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

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

I'd sort of forgotten about how simultaneously fast and slow life can be when you're 17 and in love, and this book was a useful reminder.

Hadley Sullivan is late to the plane that will take her across the Atlantic to London where she's supposed to be a bridesmaid in her father's wedding to a woman she's never met. This story is the twenty-four hours or so of meeting a pretty English boy called Oliver in the airport and talking on the plane. It's one of those relationships that develops very fast, under extraordinary circumstances, and there's a sort of honest sweetness to the whole thing.

I've always liked stories that develop when you trap travelling characters in a small space; cars and trains and boats and planes. An airplane over the Atlantic is one of the liminal spaces of the modern era, and the conversations between Hadley and Oliver there are sweet and funny. The hazy surreality that comes with sleep-deprived air travel and emotional family drama makes the few "romantic comedy" moments seem plausible. The main characters and the small supporting cast are painted in broad strokes, but they are believable and likable.

The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight is half love story, half family drama; fans of either will enjoy it.