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

4.0

This book’s title is almost longer than its text – or maybe I just felt that the book was too short. Yup, that’s probably it! I think I fell for this one mainly because of the cute cover (it was, hum, love at first sight!), but I have to say, what’s under said cover did deliver an adorable story.

I was really impressed by how dimensional the characters were for such a short novel. Hadley especially was well written and I felt like, in that one single day, I got to know her more than some characters from other books with whom I have spent much more time. And while it was really cute to watch her fall in love, it’s her family’s story that really got to me.

By itself, it’s nothing special really; her parents got divorced over a year ago, and now she gets to watch her father get remarried to a woman she has never met. But rather than being portrayed as a complete brat about it, like I have so often seen in other YA novels, Hadley is portrayed as a normal teenager. She’s not perfect, and dealing with both anger and sadness is hard for her; but she also loves her parents and this is what I felt the most through the pages. Her desire to have her “normal” life back, while knowing that she can’t, really broke my heart.

That said, Oliver looked like he was a great catch. He was certainly fun as a secondary character, and while he had a personality of his own, he never stole Hadley’s spotlight. He completed her well and I loved how they could talk about little things and tease each other easily from the beginning. You could sense that it was not only romance, but friendship that was developing between them.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight was a really good book that surprised me by having more depth than I expected it to. Easily read in one sitting, this little book warmed my heart – and I hope it will warm yours too!