Emmy & Oliver - Robin Benway

Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway
Published by HarperTeen on June 23, 2015
[This book was give to me from the Publisher and in no way this affected my opinion.]

Emmy and Oliver are best friends since their birth, literally, they were born on the same day, the same hospital, they live next door to each other, their parents are friends, they go to the same school, they are always Emmy & Oliver. But them, at the age of seven, Oliver's father kidnaps him - now ten years later Oliver is finally found and is coming back home. The story stars with Oliver getting home and we seeing how he and Emmy and all this community, that was shattered with the kidnap, will deal with him coming back home.

The majority of this book is about Emmy and Oliver (as you probably can get the vibe from the cover and title) but not only as a romantic sort of thing, but also as friends. I really liked how their relationship was build, from the awkwardness of getting to re-know each other at the same time that they already knew so much about each other, from realizing that they had had this completely different lives during ten years, I specially loved their talks about their time away and about what ways Oliver getting back affected them - it was really honest and heartfelt and it was in these moments that I could really feel how close these two were.

But this isn't just about romance, a big part of it is about family too, I think this book is the YA with the most parent presence that I ever read making this story much more real. It was completely normal that Emmy's parents for example would become overprotective after the boy next door gets kidnapped, and it was normal the struggles that this bringed to Emmy growing up - I really loved their growth, as a family, about this overprotective side, how Emmy learned she had to speak up for herself at times and that their parents realized that sometimes they need to hear her too.

We have a great friendship dynamic too, Emmy has a little group of best friends, for ten years it has been Emmy and Caro and Drew but then when Oliver comes back everything changes and they have to figure out all over again what their roles on this group are - it was so natural what happened and how some character felt, I just really liked that Caro and Drew are there and how each of them had their own story aside from Emmy & Oliver.

Above all this good I have to talk about the writing, the writing was so good it wasn't anything lyric or super heartbreaking or anything over the top, but it had this quality of turning normal conversation on something completely not boring - most of the interactions between the characters were regular talks that you have with your friends, boyfriend or parents but I never felt like that was tedious or unnecessary because that was what made me feel for the characters and get on board with their story.

Basically if you're looking for a contemporary read that is both funny and heart felt, romantic but not overly cute/fluffy, them you just found yourself your next read.

Royal Wedding - Meg Cabot

Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot
Series: The Princess Diaries #11
Published by William Morrow & Company on June 2, 2015
Pages: 448
Genres: Chick Lit, Contemporary, Adult

Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss

Amazon • The Book Depository • Goodreads 

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Princess Diaries series, comes the very first adult installment, which follows Princess Mia and her Prince Charming as they plan their fairy tale wedding--but a few poisoned apples could turn this happily-ever-after into a royal nightmare.

For Princess Mia, the past five years since college graduation have been a whirlwind of activity, what with living in New York City, running her new teen community center, being madly in love, and attending royal engagements. And speaking of engagements. Mia's gorgeous longtime boyfriend Michael managed to clear both their schedules just long enough for an exotic (and very private) Caribbean island interlude where he popped the question! Of course Mia didn't need to consult her diary to know that her answer was a royal oui.

But now Mia has a scandal of majestic proportions to contend with: Her grandmother's leaked "fake" wedding plans to the press that could cause even normally calm Michael to become a runaway groom. Worse, a scheming politico is trying to force Mia's father from the throne, all because of a royal secret that could leave Genovia without a monarch. Can Mia prove to everyone--especially herself--that she's not only ready to wed, but ready to rule as well?

I don't know how to do a review about a Princess Diaries/Meg Cabot book basically because all I want to do is scream sentences that don't make sense and squeal and throw the book at everyone 'cause WHAT ARE YOU DOING THAT YOU DIDN'T READ IT YET? But I will try to explain my love for this book in a more cohesive way, focus on try.

First let me tell you a story. I always read, since I learned how to read I always was discovering new books or re-reading my favorites so going to bookstores was always a pleasure to me, but usually I would go with my parents and they would help me choose which books to buy until one day, the 9-years-old me went to the bookstore with her father and he said "You are old enough to read books without pictures in it, go and choose whichever you want", my younger self couldn't contain her happiness and them I went to look for my first not-childrens book and them I founded "Princess in Love" - a book about a real life princess that went to school, had geeky friends, feel in love, was bad at math, it was like Mia was my best friend! Well, I don't need to tell the rest of the story, I read all the books of this series over and over while growing up, it's one of the series that I hold more dear to my heart and all of this characters will always have a special place on my memories of my younger self.

So it was absolutely heaven when I found out that there was gonna be a new book for the series! A book about a grow up Mia! A book about Mia getting married! With Michael! (as it was always supposed to be <3). And right when I got the chance of reading an early version of it I jumped right in and read it right away - and it was everything that I wanted it to be. I was really scared that the voice on this book wouldn't match the others but I have to say Cabot jumped right into Mia's head and it was like we never parted ways with this series, Mia is as always freaking out over everything and trying to fix things and them making a even bigger mess but this time around she has more of Michael to calm her down and (try) to put more sense on her.

Tina and Lily are also really present, most of their presence is through texts which was funny and just another reminder of how great Meg Cabot is in writing a story in different ways but I specially loved the "road trip" to New Jersey that they took, it had probably the most hilarious moments of the book. We get introduced to Olivia too, which is the main character of From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess and she is amazing! I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to read it but now I'm dying to read this book - I just think it's weird that the new middle school series is going to be released before than this one, because if you read "From the Notebooks..." you will get spoiled for "Royal Wedding", so be warmed if you intend to read both of these. There are a lot more of characters that we get to see of course, actually I think we get too see all the (important) older faces, so it was really like a happy reunion.

One minor pit peeve it was that this book is named "Royal Wedding" so I was kinda of expecting to see and read about the Royal Wedding of Mia and Michael, but well, we don't really do. The wedding preparation was a part of the book (but not big enough for me, since there was a LOT of other problems too) and we get the last chapter that was between the wedding and the reception but it was too little, I wanted to see the vows and all the cameras and CRY OF HAPPINESS WITH MIA BECAUSE IT WAS FINALLY HAPPENING! But I didn't get to :(

If you loved the Princess Diaries this is a must read, it was funny on the laugh out loud sense, it was romantic, it had all the amazing characters that this series had before but now they are dealing with more grow up issues, like graduating and marriage and long lost half-sisters and it was amazing. If I had to change a thing? I would add about more 500 pages to it. I really hope Meg continues to write from adult Mia perspective because she has a very full plate on her hands when this book ended and I need more from these loved characters.