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

Title: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Rating: ★★★★★

Blurb 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.

My Rating/Thoughts:
"Love isn't supposed to make sense. It's completely illogical.” 

I LOVED THIS BOOK!! This book was so filled with sweet ooey gooey sweetness that I was just so happy reading it. I think this is my favorite love story for the year. I loved these characters and the story so much. I absolutely loved it! I can't say it enough.

Jennifer E. Smith writes another great love story that ends with an open end for readers to imagine how the couple end up. And since I love this couple so much, I say they lived happily ever after going on their road trip to North Dakota and it's perfect (hehe).

So this book is about Hadley who is going to the airport to attend the wedding of her father that she hasn't seen in over a year to a woman that she has never met. She is only four minutes late to her flight and boy, am I just so happy she was! She must change to the next flight and ends up sitting next to the gorgeous, British, and incredibly sweet Oliver. I loved Oliver. I loved him the second he offered to watch her luggage when a rude woman in the waiting area wouldn't. I loved that he decided to get up and carry her suitcase for her and they went to have lunch. He was just a perfect gentleman and I shipped them so hard the entire book and I am so happy with how it ended.

But let's dive into the characters. I think one of my favorite characters in the book was Hadley's dad, Andrew. Andrew left for a summer program to be a professor in Oxford and ends up meeting a new woman and leaving Hadley's mother and her. I thought this was so heartbreaking for Hadley because the whole time she is struggling with his new marriage to a woman she has never met and already hates because she is not her mother. She feels she is getting left behind in her father's new life. So the fact that her father was trying to include her and making sure that nothing was going to change between them was just heartwarming. I loved reading the flashbacks Hadley would think about that included her dad and it was touching. I loved the relationship she had with him and was really hoping that they could patch things up. I cried only two times during this book and they were both during scenes with Hadley and her father. Especially when she broke down at the hotel and he pulls her away and tells her it's time to consult the elephant. Awwwwww! Just like he would do when she was litle.

“He’s like a song she can’t get out of her head. Hard as she tries, the melody of their meeting runs through her mind on an endless loop, each time as surprisingly sweet as the last, like a lullaby, like a hymn, and she doesn’t think she could ever get tired of hearing it.” 

Now Oliver was really sweet. I loved that he spent the whole flight to London trying to distract Hadley because she was claustrophobic and afraid of flying. He made up silly research plans and jokes for her that it was just too cute. He also drew her a drawing of a duck with a hat and sneakers on a napkin?! They just spent the whole flight talking about everything that it was surprising that they had only met a couple of hours before. It was like they were already so comfortable together that it was hard to believe this book took place in a 24 hour time period.

This book was just all sweet and lovey. I love J.E. Smith's writing so much and I will definitely continue reading anything she writes. Plus I just love the formatting of her physical books as well. The fonts on the cover, the page themes, the little doodles on the pages, everything! It's all so cute and perfect for the books. And I absolutely love how she ended the book and worked in the title. I couldn't help but smile like an idiot when I read it.

“What are you really studying?"

He leans back to look at her. "The statistical probability of love at first sight."

"Very funny," she says. "What is it really?"

"I'm serious."

"I don't believe you."

He laughs, then lowers his mouth so that it's close to her ear. "People who meet in airports are seventy-two percent more likely too fall for each other than people who meet anywhere else.” 

Do I recommend this book? Absolutely

{REVIEW} The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

Title: The Geography of You and Me
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Rating: ★★★

Blurb from Goodreads:

Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and -- finally -- a reunion in the city where they first met.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

My Rating/Thoughts:

"You can't know the answer until you ask the question."

First of all, I enjoy Jennifer E. Smith. I like her writing and the way she ends her book with an open ending letting us readers to imagine how the couples ends up. But this book was just okay for me. I still enjoyed it, but I didn't really get as connected as I usually do for other books. I didn't need this couple to end up together, I wanted it, but I didn't need it. I guess I just thought it was going to be different. I thought that the whole book we were going to see how Owen and Lucy communicate with each other over the thousands of miles they spent apart and it was going to be adorable and I'd root for them, but this wasn't the case at all. In fact, they hardly communicated at all. Besides a few postcards with a sentence or two, these two didn't speak much and it was no wonder that when they met up in San Francisco it was so awkward. I didn't like how Lucy would send Owen e-mails, long e-mails at that, and Owen would say that he never responded because he simply didn't know how. I think that's just rude. Instead he just blew her off because that wasn't his thing? Then he begins "seeing" a girl when he and his dad move to Lake Tahoe, but it's no big deal. But! the second Lucy says she has a boyfriend as well, he gets jealous and upset and they get into a fight! Excuse you, why was it okay for you to be with Paisley and it's no big deal, but it's not okay for Lucy to actually be with someone too? This fight ends up leaving the couple not even speaking for months! I didn't like that. I ended up just not caring and wondering where this was even going. It was just boring and nothing was happening. In the end, I liked how it all came together, but I felt like there was a whole lot of nothing in this book. It was a little frustrating to me.

