The Code for Love and Heartbreak by Jillian Cantor

 

“Math is one thing. Love is another.

Emma Woodhouse is a genius at math, but clueless about people. After all, people are unreliable. They let you down—just like Emma's sister, Izzy, did this year, when she moved to California for college. But numbers...those you can count on. (No pun intended.)

Emma's senior year is going to be all about numbers, and seeing how far they can take her. When she and George, her Coding Club co-president, are tasked with brainstorming a new project, The Code for Love is born—a matchmaking app that goes far beyond swiping, using algorithms to calculate compatibility. George disapproves of Emma's idea, accusing her of meddling in people's lives. But all the happy new couples at school are proof that the app works. At least at first.

Emma's code is flawless. So why is it that perfectly matched couples start breaking up, the wrong people keep falling for each other and her own feelings defy any algorithm? Emma thought math could solve everything. But there's nothing more complex—or unpredictable—than love.” - taken from Goodreads.com

This story is a cute modern redo of Jane Austen's Emma. Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley are co-presidents of the coding club at Highbury High. The club decides to go with Emma's idea to create an app named The Code for Love, their take on Match.com for their school. Of course, math and numbers soothe Emma, but as the club begin to match their classmates to one another, she starts to realize that love isn't as simple as a mathematical formula. A super cute rom-com.

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Hunted by Meagan Spooner

“A Beauty deadlier than the Beast.”

“Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.

So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance.

Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?” - taken from Goodreads.com

Hunted is a Beauty and the Beast retelling infused with Russian folklore. Don’t head into this book expecting the Disney version of Belle or you will be sorely disappointed. Yeva is a strong female character who stands up for herself and those she loves. When her father loses the family fortune, they leave their town behind and head out into the woods to live in the hunting cabin her father abandoned years ago. Yeva is ecstatic to get back into the forest and hunt. When her father goes missing, Yeva sets out to find him despite her sisters’ pleas not to.

This book did start off a bit slow in building up the background of Yeva and her family, but once Yeva and The Beast begin interacting, this story really picks up speed. Interspersed through the chapters, readers also get brief glimpses into the mind of Beast.

Visit Meagan Spooner’s website.