Emmy & Oliver
Emmy & Oliver book cover

Emmy & Oliver

Paperback – September 5, 2017

Price
$9.99
Format
Paperback
Pages
368
Publisher
HarperTeen
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0062330604
Dimensions
5.31 x 0.83 x 8 inches
Weight
10.4 ounces

Description

Emmy & Oliver is wonderful. Funny, heartbreaking, and true... just like life. Robin Benway has written characters I felt like I’d known forever, and was so sad to see go. A must read. — Morgan Matson, author of Since You've Been Gone “Robin Benway writes with her full heart. Emmy & Oliver is a genuinely sweet and funny novel bursting with the inextinguishable forces of love-between parents and children, distant and inseparable friends, new and reunited lovers.” — Stephanie Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of Isla and the Happily Ever After “Benway examines split loyalties, the impact of confessionals, and how broken bonds can be mended… Benway’s intriguing premise and honest tone are a winning combination as she movingly portrays the growing trust between her characters.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “At times heartfelt, funny, irreverent, and ultimately satisfying… a good choice for fans of Stephanie Perkins’s Anna and the French Kiss or any of Sarah Dessen’s novels.” — School Library Journal “Benway fearlessly examines the effects of loss and return from every perspective… Hope, confusion, frustration, and love coexist without shame as teens and parents come to grips with the realization that nothing stays the same no matter how desperately we want it to.” — Booklist “Benway peels away the surface and digs down to the raw emotions the teens and their families feel… as a portrait of the emerging adolescent, it engages.” — Kirkus Reviews “This realistic and painful story... twists and turns... until the bittersweet, yet perfect, ending. — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) “Emmy’s narration is smart and sassy, and the romance plot is satisfying... An unusual blend of a soulmate story, a melodramatic plot, and a realistic book about adjustment, growth, and change, this will please romance fans as well as pragmatic souls with a sentimental streak.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books ROBIN BENWAY is a National Book Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author of seven novels for young adults, including Audrey, Wait! ; the AKA series; Emmy & Oliver ; and Far From the Tree . Her books have received numerous awards and recognition, including a Blue Ribbon Award from the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books , ALA Booklist ’s Best Books for Young Adults, and ALA Booklist ’s Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults. In addition, her novels have received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews , ALA Booklist , and Publishers Weekly and have been published in more than twenty-five countries. Her previous book, Far From the Tree , won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the PEN America award. Robin grew up in Orange County, California; attended NYU, where she was the recipient of the Seth Barkas Prize for Creative Writing; and is a graduate of UCLA. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Features & Highlights

  • Fans of Sarah Dessen will devour Robin Benway's story of romance, coming-of-age emotion, and heartache, now in paperback.
  • 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 this, and finding himself returned to his old hometown, 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?

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(420)
★★★★
25%
(350)
★★★
15%
(210)
★★
7%
(98)
23%
(321)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

spoiler alert! - buy something else to read

So i brought this book because of the great reviews and the story line was a bit different. But now i feel as though I could have spent my time on sometime else. For starters i'm not sure the book i received was properly edited. There is more than one page where the same scenario is repeated twice one paragraph after the other; for example when Oliver runs out of the house and Emmy follows him, they sit on the curb and talk, then they stand and then they "go over to the curb and it" again? I thought they were already at the curb. The fact that they end up in a relationship is weird considering that neither of them showed any real interest, only hints here and there. Especially from her friends, all because of some note that existed when they were all seven? Are you telling me that Emmy has been waiting 10 years for her long lost love? And Oliver barely remembers her when he returns. His kidnapping is basically the whole story, and there wasn't even an in depth exploration of it. Just scratching the surface. What bothers me too is that Emmy makes the comment that she wouldn't want to be stuck alone with the "twins" for a long period of time and makes them out to be horrible children she baby sits, at no point in this book does she seems to like them only tolerate them because she has to baby sit them. The twins FYI are just perfectly normal 4 yr girls. I have no idea what any of the main characters look like. Their description was simply left out. The "romance" between Emmy and Oliver seems very rushed and very "immature" there's simply no depth to it. The writing style is kind of off putting for me, a lot of cursing for no reason and a lot of teenage slang like "dude". At one point in the book Emmy says Oliver isn't getting any better at surfing and five sentences after she says he's getting good. This pattern repeats several times in the book, so obviously I'm wondering which of the two contradictions is it. I'm forcing myself to finish this book because I started it, but I won't recommend it, its too monotone no moments of surprise or excitement or anything just the same level from start to finish.
2 people found this helpful
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For teenagers mostly

Interesting plot which evolved and resolved well. But it was told in a teenage attitude and vernacular which is not a bad thing but I think it makes this book much more suitable to young adult readers than adults who may not find attitudes of young people congruent to their ideas.
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Great book

I love this book definitely on my top 5 list
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Great book, hate the paperback cover

I love this book, 5/5 for the book itself. But the Amazon listing only gets 4/5 because I hate that the paperback and the hardcover don't have the same cover. How difficult could it be to make the paperback look the same?
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This was a fun read. I keep trying to read YA books

This was a fun read. I keep trying to read YA books. I honestly have a hard time getting into them. They just kind of bore me... The main characters are suppose to be 17 years old. I know the parents were meant to seem over protective, but it just all felt juvenile to me. I did enjoy the story and the friendships between the characters.
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Review: Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

Here is a summary of what the book is about. 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?

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 a good guy. He never knew that it was his father who had 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.

Readers will devour theses 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.

Wow what an amazing story. I thought it was written very well.

I found this book to be a real page turner. It was cute and sweet. I couldn't put it down.

My husband bought this book for me as a gift and I fell in love with the cover.

I am looking forward to reading more books by this author.

Happy Reading Everyone!