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

Title: The Geography of You and Me
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Publisher: Headline
Buy this book: Amazon / Book Depository

Owen and Lucy are stuck in a life. As they await help, they start talking...
Though brief, the 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.
As each makes their separate journey in search of home, they will discover that sometimes it is a person rather than a place that anchors you most in the world


This shrug sums up by book feelings.
This review is so hard for me to write. Mostly because I just finished the book and it was not a pleasant goodbye. I finished this book and I literally threw it across my room. That's right, me, the person who is completely OCD about my books, happily launched this across my room in frustration and anger. It's not bad, it's just really underwhelming.

It had such a sweet beginning and I thought I was going to love this book so much. Lucy and Owen meet when they are trapped in a lift together during a blackout. The night they spent together was just so sweet and the two together were so cute. I instantly loved them together and was totally behind them as a couple. They find themselves being taken in different directions though, Lucy ends up moving to Scotland with her parents and Owen goes on a road trip with his father. It was once they got separated that the plot began to drag.

They barely communicate with one another, just a postcard every now and again. This was when I felt things really begin to slow down and my interest waned. The book goes from being about the characters and their growing relationship to a book about places. It became a lot more of a I did this, I said that, I went here, I thought that kind of book and that got to me. I started to feel the character's personalities slipping away and that upset me. It turned into a big non-event where barely anything actually happens.

Owen was a character that I still really loved no matter how fed up I got with the book. A lot has happened to him, he's trying to deal with the death of his mother and how that's changed his father and the relationship they have. I liked watching the journey that Owen went on and how he overcame his problems. It did make Lucy a tiny bit unlikeable though, her problems weren't really problems, something that's very apparent when you compare them to Owen's.

Me at the end of this book.
If I am being completely honest with myself, it was the ending more than anything that really turned me off the book. Lucy had a good thing going with Liam, this hot, Scottish rugby player but she still has feelings for Owen. I can understand feeling a connection to someone, but they spend so long apart and barely speak to one another. I just felt like their romance was unrealistic and also not going anywhere. They live in different countries, with no plans to ever live closer to one another. That's not a romance that is ever going to work. The ending was just so open and ambiguous and really pointless. I finished the book feeling angry, wondering why I had even bothered to read it in the first place.

3/5 Butterflies

I definitely preferred The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, but this was an okay read. It had a strong start but I lost interest as the story went along. I've not been having much luck with romances recently, none of them have been satisfying. This one just disappointed me because the end was really underwhelming. I am one of those people who likes my books to have a proper conclusion. I like satisfying endings but who doesn't. I like Owen and Lucy as characters, I just don't see the two of them together. I just want Owen to find a lovely girlfriend near him who can actually be there for him. 



*I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review and received no monetary compensation for this review.

27 comments:

  1. Wonderful review, Charnell! I'm sorry that the ending ruined it for you, but I'm glad Owen was a great character throughout the novel's entirety. I've got this out of the library a couple of times now, but I always have to take it back before I start it. Maybe now I'll take it off of my priority list. I actually really like the UK cover. I like the US cover too, but the UK cover's of Jennifer E. Smith's books are a smidge nicer...I think. At least it's true for The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. I can't make up my mind whether I prefer the UK or the US edition for this one. Anywho, I'm sorry this wasn't the best read, but I hope your next one is a lot better. :)

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    1. I don't like the UK cover for this, I do for some of her other books though. The Probability of Love at First Sight probably had the cover I preferred the UK one for. I just didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped I would.

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  2. I'm going to be reading this one next. I really enjoyed The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and This Is What Happy Looks Like even more than that, but I've always been a bit worried about this one. I'm hoping that maybe because of that I will still enjoy it but I guess we'll see how that goes. Hopefully you can find a good romancy book soon :)

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    1. See I enjoyed The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and this was the only other book I have tried of the authors. I thought it was okay, there were just a lot of reasons it didn't work for me.

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  3. That's it. I'm skipping this one. Open endings will be the end of me. I just can't stand them because I let my imagination roam and it normally goes into the "horrible hellish" territory where happy endings are nonexistent. I just can't imagine happiness O_O It's a shame that the romance in this one was unrealistic. That completely sucks all the motivation out of me because I feel like I'm here for nothing, you know? Fantastic, honest review! <3

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    1. I can't stand open endings either, they always feel really lazy to me. I felt like that, I also felt like I had waited my time reading it. There was just no chance for them to actually be together, and maybe that's realistic, but then they should have realised that and moved on themselves.

