The Geography of You and Me

What to say? I am a huge fan of this author, I would even go so far as to say that she is my favorite contemporary author and I just loved and adored this book just as much as I did her others and cannot wait for more from her. This book centers around two characters, Owen and Lucy, who after meeting one night in an elevator in the middle of a city wide black out move hundreds of miles away from each other, they both felt something that night but before they have a chance to understand what they are separated by vast distances. The book is told between the two characters POVs as they each go on their own adventures still somehow connected and defined by that one night that they spent looking at the stars. While they make half hearted attempts to keep in touch each one is afraid that the night meant nothing to the other and is afraid of being rejected and so they live their own lives and yet somehow they always come back to that one night, to the boy and girl stuck in an elevator. That night they asked each other the question if they could go anywhere in the world where would it be? For Owen it's everywhere and for Lucy somewhere, and that's what they do, traveling further and further apart and still always drawn to each other and that is how the story goes. I felt that this book was fairly realistic, I don't thins it was so much about a long distance relationship as kinda the absence of one. There was post cards and unanswered emails, but no promises to each other and for the most part no communication at all, it was more about how that one night changed them and stuck with them through everything. How one chance encounter in the middle of a blackout affected their lives, how even though they didn't talk for months and even though they really only knew each other for a handful of hours they still dreamed that something could come from this and it still changed their lives. Likes - The characters - I love Lucy and Owen so much not just together but apart too. Lucy is a bookworm and a loner, she loves her family but is used to her parents leaving her alone for days while they travel and her brothers are away at college and her story is allot about her reclaiming her family, mainly her mom, and learning that being with people can be just as good if not better than being alone. With Owen his mom just died and his dad and him are trying, basically, to outrun their grief, leaving their home behind and eventually just hitting the road and driving until they find somewhere to stop for a little while before moving on once more, I loved their relationship how they had to take care of each other and how for the most part they were all they had. Of course overall the most important thing is Owen and Lucy's relationship, if you can call it that, besides a few postcards and emails and one reunion that ends badly, they don't talk to each other throughout most of the book, it's about how they are without each other and realizing it's not crazy to feel this way after only one night of talking. It's about them finding their way back to New York and the possibility of that night and it's just so good. The traveling - I am a sucker for contemporaries with road trips and any kind of traveling and I liked that this book had so much of that. I loved the part about point zero the center of Paris the most and how they made their own point zero and it's just really good, okay? The writing - I love Jennifer's writing, it's beautiful and light hearted and I don't know..quotable? Seriously I highlighted like half of the book which I mean I do that allot but still! Dislikes - -I would have liked it if Lucy's brothers had actually been in the book, but that is really a small unimportant thing. -I wanted more postcards. I get the point was kinda not having the postcards and trying to move on and everything but still I loved the postcard thing and I wanted more! -That it ended? Overall - I love this book just as much as I love all of her others books that I have every read. If you loved Statistical Probability and/or Happy than I do believe you will love this one too. I know some people were disappointed in it but I honestly do not know why. In the end I really have no complaints about this book. It's fun and lighthearted, it's not something to read if you want to discover the secrets of the universe or have a good cry feast but to me it is the best kind of contemporary. It's a fairytale of sorts where you know there is not chance of it not ending in some kind of happily ever after and it was everything I wanted it to be and more. Characters I could love and root for, travel and adventure and family and love notes in the form of postcards, and I just completely loved it. See the playlist that goes along with the review here - [...]

