Zac & Mia by A. J. Betts

If you enjoyed A Fault in Our Stars, you will love reading Zac & Mia.  The life lessons come across a bit differently, as does the Australian setting, but there is cancer and it does intersect with a love story. Zac is a lonely leukemia patient in a Sydney hospital cancer ward when he hears a new patient enter the room next to his.  Mia is angry and argumentative; he can hear her yelling at her mom and refusing to cooperate with her doctors.  But Zac knows "it gets better."  Mia has a type of cancer that is treatable;  the stats are in her favor.  He wants to distract her and entertain her, without even having met her;  Mia becomes his cause.  Zac eventually gets a bone marrow transplant and goes home, but for Mia things don't get better.  She loses part of her leg and most of her perfect, athletic and popular self in the process.  Eventually, desperate and suffering, she runs away from home and tracks Zac to his family's olive farm.  The story that follows relates, from alternating both points of view,  the struggle for Mia's soul and her will to live. Betts writes with humor and heart and has created main characters with depth and feelings.  This is a great book for vacation or a long weekend.