In Jennifer E. Smith's (The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight; This Is What Happy Looks Like) latest novel, she ignites a spark between two teens during a citywide blackout, just as they are separated by circumstances.
When New York City is "snuffed out like a candle" during a blackout, Lucy and Owen find themselves stuck in their building's elevator. Sixteen-year-old Lucy goes to a private school and lives in apartment 24D; 17-year-old Owen lives in the basement with his father, the new building superintendent. There's instant chemistry as they await rescue, despite the fact that Owen is not as enamored with the city as Lucy is, having just moved to Manhattan from rural Pennsylvania after his mother died in a car accident. But shortly after the lights come back on, Lucy and her family move to Edinburgh for her father's new job, and Owen and his father travel out west after he's fired. Smith tugs at the heartstrings of her characters and readers as this romance unfolds across the world.
Owen and Lucy stay in contact through e-mails and postcards, but Smith realistically depicts the two teens as their lives move forward. Even so, they both still think about that one night "the world went dark." Readers will find themselves lost in the long-distance trials of longing and hoping, and, in her strongest novel to date, Smith ultimately finds a glowing end for her protagonists. --Adam Silvera, children's bookseller