Emmy & Oliver

by Robin Benway

Oliver's absence split us wide open, dividing our neighborhood along a fault line strong enough to cause an earthquake. An earthquake would have been better. At least during an earthquake, you understand why you're shaking.

Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. But now Oliver is back, and he's not the skinny boy-next-door that used to be Emmy's best friend. Now he's the boy who got kidnapped. A stranger - a totally hot stranger! - with a whole history that Emmy knows nothing about.

But is their story still meant to be? Or are they like the pieces of two different puzzles - impossible to fit together?

• ISBN10: 1471144135
• ISBN13: 9781471144134
• Publish Date: 16 July 2015 (first published 23 June 2015)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

I adored Far From the Tree, and knew I need to read more of Benway's work. And, wow! She just continues to capture my heart with these beautiful stories. This book is called Emmy & Oliver, but it's really Emmy's story and how Oliver's disappearance and reappearance affected her life.

Things I loved:
• The friendship between Emmy, Drew, and Caro was one to be jealous of. It was interesting to see how Oliver's return and impending college plans affected that little triangle.
• I am a fan of how Benway incorporates family into her stories, and really appreciated how she wrote Emmy and Oliver's parents. They were all deeply affected by the kidnapping, and it changed how they treated their children. But as Emmy and Oliver grew and changed, Benway allowed the parents to grow and change too.
• That romance was so sweet, tender, and adorable. Watching their relationship evolve just warmed my heart.
• Oliver's struggle was so well done. My heart ached for him, and I was left elated with all the progress he made over the course of this story.

Overall: This was just a touching and wonderful story packed with love and friendship.

[Chelsea]

Quick Thoughts:
1. I really liked the whole idea surrounding this book. Emu and Oliver used to be best friends but they haven't seen each other in a long time so it's almost like they're becoming friends for the first time again.
2. I thought all the interactions with Oliver were adorable and I really liked his character.
3. I also loved the other friends in their little circle. I liked that they all had these crazy issues to deal with on top of our main plot.
4. I highly recommend this book if you're in the mood for something adorable!
5. I also thought the over protective parents thing was kind of cute. I just really liked seeing parents in a book for once!

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

I was really looking forward to reading Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway. It sounded so good, and I loved Benway's other contemporary romance, Audrey, Wait! But I'm sad to say I was pretty disappointed with this one.

Born on the same day, living next door to each other, Emmy and Oliver were always going to be friends, for always. But when Oliver's dad kidnaps, it changes everything for everyone. For ten long years there is no word as to where Oliver is, how he is, if he'll ever be coming back. His disappearance affected everyone; Emmy and her group of friends, Drew and Caro who just want their friend back, Oliver's mother Maureen, who has been unable to stop searching, and Emmy's own parents, who have become extremely overprotective as a result. But when Oliver does finally return, everyone is so glad, but doesn't realise just how difficult getting back to "normal" things are going to be. Oliver is ten years older now, he's not the same boy, and he's deeply affected by what happened to him, and no-one is who he remembers. People grew up and changed in his absence, and he doesn't feel like he fits in. Emmy tries to befriend him again, and bring some normal to his life, but falling for your long lost best friend when he's just returned home could complicate things.

I had such high hopes for this book! But unfortunately, it just didn't really do it for me. I found Caro and Drew - Caro who has five older brothers and sisters and parents who don't seem to care, and Drew who's gay, whose parents say they accept and love him as he is, but he doesn't really feel it - much more interesting characters than I did Emmy and Oliver. There's no real reason for it, I just didn't get emotionally involved in their story. Which is mad, because Oliver was abducted! By his dad! And now his back and nothing is the same and he's not coping well! I was interested in the moments when Oliver was honest about how he felt about the whole situation, but it just wasn't as huge as I was expecting it to be. I just didn't care that much, to be honest.

And the romance... I don't think I really felt it either. But that could just be because the story didn't affect me emotionally at all. Within the story there were both major highs and major lows, but my emotional state while reading stayed a pretty constantly neutral, neither sad, excited, happy, not even bored. Just nothing. And so the romance fell kind of flat for me. I didn't really believe it. I just wasn't moved by the romance, the abduction, the story as a whole.

I really don't have much else to say. It wasn't a bad story. I didn't hate it. It was amusing in places, both Emmy and her parents come out with funny lines at moments. But I wasn't really bothered at any point. I'm sure a lot of other people would love it, but it just didn't work for me, sadly.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Children's Book via NetGalley for the eProof.

[Kelly]

Emmy & Oliver was an absolute delight. I braced myself for the dramatic flare that is usually reserved for young adult contemporaries, but instead found a lovely, yet intensely subtle storyline that proves distance really does make the heart grow fonder. Oliver has lived for the past ten years, believing his mother no longer wanted he or his father and living mostly in New York, home schooled apart from a few course subjects his father allowed him to take. It's on a school excursion when Oliver's identity is discovered, the seventeen year old wanting to return to his mother. But his father is never far from his thoughts. Torn between both his biological parents, Oliver is finding it difficult to adjusting to life with his new family, a life he barely remembers, including Emmy. His had vague memories of girl who lived next door, his best friend and partner in crime. But a ten year absence sees the two teens building a new and tentative friendship, Emmy a shoulder to lean on while she hides her own secret life from her overprotective parents.

I loved the realism of Oliver's turmoil. His father is hiding from authorities, yet Oliver understands why he took such desperate measures, his parents messy separation and his mother intent to obtain sole custody of the then seven year old. But as enamored as I was with Oliver's story, Emmy on the other hand was mildly irritating.

Since Oliver was taken, Emmy's parents have imposed a strict curfew, growing up being protected from new experiences in the hope to keep their only child safe. Emmy has been surfing for the past two years, has applied to college and all against her parents wishes. While Oliver struggles to assimilate, at times Emmy seemed more concerned with her own issues which pale in comparison. Caroline, Drew and Emmy were all friends with seven year old Oliver, but she seemed to shut both friends out in favour of keeping Oliver to herself. As much as I enjoyed and even adored Oliver, Emmy continued to test my patience.

Emmy & Oliver is a wonderful, yet heart wrenching story about finding home. Although Emmy was mildly irritating, Oliver was an incredible young man who's life had been stolen by his father, taking away his choices while trying to navigate his way through a life he barely remembers. It was a lovely and gentle read, proving that sometimes absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

[Bianca]

I guess the more you start to love someone, the more you ache when they're gone, and maybe it's that middle ground that hurts the most, when you can see them and still not feel like you're near enough. So close and yet so far.

— More than being a cute romance story, it was a very honest read. Loved it!

[girlinthepages]

*Thank you so much to HarperCollins and Epic Reads for this review copy!

Emmy & Oliver holds a special place in my heart. The author, Robin Benway, is a wonderful, lovely human being and I found out from her via twitter that there was going to be an ARC giveaway of her newest title at the Epic Reads tent at YALLWEST, so it became one of my top priorities during the festival. I was so intrigued by the synopsis, as so often kidnapping is perpetrated by parents in a custody battle, and though the cover seemed like a YA romance I was willing to bet there were deeper themes hiding in this contemporary. Benway didn't disappoint and delivered a unique combination of a fluffy contemporary built upon the foundations of community rocked by fear.

The book is set in Southern California (Yay! We need more West Coast books!) and Benway did a really great job at setting the scene. A middle class suburb, mere miles from the beach, Del Taco runs at lunch, February evenings that only require a hoodie- this book was so wonderfully SoCal. Juxtaposed against the laid-back setting was the constant tensions and anxieties that rippled through the families in the communities when one neighbor's nightmare was realized ten years ago- her child never returned home from school. Emmy was best friends with Oliver, and his absence has had almost more of an impact on her life than his presence; it's caused her parents to overcompensate and be insanely protective. When Oliver does come home, ten years later, it's strange for her to navigate the void in her life since his kidnapping, which has lasted longer than the duration of time that she knew him.

