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

Hiya,

I hope your well and life is going your way. I sadly don’t have too much time to write this review so I’m sorry if it feels a little rushed. I read this back on the 7th of January and thought it deserved it’s own wee review. Enjoy 🙂

Title: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Headline
Publication Date: 24th May 2012
Pages: 215

Summary: 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.

I think the blurb is very well written, it’s relatively gripping for a contemporary romance. It definitely doesn’t give much away, but leaves you with enough that you want to pick it up. Which is exactly what I did.
The plot was really interesting, I loved that it was set in only 24 hours, I thought that was really quirky and was a different take on what is basically another teen romance (which I personally don’t have any issues with – I love me a cute romance) One element of the plot I personally didn’t care for was the family drama on Hadley’s side of things. But I will get into that further down.

Goodreads Review: Here were my thoughts whilst reading…you should totally follow me on Goodreads btw for updates on everything I am reading.

January 7th, 100% –
This is a tough one because up until the final chapter I was sceptical. I didn’t particularly like Hadley which is an issue as majority of the plot relies on the reader liking and therefore feeling sympathy for Hadley and her situation. Because I didn’t, it left me feeling meh.
I did however love Oliver, and his odd facts and figures made this a far more interesting read. I also loved the humour thrown in and the fact it was all set over a 24 hour period was different to anything I had read before. I enjoyed the writing style greatly also.
Sadly this book was let down by the fact I didn’t connect with Hadley and therefore I felt as if there was no plot. Also I got the impression, despite the title, cover and blurb that the romance (which is suggested to be the predominant plot feature) is actually a side plot to Hadley’s family drama.which was disappointing because it wasn’t interesting to me.
Overall a 3/5 stars because it had redeemable quality but Hadley let things down. I would still like to read more from this author though.

Writing Style: As I said above, I really liked the writing style. This was the first thing I had read from Smith and I want to continue reading other things from her despite finding flaws with this book. There was a good mix between humour and serious moments and the way she wrote was really captivating.

Characters/Relationships: Obviously, the main relationship here is between Oliver and Hadley. They are so cute and their blooming friendship/romance is what saved this book for me. As I touched on, I didn’t particularly like Hadley when she was on her own/in her flash-backs. I found her backstory boring and her motivations selfish and annoying. However, when she was with Oliver these irritating qualities dissipated and left a likeable character.
Oliver and his backstory were incredible. I thought he was funny and sincere and could do much better than Hadley but that’s just me being jealous of another fictional female XD.
I did feel that during these times of stress and sadness they find each other which in the long run is not a great start to a relationship, but it was a cute concept for this book.
I didn’t really like any of the other characters in the book either, but we didn’t really get to know any of them. It was the All-About-Hadley-Show most of the time so a lot of other characters fell by the way side.

Overall, Oliver and the writing is what redeemed this book up to a 3/5 star read for me. If you like a cute romance and don’t mind a quick read, which you might need to skim through some dull patches – then I recommend this. Hope you enjoyed, sorry it was so short but I will have a better post for you all tomorrow. I promise. See you soon 🙂