The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Now a NETFLIX feature film starring Haley Lu Richardson!
Timing is everything in this romantic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver find that true love can be found in unexpected places.
Today should be one of the worst days of Hadley Sullivan's life. Having just missed her flight, she's stuck at the airport and late to her father's wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she happens upon 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?
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Community Reviews
I loved the character arch and the unique idea and pace. The humor provided by Oliver was a good combination with Hadley's intensity. I felt very connected to Hadley even though I've never been through that. The imagery throughout the book is stunning, and I loved the attention to vocabulary.
Pacing: This book is a fast read. The entire story takes place over a course of twenty-four hours and each scene offers up important information or well-designed character interaction. These allow for an engaging story that can’t easily be put down.
World: The world is not well developed in this book. There are names of locations within the real world. Yet none of the scenes are given enough detail to truly envision them. Still, because of the style of book and emphasis on character interactions, the world-building isn’t necessary and would add as more of a distraction than an input.
Writing: The writing has the style of an inner monologue. It brings to focus the little things, the things a teenager would think about, which adds a unique voice to the story. This adds a very realistic quality to the writing style, making it easy for a reader to connect.
Character: The main character, Hadley Sullivan, is a moody seventeen-year-old. She thinks the world is ending. She reacts with angst, too much angst. She overreacts and becomes one of the most annoying teenagers in young adult literature. Even when she speaks with upbeat, cheerful Oliver, she snaps back with anger and sarcasm. It’s rather annoying, even if realistic.
Non-Spoilered Plot: Hadley Sullivan believes her world is ending when her mother forces her to go to her father’s wedding in London. Yet, fate has a way of changing even the worst of scenarios. All it takes is a few ill-timed events and a chance meeting with a handsome stranger for Hadley to realize she may not fully understand the world yet at her young age of seventeen.
Plot: The main plot of this book is rebirth of Hadley Sullivan, a seventeen-year-old with divorced parents. While she was devastated when she found out about their divorce, she believes the world is ending entirely when her father invites her to his wedding. In fact, it takes quite a bit of strong-arming on her mother’s part to get her to go to it at all, but Hadley does so grudgingly.
She spends half the book complaining about her father and his wedding and the future stepmother she’s never met and how much of a witch she must be. The other half is spent wallowing in self-pity because she’s being forced to endure a claustrophobic plane ride across the Atlantic. This charade of teenage angst continues even in the presence of others, no matter how handsome.
Nothing can seem to cheer her up, at least not fully. No matter how hard Oliver tries to distract her from her claustrophobia and her self-pity and her wallowing, she doesn’t give in. She keeps slipping back into that state and it’s rather annoying and pathetic. It isn’t until much later, when she realizes that he was putting on a brave face despite going to his father’s funeral that she realizes how childish and selfish she’s been.
It’s this twist of fate that helps Hadley to realize that life is short. It wasn’t her father’s fault for falling in love with another woman because love is an illogical, unpredictable thing, as Hadley is now figuring out for herself. It’s because of her chance encounter with Oliver and the feelings she’s developing for him that she realizes she can’t blame her father for everything and she can’t keep punishing him by running away.
Hadley should be happy with the time she’s been given and must take full advantage of it, even if it means spending time with her new stepmother, who happens to not be as bad as she imagined her to be. (Again, more teenagish thought patterns of making their lives seem ten times worse than they actually are and not wanting to give into reality when it slaps them in the face.)
In the end, Hadley realizes how foolish, childish, and selfish she’s been,. This allows her to make the changes required to become a better person and make use of the valuable time she has with the ones she loved: the new ones and the old ones. It’s for this reason that I leave my rating of this book, ‘The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight’, at five stars.
World: The world is not well developed in this book. There are names of locations within the real world. Yet none of the scenes are given enough detail to truly envision them. Still, because of the style of book and emphasis on character interactions, the world-building isn’t necessary and would add as more of a distraction than an input.
Writing: The writing has the style of an inner monologue. It brings to focus the little things, the things a teenager would think about, which adds a unique voice to the story. This adds a very realistic quality to the writing style, making it easy for a reader to connect.
Character: The main character, Hadley Sullivan, is a moody seventeen-year-old. She thinks the world is ending. She reacts with angst, too much angst. She overreacts and becomes one of the most annoying teenagers in young adult literature. Even when she speaks with upbeat, cheerful Oliver, she snaps back with anger and sarcasm. It’s rather annoying, even if realistic.
Non-Spoilered Plot: Hadley Sullivan believes her world is ending when her mother forces her to go to her father’s wedding in London. Yet, fate has a way of changing even the worst of scenarios. All it takes is a few ill-timed events and a chance meeting with a handsome stranger for Hadley to realize she may not fully understand the world yet at her young age of seventeen.
Plot: The main plot of this book is rebirth of Hadley Sullivan, a seventeen-year-old with divorced parents. While she was devastated when she found out about their divorce, she believes the world is ending entirely when her father invites her to his wedding. In fact, it takes quite a bit of strong-arming on her mother’s part to get her to go to it at all, but Hadley does so grudgingly.
She spends half the book complaining about her father and his wedding and the future stepmother she’s never met and how much of a witch she must be. The other half is spent wallowing in self-pity because she’s being forced to endure a claustrophobic plane ride across the Atlantic. This charade of teenage angst continues even in the presence of others, no matter how handsome.
Nothing can seem to cheer her up, at least not fully. No matter how hard Oliver tries to distract her from her claustrophobia and her self-pity and her wallowing, she doesn’t give in. She keeps slipping back into that state and it’s rather annoying and pathetic. It isn’t until much later, when she realizes that he was putting on a brave face despite going to his father’s funeral that she realizes how childish and selfish she’s been.
