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A review by maggiemaggio
Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway
I've made no secrets of my love of Robin Benway's books, but this isn't your typical Robin Benway book. The great characters, the humor, and the wonderful family relationships and friendships were there, but there was also this overlying seriousness to the book that in same ways worked really well, but in other ways held me back from 100% connecting with the story.
Emmy and Oliver knew each other from birth, they lived next door to each other and their parents were good friends. Oliver had just admitted his love for Emmy in a note when he goes away with his dad for the weekend (his parents are newly divorced) and he never comes back. The story starts with Emmy thinking about Oliver, something she's done a lot over the last ten years, and then all the sudden she finds out that Oliver has been found living in New York City and he's coming home. Emmy's parents, who are extremely overprotective, partially due to Oliver's disappearance, tell Emmy to be both nice to Oliver and to give him space to adjust to back into life in their California suburb. Emmy, who is adorably awkward, tries to keep her distance, but she's missed her friend and they quickly start to rebuild their friendship and even start to build a romance.
Let's get the thing about this book that drove me nuts out of the way first. Scattered throughout the story are snapshots of Emmy and Oliver when they were younger. Playing at the park together, going to little league games, going to birthday parties and more. It's not like I didn't like these looks back at their lives, but they also felt awkward and very juvenile. Like I thought they were fine, but it's something I think teens, who want to be seen as adults and not kids, might struggle with.
The place where this book excels is its families. And I feel like it's silly of me to point that out because it's a Robin Benway books so of course the families are going to rock, but still. The families in this book are a little different though. She written about complex families before, Maggie's parents recruiting her to be a spy, Roux's parents virtually ignoring her, and Jesse's dad being kind of evil in the Also Known As series, but these parents felt different. Emmy's parents are incredibly overprotective, to the point where I think teenagers will hate that and wonder why Emmy puts up with it. Then there are Oliver's parents, his dad who kidnapped him and his mom who's been a mess ever since. One of the big issues with Oliver's return is that Oliver doesn't think his dad is a criminal. Obviously Oliver is upset that his dad took him away from his mom and lied to him for 10 years, but he doesn't hate him like everyone else around him does.
The friendships in this story also stand out. Emmy and Oliver were also friends with Caro and Drew and Emmy has stayed best friends with him, but when Oliver comes back it's very much just him and Emmy. Caro and Drew resent this in their own way at first and the way that Benway had Emmy balance all of these relationships and the way that Oliver and Drew and Caro all reacted to each other and interacted with each other was really fascinating.
And then there's the romance. I have to say that this didn't quite live up to the epic romance I wanted it to be, but that's not really a knock on the story because the romance was still pretty great. I love boy next door romances and best friend romances so this one was right up my alley. While it did sometimes feel like the romance came on a little strong and that Oliver needed some space, Benway still did a good job of making Oliver and Emmy friends first and put the kissing and the romance second.
Bottom Line: In the case of Emmy and Oliver Robin Benway stepping out of her comfort zone turned out really well. It's not a perfect book, but it the relationships (family, friend, and romantic) make the book stand out and give it a lot of heart.
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.
Emmy and Oliver knew each other from birth, they lived next door to each other and their parents were good friends. Oliver had just admitted his love for Emmy in a note when he goes away with his dad for the weekend (his parents are newly divorced) and he never comes back. The story starts with Emmy thinking about Oliver, something she's done a lot over the last ten years, and then all the sudden she finds out that Oliver has been found living in New York City and he's coming home. Emmy's parents, who are extremely overprotective, partially due to Oliver's disappearance, tell Emmy to be both nice to Oliver and to give him space to adjust to back into life in their California suburb. Emmy, who is adorably awkward, tries to keep her distance, but she's missed her friend and they quickly start to rebuild their friendship and even start to build a romance.
Let's get the thing about this book that drove me nuts out of the way first. Scattered throughout the story are snapshots of Emmy and Oliver when they were younger. Playing at the park together, going to little league games, going to birthday parties and more. It's not like I didn't like these looks back at their lives, but they also felt awkward and very juvenile. Like I thought they were fine, but it's something I think teens, who want to be seen as adults and not kids, might struggle with.
The place where this book excels is its families. And I feel like it's silly of me to point that out because it's a Robin Benway books so of course the families are going to rock, but still. The families in this book are a little different though. She written about complex families before, Maggie's parents recruiting her to be a spy, Roux's parents virtually ignoring her, and Jesse's dad being kind of evil in the Also Known As series, but these parents felt different. Emmy's parents are incredibly overprotective, to the point where I think teenagers will hate that and wonder why Emmy puts up with it. Then there are Oliver's parents, his dad who kidnapped him and his mom who's been a mess ever since. One of the big issues with Oliver's return is that Oliver doesn't think his dad is a criminal. Obviously Oliver is upset that his dad took him away from his mom and lied to him for 10 years, but he doesn't hate him like everyone else around him does.
The friendships in this story also stand out. Emmy and Oliver were also friends with Caro and Drew and Emmy has stayed best friends with him, but when Oliver comes back it's very much just him and Emmy. Caro and Drew resent this in their own way at first and the way that Benway had Emmy balance all of these relationships and the way that Oliver and Drew and Caro all reacted to each other and interacted with each other was really fascinating.
And then there's the romance. I have to say that this didn't quite live up to the epic romance I wanted it to be, but that's not really a knock on the story because the romance was still pretty great. I love boy next door romances and best friend romances so this one was right up my alley. While it did sometimes feel like the romance came on a little strong and that Oliver needed some space, Benway still did a good job of making Oliver and Emmy friends first and put the kissing and the romance second.
Bottom Line: In the case of Emmy and Oliver Robin Benway stepping out of her comfort zone turned out really well. It's not a perfect book, but it the relationships (family, friend, and romantic) make the book stand out and give it a lot of heart.
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.