Book Nerds Across America

Book Summary
Having just been dumped by his girlfriend, British-born Hugo is still determined to take his last-hurrah-before-college train trip across the United States. One snag: the companion ticket is already booked under the name of his ex, Margaret Campbell. Nontransferable, no exceptions.

Enter the new Margaret C. (Mae for short), an aspiring filmmaker with big dreams. After finding Hugo's spare ticket offer online, she's convinced it's the perfect opportunity to expand her horizons.

When the two meet, the attraction is undeniable, and both find more than they bargained for. As Mae pushes Hugo to explore his dreams for his future, he'll encourage her to channel a new, vulnerable side of her art. But when life off the train threatens the bubble they've created for themselves, will they manage to keep their love on track?

Me and Jen at a YALLFest past. I honestly don't remember which year....

Flo's Review
I adore Jennifer E. Smith. (Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see my reviews of her other books.) I know that if I am looking to read a cute, fun, and fast contemporary YA love story, Jennifer E. Smith is my gal. So over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, I was in the mood for just that. Luckily, I had a copy of this waiting for me.

(Random side note: I was lucky enough to pick up an ARC at YALLFest. I don't think the Underlined team was expecting me to fangirl so hard over getting a Jennifer E. Smith ARC. I rambled on to the girl for like 5 minutes straight about how much I adored every single one of Jennifer's other books.)

Luckily, this one did not disappoint. I was impressed with how well Jennifer got Hugo and his Briticisms down. He remained consistent throughout. I was happy that I really enjoyed both Hugo and Mae. Jennifer E. Smith is the queen of capturing all the excitement, fear, anxiety, and anticipation of high school seniors about to head off to college. Field Notes on Love is no exception. 

I always love travel stories. I think you can learn so much about yourself by taking yourself outside of your normal environment. For Hugo, this was especially true. Additionally, I just love seeing new places with new eyes -- I really enjoy seeing characters' reactions to places I have seen and wish to see.

Field Notes on Love comes out March 5, 2019 and if you want a shot of adorable, then I'd suggest you scoop this one up!


Read my other raving reviews of Jennifer E. Smith books:

So, if you remember, I (Flo) decided to take the plunge into Read. Sleep. Repeat's #ARCAugust this year! I had some books that I really wanted to get read ahead of their release dates, so this was a perfect challenge.

The quick update: I did it! And then some!! My original goal was to read 3 ARCs. I did so, and I even managed to throw in an extra one I've been wanting to read as well! Let me pat myself on the back for a minute! *pat, pat*

How did you do? Remember, regardless of how you fared against your goal, you succeeded simply by going for it in the first place! Here are my #ARCAugust reviews:

Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between by Jennifer E. Smith: http://www.booknerdsacrossamerica.com/2015/08/hello-goodbye-and-everything-in-between.html

Firewalker by Josephine Angelini:  http://www.booknerdsacrossamerica.com/2015/08/firewalker-by-josephine-angelini.html

Serpentine by Cindy Pon:  http://www.booknerdsacrossamerica.com/2015/08/serpentine-by-cindy-pon.html

...and the BONUS one, Everything, Eveything by Nicola Yoon: http://www.booknerdsacrossamerica.com/2015/08/everything-everything-by-nicola-yoon.html

See you all next year for #ARCApril!

Book Summary
On the night before they leave for college, Clare and Aidan only have one thing left to do: figure out whether they should stay together or break up. Over the course of twelve hours, they'll retrace the steps of their relationship, trying to find something in their past that might help them decide what their future should be. The night will lead them to friends and family, familiar landmarks and unexpected places, hard truths and surprising revelations. But as the clock winds down and morning approaches, so does their inevitable goodbye. The question is, will it be goodbye for now or goodbye forever?

Flo's Review
I wanted to love this one. I really did. I even composed an Ode to Jennifer E. Smith post because she's that awesome. But the truth is that I am lukewarm on this one. 

I think the beauty in Jennifer E. Smith's writing comes in her description of falling in love. It's almost magical the way Hadley and Oliver fall in love over their 24 hours in The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. And I never wanted to leave the summer of Ellie and Graham in This Is What Happy Looks Like. Hello, Goodbye was as much looking back as it was looking forward, and maybe that's why I had a hard time getting into it. We weren't moving the plot forward at a good pace because we kept having (necessary) flashbacks. It's like this book wasn't written in past tense or present tense -- it was written in nostalgia tense. (Yes, I know this isn't a real tense, and yes, it is different from past tense. Nostalgia tense doesn't just tell what happened in the past. It immerses you in the emotions of the time with a wistful tone.) 

