Galgorithm by Aaron Karo

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A romantic comedy about high school, heartbreak, and having all the answers.

What if the secrets of dating and love were revealed in one simple formula? That’s the tantalizing proposition high school senior Shane Chambliss offers the hopeless and hapless guys who come to him for relationship advice.

After the girl of his dreams breaks his heart, Shane devises a mysterious formula called the Galgorithm and establishes himself as the resident dating guru at Kingsview High School. But his attempts to master the art of romance go outrageously awry.

As Shane tries to navigate the ensuing drama, he must follow his heart, abandon all the rules, and ignore his own advice in a quest for true love. What he discovers, no formula could ever predict... 

Review:

After a terrible heartbreaking love affair ended at the very tender age of 14 (or was it 15? Whatever..) Shane Chambliss chose to protect his heart by concentrating on helping the other woeful geeks at school get the girl of their dreams.  He’s developed a “formula” which he has chosen to call the Galgorithm.  A little tongue in cheek homage to his dad’s sexist insistence on referring to women as gals.  Shane is basically a teenage Hitch, helping guys up their game so they can get the girl.  A great service that is also a perfect recipe for disaster.

Between maneuvering a new relationship with a slightly obsessive mostly crazy girl, working with his newest client, saving a former client’s failed relationship and trying to escape an over-zealous teacher that wants to secure his services, something is BOUND to go wrong.  And to top off the chaos, all this nonsense is keeping him from spending time with his best friend, Jak.  Of course, he can’t tell Jak why he can’t spend as much time with her because he’s never told her about the secret services he’s offering to guys at school. That one secret might end up ruining a friendship that was forged years ago over naked bath time at the very young age of two. 

I love it when a book that I think I will enjoy turns out to be a book that I absolutely love.  I haven’t read very many books this year that made me want to tell the world to buy and read it.  But Galgorithm IS that book.  How can it not?  Not because it’s a romantic comedy.  Although we all know that I love those.  Not because the hero is adorable.  Although he absolutely is.  And not because the reluctant heroine is kick ass.  Oh, yeah, she’s totally kick ass.  All those things were great.  But what put this book above so many others was the dialogue and Shane’s inner monologue.  At certain points I thought that maybe Aaron Karo was spying on Bel, Shel and Me and listening to our ridiculous conversations.  But I’m 110% certain that isn’t even a possibility.  Still, it was like getting an outside view of the three of us sitting around eating pie and devolving into utter ridiculous conversation and laughter. 

There isn’t much more I can say about Galgorithm without ruining it for you.  The plot isn’t a new one but the delivery is so fresh and funny that all I can say about this book is “Amor y Cacahuetes”.  Love and Peanuts my friends.  Love and Peanuts.   

Nat