Jennifer E. Smith

Two teens, Hugo and Mae, are strangers until they share a cross-country train trip that teaches them about love, each other, and the futures they can build for themselves.

Field Notes on Love

'Utterly romantic' Jenny Han, bestselling author of To All the Boys I've Loved Before. 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.

Shanthu

Yuki lim 

I found my book boyfriend, it's definitely hugo omg

sydney

this book is very cute and really enjoyed it. i can’t wait to see the movie adaptation

Sonja H

„Field Notes on Love“ hatte ich mir für meine Sommerleseliste herausgesucht. Ich hab mich eine Weile um dieses Buch herumgedrückt, weil ich kein Fan von Romanzen bin, aber es ging mir ja darum, über meinen Leseschatten zu springen.

Ich bin sehr froh, dass ich es getan habe!

Jennifer E. Smith hat hier keine typische Boy-meets-Girl-Schnulze geschrieben, wie ich anfangs befürchtete, vielmehr betrachtet sie sehr einfühlsam die verschiedenen Spielarten von Liebe.

Da wäre zunächst die Familie von Hugo, der zu Sechslingen gehört und zum ersten Mal etwas ohne seine fünf Geschwister unternimmt. Alle haben mit der Trennung zu kämpfen und auch wenn es zu Streitereien kommt, sorgen sie sich umeinander.

Mae ihrerseits hat zwei Väter und eine Großmutter und auch hier bekommen wir einen Einblick, wie Liebe in diese sehr speziellen Familie funktioniert.

Und dann ist da natürlich noch die wachsende Liebe zwischen Hugo und Mae, die sich beide erst selbst finden müssen, bevor sie einen fremden Menschen lieben können.

„Field Notes of Love“ ist eine wundervolle, behutsam erzählte Geschichte, die uns auf eine ganz besondere Sommerreise mitnimmt und die ich an einem Tag regelrecht verschlungen habe, weil ich mich in ihr so wohl fühlte.

Wer meint, dass die Idee ein wenig weit hergeholt sei, der sollte sich diesen Artikel auf „The Guardian“ anschauen: „Man finds woman with same name as ex to join him on round-the-world trip“ (https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...).

Ein richtig, richtig schönes Buch für die Sommerzeit, das ins Reisegepäck gehört!

Meredith Boster

** spoiler alert **
           I really really really liked this book :) very sweet and cute and made me want to cry but also I’m very glad that it ended happily because I Litcherally couldn’t bear it if it was an ending where they just thought they would be better off not together because that is just UGH NO I can’t. Anyways very cute makes me want to travel the country with a cute boy and also makes me never want to go to college 👍😄

Laura sipert

It is absolutely adorable, “utterly romantic” as Jenny Han said.
Sometimes all I need is a break from all the fantasy I read.
This book gave me such a calm feeling, I fell in love with every character, the story is just the cutest and this book was all I needed 💕

Klara

This book made me wanna fall in love on a train

Absolutely giving this 5/5

Best book for me so far. Love love love the romance in a train that too😩

Hugo my man has my heart. He’s my bf sorry Mae~
But they are the sweetest couple ever. I aspire for it in the future🌸



Terry Leslie

** spoiler alert **
           I love a good love story and this was adorable and incredible and so full of emotion and just so utterly romantic. It genuinely is that easy and quick when you fall for someone. Or, it was for me. And honestly, it's like pizza, warm and gooey and warms you from the inside out. I love this book and honestly reccomend anyone and everyone to read it.

Khushi

laura

I normally always like this books by this author and this book did not disappoint me. I really was so invested in this story and also the characters. I also really liked the duel POV for these characters. Also the concepts of traveling throughout america was a really fun troup that kept me engaged from page one. The characters themselves a budding film maker and a setuplet was such a awesome paring. It made me really happy this book. I read it rather fast and really enjoyed it. I loved how this book tackled alot of self discovery issues on both sides of the story. I really enjoyed this read and thought it was a prefect summer themed read!

ericaa joycee

I love Cameron, Mitchell, Lilly, and Gloria ahahahwhaha 😭✌️


I feel for Hugo. I feel understood. :'))

Beatriz

4.5 stars
This was exactly what I needed right now! It was cute, fun, emotional (more than I expected) and just absolutely adorable! If you like YA romances and road trip books please read this one!

Alexia Cambaling

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to PRH Global and Fay @ Bibliophile Soprano!

Field Notes on Love has the kind of premise I'd usually scoff at- two strangers agreeing to travel together by train? It doesn't see like the kind of thing which could happen in real life. Maybe it can't happen in real life, maybe it can, but that's not the point of the story. Regardless of how believable I found it to be, it was a highly engaging and entertaining read.

At its heart, I'd call this a coming-of-age story. At the start of the book, both experience a certain upheaval in their lives- Mae when she gets rejected from film school, and Hugo when his girlfriend breaks up with him. These experiences bring them together on an adventure which sees them grow as people on the trip of a lifetime. This is undoubtedly a YA Contemporary Romance, yes. And it is very romantic and I liked Mae and Hugo getting to know each other better and gradually falling in love. It's sweet and fluffy, with a dash of angst and pain, the way I like my romance books to be.

