This is a sweet young adult novel.
It has the pre-requisite angsty story - a young boy kidnapped by his father returns home after 10 years, a teen girl with over protective parents who don't understand her - but the characters are likeable and the plot isn't too much of a stretch.
The teen characters - especially the uninterrupted friendship of Drew, Caro and Emmy - are realistic. Much of teen friendships is made of inside jokes and tremendous loyalty - this is portrayed well.
The parental unit could have been fleshed out a little more but by not doing that Benway gives you the feel that you can't really understand fully why they do what they do and isn't that what the teen years are really about? Not knowing why your parents do what they do or think how they think?

The fact that I didn't really like this book was both surprising and disappointing.
I did not care for or connect with any of the characters. I didn't really like Emmy or Oliver very much, nor the relationship between them.
Oliver and Emmy were neighbors and best friends up until Oliver was kidnapped by his father when he was seven. Emmy has held on to the memory and loss of Oliver for all this time, until one day the moment everyone had all been waiting for but basically given up on - Oliver is found. Now he's back in the house next door, and the past and the present are forced together despite all the time and events that took place in between.
Ultimately, Emmy and Oliver rekindle their friendship and "more" (No spoilers people; you can read the title and see the little pink heart on the cover). I could appreciate the emotional turmoil as Oliver struggled with the demons of a past he never chose and his conflicting feelings about his parents. Even Emmy had her own drama, longing to be free and independent under the strict reign of parents who feared losing her as they saw Oliver be lost so many years before.
But like... I just didn't really care? There were a couple good insights, but ultimately I just didn't connect with their thoughts or dialogue. And without that connection, the drama and feelings of all these characters wound up feeling ... for lack of a better word, dumb.
I also didn't like the flashbacks to when Emmy and Oliver were kids. Obviously it was supposed to be told from the POV of children, but they just felt bland and stupid. I agree that the point of those flashbacks was to give you a better understanding of the Emmy and Oliver of the past and therefore strengthen the reader's connection with the Emmy and Oliver of the present. But as I feel it rather failed to do that, they just felt pointless.
And that ending chapter - The "Wave" - was so unrealistic and cheesy. Like seriously? UGH.
Okay, I am done with my vent fest. From the reviews I have looked through, I am in the minority in how I felt about this book. But alas, there it is.

“Well, that’s growing up, isn’t it?” my dad said. “You don’t always have to know. And things aren’t always fair. You just have to keep moving forward. A step in one direction.”

Yet another book that has me wondering just what is going on in the book marketing/design world. With a title like Emmy & Oliver and the heart-shaped finger prints on the cover, pretty much everyone will pick this book up thinking they know exactly what they're going to get - a cute romance.

In reality, this book is not a romance. Maybe it's 25% romance at the very most. Rather, [b:Emmy & Oliver|13132816|Emmy & Oliver|Robin Benway|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1414589813s/13132816.jpg|18309264] is a coming-of-age story about friendships, family, growing up, life in a small town and learning to be something on your own, separate from your friends and family. To call this a romance would grossly oversimplify a quiet, moving and funny story about all these important things.

Emmy and Oliver were childhood best friends until Oliver's father kidnapped him as a kid. The kidnapping shakes their entire small town and we see the lasting effect it has on everyone else - from the friends Oliver left behind to the parents who become extremely overprotective of their own kids. Then, ten years later, Oliver is found and returned home. Emmy is unsure whether she wants to rebuild what they once had, or even if it's possible, but she is curious about the person who has returned and how much of her old friend lingers beneath the surface.

This is such a sensitive and thoughtful story about many different relationships. There's something about the way Benway handles her characterization that makes us care about every individual in this book. Forget Emmy and Oliver for a second, we also see Emmy's relationship with her two other friends - Caroline and Drew - through some of the best-written dialogue I've read in a long time. And we get a glimpse into the complex relationship Emmy has with her overprotective parents; both her love for them and her frustration with them.

