Wednesday 5 December 2012

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


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

Publication Date: January 2nd 2012
Publisher:Poppy/Little Brown
Hardcover, 236 pages
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website, Book Depository

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. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother 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 sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

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

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is a cute, quick, contemporary YA novel that I can't possibly understand why people are so excited about. I haven't heard of it before, but after seeing many of my Goodreads friends love it so much, I thought that I was missing on something not having read it yet. Now that I read it, I can't find a single reason why there's so much hype over this one.

Granted, it's a cute story, written in a way that you devour it in one sitting, but in closer inspection there's nothing great about it. The romance between Hadley and Oliver is sweet and all, but there wasn't much development in their relationship, or anything to make me feel like it was believable. Yeah, I'm not a strong believer of love at first sight, so maybe that's were my problems began, but after all those raving reviews about this one, I kind of believed that this story would make me change my opinion on it. It didn't happen. I couldn't believe the depth of emotion Hadley and Oliver's relationship managed to acquire in just a day. I could believe that they were so interested in each other, or the fact that through their discussions they changed their perspective of life but not that kind of deep affection. Or the fact that Hadley left everything in search of Oliver just because of a hunch. Or the easy way her father permitted her to go anywhere in the middle of his wedding in a city she has never been before. And there were some other quite unbelievable things too. But you get my meaning.

On the positive things of this novel is the setting! The story unfolds at first in an airplane and then in London. For me, that's the ideal setting! Who says I'm in love with airplanes and London is the city I'm dying to visit???

The writing style is smart, to the point, and the author chooses to deal with some pretty hot issues and in a really smart way. For such a small book, the amount of hope transmitted is incredible. Because The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is not only a book about teenage love but a book about how you should never stop hoping and trying to get the best in your life. And maybe that is the best thing about it and not the romantic plot. At least that was for me.

The character development was good enough but mostly one sided, with Hadley being the centre of the story and her character showing the most development (whatever development one could get in 24 hours). Oliver was kind of like just being there and as for the set of the secondary characters they might as well not have been there. Hadley's father was the only exception.

All in all, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is a quick, sweet and incredibly cute story that I enjoyed reading, but I won't remember for long.


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