Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Pages: 236
Publisher: Poppy
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
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.

First Sentence: "There are so many ways it could have all turned out differently."

Review:

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, henceforth to be referred to as TSP for brevity's sake, is a sweet, quick little book. The story has a similar feel to Love, Actually, with the sense that while everything doesn't turn out as hoped, love will ultimately conquer all. In fact, TSP has a very cinematic quality to it. This book has high ratings pretty much across the board, and I can certainly see why.

I have been on so many flights, but I've never ever gotten to flirt with a cute guy in the waiting area or sit next to one on the plane. Can I just be a character in a novel already? Seriously? Hadley misses her flight to London for her father's wedding by just four minutes. Had she not missed the flight, she never would have met the sweet, charming, silly Oliver. Had she not met Oliver, she might not have grown up enough to bond with her father again.

Smith's writing is incredibly interesting. TSP is written in third person present tense, which one does not see particularly often. I really did not have a problem with that at all, though I've never been as particular about tenses as most readers, but some of the flashbacks and memories had some awkwardness with tenses. I did love her writing, though. There were a lot of quotes that reached out and grabbed me.

On the surface, this book seems entirely about the romance, about a girl and a boy meeting and falling in love over the course of just a day. However, fun as that can be to read, I maintain the book had more depth than that, and, for that reason, I rate it more highly. At least as much focus is put on Hadley's relationship with her father as on her blooming relationship with the adorable, British Oliver, who actually doesn't have a huge role in the second half of the book but for cameos.

Oliver really steals the show, though, particularly with his absurd lies about what he's studying at Yale. Their interactions are adorable and I especially loved their surprisingly deep conversations about love and marriage. They do not fall under my heading of instalove. The two form a real bond while flying on that plane, and I could see them actually going back to Connecticut and becoming a real couple. They're super into each other, and certainly feeling starstruck by the serendipity of everything, but their interactions are not cheesy or full of protestations of eternal tender devotion.

TSP joins the illustrious list of YA novels with present parents. Both Hadley's mother and father love her and want to do right by her, despite the chaos of the divorce. Hadley has not seen her father since she found out about Charlotte, his soon-to-be wife. The realization that her father has moved in also results in Hadley developing claustrophobia. This element seems tacked on to me, disappearing except when it benefited the plot to have Hadley freak out. For how big of a deal she makes of her claustrophobia in the early chapters, it seems not to affect her much later.

I liked the way her interactions with Oliver convinced Hadley to give her father another chance. Her own crazy actions and excitement over meeting a new boy lead to her reevaluation of her father's affair with Charlotte. While that was well done, I still could not forgive him as easily as Hadley does. While I did think she and her father were on a good path, I felt that her forgiveness was too complete to be entirely believable in such a short time frame.

If you are looking for a quick read with a sweet romance, you cannot go wrong with TSP. I know I will be reading more Jennifer E. Smith books in the future without a doubt!

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "He was giving her the most important thing he could, the only way he knew how. He was a professor, a lover of stories, and he was building her a library in the same way other men might build their daughters houses."