Looking for Alaska, by John Green (2005)

one hundred thirty-six days before
The week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go to boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party.  To say that I had low expectations would be to underestimate the matter dramatically.

Sixteen-year old Miles Halter attends public high school.  He doesn't have any friends and his high school experience has been less than fun.  He actually wants to go to boarding school.  After learning about French poet François Rabelais's last words ("I go to seek a Great Perhaps."), Miles realizes that he doesn't have to die to start looking for his Great Perhaps.  He decides to attend Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama.

Miles loves to read biographies of famous people and remembers their last words.

I thought of the people I'd read about - John F. Kennedy, James Joyce, Humphrey Bogart - who went to boarding school, and their adventures - Kennedy, for example, loved pranks.  I thought of the Great Perhaps and the things that might happen and the people I might meet and who my roommate might be...

Miles's roommate is Chip Martin, aka the Colonel.  The Colonel shows Miles the ins and outs of Culver Creek and gives Miles his nickname:  Pudge.  Then he takes Miles to meet Alaska in her room.

We walked in.  I turned to close the door behind me, and the Colonel shook his head and said, "After seven, you have to leave the door open if you're in a  girl's room," but I barely heard him because the hottest girl in all of human history was standing before me in cutoff jeans and a peach tank top.

And so Miles's Great Perhaps begins.  Looking for Alaska is funny, shocking, and heart-breaking.  I absolutely loved it!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual inference, sexual situations, smoking, drinking 

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, by Jennifer E. Smith (2012)

There are so many ways it could have all turned out differently.

The past two years have been hard on seventeen-year old Hadley Sullivan.  Her father, a poetry professor, was offered a  once-in-a-lifetime chance - a fellowship at Oxford University.  Ever the homebody, he didn't want to go, but Hadley's mom convinced him he should go.  After all, it was only for four months.

Flash forward two years.  Hadley's parents are divorced and her father is remarrying a woman Hadley's never met.  Hadley is still angry with her father for leaving her and her mother.

This is where this novel begins.  Hadley is preparing to make the trip to London for her father's wedding.  She does not want to go.  After a series of mishaps and an argument with her mom as she dropped Hadley off at the airport, Hadley missed her flight.

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Luckily, she gets a seat on the next flight which departs three hours later.  And Hadley's whole world changes.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is a sweet romantic story about Hadley and Oliver.  I really enjoyed the references to Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.  If you like romance novels, you'll enjoy this one!

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!