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

ebook received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: January 2nd 2012

Publisher: Little Brown

Description:
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 Opinion

I've seen this book around a few times but the description never really caught my interest enough to buy it. However, lately I've been in a romancey mood and have been downloading more novels with that theme so when I got an email from NetGalley stating the first 500 people got this book as a 'read now', I logged in instantly. It was enough to away my judgement as although many people don't like instant love, I love it. Yeah I'm a hopeless romantic at heart...sue me.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight was summed up in the description pretty well. It's a great quick read that I started way too late in the evening and then kept me up until the early hours of the morning. I didn't want to stop and it didn't help that the chapters were short and fast-paced. One thing I really liked about The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight was that the author set it over twenty-four hours. I've never seen this done in a book that wasn't a novella and I found that it gave you a lot of detail about everything that happened in the period without becoming confusing in terms of time-scale. It also allowed the sense of drama and urgency that came across well in the authors style.

I thought the scenes on the plane were sweet and they had me smiling as I read them. I liked the easy flow of conversation between Oliver and Hadley as it seemed natural and not forced. I also liked how the author didn't through the insta-love on your face. It was obvious what would happen but she focused on the getting-to-know-each other side of things rather than the omg-he's-so-hot-I-love-him.

If there's one thing I wasn't so keen on in this books it was how Hadley's relationship with her dad changed so quickly. I liked her emotions to begin with and everything felt real as she left America. However towards the middle and end she jumped from one thing to another and for me it didn't feel very authentic. Besides that, the British speech became a bit annoying with the stereotypes but I will admit this author pulled it off better than most I have seen in a while.

Overall The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is a quick, easy read that I found hard to put down. It was easy to connect with, follow and relate to an I will definitely be checking out this authors new book coming out in April.