The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

"That's the thing about flying: You could talk to someone for hours and never even know his name, share your deepest secrets and then never see him again."I adored The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight when I first read it a couple years ago. I actually read it while flying, which was a cute (and appropriate) tie-in to the book. (No, sadly I did not meet an Oliver on my plane.) I breezed through it the first time, finishing it before my plane landed. It was sweet and uncomplicated, but extremely well written. I highlighted roughly 25% of the book because I loved the words that much. I decided to re-read it in audiobook format this year because ... well, because I liked it so much and I wanted to. :) It's quite possible I loved this book even more the second time around. After reading several angsty, super emotional books, I found it light and charming. It had some emotional moments, but nothing too heavy. How much do I adore this book? Well, I own it in paperback, eBook and audiobook formats. That should tell you something. :)"I hate airports.""Really?" Oliver says. "I love them."She's convinced for a moment, that he's still teasing her, but then realizes he's serious."I like how you're neither here not there. And how there's nowhere else you're meant to be while waiting. You're just sort of... suspended."As someone who pretty much detests everything about flying, I found myself understanding Hadley very well. I could totally relate to her. It's hard to pinpoint what my least favorite thing about flying is, but it's something between the hurry up and wait, the all but stripping down to go through security and the actual act of being trapped in a tiny, airborne space for hours. (Doesn't even matter how large the plane is. I still feel trapped.) But I enjoyed reading Oliver's thoughts about flying. I wish I could think more like him when I needed to fly somewhere for work. I don't fly for "fun.""There's no real distinction between last night and this morning, of course – just dark bleeding into light – but even so, everything feels horribly different.""She wishes they could turn around and fly back in the other direction, circling the globe backwards, chasing the night they left behind.""Because that's what you do on planes. You share an armrest with someone for a few hours. You exchange stories about your life, an amusing anecdote or two, maybe even a joke. You comment on the weather and remark about the terrible food. You listen to him snore. And then you say good-bye."I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love when books put two characters together for a pre-determined amount of time, whether it's that they're stuck somewhere, on a road trip or just thrown together for a project or assignment. This is actually the book that started my love of that plot device. I loved how Hadley and Oliver met and how they connected during their time together on the plane to London. You can learn a lot about a person when you have nowhere else to go and that's exactly what they did here. I was sad to see them get off the plane and go their own separate ways. They were just so darn cute together."Love is the strangest, most illogical thing in the world."There's actually more emphasis on family in this book than romance. Hadley's on her way to her father's wedding. Oliver is on his way to... something family-related. Neither of them is particularly excited to be going either. When they depart them plane and go their separate ways, we only keep up with Hadley as she attempts to come to terms with her father being remarried to a woman she's just meeting for the first time. She's out of place and feels unwanted. Her relationship with her father is strained, for obvious reasons. She finds herself thinking more and more about Oliver and wondering if she'll see him again.If you are a fan of young adult contemporary books and you've not yet read this book, I urge you to pick it up. Hadley is a realistic and likable character. I found her easy to relate to, even though she's quite a bit younger than me. Oliver was completely charming. Who doesn't love a sweet and slightly mysterious guy with a British accent? It's a sweet little book with a bunch of feels. I love that the major theme of the book is how timing can affect your life. I'm a big believer that everything happens for a reason and I love how this book illustrates that.And just remember:"People who meet in airports are seventy-two percent more likely to fall for each other than people who meet anywhere else.";)The audiobook version of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight was well-performed. The actress was believable as Hadley and I thought the story flowed well through her voice. At just a little over five hours long, this is a relatively quick audiobook read as well.I'm reviewing the audiobook format, but I also received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So this review is serving a dual purpose. All quotes are from the FINAL VERSION of the book, not the galley copy.

This was a sweet young adult romance, that was really more than a young adult romance. Hadley is four minutes late for a plane that is meant to take her to London to attend the second wedding of her father and a Brit who Hadley has never met. Hadley is very unhappy about this trip, and the inconvenience of catching a later flight that will make her cut it close in her arrival to the wedding does not make her any happier. But things start looking up when she meets a young man from the UK who is returning home on the same flight as her. After finding that they are seated next to each other for the seven hour flight, the two strike up a fairly easy friendship. One thing leads to another. There's a sudden kiss. And then they separate, as most people do who meet on a plane. Will they end up back together at some point after sharing such a meaningful flight? What are the chances of that?When I picked this book up I expected a common sort of young adult romance book. Two people meet. Connections are made. There might be some sort of bump in the road. But they find their happily ever after. That was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something light and predictable. This is light, and it is predictable, but it didn't really fall neatly into my preconceived notions for the book. Although the romance between Hadley and Oliver is central to the plot of this book, in reality this is a book that is more about Hadley coming to terms with the broken marriage of her parents. She seemed to think that she had a fairly typical and happy family, until her father took a four month position at Oxford and left the family. In the middle of that job he called home to break things off with Hadley's mother, destroying that world Hadley thought existed around her. Now he is marrying a new woman, and Hadley cannot really come to terms with the new role that her father plays in her life. But it isn't just her father, it is the changes in her relationship with her mother that affect Hadley as well. Through the course of this book Hadley works through those feelings that have been building up in her since the day her father separated from her mother. Throughout the book Hadley remembers past events in her life that have led her to this plane trip, so although this is a story of the developing relationship between Hadley and Oliver, this is also a story of Hadley moving on to a new life with new family dynamics.I did enjoy Oliver and Hadley's interactions. It was interesting that there were not really any swoon-worthy romantic moments like I come to expect in these sorts of books. There was easy banter between the two of them, equal parts natural ease and slight discomfort that you might find as you open up to someone who was a complete stranger a few short hours earlier. Things progressed at what seemed to be a natural pace. Despite the title of the book, this didn't really come across as a love at first sight sort of connection. But it was still a sweet beginning to what could easily turn to love eventually. While I expected this book to be more about the two of them specifically, what I found was a situation where the two of them interacted nicely in between moments when Hadley remembered previous events of her life while she worked through her feelings for the situation of her father's marriage. This was not a seven hour flight of non-stop talking. They each took time to nap and think to themselves. I expected a bit more interaction between them. But there was just enough that I could feel a blossoming connection and hoped that this relationship wouldn't end at the landing of this plane.The plane ride ends at the halfway point in the book. As a reader I was freaking out, wondering why these two people who had just shared such a wonderful flight together wouldn't have exchanged personal information in case they wanted to get in touch later. Why didn't they do that? They seemed to get along wonderfully, but at such a busy airport why did they depend on being able to meet up after the craziness of customs? That scene had me biting my nails and then suffering the total anxiety of being in a huge crowd, looking deperately for someone without success. My insides were twisted in knots.But this is a contemporary romance, so I had complete faith that all would be well. I had an idea in my head how it would take place, and things didn't go down at all how I had imagined. However, that only added to my anticipation and enjoyment as I read. It was a very satisfying end to a wonderful story. I almost wished for an epilogue to see where they were in the future. But even without a bonus like that I was still pleased to see the happily ever after for this book. It was sweet. It was real. I loved it.This was an easy and quick book to read. I was able to finish it in a day. But I have to say that I almost read it too quickly. I was so interested in getting to the resolution of the dilemma that I didn't take enough time to enjoy the scenery as I passed by. I will definitely be reading this book again in the future, this time taking a bit more time as I read so that I can allow the total sweetness of this book to really sink in. This is an excellent book for teens and adults that I highly recommend.