"When there was nothing but space between you, everything felt like a leap."

Would I recommend? Hmm...maybe if this is your type of read, but it's not fantastic.

*REVIEW* This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Title: This is What Happy Looks like
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Rating: ★★★★★

Blurb from Goodreads:
When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds. 

Then Graham finds out Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?

My Rating/Thoughts:
"Nothing's all that scary if you can see it coming."

This review will be a little spoilery. I thought this book was super cute! When I read the synopsis I was immediately sold. I thought Graham was such a great character. He became a movie star when he made his big break in a movie when he was sixteen years old and he didn't really feel like he connected with anyone. Even his parents weren't the same for him anymore. He felt alone until he met Ellie. Ellie was an outlet for him. He was able to share his deepest thoughts and could be himself without worrying about the fame. (It was very reminiscent of A Cinderella Story to me.) I loved reading his scenes because he just had so much going on in his life, but he desperately wanted to get to know Ellie because he truly cared about her. I mean come on, he made it possible to shoot his MOVIE IN HER TOWN! How romantic is that?! I was actually shocked how fast he wanted to get to Ellie. He sees her best friend Quinn wearing Ellie's shirt and thinks it's her so he asks her out just like that! However, when he finds out that she is not Ellie he immediately goes to meet Ellie at her house! I was thinking "Oh. Wow we are doing this already?! Awesome!" I was excited! The only thing that kind of made me sad (and it's completely irrelevant) is that I wanted to see more of Wilbur! We only talked about him, but we didn't actually get to see him! How cute is it that Graham has a pet pig?! 

"He hadn't realized how much it could mean, having someone to talk to like that; he hadn't realized that it could be a kind of lifeline, and that without it, there would be nobody to save you if you started to drown."

Now Ellie's story was interesting to read as well. I sort of picked it up early on that her dad must have been a politician and that's why they were trying to lie low in the media, but being an illegitimate daughter, WHOA! If I were Ellie I would have totally made him pay for my tuition. It's the least he could do. I was a little disappointed when she decided not to tell her father who she was once she saw him, but I get it. He didn't even recognize her so why bother? Still I was anticipating that meeting and wondering how it would go. We spend chapters on a boat going to the town he's staying in to meet him and then we don't? Darn. But I admire how hard she worked to get what she wanted. She couldn't ask her mom to pay $2000 for that summer poetry program so she took two jobs to try to make that money herself. Even when time was running out, she never gave up hope trying to get the money. She even refused to accept Graham's help. I think it shows just how independent and strong she actually is. She wanted to take care of herself. She went after her dreams and would stop at nothing to make them possible. But who could argue with losing a whoopie pie bet? 

As for secondary characters? I didn't like Quinn. I think the fact that she was so upset that Ellie didn't tell her about her e-mails to Graham was a little far-fetched. Hello! She didn't know it was him and why would she tell her something that Ellie wasn't even sure meant anything? I get she was tired of Ellie's secrets but she could have at least let her explain instead of pretty much spending the entire book ignoring her and making Ellie beg for her forgiveness. 

As for Ellie's mom, well meh. I understood why she was so protective of her daughter but at times you just wanted her to cut Ellie a break! 

The ending: Now I see the difficulties in trying to build and maintain a relationship based off their schedules and where they are in life, but come on! I want that cute happily ever after for them! Or at the very least "Let's give this a shot!" They were just so cute and perfect together! But I loved the ending! I loved that Graham ended up paying for her summer program tuition (end of discussion) and he had agreed to go see her whenever he was in town. It was a great ending and I look forward to reading more of Jennifer E. Smith's novels. For not being an avid contemporary reader, I am starting to see the benefits. (: