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

Title : The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Author : Jennifer E. Smith
Genre : YA Contemporary
Publisher : Poppy
Release Date : January 2nd, 2012

GOODREADS | PURCHASE

Four minutes changes everything. Hadley Sullivan 17 misses her flight at JFK airport, is late to her father's second wedding in London with never-met stepmother. Hadley meets the perfect boy. Oliver is British, sits in her row. A long night on the plane passes in a blink, but the two lose track in arrival chaos. Can fate bring them together again?

At first, I kinda try to "stay away" from this book because the title basically screams insta-love, and so I choose to read Smith's other books, This Is What Happy Looks Like. But then, someone recommend it to me, so try to read it, and turns out it better than I've expected and Smith really did a great job in "hiding" the insta-love.

The events in this book occur within 24 hours. The main characters--Hadley Sullivan--is 4 minutes late for her flight to London to attend his dad's wedding, so she was placed in the next flight. In that flight, she met Oliver. Personally, I think Hadley is that type of girl who's pretty shy when talking to a strangers, but became talkative when talking with a friend. Also, she's brave--attend your dad's wedding isn't easy. If it's me I wouldn't come, no matter what. In the other hand, Oliver is very talkative with everyone. He's pretty similar with Will Herondale from The Infernal Devices--British, cocky, always grinning, and a little mysterious. He's a likeable character.

Like I said, Smith does a great job in "hiding" the insta-love. It doesn't even feel like insta-love. Hadley and Oliver are talking about everything throughout the flight, like an old friend, so sometimes I even forgot that they'd just met. Also, they're so adorable together--Oliver with his never-ending and ridiculous stories and Hadley with her sarcastic reply. I found myself grinning and laughing everytime they interacts.

Then why 3.5 stars if I like it? There are 2 things that I didn't really like. The first would be Hadley's dad. He went to England because his job--and if I recall it correctly, it's Hadley's mom who encourage him to go--but fell in love with a woman there. It makes me so mad, like, how could he just leave his family? Even though his confession to Hadley near the end of the book made me sobs a little, I still didn't really like him. The second thing would be the writing-style. There's a lot of flashbacks in this book. It's actually important for the story so we could understand it better, but I'm not really comfortable with it.

Anyway, despite my minor problems, this book is great. If you haven't read this book because afraid of the insta-love, don't worry, you won't even feel it!