The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
Series: No
Publisher: Headline
Publication Date: April 15th 2014
Source: Netgalley [Headline]

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.

Jennifer E. Smith is probably my go-to author when I need something cute and adorable. Every time I read one of her books, I completely fall in love with them and lost myself in them. The Geography of You and Me has definitely been my favourite of hers so far. I adored both The Statistical Probability and This is What Happy Looks Like, but The Geography of You and Me just had something about it that made me love it even more. 

Owen and Lucy live in the same apartment complex - Owen lives in the basement and Lucy lives on the 24th floor. The first meet (properly) when the power goes out and they are trapped in a lift together.

Owen and Lucy had such a natural relationship right from the first meeting. The fact that they met in such a strange way and completely hit it off had me hooked from the start. Owen and Lucy go out and explore during the power cut and eventually find themselves on the roof of the apartment building. They spend the night talking, getting to know each other, and eventually fall asleep. When Lucy wakes up in the morning, her parents have been in contact and Lucy flies to London to be with them.

"So," the boy said, tipping his head back against the wall. "Come here often?"

She laughed. "I've logged some times in this particular elevator, yes."

The power cut leads to major changes in both Lucy and Owen's lives. Owen and his father have to move out of the basement and his father has to find a new job. Lucy's dad has been offered a job in Edinburgh and plans to move the whole family there. Owen and Lucy communicate through postcards. It was such a unique and interesting way for them to communicate. Owen would send Lucy postcards from wherever he and his dad ended up and Lucy would send postcards to Owen from wherever she and her parents went on holiday. Of course, the postcards start to die out eventually because Owen and Lucy both had things to deal with in their own lives.

Owen and Lucy's relationship definitely wasn't a straight forward one. They meet, and then they end up thousands of miles away from each other. I think this may be the first long distance relationship book I've ever read and I think Jennifer E. Smith did a fantastic job with it. She showed how in the beginning, you make the effort and are really into it, but as the time goes on you start to slack and lose interest when you've got other things in your own life going on. She shows the ups and downs of a long distance relationship. I adored seeing every single step of Owen and Lucy's journey.

He smiled. "The only problem is, I think we're about fifteen yards off," he said, pointing at the spot where they'd sat the last time, where he'd made a star appear in the unlikeliest of places.

"I'm pretty sure the exact center of the world is just over there."

"I don't know," she said, and he could see that she was smiling, too. "I think this might be it."

Jennifer E. Smith's books always leave me with a massive smile on my face and this one was no exception. The ending was just so freaking adorable and left me grinning like an idiot and swooning like mad. I'm a complete sucker for romance in books (when it's done right) and Jennifer E. Smith hasn't let me down yet. The Geography of You and Me is definitely one of my favourite contemporaries ever now and I honestly can't recommend this book enough. It makes my heart melt and I just want to read it all over again.