Concupiscent Bibliophile: Variables of Love by MK Schiller- Blog Tour and Review!

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Variables of Love by MK Schiller- Blog Tour and Review!

Economics major, Meena Kapoor has always known what life has in store for her. She’s in her senior year at Stanford where she’ll graduate Summa Cum Laude, and then she will begin her interviews…her marriage interviews. Meena is Indian, and she’s never questioned that she’ll have an arranged marriage like all the generations before her. That is, until she meets gorgeous math major, Ethan Callahan. Ethan’s witty sense of humor, free spiritedness, and sweet disposition stir feelings in Meena she didn’t know were possible outside of Bollywood movies. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s charming, and has the uncanny ability to make math sound like poetry, but Meena knows their equation makes no sense in the real world.

Ethan finds himself intrigued with the mysterious, beautiful girl, whose big brown eyes reflect great sorrow and pain. He only wants to make her smile. Then, he wants to make her laugh. Soon though, he wants much more. Meena makes it clear to Ethan that a future for them is not possible, but he convinces her to share the present with him. Unfortunately, family obligations and cultural expectations create complications leaving them both struggling to solve the ultimate equation.

My Review:

Variables of Love by M.K. Schiller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

M. K. Schiller is quickly becoming one of those authors whose books I will grab knowing nothing but that they wrote it. This is the fourth book of hers that I've read, and I've been rewarded each time with a book that I truly enjoyed.

In this story she explores not necessarily the idea that opposites attract, but that the appearance of opposites can be misleading. Meena and Ethan come from very different backgrounds, and there are a lot of aspects of their lives that are challenging to fit tighter. Beyond their strong physical attraction to one another, there are some clear fundamental similarities that they share that make the reader really see how comparable they are. They are both very intelligent, and both characters possess an amazing capacity to try and understand where other people are coming from. Ethan turning his math skills into poetry was really wonderful, and I think it is impossible not to fall a little bit in love with him while reading this. Meena is a really interesting character, and it was easy for me to feel along with her as she struggles to deal with who she is and who her family wants her to be. These characters were unique and I really enjoyed getting to know them.

Pretty quickly, I knew that I was waiting to feel some difficult emotions I knew were going to come as the story continued. Anytime a book can get me feeling along with the characters, I consider the book successful, even if the emotions are uncomfortable to feel. Meena's friends experience challenges in their relationships as well, and I thought it was interesting to see how people of all different backgrounds can struggle with the expectations put on them by outside forces. I liked how these friends supported one another throughout the story. I will most definitely be reading more by this author in the future.

*An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review

I am a hopeless romantic in a hopelessly pragmatic world. I have a full time life and two busy teenagers, but in the dark of night, I sit by the warm glow of my computer monitor, and attempt to conjure up passionate heartwarming stories with plenty of humor. I started imagining stories in my head at a very young age. In fact, I got so good at it that friends asked me to create plots featuring them as the heroine and the object of their affection as the hero. You've heard of fan fiction... this was friend fiction. I hope you enjoy my stories and always find The Happily Ever After in every endeavor.