Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18B. Hadley's in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

I really liked this story a lot and read it in less then two hours.  I found myself immersed in the story completely and really had no desire to put it down.  And while I really really liked it I realized once I was finished that this could have turned out to be an absolute favorite that I would have raved on and on about.  But for some reason it fell just short of that.  It's kind of hard to pinpoint what exactly made it not quite amazing, but I think because of the third person past tense and the jumping around into memories I didn't connect as well with Hadley and her story.  I did like the story that was told and liked that her father and her issues with him getting remarried were so important, and I do think that we needed some back story, but it just messed up the flow for me with the way it was done.  

This was not total fluff.  Yeah, it's a romance, and a very sweet one at that, but I kind of felt like the love story was almost a backseat to the issues that Hadley is dealing with.  And I think I wanted more of the connection between Hadley and Oliver to be there.  But even still this was an adorable story with some deeper messages and an amazing blossoming romance.  And even though Hadley isn't the most like-able character in the beginning we really see her grow in the 24 hours that the book takes place and her growth in the book makes it okay that she's not so wonderful to start with.   

Now keep in mind that even though I pointed out some negatives for me I still loved this book.  It really had potential to be a favorite and just didn't quite get there for me, but it was still absolutely wonderful and I very highly recommend it if it sounds like your thing.

4/5