The Avery Shaw Experiment by Kelly Oram

Title: The Avery Shaw Experiment

Author: Kelly Oram

Series: Standalone

Genre: Young Adult, romance, contemporary

Publisher: Bluefields

Date of Publication: 4th of May 2013

Synopsis

When Avery Shaw’s heart is shattered by her life-long best friend, she chooses to deal with it the only way she knows how—scientifically.

The state science fair is coming up and Avery decides to use her broken heart as the topic of her experiment. She’s going to find the cure. By forcing herself to experience the seven stages of grief through a series of social tests, she believes she will be able to get over Aiden Kennedy and make herself ready to love again. But she can’t do this experiment alone, and her partner (ex partner!) is the one who broke her heart.

Avery finds the solution to her troubles in the form of Aiden’s older brother Grayson. The gorgeous womanizer is about to be kicked off the school basketball team for failing physics. He’s in need of a good tutor and some serious extra credit. But when Avery recruits the lovable Grayson to be her “objective outside observer,” she gets a whole lot more than she bargained for, because Grayson has a theory of his own: Avery doesn’t need to grieve. She needs to live. And if there’s one thing Grayson Kennedy is good at, it’s living life to the fullest

Review

Avery Shaw is a scientist with an analytical mind whose feet are so solidly planted on the ground they’ve got roots. With a spirit governed by logic and Newton’s laws of physics when her heart is broken, by her long-life best friend Aiden, there’s no room for the emotional cataclysm that inevitably follows. And yet emotions and tears run free. So what does she do? She does the only thing a scientist can do: analyse the problem and find a logical solution. The solution presents itself in the project of finding the cure to a broken heart through the stages of grief. The solution also comes with a side-kick, the very good looking and charming Grayson. Aiden’s elder brother, who is allergic to work and nerds, and who has his own theories on the best cure for a broken heart, Avery’s in particular. Written with alternating points of view between Avery and Grayson, Kelly Oram grabbed my attention from the very first page. Coincidentally I read The Avery Shaw Experiment after my own personal heart was broken, and although it didn’t cure me it did make me look at things differently, but most importantly it put a smile on my face. I absolutely loved every aspect of this book. For such a short and simple standalone it had hidden and unexpected depth and yet managed to keep the tone light. I was laughing and cooing and aaaahing the whole way and devoured it in one sitting. 

The Avery Shaw Experiment has secured a very firm spot in my comfort reading list and I will most definitely be reading it again soon. As soon as I finished I searched for more of Kelly Oram’s work as I thoroughly enjoyed her writing style and characters. I have now set my reading glasses onto Serial Hottie! And I have high hopes for it to be just as good!!! I’ll keep you posted