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The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Jennifer E. Smith

Start date: April 1, 2012

Finish date: April 30, 2012

Discussion: Stand Alone

Why we're reading this: Came in second for the poll for the BOM
[close] Came in second for the poll for the BOM

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What Members Thought

May 20, 2018 Susan rated it liked it

I enjoyed the book okay but only because what I needed was something light and fluffy and something I didn't have to think on to terribly hard about. That was this book. It was (thankfully) a shorter book but even though it was short I felt it was still to long. It just that it lagged in parts. It was cute but after a little while the cuteness wears off and I just became annoyed a bit. I was happy when the book finally ended. It wasn't horrible it had some cute fun parts in it and again it doesn ...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Book Sp(l)ot rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012-release, challenge-sarc-2012

It's the tiny things in life that make the huge differences. Likely, you've heard that before, but rarely has it rung so true than in Jennifer E Smith's new novel The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. A series of tiny (on their own) things make Hadley Sullivan four minutes late for her flight.

Missing her flight by only four measly minutes would have been bad enough if it weren't a flight from JFK to Heathrow, New York to London, a last minute flight to her father's second wedding. It's the tiny things in life that make the huge differences. Likely, you've heard that before, but rarely has it rung so true than in Jennifer E Smith's new novel The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. A series of tiny (on their own) things make Hadley Sullivan four minutes late for her flight.

Missing her flight by only four measly minutes would have been bad enough if it weren't a flight from JFK to Heathrow, New York to London, a last minute flight to her father's second wedding. Possibly late to her father's wedding (she doesn't want to attend) to a soon-to-be stepmother she's never met, Hadley is miserable.

Then she meets Oliver. Gorgeous, British Oliver who's also waiting for the next flight to London. He's even seat 18C to Hadley's 18A. Suddenly several hours spent in the airport - and then several more on a plane - might not be so horrible after all.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is possibly the only book that will make you wish you for an upcoming transatlantic flight just for the possibility of meeting your own Oliver and having an experience like the one in TSPoLaFS. Told over just twenty-four hours, Hadley and Oliver's story deal so well with fate and chance, of course, but also with familial relationships and love.

Hadley's relationship with her parents (her father especially) is also looked at in flashbacks that help explain how things go to where they are now. Some of the flashbacks are so good, so engrossing that it's easy to forget they're not the main story.

Any story that focuses on just a few characters in a confined setting (like an airport or airplane) for a sustained period of time runs the risk of feeling forced or running or the dialogue not working. Here, though, it's really fun. Hadley and Oliver talk about incredibly varied things which almost seem random but allow them - and readers - to learn about them, too.

It is nice that the whole book doesn't take place on the plane and allows the two to be separate for a while. We see how they affected each other, what they learned from each other (in their short few hours together) as well as how/what they think about the other when the other is not right there.

The Statistical Probability takes the beginning of a young couple's romance and shows you the first 24 hours. It doesn't smoosh and entire courtship into a single day, leaving them professing their undying love at the end . . . it keeps things realistic but also romantic. You feel the connection between Oliver and Hadley, that it's something more than just someone they met at the airport or some new friend or someone they'd like to call for a date.

The novel does an amazing job of keeping the spark between the characters obvious but without having anything rushed.

It will definitely have you feeling hopeful next time you're headed to the airport!

Rating: 9/10 ...more

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May 31, 2016 Nicki rated it really liked it

As my first Jennifer Smith book, I am very impressed. She did a fantastic job of creating a teenage love story in 48 hours that did not include swearing, sex, or inappropriate behavior. I am happy to say that I can easily recommend this book to my seventh and eighth grade students (probably girls) without worrying about the content. This was a quick and easy read that I found quite enjoyable! :) It will not be my last Jennifer Smith book.

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Feb 12, 2016 Ceri rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016

My low-spoons review of this book is:

⋅ the romance is sweet and really well played out, the characters have good chemistry
⋅ the writing is a little awkward and the characters not very fleshed out
⋅ but I really liked the reality of her anxiety and descriptions of situational depression surrounding her father leaving their family - they were realistic and it was comforting to read them and to me the underlying plot of her dealing with those feelings was the real charm in this book tbh.

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