The Mathematics of Love

I just finished reading "The Mathematics of Love" by Emma Darwin (great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin) last night. This book sort of grabbed me due to the title, can't imagine why! ;) The inspiration for the title comes from the fact that, as the author states in the novel, 'the mathematics of love defies arithmetic,' which I find to be quite true...

The book basically follows 2 different story lines in 2 separate time periods - one is set around 1819, the other is set around 1976. I was pretty impressed with the author's ability to switch back & forth between the language styles of the 2 time periods. The 2 stories were very different, but the characters were linked by the fact that they both lived in the same house outside of London, England.

It was relatively easy to get into this book, and I did stay up later than my usual weeknight bedtime to finish the book last night. It's worth noting that the book is a bit 'smutty' in places... which isn't too surprising considering the cover art. However, my copy of the book had completely different cover art, so I wasn't expecting it to be so "Lifetime Movie"-esq at various points in the story... so considered yourself forewarned if you decide to read this.

I'd give this book 3 stars - worth checking out if your curiosity if piqued, but not exactly 'earth-shattering'.

On a side note, I am always nervous about recommending books to people - I don't want to set too high of expectations & would hate for someone to read something I recommend & think they wasted their time! So I am pretty conservative on my rating system. Recommending a book is so different from recommending a restaurant - if you recommend a restaurant & the person doesn't like it, you can say, 'They must have been having an off night.' But what do you say when a person doesn't like a book you recommended? Thus, it's pretty rare for me to say something is a must read...