Though the story is told from Emmy's POV, the book is much more about Oliver than it is about their romance (which I was pleasantly surprised to discover). While everyone in the community celebrates his return, he is left in a horribly liminal space where he's supposed to pick up where his life left off ten years ago, with a mother he barely remembers in a town that he only has fragments of memory of. It really struck me when Oliver mentioned that it was like being kidnapped all over again because he's right. We always celebrate the return and rescue of victims, but often pay far too little attention to the struggle and ramifications of placing a person back into their former life when they've been irrevocably changed. Oliver's emotional struggles and transitions are what really made the book such a compelling read for me.

I also enjoyed Emmy's circle of friends, and Caro and Drew felt like fully fleshed out individuals rather than placeholder characters. I enjoyed their friendship and how the group sort of naturally, if a bit awkwardly, expanded to envelop Oliver back into their group. The adults, while perhaps realistically over-protective, could be so frustrating at times!

While I enjoyed that the book was a mix of fluffy contemporary and heavier themes, I wish it had fallen more on the serious side. There was so much more I wanted to know about Oliver's time away, how he coped, how he was deceived by his father. I would've loved to see a whole transcript of Oliver's news interview about being abducted and found, or learned more about his parents' custody battle that provoked his father to take him. This book is very much a stand alone and everything was wrapped up almost a little too neatly for me in the end (considering what a messy situation it was in the beginning- he was missing for ten years and the book all takes place around a month or two. I suppose for tackling such a heavy topic I would've liked to see messier dynamics.

Overall: Emmy & Oliver is a rare contemporary that balances fluff and intense themes, without tipping into the category of being a "heavier" contemporary. It's so much more than just a contemporary romance, and seeing Oliver struggle with such a unique situation is heartbreaking and fascinating. While I wish the book had delved more into the details and duration of Oliver's kidnapping, it's solidly written and has a believable and enjoyable cast of teenage friends. This is the first book by Robin Benway that I've read, but it won't be the last!

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[shannonmiz]

Well, I don't know that there is a coherent way to review a book that got me out of a mini reading slump, is there? I kind of just want to hug it (fine, hug my Kindle, since it was an eARC) and say thank you while petting it (again, the Kindle, I suppose).  What made me love it so much? Basically that it was cute and adorable and fun, but also tackled some serious issues and provided the feels.

Let's explore some of the things I adored about this book, shall we?

The Characters

No, I do not just mean Emmy and Oliver themselves, though I do quite love them. Every character in this book was just fabulous, and multi-faceted and imperfect but wonderful. So Emmy has been missing Oliver since forever, and in part because her parents are ultra-insanely productive since his disappearance (another win- present parents!), but also because they'd been quite close, living next door. And of course, Oliver is so confused/hurt/mad that he doesn't quite know what to do or who to trust.

The side characters are equally great. Christy @ Novel Ink summed it up better than I could:

"Caro and Drew were also so wonderful. They are both the epitome of what a best friend should be and I would love to have a Caro and Drew of my own. "

Seriously, I found myself wishing for people like this in my life- those friends you know you can count on, who've known you forever and will continue to be there forever, even though you come from different backgrounds and may end up on very different paths. I just loved their dynamic. On top of that, they were just so fun! Here was one of my favorite moments:

"Caro and Drew were both doing shots and inventing some sort of complicated drinking game that involved a basketball, a feather duster, and some refrigerator magnets, and made no sense to anyone but them."

Yes, let's hang out please, fictional characters!

The parents in this story seemed like -gasp- actual human beings! Not only was it not Parent-in-Ya Syndrome, it wasn't generic parents either. The parents were going through a lot of emotional upheaval too, and the book showed this. They didn't always make the perfect choices, and sometimes they acted out of fear, regret, etc., but it was clear that they were acting out of love too.

The Relationships

No insta-love. No love triangles. Extremely slow romance, which was absolutely perfect, considering the circumstances. Oliver wasn't even sure he could be Emmy's friend at first, let alone anything else. But she was there for him, and you know, things started to happen. It was lovely, so lovely. They were so independent, they didn't need to be in a relationship, but they were so, so good for each other at the same time.

