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


The Geography of You and MeThe Geography of You and Me
by Jennifer E. Smith
YA Contemporary Romance
April 15th 2014 by Little, Brown for Young Readers
 

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.

  

My Review

I LOVED this book! I was sucked in by the first page and then was happy to go along with Lucy and Owen on their journeys. They are only with each other for a short space of time, but when they are together, it's amazing! Home really is where the heart is.

So let me just say that Jennifer E. Smith wrote this story so well! I loved the setting and descriptions of where the characters lived and traveled to. I loved feeling immersed in the different cities and countries and the character's lives. The story really came alive to me. Probably one of my most favorite things from this book were the postcards. Just so, so sweet to send someone you're friends with or maybe even love a postcard in the mail and them do the same. I just loved it! I also loved that their is romance, but it isn't the story's sole focus and doesn't take over.

I loved Lucy and Owen and the other side characters. I loved that there were two good families surrounding the MC's. Their situations were very different, but they felt realistic. Lucy has such different perceptions of her life and parents than what might actually be true. It was great to see how her perceptions changed and how she interacts with everyone. I loved that she was more of a deep thinker and wallflower. I loved her thoughts on being surrounded by people and yet still alone. Then there's Owen. He was such a good guy. He definitely made mistakes, but he came through. I loved how Lucy and Owen fit together and how they almost immediately made this great connection when they meet, but that their friendship grows and changes and turns into something more. Their dialogue is fabulous and I thoroughly enjoined their banter.

Here's one part when Lucy talks about her parents and traveling that I really liked:
     All these years, she's imagined her parents were out there in the world trying to take in as much as possible: photos and stories and memories, check marks on a list of countries and pins on a globe. But what she hadn't understood until now was that they'd left pieces of themselves in all those places, too. They'd made a little home for themselves wherever they went, and now Lucy would do the same.
~ Location 2998 on Kindle
This is something that really struck me with this story. How a house or a place by itself isn't a home. A home was where Lucy's family was, where Owen's dad was, where they each were for each other. It was also where they had been together making memories, places they could go back to or think back on and feel the connection there.

This was a heartfelt story of finding who you are and falling in love for the first time. I would definitely recommend The Geography of You and Me to those who love this author or read Contemporary YA, NA, or Adult. I felt it was definitely worth the read! It will have a prized place on my shelf.

Content: Clean

Source: From NetGalley, which did not affect my review in anyway. Thank you, and 
Little, Brown for Young Readers for approving it!


Have you read The Geography of You and Me or will you be?

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