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

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
Release Date: April 15th 2014
Publisher: Headline (UK)
Source: Netgalley
Pre-Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads 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 love story that started off in an elevator, under the stars on a roof and got mapped out over America and Europe with postcards saying Wish You Were Here.

“He was just a boy on a roof. She was just a girl in an elevator.”

Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building during a citywide blackout. After being rescued they spent a night together in the agonising heat and darkened streets looking up at the stars above Manhattan. However as the lights come back so does the reality and soon Lucy moves over to Edinburgh and Owen and his father take the road and travel across the country. Not seeing each other for months with hardly any contact but a few postcards and emails.

What I love the most about this book is that this isn’t one of those romance orientated teen books where everything is perfect and happy. Lucy and Owen have the space to grow apart and breath. They were able to grow into their own characters and be able to tell their own story rather than being a couple in a book that’s always together joined at the hip. I didn’t particularly understand why Owen and Lucy had to both be so sociably awkward; I loved Lucy and how much of a bookworm she was and I liked Owen liking his own space after his mother dying but it felt like they were massive loners and just didn’t want to talk to anyone which is just silly.

“Nine months ago, he’d met a girl in an elevator and she’s been on his mind ever since.”

Jennifer managed to create a relationship between two people who were separated by thousands of miles and yet still managed to think about each other wherever they went; proving that distance is only mapped out and can be overcome. This book was really sweet and cute but it was in such great doses that I didn’t feel gross after reading it.

The writing is amazing! I can’t even express how much I love Jennifer’s writing. This isn’t one of those soppy boring teenage stories.

This is the first book that I’ve read by Jennifer E. Smith so I wasn’t too sure what to expect but I saw that John Green was a fan of this particular book so I was pretty much sold.

Note that these quotes have been taken from an uncorrected proof and may be subject to change