The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight: A Review

This is gonna be the first book review I'm gonna post ever (which is the whole actual point of why I made this blog in the first place) and I swear this won't be the last.

So for my ^^long weekend, I decided to spend my time reading The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. It's been sitting on my goodreads' to-read list and I'm gonna have to say this was actually a very good book to start my yet again continuous reading of books after three weeks of not having anything to read.

(summary and review under the break; might contain minor to major spoilers)

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is a twenty-four hour duration story about a girl named Hadley who is headed to London to attend her father's wedding. Now on the way to the airport, she had arrived missing her flight by four minutes. And there, she meets a British boy named Oliver who helps her dragging her suitcase around and coincidentally is also on his way to London. They, apparently, are boarded in the same flight as well so they (wordlessly) decide to stick around with each other. From there, in a very short span of time, Hadley and Oliver's relationship progresses.

This book is actually more like a story of fate and coincidences. The start of it (the first chapter) went real slow for me which kind of bored me so much, because it just included Hadley describing the airport and the feeling of travelling alone for the first time and stuff. Though I'm gonna have to say the prologue was very interesting and that is the thing that had stuck in me for the whole time I was reading. It was just so intriguing it plucked my heartstrings out and made me feel really hopeful and remotely interested in the novel already. And to say that that's just the prologue... 

Now, let me give you reasons as to why I liked it:

• I liked the way the whole thing was narrated. I love how simple and complicated it was all at once. You know, the story's setting was very normal and was pretty much contained in a very small world-- considering the fact that it was set for only a day, but I loved how the author weaved the details very delicately. It felt like in a day, we have learned so much about a lot of things. It seemed like it ran forever. Like the whole story could've been running for months. That's why every now and then I had to remind myself that all the things that happened in this story ran out for just a day. Exactly twenty-four hours. This is the second book I've read which ran for just about a day. (If I Stay by Gayle Forman being the first one) And I'm gonna have to say this is a really cool thing.
• I loved how the author made it seem long and complicated. I actually finished this in a day as well. So I really felt like going through that one-day roller coaster with Hadley. The whole experience was amazing. Because while you go through it, you're certainly in for a wild ride. It made me smile, laugh, shed a tear, giggle and it made my heart flutter numerous times.
• I have even no idea why, but this book kind of have made a connection with me. Especially the parents part. For a certain reason, the part where Dad told Hadley that it's "Time to consult the elephant" made me cry a little. Maybe because the relationship they have was very nostalgic and intimate at the same time which kind of poked me because I'm not much close with my dad and that part made me rethink a lot of my life choices.
• I loved how cheesy and cheeky it can get a lot of times. Normally, I would've hated it. I'm not the biggest fan of cheesy things; but when it came to this book, I didn't mind it at all. In fact it's one of the reasons why I liked this book so much. The author gave us the amount of cheesiness that doesn't go too far to the point where it's just too sweezy-weezy you want to throw the book away.
• It was family-oriented in a way. By this, I mean that the whole plot of the story wasn't just all romance and cheesy sleazes. It also would teach you so much about family. Personally, this book taught me to cherish my family and treasure them while I can. Because the main characters, Hadley and Oliver, both have different sorts of family problem. Although it led into two paths: one was able to fix it, and was just stood there regretting what they had and had not done.I also liked how we learn with Hadley herself. She was very much pained by the fact that her Dad was marrying a woman she barely knew and throughout the story, she learns how to accept and understand the reasons as to why such happened.*
• The characters. I liked it how throughout the story, we learned so much about Hadley. How her memories of her used-to-be complete and perfect family made us see so much not just of her but with her Mom and Dad as well. Also, Oliver. He was the kind of character that you want to smother with a lot of showered feelings at the same time. There's just something about him that I found very cute and charming at the same time. I liked how cheeky, intellectual, secretive and honest he was at the same time. He's like a door, just slightly ajar, wherein you can see through him, but there are a lot of other things hidden behind the door. I liked their relationship with each other. It was like they've known each other even before the story took place. They were open with each other in a sense that you're kind of forgetting that they just met.
• The plot. The events in this novel are very much interesting. It's just destiny. They (the events) just keep on chasing and running into each other. It's like they're trying everything to make the both sides of the story clash with the other. I cannot even describe the whole thing, it's just fate and destiny. The whole sense of the story runs under those two words. I don't know, it's just magic. And I loved that.

Let me just spoil you out a bit:

“I can't believe you're here," she says, her voice soft. "I can't believe you found me."

"You found me first," he says, and when he leans to kiss her, it's slow and sweet and she knows that this will be the one she always remembers. Because while the other two kisses felt like endings, this one is unquestionably a beginning.

If I were to rate this novel, I'd give it five stars. Because the whole experience of reading it was beyond amazing. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is probably going to stick to me in a very long time and I am most likely to recommend this to my friends.

I suggest you read it too.

'Til next time.

:-)

*that bullet was added and edited (21/8/13)
^^I am on a long weekend because my country's currently experiencing a very strong storm which affected a lot of us and are currently in the process of patching up the holes it had drilled. Please pray for my fellow Filipinos' fast recovery. We can do this guys! :-) #PrayForThePhilippines