Galgorithm by Aaron Karo

Title: Galgorithm

Author: Aaron Karo

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Release Date: May 5, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

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 highs 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…

A formula that helps the less socially adept talk to girls? Sign me up! But for real, the moment I heard about the premise of Aaron Karo’s Galgorithm, it got added to my TBR. It just had the potential to be so much fun. And, spoiler alert, it totally was.

After getting his heartbroken as a freshman, Shane Chambliss made it his mission to find away to help others avoid the kind of heartbreak he felt. And so Shane became an observer, gathering all the information he could about girls so that he could better understand them and uncover the secrets to dating and romance. Fast-forward four years and Shane is now the dating expert of Kingsview High School. Guys come to him when they want help getting the girl of their dreams, and Shane helps them get the girl. Though he might be an expert at helping other guys find romance, his own love life is growing more and more complicated. Maybe it’s time Shane starts following his own advice.

From the moment I heard about Aaron Karon’s Galgorithm, I was curious about reading it. The premise of the book sounded like it had the potential to be a lot of fun and like it could lead to some interesting situations. I mean, a high school senior takes it upon himself to basically coach the less socially adept guys in his school so that they can get girlfriends. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with that? If you’re thinking “everything,” you’re on the right track. This story was entertaining to say the very least. It was full of awkward situations and humorous moment that often had me smiling, if not actually laughing. And the best part of it all is that it was told from a guy’s perspective. I love books that are from guys’ perspectives but there never seem to be that many of them. When I find out about one, I tend to snatch it up right away. And I wasn’t disappointed with Galgorithm, both with the perspective it was told from and the story itself. Of course, though, a lot of that had to do with Shane.

I really enjoyed reading this story from Shane’s perspective. It was interesting to see him help all these guys by building up their confidence so they would be able to talk to girls they otherwise thought of as unapproachable. And really, Shane’s advice could have helped anyone who just needed a little boost of confidence. What I found interesting about Shane while reading was that as great as he was at giving advice to other people, he wasn’t all that great when it came to figuring out his own love life. I’m not saying I enjoyed seeing him struggle, but it made him come across as more real and showed that even so-called “experts” aren’t always what they claim. Which brings me to Jak. I loved that Jak wasn’t the “typical” female love interest you tend to see in books told from a guy’s perspective (namely the cool and unattainable girl). And I loved that her relationship with Shane was first and foremost an awesome friendship. I really enjoyed seeing the constant back and forth between the two of them and reminded me of my own relationship with my best friend (even if our relationship never evolved beyond friendship and he’s now happily married). So Shane and Jak were adorable and I really liked them.

Aaron Karo’s Galgorithm was a cute and fun story. I highly enjoyed reading this story and would recommend it to anyone who’s looking for something a little different from your typical light and fun contemporary story.