Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Rating (Out of 5): ~4 (Maybe 3.5)

Publisher: Little, Brown (Poppy)

Spoilers?: Minor (Although things are perhaps hinted at)

Goodreads Synopsis:

 Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18C. Hadley's in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

Review:

So, I’m a little disappointed, and upset, about this book. (Which is all my fault, really, not the book's.) I was expecting it to be amazing; I was hoping it would be amazing. Everyone else seems to have liked it, and it really did seem like my type of book. But I wasn’t as impressed, or in love, as I thought I would be. It was good, but it just wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.

It’s about Hadley, who is taking a plane over to Europe, where she is to be the bridesmaid at her father’s wedding. She’s still upset with her father because of the divorce, and she hasn’t seen him in a year, and so is unhappy about having to go. But then she misses her plane, and is almost late to the wedding, but that’s okay because she ends up meeting this boy on the plane.

So, I did like Hadley. I liked reading about her, and I found that I related to her rather well. (Particularly with her dad. With how she felt about her dad after, not at the beginning.) And I just generally liked her thoughts on things. It was fun, being in her head.

And I liked her and Oliver. Oliver was fun, and sweet, and they were cute together. And I think I was expecting something else, or something? Because some of it seemed more, on Hadley’s part, like when you meet someone, or just really talk to someone, for the first time, and you expect something more. But then again, I feels like that was purposeful, and so when she found out that he was feeling the same, that they both felt that deeper connection between them, it was even more special. Because she really liked him, but she was unsure because they’d barely known each other, and it was nice to find out that he liked her, too. Because I do feel like there was a connection between them, and there really was some good chemistry between the two. (I liked there conversations, especially. And there was even some good kissing. And, bonus, this isn’t a story where they’re from different places, and so how will it ever work out?, because they live within the same vicinity, and are only going to visit the same place.)

Hadley’s parents, too, are awesome. Her mom is sweet, and her dad, while what he did at first was very uncool, was still totally awesome. I was a little afraid at first, but she had a really nice talk with him, and it was so heartwarming, and even the woman he’s marrying is nice. I was afraid at the start of the book that, since it’s only over a twenty-four hour period, it would only show her time with Oliver, and them talking and getting things out, even though that seemed like a long time to be on a plane. But it wasn’t. She went to the wedding, and found him again, and several things happened, so we actually get to see the things work out.

I did really like this book. It was cute, and fun, and deep, and it was told really well, what with going to past memories and then to the present. But I think some of my lackluster feelings for it, is because I put off reading it. I wanted to read it really bad, so I put it off to read some other things (you know, for motivation), and then when I finally got to it, I tried to prolong my reading, to savor it, and instead, I think I lessened the excitement, the experience of it. I’m upset about this, because I was really excited for it, and I think I could have been more excited for it while reading it as well.

The ending was good, too. It was very sweet for all of the characters, and pretty much everything worked out very well, and I liked it. It was sweet and cute and mostly fluffy, but it also had depth, and relate-able/good characters, who I liked. It was really well done, and I am looking forward to reading more of Smith’s books in the future.