Honestly, I loved these characters and the dynamic between them. I think [b:Emmy & Oliver|13132816|Emmy & Oliver|Robin Benway|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1414589813s/13132816.jpg|18309264] is all the more powerful because it feels so real and honest. The people in this book feel both unique and universal at the same time. It is not cheesy, there are no sex gods or instaromances of any kind, it channels some feminist vibes, and friendship is put before anything else. Very highly recommended.

“You’re just a weirdo,” he said. “That’s all.”

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I am giving Emmy & Oliver three stars because it is a quick read for romance lovers. It is very cliche and predictable in terms of the plot and there is not much growth between the characters.

Cute? Check.
Heartwarming? Check.
Intriguing plot? Check.
Moving romance? I guess.
New, original, 5 star idea? Sadly, no.

Look, don't get me wrong. The characters were pretty great. The family dynamics were (suprisingly!) portrayed realistically. The plot was interesting enough to hold my attention.

It just wasn't... there. It didn't make cry or question my existence. It didn't work its magic on me like it did on so many other people. Which is fine, you know? If I love every book I read, there'll probably be something wrong with me.

But yeah.

The title gives it all away, tbh. Emmy and Oliver. That's what who this book is about. Not about kidnapping, not about the gay best friend, not about choosing your own life.

It's just about Emmy and Oliver.

It's them coming back to each other.

Them finding each other.

Emmy & Oliver finding themselves.

I didn’t recognize the girl in the reflection. But I liked what I saw.

This really spoke to me for some reason. You don't have to know somebody to love them. Even yourself.

Bom, li a primeira metade do livro em um dia, porque ele me ganhou com a história de amor de infância. Os enredos ficaram meio arrastados depois da metade, pareceu muita informação e pouca ao mesmo tempo.
Vale a pena ler sim, é um romance lindo e um grande aprendizado sobre seguir em frente (em todos os sentidos).

I picked this up from my shelf on a whim and really ended up enjoying it. It is the story about Emmy getting back her childhood bestfriend after he is kidnapped by his father 10 years earlier. The friendships in this book were great and I enjoyed the realistic aspect of how the parents interacted with the teens and actually cared about what they were doing. A great young adult novel about friendship and love.

Istyria book blog ~ B's world of enchanted books

I first found out about this novel on Edelweiss and I skipped it back then because it didn't seem like anything special. But then I started hearing things from friends and it was nothing but praise. I absolutely had to read this book, so I went back to Edelweiss and got my review copy and I buddy read it with Nick and here I am now. And I loved it!

Emmy and Oliver were best friends until, ten years ago, Oliver was kidnapped by his dad. Now he has returned after all this time and things are different. Emmy's parents are very strict since Oliver's disappearance and Oliver had thought his dad was the good buy all these years. He never knew that it was his dad who kidnapped him. When he discovered, he returned to his hometown and his mom seems to treat him like the boy he was ten years ago. Are Emmy and Oliver still the friends they used to be or maybe more? Or nothing at all?

If you're looking for a contemporary novel full of drama, this one is not for you. I get that the blurb may make it sound like that, but it's really not. It's a very quiet story. Just these kids going about their every day. And you know, trying to get over the trauma of the past ten years. I really liked that and I read it in a couple of hours. It was very sweet and touching and very well-written. The romance was also very cute and perfectly paced.

The characters and the dialogue are the best thing about this book. I loved Emmy, Oliver, Caro and Drew. They were so great! Emmy and Oliver were perfect together, Caro was a great friend and Drew was so adorable! What did bring this book down a bit were the parents. I didn't like how they acted. I get it in a way, I really do, but it was just too much and I was so frustrated reading about them!

In the end I would say that Emmy & Oliver is a very good and cute story perfect to read on a lazy summer afternoon. And thus, I recommend it to fans of contemporary who are looking for just that.

This review is also (or -soon- will be) posted on Istyria book blog

There were a couple continuity errors and that bugged me.

Putting those aside, the story was moving and emotional without being too heavy. And the relationships - friendships, romances, familial - were really strong and realistic. I felt connected to all of the characters.