Title: Emmy & Oliver
Author: Robin Benway
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Length: 352
Rating: 4 Star
Description/Synopsis:
Emmy’s best friend, Oliver, reappears after being kidnapped by his father ten years ago. Emmy hopes to pick up their relationship right where it left off. Are they destined to be together? Or has fate irreparably driven them apart?
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?
Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Don’t let the 4 stars fool you, I adored this book. It was a bit slow moving at times hence the lack of a star but I don’t think I can fault it in any other way. The more I think on it, the more I want to change the rating to 5 star.
That’s when I first learned about true frustration, that wrenching ache when the thing that matters most to you barely makes a ripple in other people’s lives.
Yes this book has romance in it, but don’t go into this book expecting just another romance story. This book is about all the different kinds of love, how it can hurt and heal in all forms. Its about finding the good in life and moving on.
The story we are told is about two neighbours and best friends Emmy and Oliver. Spending so much time together that they develop their own secret way of communicating after hours from their rooms without their parents finding out, perhaps moving onto something that is more than just friendship. Then one day, Oliver just isn’t there anymore. He ran off after school to get into his fathers car for his weekend with his dad as Emmy watches with a folded up love note from Oliver, not to see him for many years to come because his father kidnaps him.
Then 10 years later hes back, and everyone must work out how to live with the second drastic change in their lives.
I love Emmy and Oliver’s relationship. I love all the relationships in this story. I find everything so honest and realistic. Emmy has cherished the note the 10 years Oliver has been gone, thought about the way he was dressed and their last moments before he was gone, only to have this person she loves come back, the same but completely different because there is a 10 year gap in their relationship. The balance of loving what was but accepting that what has come back is not the same. Helping him come back into the life he has told didn’t want him anymore, dealing with his fathers lies, and just being the boy who was kidnapped.
An earthquake would have been better. At least during an earthquake, you understand why you’re shaking.
The only people that really annoyed me at all were Emmy’s parents. Their reaction to Oliver disappearing was to basically never let their daughter out of their sight again. But while their actions of taking their fears out on their daughter to the point of suffocation is not okay, I completely understand it. I loved the friends and the laughs that come along with them. Every character is written well and you can cannot with them all, even the father.
The only slight thing that gave me pause is why in the age of the internet Oliver didn’t become curious about the mother who supposedly didn’t want him anymore and bring the plot down with it. But I can also see why you might want to forget that part of your life if you believed those people didn’t want any part of you.
I urge any and all people who want something more than just another cute romance to pick this book up. It has very quickly found a place lodged in my heart.
He looked like a stranger, and then he met my glance, and it was like I had never stopped seeing him.
Till Next Time. . .
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