***The Starry-Eyed Revue***: travel

Title: The Geography of You and Me
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Series: n/a
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 15th, 2014
Source: From Publisher via NetGalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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.

I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while now, but I just haven’t found the time to squeeze it into my reading list. When I saw it on NetGalley, I grabbed it up, because that provided me with the perfect excuse to slide it in there.

Early on I thought I was going to love this one, but after the excitement of the black out, the novel slows down considerably. I found myself not even wanting to pick it back up at times. Not because it wasn’t good, but just because it wasn’t really grabbing me. The writing is great, but there just wasn't a whole lot going on.

One aspect I did like were all the places they both traveled to. That was really neat. However, that’s about the extent of this story, and I can see why this wasn’t loved as much as The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. I also enjoyed This is What Happy Looks Like. While The Geography of You and Me was okay, it just didn’t hold the magic of the other two. At least in my opinion.

Lucy and Owen meet during a black out, and then they are separated, both parties moving far away from where they meet. Owen heading west, and Lucy heading overseas. There really isn’t much swoon going on, because they aren’t together. And I knew that there wouldn’t be going into this, but there is also not much interaction between them while they were apart. I expected a little more I guess.

The ending, that kinda fell flat for me as well. I sat there with my kindle in hand saying out loud, “ … Um… okay…” My 6 year old asked what I meant, so I explained to her how the ending of the book was a little lack luster for my taste. She just stared at me, with a "huh?" look in her eyes. lol

You would think she'd be used to my bookish ramblings by now, I guess now. Anyway, I liked it… It wasn’t bad, but I really had hoped for so much more. I won’t let that discourage me though, because her writing is always good, I just didn’t connect with this story as much as her others.

About the author:

Jennifer E. Smith is the author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, The Storm Makers, You Are Here, and The Comeback Season. She earned her master's degree in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and currently works as an editor in New York City. Her writing has been translated into 28 languages.

Find Jessica:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads