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

Title: The Geography of You and Me
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Publisher: Headline
Publishing Date: April 15th 2014
Length: 352 pages
Keywords: YA, contemporary, romance, friendship, travelling
Source: Netgalley

Owen lives in the basement. Lucy lives on the 24th floor. But when the power goes out in the midst of a New York heatwave, they find themselves together for the first time: stuck in a lift between the 10th and 11th floors. As they await help, they start talking...

The brief time they spend together leaves a mark. And as their lives take them to Edinburgh and San Francisco, to Prague and to Portland they can't shake the memory of the time they shared. Postcards cross the globe when they themselves can't, as Owen and Lucy experience the joy - and pain - of first love.

And as they make their separate journeys in search of home, they discover that sometimes it is a person rather than a place that anchors you most in the world.

Summary by Goodreads

Whatever you paid for THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME, Jennifer E. Smith made sure you are getting it back in double the amount of smiles, melancholic sighs and happy tears. This beloved YA contemporary author's words are conjuring up all the feels!

New York City is dark. Lucy and Owen's is surely not the only elevator in the city that is stuck without any electricity. But theirs is the one to start their story. The one to start a great love story. So after the elevator, Lucy and Owen spent one night together (it's ordinary, but same parts magical). And then things come together and after only a few short days their ways part again. Lucy leaves New York for Europe and Owen goes on a road trip with his father.
So there will be chapters told from Lucy's perspective and others told from Owen's. Despite the distance between them they are never really separated from each other, still wondering what the other one is doing. And I'm still surprised that Lucy and Owen's story touched me so much because they have so few time they actually spend together. Distance makes the (reader's) heart grow fonder really applies here.

Their love story evolves with distance and each moment they spend in a new city, they learn how to find to themselves first before they can find to each other. Wandering, travelling and seeing the world is a big part of their story. Edinburgh, London, New York, Lake Tahoe. This is such a rewarding and rich story for everyone who loves to travel. I've seen a few of the places Lucy visits, and Owen's stops will all hop right onto my travel wishlist.

Just thinking about Lucy and Owen's story gives me this deep feeling of contentment. Life is uncertain, people go different ways and sometimes not fate, or a coincidence, but your own striving to find happiness brings you back together. It's a story of many contradictions, similarities, too. Of learning how to fit in, and how you sometimes need to fit only with the ones that you love. How a place can be an adventure, a home, or both.

It's hard to explain how Jennifer E. Smith writes her characters right into your heart after only a few chapters. Her stories always have that special feeling about uncertainty of the many ways of life and the miracles that can actually happen. There are chapters in THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME that left me stunned and they sometimes consisted of only a handful of words.

There are postcards, and ice cream, travelling, wonders of nature, bustling cities full of possibilities. Jennifer E. Smith just wrote some of my most favourite things in the world into one story, so it's easy to say this story had everything I need. Now you too should get ready for the marvels and miracles of this new Jennifer E. Smith book!

5/5 ***** THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME - Lucy and Owen's globe-spanning love story is one of a kind. This is the one book that should be shared with all your best friends!

Are you looking for a YA contemporary read that gets your skin tingling, your mind wandering and your heart soaring? Then Jennifer E. Smith's THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME is the perfect pick to get your daily dose of reading happiness. If you could wish for any book right now, this should be it!

"He considered this a moment. "Yup," he said finally.

"That pretty much sums up my feelings about New York."

Lucy nodded. "You would prefer not to," she said. "But that's just because it's new. Once you get to know it more, I have a feeling you'll like it here."

"Is this the part where you insist on taking me on a tour of the city, and we laugh and point at all the famous sights, and then I buy an I♥NY T-shirt and live happily ever after?"

"The T-shirt is optional," she told him."" ― p. 10

THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME you might enjoy THE STATISTICAL PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT also by Jennifer E. Smith. UNBREAK MY HEART by Melissa C. Walker and its sailboat love story is very cute and THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE by Leila Sales is for the music lovers and everyone who has felt left out at some point in life. 

  

* Have you read Jennifer E. Smith's THE STATISTICAL PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? It's the book that made me fall in love with her writing.

* Click here to read an excerpt of THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME.

*Want to meet Jennifer? Check out her event schedule.

* For more information about Jennifer E. Smith and her books visit www.jenniferesmith.com.

* Thanks to Frances and Headline for the chance to review THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME!