Review: Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E Smith

I given an audio copy of this book by Penguin Random House Audio in exchange for an honest review.

A delicious meet-cute romance about luck, love and serendipity from Jennifer E. Smith, author of Windfall and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

It's the perfect idea for a romantic week together: travelling across America by train.

But then Hugo's girlfriend dumps him. Her parting gift: the tickets for their long-planned last-hurrah-before-uni trip. Only, it's been booked under her name. Non-transferable, no exceptions.

Mae is still reeling from being rejected from USC's film school. When she stumbles across Hugo's ad for a replacement Margaret Campbell (her full name!), she's certain it's exactly the adventure she needs to shake off her disappointment and jump-start her next film.

A cross-country train trip with a complete stranger might not seem like the best idea. But to Mae and Hugo, both eager to escape their regular lives, it makes perfect sense. What starts as a convenient arrangement soon turns into something more. But when life outside the train catches up with them, can they find a way to keep their feelings for each other from getting derailed?

Jennifer E. Smith's YA novel Field Notes on Love is a heart-warming love story about grabbing opportunities and trusting your instincts.

 

Review: I love the way that Jennifer E Smith will often write books that take place over a very short period of time such as a day or a handful of days. I think that is what makes books like this one so compelling. I ended up reading this book over a course of just two days because the time frame as so short and I wanted to find out what was going to happen to these young people as they embarked on the train journey together. 

I really enjoyed spending time in the company of both of these characters. Neither of them are perfect and so they are completely relatable. I liked the fact that they didn't have everything in their lives together and the fact that they both had things bothering them in their lives outside of the train. I think that most readers, especially younger adults will definitely be able to identify with them. The audiobook separates the characters well by having a different narrator for each of the characters when it is their turn for a chapter. I love a dual narrative and again i think that this makes for a quicker read. 

I loved the setting of the train and the fact that it means our characters and all the events have to take place in close quarters, there is nothing like taking away someones space and form of escapism to bring out their true feelings. I also like the fact that these characters journey cross country on that train, it is something that I have always wanted to do and has the potential to bring up many topics for the characters to talk about. 

I wasn't blown away by the novel as I have been by some of this author's other writing but I enjoyed it and it definitely provided a moment of escapism in my day. I liked getting to know these characters and work through some of their decisions with them and I also enjoyed getting to travel through America on a train-sounded great fun!

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