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

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

Release Date: January 2, 2012
Publisher: Poppy
Rated: YA 14+
Format: Hardback
Source: Won – thank you Sandra @ Waiting For Wentworth!
Buy: Amazon ● The Book Depository
Goodreads ● Website

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.

This is yet another book that had been waiting for me on my shelf for a long, LONG time. The extremely long title and the cute – predictable, but cute – premise had caught my attention from even before it was published, and I'd been longing for it long after, even after I won it. It was only when it came to my attention that it was nominated on this year's Red Dot Book Awards List, that I finally decided to pick up this book.
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. While I could guess what was going to happen with the romance, not taking into account the actual plot details, I still found this satisfying to my reading appetite, that has not been fed for days now. I fell in love with both characters, with the idea of fate, and a whirlwind romance in the span of twenty-four hours. I'm a sucker for fluff in contemporaries, and this book has a great deal of swoon-worthy moments that had me smiling from the start to the end.

I loved the chemistry between both characters. I knew it was going to be a bit cheesy, but I'm a sucker for the whole package: the first moment they meet, the journey together, the goodbye, and so on. I was just gripped by the romance that Hadley and Oliver fall into. This book literally falls into a majority of their conversation on their plane ride to London, and even still it was captivating for me to not let go until I'd finished this book. Serendipity at it's finest, for sure!
Hadley's character annoyed me from time to time. I found myself hating her, but of course, how could I hate a character for having feelings? I know, if put into the same situation I would feel the same way, so I'm in no place to judge. It's just that her mood sometimes ticked me off, but I grew to like her later on in the book, when she finally meets her father, and things start to wrap up and settle down. Oliver, on the other hand, I liked from the get-go. His character was sweet, charming, and really brought the book to life. He really gave the book a light-hearted tone, ironically whilst having the slightly darker plot twist later on, which made me love the book even more.

❝Out the window, the outlines of parking lots and housing developments are growing distant as everything starts to blend together. Hadley watches the world shift and blur into new shapes, the streetlamps with their yellow-orange glow, the long ribbons of highway. She sits up straighter, her forehead cool against the Plexiglas as she strains to keep sight of it all. What she fears isn't flying so much as being set adrift. But for now, they're still low enough to see the lit windows of the buildings below. For now, Oliver is beside her, keeping the clouds at bay.❞

–p. 55 (Hardcover copy)

I enjoyed how the book wasn't all set in the present. It would have been really long and dragged on for ages, and wouldn't be half as interesting as it actually is if it had all been set strictly within that twenty-four hour period. I love how we get little glimpses into Hadley's past, her thoughts on her father, and essentially the events that lead up to her flying off to London. I thought that this, despite the use of third person narrative, really allows the audience to connect with the main character, and further allows us to treat it as if it were a first-person narrative so we could understand and empathize with what her character has gone through and undergoes throughout the course of the novel.

Having an interesting title that certainly speaks for itself, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight was dazzling, delectable, and above all, heart-warming. I'm hooked onto Jennifer E. Smith's writing– it's gorgeous and will have everyone swooning to the nth degree. I'm definitely looking forward to getting a start on her latest, This Is What Happy Looks Like, because if it's anything like this one, I'm sure I'm going to fall in love all over again.

If you like this, try...

• My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick ● Goodreads
• Getting Over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald ● Goodreads
• Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe by Shelley Coriell ● Goodreads

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