(Review) Emmy & Oliver


Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway
Publication Date: June 23, 2015
Pages: 352 (Hardcover) 
Genre: Young Adult 
My Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars


Goodreads Synopsis:
Emmy just wants to be in charge of her own life.

She wants to stay out late, surf her favorite beach—go anywhere without her parents’ relentless worrying. But Emmy’s parents can’t seem to let her grow up—not since the day Oliver disappeared.

Oliver needs a moment to figure out his heart.

He’d thought, all these years, that his dad was the good guy. He never knew that it was his father who kidnapped him and kept him on the run. Discovering it, and finding himself returned to his old hometown, all at once, has his heart racing and his thoughts swirling.

Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. In Emmy’s soul, despite the space and time between them, their connection has never been severed. But is their story still written in the stars? Or are their hearts like the pieces of two different puzzles—impossible to fit together?

Readers who love Sarah Dessen will tear through these pages with hearts in throats as Emmy and Oliver struggle to face the messy, confusing consequences of Oliver’s father’s crime. Full of romance, coming-of-age emotion, and heartache, these two equally compelling characters create an unforgettable story.

My Review: Before I start I need to tell you one thing about this book: 


I've been waiting for a few weeks to get this book from the library and yesterday it finally came in! I have a hard time not reading the books I buy, so lately I've been reading more library books and ARCs, which is a good thing. I will be purchasing this book, though. Because it's adorable and I need to own it. Like, real bad y'all. 

So, the blurb up there says that fans of Sarah Dessen will love Emmy & Oliver and I have to agree. This book had a similar feel to Saint Anything which I also loved. 

Emmy seems like a normal girl. She's smart and driven, she likes to surf and has two best friends, Caro and Drew. The only problem is that her parents are basically tyrants because when she and her friends were in second grade their friend Oliver was kidnapped by his father. 

So, it's ten years later and Oliver's been found. His dad is on the run, but he's back as Emmy's neighbor and back at her school and back in her life. 

Simple, right? 

Actually, it's kind of that simple. Oliver and Emmy become friends (again) pretty quickly. He talks to her in a way that he can't talk to his mother and you can really feel what he is going through with the whole coming home ordeal. It's hard for him, but people expect him to hate his dad and to be back to normal, even though he doesn't know what normal is. 

Emmy helps him to be that, and so do Drew and Caro. What I always love about Dessen's books is that she writes great supporting characters, and that is Robin Benway definitely does it with these two supporting characters. They are both so real with their own stories that don't take away from the main storyline, but strongly support it instead. 

The only thing that really bothered me was Emmy's parents. She had absolutely no control over her life, and that's kind of sad. I understand that they were freaking out over Oliver's kidnapping, but none of the other parents went quite as crazy as they did. So many times I wanted Emmy to tell them what was going on with her life, but she didn't. So, of course, it was a huge blowout when it finally came out. 

Emmy took the whole thing in stride, though. I loved her little quips and the snarkiness she slipped in. Honestly, her parents deserved it. They weren't in touch with anything that was happening in Emmy's life because they were so busy trying to control every move she made. 

The other relationships in the story were golden, though. From the slow buildup to her and Oliver, to her close friendships with Drew and Caro. Each was perfect in their own way. 

This was the first book I've read in one sitting in a while, but it was totally worth being a little sleepy today. 

IT'S REALLY SO CUTE.



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