The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

by Jennifer E. Smith

Published: Poppy, 2012

Pages: 236

This is an Eclectic Reader Challenge book! 

The title makes it very evident that it is going to be a love story.  What the title doesn't tell you is that the love story is heartwarming and adorable.  Statistically speaking, this story should be an easy story to like.  

Hadley misses a flight to England by only four minutes.  This gives her enough time to brood over the fact that her father is getting married to the British woman that he left her mother for and that she has never met.  However, these four minutes change her life.  She meets Oliver.  He is also traveling to London, but for an entirely different reason.  The sparks ignite and could it be, love at first sight. 

I quite enjoyed this novel, it was lovely.  It was definitely a light friendly read.  The characters were quite witty and that always makes me laugh.  I really enjoyed the banter in this book specifically between Oliver and Hadley. 

Hadley's character works through a lot of emotions and thoughts in this book.  It is hard to write a character that has so much baggage, but Jennifer E. Smith did a fine job.  It didn't seem unnatural or forced. Hadley could have been highly annoying but she was a character that I sympathized with and celebrated.  

The one thing about this book that drove me crazy was the tense.  Present tense works in some context, but very few and I found it rather distracting.  At first it was obnoxiously distracting, but I got somewhat used to it and the tense became only mildly annoying.  I think it was an attempt to feel like someone that was looking in on the action rather than it be telling of something that passed, but it didn't work well.  

The idea of the story seems a little farfetched but that's the backbone of a good teen romance, and By George it makes for a really smooth read.  It warmed my heart.

Stars: 3/5

Praise:

“A fast-paced and entertaining novel with a superlatively romantic premise…Readers will be as caught up as Hadley is by the physical and emotional distances she traverses.”

            – Publishers Weekly

 “Smartly observed…Smith’s acute insights make Hadley’s heartache and loss as real as the magical unfurling of new love.”

            – Kirkus