Book Review: Love and Other Theories by Alexis Bass

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Love And Other Theories
Author: Alexis Bass
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Romance
Released: December 31 2014
Review Source: Harper Teen

If you want more, you have to give less.

That’s the secret to dating in high school. By giving as little as they expect to get in return, seventeen-year-old Aubrey Housing and her three best friends have made it to the second semester of their senior year heartbreak-free. And it’s all thanks to a few simple rules: don’t commit, don’t be needy, and don’t give away your heart.

So when smoking-hot Nathan Diggs transfers to Lincoln High, it shouldn’t be a big deal. At least that’s what Aubrey tells herself. But Nathan’s new-boy charm, his kindness, and his disarming honesty throw Aubrey off her game and put her in danger of breaking the most important rule of all: Don’t fall in love.

Aubrey is like most high school seniors thanks to the theories of love her and her best friends have come up with. She feels confident that she won't get too attached to any boys while in high school, understanding that all relationships are fleeting when it comes to teenage boys. Until she meets Nathan, a boy who isn't use to following the theories set before him by what Aubrey calls the "evolved" girls of Lincoln High School. As things get more serious she worries about what the theories will do with their relationship and struggles with figuring out her own feelings.

I went into this book unsure of how good it would be. I knew I would like it because romance in high school tends to be a story that I love. But wow was I not expecting to feel this passionately about this book. For Bass this is her first book, and that to me is shocking. She writes so well that it transports you and makes you feel as if you are Aubrey, not as if you are an outsider listening to Aubrey's thoughts. Bass has clearly felt what her characters are feeling, and she is able to make her reader feel that pain. I still haven't gotten over this book, and I'm almost positive that it'll be with me for a while.

My favorite thing about this book is how real it is. This isn't a fairy tale story, in the sense that everything is sugar coated and happy. This is the closest to real life that I have ever read in a book. In the beginning of the book Bass had me wishing that I hung out with this group when I was in high school, but as the story went on I realized how lucky I was for not having hung out with them. Although I dealt with drama while in high school, I'm not sure I could've survived what Aubrey goes through. But Bass helps you see the bright side to what Aubrey is going through, even if it is ripping your heart out as you're reading. There were so many outcomes I wanted to happen but honestly Bass picked the right ending. Aubrey is such a likable character, even with the flaws that she has. But the flaws she has makes her more relatable and helps humanize the character. All of the characters in the story are likable, Shelby, Nathan, Trip, Melissa, even the characters who are barely in the book. And yet all of these characters have flaws, but they have flaws that I've experienced and that everyone can say they have witnessed.

When you read this book be prepared to be taken on a rollercoaster. You will go from absolutely loving it to worrying about where it's going to take you next; to making you completely fall in love with it. I haven't had such heartache with any other book. But if a book were to break my heart I'm glad that it was this one.