I did like that Jennifer E. Smith took a common problem that many teens face and devoted a novel to it. What to do with the relationship after high school just isn't represented enough, I think, for how often it happens and how big of a decision it is for the parties involved. I also appreciated how the book ended.

I've seen a lot of people love this one, so if you are curious I'd definitely encourage you to give it a read. For me, I just didn't feel the magic, sweet romance in this book that made me eagerly and breathlessly want to keep turning the pages that I did in her others. 

Thank you to the folks at Little Brown for sending me a review copy.

 

Me and Jen E. Smith at YALLFEST last November

So lots of Jen E. Smith has been happening in my life simultaneously! It started when I downloaded her new novella Happy Again to my Kindle, because I was heading on a trip and knew I'd need it for plane reading. I loved this novella so much! I wrote my super short, super sweet review on Goodreads, which I'll link to at the end of this post. Happy Again is a companion to the book This Is What Happy Looks Like, which I'll be talking about again in a minute.

Summary
Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, 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.

Flo's Review
I loved loved loved The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and This is What Happy Looks Like. So obviously as soon as I found out that this book was going to exist, it was on my TBR. I found this one to be a mix of the previous two stories. Lucy and Owen's meeting was happenstance, like in Statistical Probability, and they kept in touch not through emails like in Happy, but through postcards. It was a cute story, but it didn't completely grab me. While I liked the concept/theme of the geography and the postcards, the part of the story where it is alternating back and forth between Lucy and Owen AND they are in different parts of the world every time gave me a bit of whiplash. It was just a little too much. 

It was the little things in this book that I loved. Point Zero. The fact that both their parents were NOT clueless. (I really appreciate that -- it's refreshing when clued in parents appear in YA books because they do, generally speaking, understand what their teen is going through, having been teens themselves before.) I also liked how not everything was perfect all the time. The reality of something (yes, I'm thinking of a particular instance in the story) did not at all turn out like the expectation and and that is a very real possibility. Yet, it also wasn't the end -- which is also very real. And in the end, it was just a part of the story. I love that.

So this one was cute, but I'd say definitely read the two books I mention above over this one. Then if you're still up for simple and cute love story, pick this up.

If fate sent you an email, would you answer?

When teenage movie star Graham Larkin accidentally sends small town girl Ellie O'Neill an email about his pet pig, the two seventeen-year-olds strike up a witty and unforgettable correspondence, discussing everything under the sun, except for their names or backgrounds. 

Then Graham finds out that Ellie's Maine hometown is the perfect location for his latest film, and he decides to take their relationship from online to in-person. But can a star as famous as Graham really start a relationship with an ordinary girl like Ellie? And why does Ellie want to avoid the media's spotlight at all costs?  (from Goodreads)

Flo's Review
So remember how BookNerd Tee sent me The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith and I read it in two hours and raved about it because it was basically the most amazing thing ever?? Well, when I saw that she just released a new book I gave a little squee and immediately put myself on the library list for a copy. Upon picking it up my first thought was, "Dang, it's longer than Statistical Probability -- I can't read it in two hours!" Well, guess what?! This book was also the most amazing thing ever! I started reading it this morning in bed around 10 a.m. and I didn't leave my bed until it was done at 2 p.m. (Side note: I love lazy days when I can just read like that!) But the point is, Jennifer E. Smith did it again. I didn't want to put this book down. I flew through it. I had to know what Ellie would do, when what Graham would do, then what Ellie would do (it was told in an alternating point of view.) 

Jennifer E. Smith's love stories are simple and pure. They come with complications, yes, but the love itself? It's the example of the simple joy of falling in love. After you read one of her books you think to yourself, "I want to fall in love like that!" There is one amazing scene in this book where it's the Fourth of July and there are fireworks going on and big crowds all around and all that is happening in that moment is that Ellie and Graham are looking into each other. It gives me chills just thinking about it again. I loved it so much!

I can't stop gushing, y'all. I just loved this book so much. Ellie was great. Graham was great. Ellie's mom was great. Quinn was great. The e-mail set up for their meeting was realistic and actually worked. The ending was true and beautiful. I'm just going to stop this review here so you can go get your hands on a copy. I'm for real. Do it!

"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, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, 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. (from Goodreads)


Flo's Review
You guys. This story is basically my fairy tale fantasy come true. As you may know, I am the BookNerd who is always traveling. I'd say about 90% of the time I am going to visit someone or meet someone -- so I spend a lot of plane time alone. I always hear the stories from Southwest Airlines about how people met the love of their lives on a plane ride and I think to myself, "That would be soo amazing!" But alas -- it has yet to happen to me. (I did come close, though, when my flight to the Hunger Games set was delayed and I ended up passing the time talking to a very attractive young man whose number I did leave with.)