The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight -- Jennifer E. Smith
This time last year, I wrote about a couple of contemporary romances—Anna and the French Kiss and The Big Crunch—that weren't really at all alike other than that they were both, you know, contemporary romances, and they both made me swoon all over the place. I decided that it should become a tradition, because dammit, Maine winters require escape, preferably of the smoochy sort. So I was quite happy to find The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.
And yay you, Jennifer E. Smith, because it totally worked. Escape city. It's a sweet little book, and now, just looking at the cover makes me smile.
Hadley Sullivan doesn't want to go to her father's wedding. He is, after all, marrying the woman—That British Woman, as Hadley calls her—that brought about the end of her parents' marriage. And she certainly doesn't want to be a bridesmaid. But here she is anyway, at the stupid airport with her stupid bridesmaid's dress.
She really, truly, didn't mean to miss her plane.
But miss it she did, and good thing for us (and her) that she did, because if she hadn't, she'd have never met Oliver.
OH MY GOD. It's a quick, easy-going read, and just (as I said) so sweet. They're both lovely people without being completely perfect, and it's clear from minute one that they complement each other, and that they Belong Together.
That isn't all it's about, of course. The romance is front and center, but Hadley's family relationships—with her father, her mother, and her father's as-yet-unknown-to-her new wife*—also figure in heavily. It was always clear how much they cared about each other, and how unhappy they were with the rifts between them. Also, even though the book takes place over only 24 hours, it still feels like the fractured relationship between Hadley and her father heals tentatively and slowly, so that was especially well done.
It has a great sense of place, in that I always felt like I was right there with Hadley: in the airport, on the plane, in the bathroom being done over by the other bridesmaids, crossing London, at the reception. The characters aren't all super-hip like the crew in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, but the up-all-night-falling-in-love vibe is similar. If I'd been in a more jaded frame of mind, the fate-is-real storyline might not have worked for me so well, but as it was, it did.
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*Who ends up being, like, the best stepmother ever. So perfect that she might be a little bit too perfect, but whatever. I don't care. I loved her anyway.
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Book source: ILLed through my library.