If this were your average every day YA romance novel this is how the story would play out: Boy meets girl after being stuck in an elevator together. Despite coming from very different backgrounds the two immediately hit it off, realizing that their lives had not been complete until they met. Elevator is fixed, and the two find a way to remain together through thick and thin, through all that life throws at them to keep them apart. Despite distance separating the two, they spend all of their time communicating with each other and pining for each other in between. Sure, there are complications to keep things interesting, but the book ends with the two of them realizing that love conquers all. All problems are magically solved. Happily Ever After. The end. But this is not an average every day YA romance novel. Owen and Lucy do meet under an extraordinary circumstance of being stranded together in a New York City elevator. They form a connection to one another and spend an exciting night together on the building rooftop as New York City is darkened by a citywide power outage, leaving commuters stranded, buildings sweltering, and refrigerated food supplies dwindling. The evening has an almost magical quality to it, and both Lucy and Owen recognize this. But at this moment the novel turns away from the conventional YA path and heads off on a unique and much more realistic journey. Owen and Lucy are separated as Lucy heads to Scotland when her father's job is relocated, and Owen heads all over the place, eventually ending up on the west coast as his father, still reeling after the death of his wife, searches for a job, stability, and peace. At first Lucy and Owen exchange cute little post cards, and Lucy writes emails that are never answered. They both live their lives, finding new friends, forming romantic attachments to other people, and yet both feeling a pull toward one another at random moments as they are living these separate lives. They question whether the other even cared nearly as much about that magical night as the other. They feel awkward and unsure of themselves as they attempt to communicate in fits and stops throughout the novel. It is awkward at times. And much of the time nothing much at all is taking place between the two of them. All communication eventually stops for a time. But throughout it all they never forget the connection they felt that day in New York City. Figuring out what they want to do about these thoughts is half the battle in this story. I really loved how realistic this relationship is portrayed. In the three Jennifer E. Smith books I have read so far there is a common theme involving two random people meeting in somewhat extraordinary (or even extremely ordinary) circumstances ... two people in a world of billions who randomly meet and feel a spark ignite. In each of these books that connection is almost magical. But life isn't always so magical. Life is full of the everyday ordinary, and sometimes we just expect things to always be so average and ordinary that we neglect to notice those moments of magic, or when they do happen we are quick to dismiss them. That is what happens in this book. Lucy and Owen experience magic, but they get caught up in the ordinary, refusing to believe that the magic is what they deserve if they reach for it. It would have been lovely if the two of them could have spent the entire novel together learning more about each other as their love blossomed, but that wouldn't have been realistic. Seeing the two find ways to connect across the miles and despite the brevity of their face to face interactions made the ending so much sweeter and worth the wait. It is odd to read a YA romance where the main characters spend the majority of the novel out of each other's presence. They spend very little time in this novel actually communicating with one another. After that initial night in New York City, the story alternates chapters between Owen's life and Lucy's, each of them doing their own thing on opposite sides of the globe. There was huge potential for this to fall apart in the writing, but Jennifer E. Smith does a wonderful job keeping the hope for a relationship alive for the readers without bogging things down in depressive pining for lost love. The two main characters grow in their own lives independent of the other, and that character growth may even be more important than the eventual hope for a romantic happily ever after conclusion. I especially loved the subtle yet profound growth that takes place in the relationships between Lucy and her mother and Owen and his father. This is a very well written book that has cemented Jennifer E. Smith in place as one of my favorite YA authors. I will always check out the things she writes because they manage to weave the ordinary events of life with the extraordinary and magical moments that life can provide. I loved this one. Four stars!

Here's the thing about me and Jennifer E. Smith books. I always get sucked in because of the captivating covers and the interesting titles. I really liked The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and I didn't really enjoy This is What Happy Looks Like (WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?! THIS BOOK TOLD ME NOTHING!) and somewhere in the middle fell The Geography of You and Me. Lucy and Owen meet in a really awkward situation and he seemed like a pretty big jerk in the beginning but the fact that after their encounter they kept in touch was cute. I loved seeing these two characters warm up to each other. Overall all I can say is that it's a cute read but nothing too exciting. At least in my opinion but then again, that's just my personal opinion...

Lo compré en Amazon warehouse (productos de segunda mano con precio muy rebajado que ofrece Amazon para quien no lo sepa) y la verdad es que estoy contenta, tiene una pequeña tara en la portada pero casi ni se nota (te avisa desde antes que este tipo de productos podrían tener algún defecto). Sobre el contenido del libro quiero decir que me encantó su lectura. Me gustó la trama, los personajes, las descripciones, etc... Una historia muy ligera y rápida de leer, perfecta para cuando quieras desconectar de otras lecturas más densas. Me encantó leer sobre los dos protagonistas y los viajes que hacen, te sumerges totalmente en la historia. Lo que no me gustó fue el final porque parece que la autora ha cortado el último capítulo por la mitad y lo ha dejado así. Me esperaba que tuviera un final bueno porque todo lo demás (según mi opinión claro está) es bueno y no fue así. Sin embargo me gusta como escribe la autora y pienso leer más libros suyos.

My teenager daughter loved it.

I've read three of Jennifer E. Smiths previous books (You Are Here, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, and This is What Happy Looks Like) and I've absolutely loved all of them. So when I heard about this book, I was ridiculously excited for it. I couldn't wait for it to come out, and once I got my hands on a copy, I was excited to read it. I was not disappointed. Once again Jennifer E. Smith has created a story, that you can't help but smile about as you read it. I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan if the insta-love kind of thing, but Jennifer E. Smith just makes it work, and I loved reading about the instant connection between Owen and Lucy in this book. I also loved that it was written in dual perspectives. I even loved that it was third person, because despite normally being a bigger fan of first person, I felt that for this story, it worked really nicely having it done in third. The two main characters of this story were great, and I liked that they had their own back stories and progressing story lines, which were separate to the love story. I loved the travel aspects as well. Dotting about from place to place and yet always thinking of that one night that they met. It was fantastically written. This book is full of wonderful moments, paced out fantastically and it's definitely one of the best books I've read this year.

O livro é muito bem escrito, mas a história discorre de forma lenta. Para quem espera um romance para passar o tempo, é ótimo; mas para quem espera aventura, pode passar o livro todo buscando um clímax quase que inexistente. Muito bom para expandir o vocabulário na língua inglesa.

Something draws you to read on. Can be slow in places by well written (nothing else to add but they want more words)