Review: Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

Title: Emmy & Oliver

Series: Standalone 

Author: Robin Benway  

Publisher: HarperTeen 

Publication Date: June 23, 2015

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Reading Source: library

Length: 352

Format: e-book

  Cover Art: 5/5

 Overall: 5/5

  

Emmy’s best friend, Oliver, reappears after being kidnapped by his father ten years ago. Emmy hopes to pick up their relationship right where it left off. Are they destined to be together? Or has fate irreparably driven them apart?

Emmy just wants to be in charge of her own life.

She wants to stay out late, surf her favorite beach—go anywhere without her parents’ relentless worrying. But Emmy’s parents can’t seem to let her grow up—not since the day Oliver disappeared.

Oliver needs a moment to figure out his heart.

He’d thought, all these years, that his dad was the good guy. He never knew that it was his father who kidnapped him and kept him on the run. Discovering it, and finding himself returned to his old hometown, all at once, has his heart racing and his thoughts swirling.

Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. In Emmy’s soul, despite the space and time between them, their connection has never been severed. But is their story still written in the stars? Or are their hearts like the pieces of two different puzzles—impossible to fit together?

Readers who love Sarah Dessen will tear through these pages with hearts in throats as Emmy and Oliver struggle to face the messy, confusing consequences of Oliver’s father’s crime. Full of romance, coming-of-age emotion, and heartache, these two equally compelling characters create an unforgettable story.

Review: 

This book deals with the aftermath of a child that has been abducted. 

After of being neighbors ever since they were seven, Emmy and Oliver were the best of friends. 

One day after school Oliver's father picks him and he never returns, until  ten long years. But once he comes back nothing is the same. Oliver feels like a stranger in his own home. His mother has re-married and has two daughters. And everyone at school treats him like an outcast. Emmy just wants things to go back to the way they were before Oliver was kidnapped. 

I  really liked all the characters in the book. The relationship between Emmy and Oliver was believable, it felt real and not forced. Caro and Drew, Emmy's friends, were wonderful side characters.