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  4. I remember really liking this one, but to be honest, I have a horrible book memory so I don't remember the ending being open and ambiguous, which normally makes me hate a book. I just finished the third book in a series where one of the main characters dies and you don't know for sure which one. Talk about an ambiguous open ending! That was a WTF moment for me. Sorry this one didn't work for you, I just remember it being a sweet romantic book. I wouldn't call it a romance, more of a romantic story, if that makes sense (since they do spend much of the book apart). I just thought it was filled with hope, and I had such a connection to the characters. Oh well, thanks for the honest review! ~Pam

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    1. I can't even imagine reading a book like that! That would bug me so badly, I hope it wasn't the third and FINAL book in the series. At least that way you have another book to read after where you can find out who it was. I guess I was expecting them to be more adult about it, and realise there was no chance for them to have a romantic relationship.

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  5. I can totally, 100% understand why you didn't like this because of it's ending, and I'm fine with that. It's one of my favourites of this year, but it's not for everyone and I'd never hold it against you, these things happen. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it thought hunny, but great review none the less :)

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    1. I guess I wanted it to either be a romance that could work out or for the characters to be mature and old enough to realise that it wasn't going to work out. Those two are never going to be together and that bugs me!

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  6. Hm, it's a shame you didn't like this and from the way you explained it, it makes a lot of sense. I passed up an opportunity to review this but it doesn't seem like I am missing out on too much, apart from Owen being a good character. I haven't found many romance books I have liked completely lately either, but there was one good one. I really liked You Had Me At Hello by Mhairi McFarlane, so you could always try that ^.^ I hope you like it!

    http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/10/the-guardian-review-giveaway.html

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    1. Ooooh, I do really want to read a good romance. I am so fed up of these open ended or entirely depressing ones. I recently read Love, Rosie and was so disappointed with it as well. I didn't get what all the fuss was about.

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  7. Oh I totally agree! Honest, you about summed up my feelings for this one 100%! I even gave it three stars too! I liked it, in that the characters were sweet and nicely written....but I felt bored. I KNEW they'd get together. It was just an entire book about two people who had to leave and then get back together. No surprises. No twists. And the middle was so showing with no actual scenes....bleh. Not happy. It was my first Jennifer E Smith read and, meh, it hasn't really inspired me to read other books by her.

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    1. I know, but they don't really end up together. She's going back to where she is and he'll go back to where he is. They'll never be together because they have no plans to change their geographical locations. I don't know, I just never saw it working out. It was cute and everything but so boring! So happy to find someone else who felt the same.

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  8. I have seen so many people say they were disappointed with this book that it makes me sad because I really loved her debut and was excited to read this.
    So sad this wasn't better but I do think I would love Owen.

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    1. I really did enjoy The Statistical Probability, I just found this quite boring and it hasn't made me want to read anything else by her.

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  9. I felt your pain with this one. I read it after being in a huge slump because of a book I just couldn't gel with, and ended up DNFing. I think because of that I viewed this book a little more positively because it was a breeze to get through and just what I needed at the time, but I had a lot of the same issues you did with it and gave it 3.5/5.

    My review: http://confessionsofabookgeek.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/the-geography-of-you-and-me/

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    1. I just found it to be quite boring, not much really happens during the middle. And the end didn't work for me at all!

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  10. Great review! I can definitely see the problems with this one. All that I did this/I went here stuff definitely makes it hard to connect to the characters and the plot.

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    1. It just really didn't work for me, I needed the middle of the book to be a lot more exciting.

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  11. Honest review! I can see why this book didn't win you over. Dragging books really put me off no matter how good the writing is.

    Escaping through Ink

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  12. *sighs* Most of the reviews I've read for this have been similar to yours in that most people found it to be a bit mediocre, so I think I'm going to skip this one. I definitely see where you're coming from though - sluggish pacing and an unsatisfying conclusion are definitely two things that probably would have bothered me too. Thanks for sharing and, as always, FANTASTIC review! <3

    ~ Zoe @ The Infinite To-Read Shelf

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    1. Thank you, Zoe! :) I was really hoping to love it, but it just didn't work for me. The pace was just far too slow during the middle and the end left me very unsatisfied. I'm probably going to steer clear of her other books from now on.

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  13. Ohhh, your cover is so different to mine! Weird, weird, weird. Me no likey this.

    ANYWAY though. Yeah, this book was *sigh* I just kind of wanted Lucy to get with the Scot and be done with the whole thing, because the story wasn't gripping enough and I didn't feel the spark with Owen. It was all just a bit 'blah' to me

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    1. I know, I'm really not a fan of the cover I have. I much prefer the US cover, it's a lot prettier. But I guess the bleh cover is a more fitting cover for a book that's pretty bleh itself. It was all blah for me too, I just barely felt anything for anyone the entire book.

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