The parent-child relationship was a huge focus as well. Obviously, Oliver and his family dynamic was a huge plot point, but Emmy's relationship with her parents was just as strained at times. The whole cast of characters had to do a lot of soul searching to learn to navigate the process of growing up, and it was so lovely to see this in a young adult book.

And the friendships, as I have mentioned, were amazing. It wasn't all happiness and unicorns either, there were times that things were very complicated and tense. When Oliver returned, the trio of Emmy, Drew, and Caro was obviously thrown off. Of course, Emmy and Oliver began spending even more time together, things got even tricker. Add in your typical trust issues and such, and these friends had to really ask themselves if this friendship would stand the test of time- and inevitable change.

The Plot

So, it isn't just high school and romance and friends, there's an incredibly serious and hard hitting topic being brought up: non-custodial parental kidnapping. This is a thing that happens all the time, and I don't know all the statistics (because I didn't look any of them up) but I can't imagine that they often end happily. I think the author did such an amazing job of setting the tone for this part of the story. On one hand, everyone is thrilled that Oliver is home, but on the other, adjusting is hard. Especially for Oliver, who never asked to be kidnapped, and who didn't think of his dad as a kidnapper. I think this aspect was handled beautifully, showing how stressful it was for Oliver and his family.

But there were such amazing lighthearted moments that it offset the darker moments with a perfect balance. It was neither too heavy nor too fluffy, it was the right combination.
Bottom Line: I would just basically encourage the reading of this book. It's cute and sweet, but with plenty of real world issues and emotions. Do it.

*Copy provided from publisher for review
This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight

[whisperingchapters]

This review was first published on Latte Nights Reviews.

This book is probably one of the cutest books I have read this year. You would think it is a romance-filled story but it so much more than that. It also focuses on friendship, family, self-discovery and growing up.

Emmy and Oliver had been the best of friends when they were kids—they were inseparable. One day, Oliver’s father kidnaps him which leaves the town, especially Emmy, distraught. They stay hopeful that one day Oliver will appear. This kidnapping left many scarred especially Emmy’s parents. They are very protective her. Her mom doesn’t even want Emmy to move away to college, saying that Emmy is better off at a nearby community college. What no one knows is that Emmy has applied to a college 2 hours from home, where she will be able to join the surf team, another secret she has been keeping from her parents. Ten years later, Oliver returns and everyone is so happy about the news but Oliver feels like he has been kidnapped all over again. Will Emmy be able to rekindle their friendship?

This story is complex and sensitive, yet beautiful. Every relationship was much highlighted in the story with nothing left to the imagination. We get to read about Emmy, Drew and Caro’s friendship, which has to be by far the best friendship ever. There is so much witty banter that will leave you laughing out loud and wanting a friendship like they have. We also get to read about the relationship that Emmy has with her parents, which isn’t an easy one. Her parents are overprotective and they treat like she is a child. I mean, she has to be in bed by 10pm! Like…what?! I related to Emmy and her parents because mine can get protective at times but never to that extent. Let’s not forget about Oliver’s half sisters! They are so cute and very, very hyper. Emmy babysits them to help Oliver’s mom, who doesn’t know how to work with Oliver. She feels like Oliver’s ignoring her and don’t want to have a relationship with her but then Emmy comes to the rescue and:

“I’m actually legally obligated to ignore her [Emmy’s mom]. The other teenagers and I made a pact. There were lawyers involved; it’s a whole thing now.”

I love all of the characters, especially Emmy and Drew. They are so funny and amazing. Oliver is a complex character that the reader will love. At first, I was skeptical about his character but my love for him grew. I must say, while I did laugh for the majority of the book, I was a ball of emotions, too. We get short chapters on Emmy and Oliver as kids, which had me a mess. I would tear up at every chapter that was written in their past. And the last chapter? Wow! That one did bring the tears. I’m so glad I read this beautifully written story with funny and relatable characters.