Quick Pick: The Geography of You and Me, by Jennifer E. Smith

• Opening lines: On the first day of September, the world went dark.
  But from where she stood in the blackness, her back pressed against the brassy wall of an elevator, Lucy Patterson had no way of knowing the scope of it yet.
• Reason I picked up the book: I was so excited to get pre-approved for this book on NetGalley, because I loved The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, by the same author, which I reviewed earlier this year.
• And what's this book about?
Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father. Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and -- finally -- a reunion in the city where they first met. A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

• Favorite paragraph: 

Maybe it was possible that you could take someone out of their life and drop them in the middle of another place entirely and they could seem like someone completely different. But even if that were the case, she thought, it wasn't really that they had changed - it was just the backdrop, the circumstances, the cast of characters. Just because you painted a house didn't mean the furniture inside was any different. It had to be the same with people. Deep down, at the very core, they'd still be the same no matter where they were, wouldn't they?

• Recommended for: Anyone who likes a good YA (Young Adult) novel or literature that spans different locations.
• Something to know: At first I was betting that the beginning of the book took place around 2003, when we had the East Coast and Midwest blackout that summer, but later the author references smartphones, so I'm not sure if that timeline is still correct. 
• What I would have changed: I want a whole other book with them too! Otherwise, nothing.
• Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
• Where can I buy this book? Click here.