ve heard this compared to The Fault in Our Stars, but for me it was a book all its own. Illness was a big portion of the story, however, there were other elements, too, that gave this story balance. Family, friendship, first love… Love and Other Variables has it all.
The writing was well done. You can tell the writer did her research and truly put her heart into this story. It isn’t often that I find a male POV book that I absolutely love. The last that I can think of was The Beginning of Everything, and Charlie definitely ranks up there with Ezra. This was fast paced and kept me enthralled.
The only thing that readers should be cautious of is that this is very YA. Charlie and Charlotte are teenagers. They act like teenagers. Personally, I like to read a true to the genre book every now and then, and this one absolutely did not disappoint.
If you’re looking for a YA novel that will tug at your heart’s strings and give you all… ALL the feels, then I definitely recommend this title.
~Reviewed by Keira @ Lazy Book Lovers
Top reviews from other countries
I absolutely loved this book. I was a little worried at first because there was a lot of math references but it was never done in a way that I had trouble understanding it. I had to keep reading all night because I had to know what was going to happen. I loved the characters and all the different relationships that were present. It was just a great reading experience.
Charlie was this extremely logical, socially awkward character who was adorable. Charlotte was a vibrant, mysterious, sarcastic girl. I loved watching his fascination with her and her using his access to Brighton slowly develop into something more. Charlie, especially, went through so much growth during the book.
The book was told solely through Charlie’s POV and through him we got to know his two best friends, his little sister, an elderly neighbour, and all the relationships he had with them meant something. There wasn’t one I enjoyed more than another. Greta and James, his friends, were his support and encouragement but also his voice of reason. His sister Becca, who had seven overflowing bookshelves and got lost in her books so I loved her right away. Ms Dimwitty, the neigbour whose garden he ran over then was forced to fix, was hilarious and they would bicker so much but she was also teaching him about beauty and life. Even Ms Finch, Charlotte’s sister and Charlie’s teacher, was amazing in not giving in to the students and finding ways to teach them even when they refused to learn.
There were many, many laugh out loud moments through the book. The whole pranking the teacher could have been lame but instead developed into something that was a lot of fun to read and ran deeper than just being silly pranks. I know going into the book that it definitely had the potential to destroy my heart, and it did and I enjoyed it.
I also really loved that the chapters were all decimal points. 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, it was really cute.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.