Famous in a Small Town

by Emma Mills

For Sophie, small-town life has never felt small. She has the Yum Yum Shoppe, with its famous fourteen flavours of ice cream; her beloved marching band, the pride and joy of Acadia High (even if the football team disagrees); and her four best friends, loving and infuriating, wonderfully weird and all she could ever ask for.

Then August moves in next door. A quiet guy with a magnetic smile, August seems determined to keep everyone at arm's length. Sophie in particular.

Country stars, revenge plots, and a few fake kisses (along with some excellent real ones) await Sophie in this hilarious, heartfelt story.

• ISBN10: 1250179637
• ISBN13: 9781250179630
• Publish Date: 1 February 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 7 April 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Henry Holt & Company Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Bianca]

When I was little, I thought that once fireworks went off, all those shiny bits would rain back down to earth like brightly colored coins. And if I could just find them, if I could run to where they fell, I could collect them all up and keep them. I didn’t understand that they weren’t something you could grasp once they’d been spent. Their existence was temporary—you had to lose them in order to appreciate them.

A coming-of-age plot with delightful friendships... this sure has the author’s signature vibe that I like, but I just didn’t love this as much as her previous works. I felt like there was so much going on that wasn’t really interesting for me. Still cute though.

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 4 Stars

I just absolutely love Emma Mills. And her writing, of course. I enjoyed this so much. I didn’t love this one as much as I loved foolish hearts (By that I mean that I didn’t cry my freakin’ eyes out), but that’s okay.

It was still so wonderful, and I was definitely thoroughly entertained. Some thing about Mills’ books make them just so unputdownable!

THIS. BOOK.

It made me feel warm & fuzzy inside & just... feel all the feels. It is full of this just incredibly amazing sense of sarcasm & wit (that, quite frankly makes me undeniably jealous because I am like, 99.2%, let’s not kid ourselves here, definitely 100%, sure I could never be as witty as she is

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Initial Thoughts: Kind of unmemorable. Sometimes the banter between the friends was funny, and sometimes it felt forced. The author has a weird habit of announcing things about the characters 200 pages, as asides, in that one might have expected to be mentioned earlier.

[liz089]

Cute, fluffy story. I really liked it, not only good MC, but also interesting side characters. :)

[Rowena]

This was a wonderful YA story that was so easy to fall into with great characters and a main lead that I was rooting on from the jump. So glad that I requested this for review. What a delight!

[Sam@WLABB]

Every book she writes makes me love Emma Mills more and more. I swear, she writes books just for me, because each one leaves me warm and fuzzy and in a state of elation. And, yes, she did it once again with Famous in a Small Town.

I am not even sure where to start here, because I loved so many things in this book, but it is my firm belief that it's the characters that standout the most in Mills' stories.

As always, Mills assembled a cast of characters, who were interesting, witty, relatable, and essentially, people I would want to be friends with. But the strength was not in their individually, but rather in the friendship dynamic that existed between them. It was always a special treat, when Sophie and her whole squad were on page together. From the way they interacted and joked around, to they way they deeply understood each other was a thing of beauty. There was fun and snappy banter and lots of shenanigans, but there were also these really deep parts, which may or may not have caused me to shed a tear or two.

Several different storylines are woven together in this book, and one of my favorites was Sophie's quest to get Acadia's most famous citizen, Megan Pleasant, to help their marching band raise money for the Rose Parade trip. This mission had her re-creating the week in Acadia per Pleasant's famous song, as well as searching for the reason Megan had not returned "home" in so long. I was pretty surprised by what Sophie discovered, and it was a lot of fun tagging along with the gang as they searched for the answers.

There was another big reveal, which made me gasp out loud. I did NOT see it coming, and was so surprised by the revelation, and yes, once again, I cried. Well done with this one, Emma Mills, because it packed such a punch in the feels for me.

And, because you know I am all about the romance, I have to talk about Sophie and August. They hit it off right away, but August kept his distance. My heart broke a little for him, when I learned why he was trying to keep Sophie at arm's length, but I was still shipping these two. Let me tell you, they were adorable and precious and so much fun to see together. Their banter was fantastic, and I wore a stupid grin almost every time they interacted with each other.

Other things that made me smile:

• Fries with friends
• The girl in the blue boots
• Macaroni and cheese, the good kind, that you make on the stove
• The texts between Sophie and her sister
• Mullets!
• Teen Zone 2
• Rollin in the Cutlass
• Uncle August and his nieces ❤️

Overall: Another outstanding Emma Mills book, filled with family, friends, humor, and feels, lots and lots of feels.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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[alisoninbookland]

Well that was charming and heart warming.