It’s this twist of fate that helps Hadley to realize that life is short. It wasn’t her father’s fault for falling in love with another woman because love is an illogical, unpredictable thing, as Hadley is now figuring out for herself. It’s because of her chance encounter with Oliver and the feelings she’s developing for him that she realizes she can’t blame her father for everything and she can’t keep punishing him by running away.
Hadley should be happy with the time she’s been given and must take full advantage of it, even if it means spending time with her new stepmother, who happens to not be as bad as she imagined her to be. (Again, more teenagish thought patterns of making their lives seem ten times worse than they actually are and not wanting to give into reality when it slaps them in the face.)
In the end, Hadley realizes how foolish, childish, and selfish she’s been,. This allows her to make the changes required to become a better person and make use of the valuable time she has with the ones she loved: the new ones and the old ones. It’s for this reason that I leave my rating of this book, ‘The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight’, at five stars.
I had no idea before reading this book that I was in the mood for a quick, light young adult story. It's been awhile since I had read something like that, months in fact, so this came as quite the surprise when I ended up liking it. Going in, I wasn't entirely sure I'd want to actually read it-not because it's bad or anything-but because I've been in a weird almost-book-slump-slump and it's annoying.
“Love is the strangest, most illogical thing in the world.”
Synopsis:
This story follows our main character, Hadley, as she goes through the ups and downs of having divorced parents. She's trying to get to her father's wedding when she misses her flight, and at first it nothing but a nightmare-a welcomed one, almost. She doesn't care for this wedding and would rather skip it all-together, but thanks to the constant pushing from her mom, she's stuck waiting at the airport until the next flight to London is ready. This is where she runs into Oliver, a charming young man who is quick to make her worry less and maybe-possibly-develop a crush over.
The Good:
I loved this story far more than I wouldn't have thought possible. I wasn't going in with high expectations, I never do with YA. It took 2 or 3 chapters before it really caught my attention, and after that, I couldn't set it down. I finish it in two hours (not a hard feat, considering it's short), but I haven't done that in so long, it felt good.
“It's one thing to run away when someone's chasing you. It's entirely another to be running all alone.”
Hadley is adorable. She's down to earth, and is realistic. She's a teenager who is devastated and confused over her parents divorcing, she's not happy about her dad re-marrying, and isn't sure how she feels about the boy who's wriggled his way on her radar. Sometimes when characters face real problems, it can get annoying. They'll go overboard and sound too whiny, bratty, and even selfish, but Hadley was real about it. I felt her pain and confusion, and had a need for her to learn what she needed to.
Oliver is adorable. I love how chill and funny he is, especially helping Hadley with her claustrophobia during the long plane ride. He came off a bit mysterious and not forth coming, but it all made sense and I really liked that part about him. It was a short story, but we didn't learn everything up front.
I love how short this story is and how it feels long at the same time. It was light and airy, but with a depth that kept me enthralled. It's hard to find those kinds of books, and maybe this isn't small compared to some peoples opinion but it was too me.
“There’s always a gap between the burn and the sting of it, the pain and the realization.”
The Bad:
To believe it or not (I'm still wowed) I have nothing bad to say about this. The writing was suburb, the characters were well written and thought out. It felt realistic with the situation Hadley was in. Still, I feel like something was missing, which is why it has 4 stars instead of 5.
This really was a light, sweet read. If you're looking for something like that with some depth, you've found the right book. Let me know if you plan on reading it, or if you have, what did you think?
“Love is the strangest, most illogical thing in the world.”
Synopsis:
This story follows our main character, Hadley, as she goes through the ups and downs of having divorced parents. She's trying to get to her father's wedding when she misses her flight, and at first it nothing but a nightmare-a welcomed one, almost. She doesn't care for this wedding and would rather skip it all-together, but thanks to the constant pushing from her mom, she's stuck waiting at the airport until the next flight to London is ready. This is where she runs into Oliver, a charming young man who is quick to make her worry less and maybe-possibly-develop a crush over.
The Good:
I loved this story far more than I wouldn't have thought possible. I wasn't going in with high expectations, I never do with YA. It took 2 or 3 chapters before it really caught my attention, and after that, I couldn't set it down. I finish it in two hours (not a hard feat, considering it's short), but I haven't done that in so long, it felt good.
“It's one thing to run away when someone's chasing you. It's entirely another to be running all alone.”
Hadley is adorable. She's down to earth, and is realistic. She's a teenager who is devastated and confused over her parents divorcing, she's not happy about her dad re-marrying, and isn't sure how she feels about the boy who's wriggled his way on her radar. Sometimes when characters face real problems, it can get annoying. They'll go overboard and sound too whiny, bratty, and even selfish, but Hadley was real about it. I felt her pain and confusion, and had a need for her to learn what she needed to.
Oliver is adorable. I love how chill and funny he is, especially helping Hadley with her claustrophobia during the long plane ride. He came off a bit mysterious and not forth coming, but it all made sense and I really liked that part about him. It was a short story, but we didn't learn everything up front.
I love how short this story is and how it feels long at the same time. It was light and airy, but with a depth that kept me enthralled. It's hard to find those kinds of books, and maybe this isn't small compared to some peoples opinion but it was too me.
“There’s always a gap between the burn and the sting of it, the pain and the realization.”
The Bad:
To believe it or not (I'm still wowed) I have nothing bad to say about this. The writing was suburb, the characters were well written and thought out. It felt realistic with the situation Hadley was in. Still, I feel like something was missing, which is why it has 4 stars instead of 5.
This really was a light, sweet read. If you're looking for something like that with some depth, you've found the right book. Let me know if you plan on reading it, or if you have, what did you think?
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