5 out of 10 Before I go on with my even present rant, here's the blurb from Goodreads : 'Four minutes changes everything. Hadley Sullivan 17 misses her flight at JFK airport, is late to her father's second wedding in London with never-met stepmother. Hadley meets the perfect boy. Oliver is British, sits in her row. A long night on the plane passes in a blink, but the two lose track in arrival chaos. Can fate bring them together again? ' This was an impulse read I bought off a friend because I really loved the cover, and thought at just over 200 pages it'd be easy to cart around in my handbag and read at a whim. In a whole before I go into detail, it was an ok YA read, I felt as if it was set up really beautifully but then kind of dropped off and random climaxes occurred that just confused me. |
The writing itself was ok and the two main characters; Oliver and Hadley were well set up, but nothing happened and them falling so much in love in a 6 hour plane ride that they cart all over London to see each other was too far fetched even for me to believe.
It's definitely a book I'd recommend to a young tween who is just progressing from lower range YA/high range children's into YA romance and deeper fiction. As a widely read reader myself, I felt I had to really force myself at times to continue regardless of how short the book was. Nothing jumped at me and grabbed my attention and to be honest it was the kind of book that I felt needed an epilogue or at least a later companion novel, so many ends were left fraying and I really didn't finish the book and say "man I wish I didn't finish it" I was more like "thank god, I have time to start a good book before bedtime".
Most people know that I barely ever give ratings below 5, I don't think I've ever given one below 6, but I am honest and that's what you guys want. Now my constant readers on here know that I am very fair and try to find the good things in the books before I slander them, so I'm going to list a few things I liked before I continue on with my rant;
- Loved the prologue, it really set up a quizzical beginning and was the one part of the book that actually grabbed my attention
- Really likes Hadley and Oliver and the chemistry they obviously shares (regardless of how short it lasted)
- Enjoyed how the author enveloped pain and hurt behind Hadley at the obvious discomfort she's in going to the wedding, making it that tiny bit more realistic
-Found the banter between them super funny and attractive, some authors tend to get flirty and light-hearted conversation wrong and awkward, their conversations flowed
Overall, it wasn't a badly written book, it just stumped me that it all of a sudden finished and to me the conclusion wasn't really an ending and it just frustrated me. I do like her other books better to be honest. For a YA book, it's ok for a younger audience and I think it's necessary for the genre to have these type of transition books for sure, therefore it is definitely a book I'd recommend to a younger reader who is looking at progressing into harder YA but isn't really ready for John Green heavy stuff yet :)
Now they're super picky things, I'm sorry to anyone out there who really loved this book - every one to their own opinion, this is simply how I read this book.
Hayley xx