The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

I cannot rave enough about this book. "The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight" is one of those books I'm glad I bought because I will want to read it again and again.

When Hadley misses her flight to London by four minutes, she cannot figure out if it is a blessing or a curse. She has been avoiding her father and his soon to be wife for a long time and she still isn't sure she can face them. When Oliver enters the picture, Hadley's world is completely thrown upside down.

This story is so much more than I thought it would be. It is way more than meeting a handsome boy at the airport. The range of emotions that Hadley experiences in just 24 hours makes this book so powerful. I found myself relating to Hadley over and over again. I felt her joy, her anger, her sadness, her heartbreak, and her acceptance just as she did. I even shed some tears with her. And let's not forget Oliver, what he has to deal with is just as emotional as Hadley's journey. It is so interesting to see how their paths meet again and again.

Jennifer Smith has written an incredible story. Once I opened this book, I didn't put it down until the final page. This book will definitely make my top of 2012 list.

What I Loved:
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.

What Left Me Wanting More:
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.

The Final Verdict:
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!

Can four minutes really make that much difference? If you're Hadley Sullivan, four minutes can change your life.

At first glance, I was expecting this to be a light, easy read but I was wrong. While this story does have it's pleasantly romantic moments, it's overall theme of heartfelt love runs throughout the whole book.

When Hadley misses her flight to London she's both relieved and frustrated. She doesn't really want to go to across the pond to begin with but the thought of waiting around in a crowded airport for a few hours waiting to catch the next flight out isn't all that appealing either.

Hadley struggles with claustrophobia and even the ceiling of the airport starts to feel as if it's closing in on her. She tries to focus on staying calm but nothing seems to work and just as she's reached her point of major freak out, a cute boy with an English accent comes to her rescue. Oliver offers to help her with her bags and within a matter of minutes, they discover that not only are they on the same flight, they're sitting one seat apart. Coincidence or fate?

Over the next few hours, Hadley and Oliver talk about anything and everything from family to respective "exes". They even discuss the pros and cons of love and marriage. He continues to help her through a few more "episodes" and they share some really sweet moments as well. She tells Oliver about all she's been through in the past year and how she's traveling to London for a wedding. When he shares with her that his trip involves the church he grew up attending, she assumes he's going for similar reasons. When they arrive and she discovers the real reason for his visit home, her ideas about love, marriage and forgiveness will be challenged in ways she never imagined. Hadley will see first hand how the seemingly insignificant things can impact not only our lives but those around us as well.

I enjoyed this book and how author, Smith painted love as picture, allowing the reader to see that "love" isn't just a story being told between a boy and a girl. It's also how a parent communicates love to their child when their own words don't come easily; like a light in the dark, or words on weathered pages.

“But Hadley understood. It wasn't that she was meant to read them all. Maybe someday she would, but for now, it was more the gesture itself. 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.”

Love can also act as a healing balm between two hearts where pain seems to be the common language.

“Because I was with you," he tells her. "I feel better when I'm with you.”

I could identify with Hadley in the respect that I have also claustrophobic moments (I will get off of an elevator if there are too many people on it) and I was about her age when my Dad remarried. I had to be a bridesmaid in the wedding too but I didn't get to make a trip to London for the wedding nor was there a cute boy with an English accent to distract me. *sighs*