The Statistical Probability of Love at First SIght- Review

Books like this ruin my life, because these things will never happen to me and I will always be sad about it. Hadley is on her way to London to watch her father marry another woman. She is prepared to be as disruptive and surely as possible and begins with accidentally missing her flight. When waiting at the gate becomes too much to bare, Hadley escapes and bumps into a British college student, Oliver. They spend the rest of the time in the airport and on the flight, where they are seat mates, talking about Hadley's dad and exchanging witty (adorable) banter. Hadley see's Oliver's garment bag and assumes he's going to a wedding as well, through the flight she tells him bits of information about what her life was like before her dad left and what it's been life since he decided to stay in London, but everything changes when Hadley gets to the wedding, and when she find out where Oliver was really going.

I'm not sure where to start. First I love the premise of this story. Most of us have done the airport thing, but I bet none of us have even fathomed that we could have an experience like Hadley's. I get a squishy feeling in my stomach when I think about it. I was to go book a flight somewhere :)

Seriously though, I also really liked that we got to see Hadley's character progression as she came to the realization that, although her father has a life somewhere else, it doesn't mean that he set out to hurt her. I loved watching her go from a slightly bitter and angry teen with thoughts of bringing her father and his new wife down, to someone who can take the high road and make the best out of a new situation (notice how I didn't say bad there).

Kudos to Jennifer Smith for not going overboard. Nothing upsets me more than two characters who make eye contact and fall madly in love with each other and other silly things ensue. I understand looking at someone and finding them physically attractive and looking at someone and feeling some "connection" and then everyone lives happily ever after without any of the problems and trials that real couples face. I was prepared for this to be one of those books because at this point the phrase "love at first sight" reminds me of Snow White or something (I mean really, one kiss, kill the bad guy, and you ride off into the sunset together, that's fine when you're five, but let's move on people).

I can't even get in to Oliver without giving things away, so I'm just going to say my heart goes out to him.

I will say that I didn't understand why the story wasn't told in 1st person POV, that kind of confused me, but other than that, I give this two thumbs up.