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.
I'm not a fan of contemporary, and I think the abduction element of the novel would be quite disturbing for me, but I'm glad it was an enjoyable novel for you, and it focused on love and friendship apart from those things. I read a novel a couple of years ago and one friend was abducted and the other friend told the story, and the focus on abduction as the central point was a bit much for me. Books that focus on friendship that is supportive and nice are so brilliant, though! Glad you enjoyed this. xx
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