4 stars
I'm a little late getting to this book, but I was whining in my last review that I was sick of reading the first in a series (I don't like the anticipation) and wanted a solid standalone novel. When I saw "Emmy and Oliver" marked down for Nook, I jumped.
"Emmy and Oliver" by Robin Benway starts when a seven-year-old boy is kidnapped by his father. It's in the point of view of Emmy, Oliver's best friend from that early age, who is still coping with Oliver's loss when they find out, 10 years later, that her best friend is back. Emmy's overbearing parents have been keeping a close eye on her since Oliver was kidnapped, and she struggles against their tight grip, keeping secrets about her favorite pastime and her plans for after high school.
When Oliver comes back, it's awkward for Emmy and her two best friends, Drew and Caro — but quickly, the two fall back into an easy friendship, and watching them fall in love is really satisfying, even if it does seem a little too "gimme." But a tense relationship between Oliver and his mom, who has spent 10 years looking for a son she didn't expect to find again, and a conflict between Oliver hating his father and missing him really keeps the story going.
The good
This book was a really quick read — I tackled it in an evening — which is both good and bad, depending on who you are. Good for me, anyway. And it was a fun read, too. It was easy to immerse yourself in "Emmy and Oliver" and really sink into that world.
I love the world-building in "Emmy and Oliver." It's not a dystopian novel or anything, so it's not like Benway had to create an entire universe. But she did make a very realistic neighborhood for Emmy and Oliver to fall in love in, and she excellently showed the pain and torment in a neighborhood that was rocked by the kidnapping of a young child.
The bad
Emmy is whiny. Two books in a row that I haven't enjoyed the main character, but I'm not sorry for this one. Emmy's parents are strict and overbearing — very early "bedtime," forcing extracurriculars on her, freaking out if she doesn't answer texts or calls, planning for her to go to community college nearby so she can live at home. Her mom is the kind of mom in young adult books that makes decisions for her entire family, and Emmy is bratty and whiny about it from the beginning.
I don't think her parents are so bad that it warrants a complete nuclear meltdown near the end of the book — especially in a novel where the male lead has a father who kidnapped him and a mother who doesn't know what to do with him once he returns.
Why I gave it four stars
I gave "Emmy and Oliver" four stars because, even though I did enjoy this quick read, it was a little generic. There was a lot of true pain and anguish in there, and I thought Benway did a fine job. But there was a lot of fluff, too, and a lot of situations — like Emmy's overbearing parents — that I feel are blown out of proportion compared to the real issue the novel is based around.
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