However, the character arcs of both characters and how they grow and start to think about what they really want to do as adult is what I'd say was the highlight of the book for me. Mae and Hugo are both interesting characters with their own issues. Mae wants to be a filmmaker but she has a tendency to be closed off, preventing her work from being seen as truly personal. Hugo has been boxed in and defined  by his being a sextuplet, hindering his own personal growth. How they resolved both of their own issues made for a very interesting read.

Overall, I highly recommend Field Notes on Love if you're into YA Contemporary and want something a bit on the lighter side but with strong character arcs.

Cara Johnson

3.5 stars
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good ya romance. This was cute and short and I did enjoy it. But I think it was just a little too sappy for me. Like it was just a lot of sap if that makes sense. I also didn’t feel like hugo was very likable. That being said, I am still very excited to see the movie that is in development. I know jordan fisher will make me like Hugo and I can’t wait to see hugo and maes love story play out in the big screen.

Laura Springall

It’s 3 in the morning, I’m wrapped in a soft blanket, and have a box of tissues next to me. This book absolutely ruined me, which I did not expect at all. I thought this was just going to be a cute little travel love story, which it was, but it was also so much more than that.

The characters felt so incredibly real and authentic. I could feel the love and grief and the awkwardness of some moments radiating off the page and hit me like a fire truck going full speed. It was insta-love, which I normally despise, but with Field Notes on Love I just completely ate it up. It was so believable, if I them I would have fallen in love too.

The absolute best part of this story though is Nana. She is hands down one of my favourite characters ever, and is exactly who I want to be when I get old.

This is such a beautiful story; it somehow manages to be both beautifully simple but also very intricate at the same time. I would highly recommend this. It’s so much more than a love story. It’s about love, but it’s also about family, loss, finding yourself, and following what you know is right. This is a story that will stay in my heart for years to come.

Jawahir M

Description Summary:A short but delightful coming of age romance with a colorful cast of characters and a sweet tooth of a romance. It has the lightness found in 2000s rom com teen movies and a dose of classic romance. 

Score: 5/5

  “He’s in love with you” he says, looking at her in surprise.
 “And you’re in love with him too”
 “I’m not”
 He shakes his head. “I can’t believe it.”

 
  “You ran away and fell in love with a boy on a train”



The feels people. The utter delight I’m in. Someone in this book described love as pizza; being all warm and gooey. And that is exactly what I feel right now. This book was a short one but I was swept away by it. Not to mention trains is one of my favorite things in the world

Though the setting mainly takes place on the train, it's not boring I promise you. The dynamics between our two MCs, Mae and Hugo, make it entertaining and joyous. They have key differences but they work, they just do, and honestly watching their love story blossom was magic. Hugo and Mae are like Patrick and Kat from 10 Things I Hate About You. You’ve got the sunshine and the cynic. If you liked their dynamic then you’ll like Hugo and Mae. 

I loved that the book included coming of age themes apart from just traditionally focusing on the romance part, and the themes included were really applicable to everyone in a different sense.

It’s one of those books where you wish you could have a spin off or a sequel but you know that it just won’t work :) *sigh*

Can we please have this as a movie? Pretty pretty please? 


Do I recommend? Yes!

Melea Mullican

This book is adorable. I really liked Hugo and Mae. I think they both had great character development. I loved how they helped each other grow so much from where they started. Great adorable little love story.

Aliyah Manji

I finished this book in one day because I loved it so much. I am a sucker for super-sweet rom-com type books, and this was it. I loved both of the MCs.

Characters: 4/5
Super interesting

Dialogue: 4/5

Plot: 4.4/5
I thought the plot was interesting and unique

Writing Style: 5/5
This book was really light-hearted and easy to follows

Overall: 4.6 (rounded up to 5)

Kate

This epitomised so much of what I love about YA romance. It perfectly balanced the fluffy ‘squee’ moments with a brilliant depth, it had well rounded, fleshed out characters and relationships and a plot I found myself immediately invested in.

I’ve never been one for instalove (I’m all about that slow burn romance life) but I kinda loved this? Sure, it happened quickly but it was so adorable and, for me, the characters logic behind it made it a lot more plausible. 

The train setting was so much fun and I loved getting the tiny glimpses of the US it gave us. I also throughly enjoyed both Mae and Hugo’s individual voices and narrative. I could relate and empathise with both Mae and Hugo on so many aspects but also loved how different they were to myself and each other in personality and the path they were pursuing. 

This was by far my favourite of the Jennifer E. Smith books I’ve read. It was full of heart and an utter delight to read.

Andrea

"Utterly romantic." --Jenny Han, NYT bestselling author of To All the Boys I've Loved Before Two teens are thrown together on a cross-country train trip that will teach them about love, each other, and the futures they can build for themselves in this meet-cute romance from the bestselling author of Windfall and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. It's the perfect idea for a romantic week together: traveling across America by train. But then Hugo's girlfriend dumps him. Her parting gift: the tickets for their long-planned last-hurrah-before-college trip. Only, it's been booked under her name. Nontransferable, 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 to them, can they find a way to keep their feelings for each other from getting derailed? "One of the loveliest, most touching romances of 2019 thus far that gets at the nature of something deeply uried in all of our hearts." --Entertainment Weekly

Field Notes on Love

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