Book Review: The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

18295852Genre: 

Young Adult, viagra 100mg  Contemporary

Pages: 

337

Part of a Series?:

No

Release Date: 

April 15th, and 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, illness on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they’re rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen’s relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and — finally — a reunion in the city where they first met.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith’s new novel shows that the center of the world isn’t necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

My Review:

Here’s the thing about me and my experiences with Jennifer E Smith. I’ve read everything up until this point and honestly, I just haven’t massively impressed so far. Its not that I think she’s a bad writer because I honestly don’t think she is. She’s a really good writer. But I just haven’t had a huge liking for her stories. They’re too cute, too unrealistic, too short. That’s not a bad thing, definitely not but its not to my taste. There are lots of people that are searching for those kind of stories so you should definitely pick up a Jennifer E Smith book. I just prefer my books with a bit more substance.

I will say this, though: I really liked this one. Its not mesmerizing and it won’t be a book that I’m constantly recommending to people but I thought that this was her strongest novel to date. I thought the story felt more real and I really cared more about these characters than I had in the past. They only met for a brief moment before being split apart and I genuinely wanted them to be together.

But here’s where things divert from in the past. Jennifer’s characters seem to always work out the right way, and it ends up happily wrapped up, with hope and all that but this book is so different and I think that’s why I like it. She really went realistic with this one. Two people, who spent a lot of time together, who obviously left a mark on each other, are separated and yet, they continue to live their lives. They see other people, they have fun, they live without each other. Sure, they think of each other, write each other, they’re always sort of in the back of each other’s minds but they continue to have lives and that’s what makes it beautiful. That we don’t stop living for others, but we keep going, even when they’re there in the back of your mind. I love that.

And I love that each and every interaction they have with each other is beautiful and realistic and it still makes you want to root for them, from beginning to end. You know its cheesy and a tad bit unrealistic that these two could ever really make it work but you want them to anyway and I think that’s a great thing. That’s the first time that Jennifer has really made me root for someone in her book and I was glad for that.

I have hope for, in the future, that she will write something that I truly love but for now, I’m really satisfied with this one and I honestly think that this book was very fun, and very cute and I hope to see more of Jennifer in the future. Never give up on an author, you never know what they’ll produce in the future.

Rating:

3.75 out of 5 Stars

December Book Wrap Up!

Books Pledged to Read in 2013: 200 Books

Did I Reach My Goal: Yes!

How Many Total Books Read: 203

Total Books For December: 20

Remember to click on the book title for the review. If there is no link, buy information pills there is no review. I got really lazy in reviewing toward the end of the month haha.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

9460487

Teen Idol by Meg Cabot (Re-Read)

637357

Nicola and the Viscount by Meg Cabot (Re-Read)

1198043

Something Blue by Emily Giffin (Re-Read)

42155

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead

8900186

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

8181181

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

9797582

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

13576132

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead 

8709527

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

8709523

The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

8709526

The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

9833184

Fan Art by Sarah Tregay

17924987

My Life Next Door by Huntley FItzpatrick

12294652-1

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

10798416

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith 

15790873

Penguin in Love by Salina Yoon

This totally counts. My boyfriend got this for me for Christmas, pills because I’m obsessed with penguins and we’re in love, pharm duh! And he also got me this behind-the-scenes experience with penguins, so it all makes sense. And it counts

17287023

What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything by Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan

17334066

The Last Stand of the New York Institute by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson 

17334061

Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

Kami Garcia/Unbreakable

*      *      *      *      *

So that was 2013 folks! Stick with me in the new year, as I delve into even more books!

How did you do on your own GoodReads challenge? Share in the comments!

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight Book Review

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

10798416

 

 

 

You Can Find the Books At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

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. Having missed her flight, remedy she’s stuck at JFK airport and late to her father’s second wedding, troche which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother 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 sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver’s story will make you believe that true love finds you when you’re least expecting it.

My Review:

I thought this was a super cute book, but it lacked a lot in actual substance. It happened incredibly fast to me, and I was hoping for more build up, maybe, more of a deeper story than the one that was told. We only really seemed to skim the surface of both of these characters and it just felt too superficial.

The thing that I really liked about this story was the actual story of it. I felt like there was so much potential in it. It reminded me of Gayle Forman’s Just One Day, the idea that a short amount of time with a person can change you, and can bond you to someone. That is what happened with Allyson and Willem in Just One Day and it was a beautiful story. I thought the story between Hadley and Oliver on the plane trip to London could have been the same. They had hours upon hours to get to know each other, and then there could have been this race through England to see if they could find each other again. It really lays the groundwork for a wonderful, exciting and sweet story.

Unfortunately, I feel like it fell incredibly flat. It was too rushed! If the story had been slowed down a bit, where you really got to know the two characters, maybe as they got to know each other in the airport and then found themselves next to each other on the plane, and built up their relationship, then their separation at the airport would have meant so much more. I also felt like the path to them finding each other in London would have worked a lot better if it had been more tension filled, harder than it was. I didn’t feel like I really knew the characters.

When it comes to the characters, I also felt like both Hadley and Oliver were very one dimensional. Hadley was on her way to attend her father’s wedding to another a woman, a woman who, though it isn’t said, probably broke up her parents’ marriage. Oliver has a difficult relationship with his father. These are not superficial problems, and in fact, I can find so many different literary characters that have these sort of issues. However, because things are delved into as much, it just fell flat to me. It felt too cliche, too “been there-done that”. I think that we honestly tell the same stories over and over again, but in our own voices and Jennifer struggled a little with that, I think.

I do think it was a cute story, and I think with maybe an extra 50 pages, it could have been filled out a bit more, and I could have connected to the characters a little more. Before I started to write out the review, I had to remind myself of what their names were. I really loved the premise of the story, and I think that with a little more detail of the journey and of the characters, it would have had a larger impact for me.

My Rating:

3 out of 5 stars