Publisher: Headline
Release: 15th April 2014
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance, Travel
Source: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Synopsis:
"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."
Review
The Geography of You and Me was one of those rare and special books that was so perfect that I felt like it was written especially for me. It’s almost as if I gave Jennifer E. Smith a list of ingredients that would make my ideal cute contemporary read and The Geography of You and Me is the end result. I’ve read and enjoyed all of Smith’s books but this one is hands down my favourite so far.
The book begins in an elevator in New York during a blackout that sweeps across the city on a scorching summers evening. Despite living in the same building Lucy and Owen have never met before but sparks fly as NYC plummets into darkness and the two get to know one another over free melting ice cream, cool kitchen tiles, and the rare sight of thousands of stars lighting up the sky. New York in the dark sounded strangely magical and exciting. It was such a fun note to kick start the book on and created the perfect backdrop for Lucy and Owen’s relationship to begin.
Lucy and Owen find each other just when they need someone the most. Both are incredibly lonely for different reasons. After spending that one whirlwind night together there’s hope that they will become something more but fate has other plans for the couple as Owen’s dad is taking him on a road trip and Lucy’s father has been offered work in London. Despite the distance between them and the unlikeliness of ever meeting again the two write to one another from all around the world. As they try on different countries and different cities all they really want is a place to call home but perhaps they’ve already found it in each other.
The Geography of You and Me has to be Jennifer E. Smith’s most beautifully written book to date. Her way with words really brought this global love story to life as we visit New York, London, Edinburgh, Paris and Rome to name only a few destinations visited during our characters travels. I loved seeing these places through Lucy and Owen’s eyes and there were times when they’d be thinking of each other at exactly the same moment on the other side of the world that would make my stomach dance with butterflies. The written postcards were another lovely touch to their story. You spend the whole book waiting in anticipation with the hope that they will find their way back to each other.
I was completely charmed by The Geography of You and Me it was over all too soon for my liking and I’m already craving a re-read. If you love cute contemporaries with gorgeous prose then you’re going to love this story of carrying your home in your heart.
