The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (review copy) - Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?
Imagine if she hadn't forgotten the book. Or if there hadn't been traffic on the expressway. Or if she hadn't fumbled the coins for the toll. What if she'd run just that little bit faster and caught the flight she was supposed to be on. Would it have been something else - the weather over the Atlantic or a fault with the plane?
Hadley isn't sure if she believes in destiny or fate but, on what is potentially the worst day of each of their lives, it's the quirks of timing and chance events that mean Hadley meets Oliver...
Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it. From Amazon UK
After hearing all the hype, reading two very positive reviews of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, and in desperate need for a beautiful love story to blow me away, I picked it up and hoped that I would fall head over heels in love with this story just like every one else. And it was such a lovely story!
What I found really surprising is that The Statistical Probability is really two stories in one; the love story between Hadley and Oliver, and also the story of Hadey and her father's relationship. The story of Hadley and Oliver is really, really sweet and so very real; you can really imgine something like this actually happening. Oliver is cute and funny, and the effect he has on Hadley - both in how she feels for him, and how he helps keep her calm through her claustrophobia - is unbelievable. He is just the sweetest guy, walking into her life by offering to pull her suitcase for her as she's struggling. This chivalrous, thinking-of-her nature shows throughout the novel as he lets her vent a little about the wedding and her father. It's obvious that he has some issues of his own, but it's not until much later into the story that we get even an inkling what they could be, but when we do know, it's shown again just how lovely and selfless he was on the plane. There are some very sweet moments between the two, and it was great reading, trying to figure out what would happen with them.
When I started reading, I was itching for more of the romance whenever Hadley would think about her Dad or have memories of them together, but as the story went on, I found their relationship to be the most emotional part of the story. Hadley is on her way to London to attend her Dad's wedding to a woman she's never met. She's really not his biggest fan right now. Smith tells the story so, so well, that I was really hating this man who seemed to have written his daughter out of her life, and going through every emotion Hadley goes through as well, and seeing how she let her anger cloud reason - but kind of having it cloud my reason too, because I felt exactly as she did. I found their relationship to be the sweetest, most moving story of the two, and it broke my heart so many times. It was just beautifully sad.
There was only one problem with this book - all the hype. If there was no hype, I would have read this book and really enjoyed it, and that would be it. However, everyone has been raving about it, so I was expecting to be wowed, and I wasn't. It was a lovely story, but it didn't blow me away, so I felt slightly disappointed that it was just a nice story, rather than an amazing one. As I said, I was more interested in reading about the relationship between Hadley and her Dad; the romance was sweet, but I wouldn't say there was any love there, and it felt so normal, I didn't find much to get excited about.
I absolutely love the cover for this book! The image used is just so beautiful! And the fonts used for the title are cute. It's really gorgeous, and might be one of my favourite covers of the year.
The Statistical Probability is a very short book, so it took me just over a day to read - as I started it late at night and ended up having to put it down in order to sleep. It's well worth a read, and was such a lovely story! Despite what I've said about my disappointment, I still really enjoyed it and highly recommend it! It would make a great beach read!
Thank you to Headline for sending me a review copy.
Published: 5th January 2012
Publisher: Headline
Buy on Amazon US
Jennifer E. Smith's Website
Other reviews:
Eleusinian Mysteries
Fluttering Butterflies
The title of this one is so nerdy; I love it! I haven't seen too much hype (how??) so maybe I'll have a chance to enjoy it fully.
ReplyDeleteIt is such a great title, I love it! I've seen most of the hype on Twitter, with the #SPOLAFS hash tag. Hope you do enjoy it, it's a really sweet book!
DeleteOh I so get what you mean about book hype. You read so many OMG AMAZING reviews about a book and only 50% of the time do they actually live up to that for you. I'm still so happy you really enjoyed it! Definitely agree with your thoughts on Hadley and her father, Jennifer explored that fantastically and it's nice to see a parent/child relationship explored in such a way in YA. Since a lot of them time they're more like an acquaintence who we barely see so the protagonist is able to go do crazy things (which are entertaining to read, though :D ).
ReplyDeleteYes! I can't tell you how many books I was disappointed by or simply didn't like which everyone else raved about!
DeleteYou know, I never really thought of parent characters like that before, but you're completely right! Probably why I loved how Hadley and her father's realtionship was explored! So, so heartbreaking and sweet!
great review, I loved this one but I can see how the hype may have made it lose something for you, thankfully I'd managed to ignore quite a lot of the hype before I read it and was blown away by it!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm glad you loved it so much :) Unfortunately, I was unable to ignore hype, as it was all over my twitter feed, lol.
DeleteI have this book waiting for me on my Kindle and I'm so excited to read it! There has been lots of hype so I hope it lives up to my expectations. I agree - the cover is so beautiful!
ReplyDelete-Laura
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