Snakes on A Plane? How About Love on A Train?

I have always been a sucker for a good rom-com, and I always will be. While I found some of its elements overly sappy and sometimes bland, I overall enjoyed this romantic comedy of a book. It's setting and circumstances are ideally romantic -- two strangers travelling together on a cross-country train, not expecting to fall in love but finding that through the making of a film about love, love is exactly what the universe has in store for them. Hugo and Mae were destined to meet from the moment that Hugo's ex-girlfriend, also named Mae, dumped him and caused him to have to search for another Mae Campbell in order to legally travel from his home in Surrey to America for the adventure of a lifetime. Mae, on the run from parts of herself that she ends of confronting, decides to take the risk that is travelling with a total stranger and becomes Hugo's new Mae Campbell -- in more ways than one. This novel does a great job at slowly developing its characters and making them more than mere stock. While falling in love in one week is highly improbable, it seems to be the staple of all romantic stories, and this novel does a pretty great job of making Hugo and Mae's relationship about more than the physical stuff. My favorite part about this novel was most certainly the setting. Love on a train is truly and classically romantic, and it was pleasurable to read and feel Hugo and Mae's romance slowly but surely evolve as cramped quarters and new cities pushed them closer to each other. I would love to see this book turned into a movie someday!


Some of my favorite quotes from this novel:

"Most things are easier than you think... It's deciding to do them that's hard."

"You almost never know when you're saying goodbye to someone forever."

"It's like I'd been living on a map my whole life and have only now realized the world is actually a globe."

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