Things I Know About Love

August 23, 2010
This quick reading debut novel is narrated by 17-year-old Livia Stowe, who lives in England and who has spent the better part of her high school years in a hospital, battling leukemia. Now in remission, Livia feels behind her friends: "I missed so much of the last year that I'm the only one of us who didn't apply to university, the only one without a plan." After convincing her overprotective mother to let her travel to America, where her older brother is studying at Princeton, Livia chronicles her experiences on a blog. Her posts make up the novel and detail her relationship with Adam, a fellow Brit, as well as her memories of old boyfriends. Le Vann realistically writes about Livia's excitement about her new romance coupled with her heightened sense of mortality. Occasional blog entries from Adam are interspersed, demonstrating that he is falling just as hard for Livia as she is for him. A tragic twist changes the mostly breezy tone and may leave readers unsettled and thinking about Livia long after they've turned the last page. Ages 12–up.