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

Hadley Sullivan, an American girl living with her Mum in America and on her way to for a weekend of hell, her Dad’s wedding with his new fiancée in England.
Ever since Hadley’s Dad had left herself and her Mum she has had a rocky relationship with him but after weeks of persuasion she finally agrees to go to the ceremony. However she is four minutes late and by chance she meets Oliver, a handsome, witty, British boy who has his own reasons for travelling to England.
This is the story of their journey to England as they uncover each others’ reasons for their journey and their feelings for each other.

First of all, this is not my type of book, I personally try to avoid any romance books wherever possible so this book was already doing quite well to be in my hands and being read.

I thought the characters were very plausible and their different personalities and clashing opinions were really well written in the book and constant throughout.
I think Hadley was the sort of person that you could really empathise with and I found that I would have reacted in a similar sort of way to her Dad if I had been in her situation.
There was a good range of characters in the book however I personally thought that Oliver may have been a bit more upset on the plane journey throughout instead of just when a direct question was asked about his parents.

I found the plot very readable and there was always enough to make me want to keep reading meaning it wasn’t a struggle to persevere to the end like it is with some books. I thought it was very well planned and although I find it hard to believe that Hadley would have been able to find Oliver at the church at all I don’t think it took much away from the story.
The only complaint I’d have with the plot was the fact that there seemed to be endless flashbacks after they had got off the plane and I found that I could skip whole pages without it taking much away from the story, I think it would have been better if they were a bit more evenly spread out in the book so we can gradually learn more about the characters like that.

I thought it was written really, really well. Smith got across the characters personalities and feelings perfectly and it the romantic bits were good because they were neither over the top or boring.

I also found this story makes the reader think about several different issues and shows how they can affect people and what people do about them in real life, such as: love, divorce, the importance of marriage and family and, again, I found myself emphasising a lot.

Overall, although this isn’t ‘my sort of book’ I can see exactly why many people would love it and I don’t regret reading it. The plot was in some ways predictable but I think there was always enough to keep the reader hooked.
I think Smith perfectly demonstrated how well she can write and I would be very tempted to read any other of her books in the future.

Nathan Dumpleton, Year 9