Release Date: July 2015.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia
Source: From publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Oliver’s absence split us wide open, dividing our neighborhood along a fault line strong enough to cause an earthquake. An earthquake would have been better. At least during an earthquake, you understand why you’re shaking.
Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. But now Oliver is back, and he’s not the skinny boy-next-door that used to be Emmy’s best friend. Now he’s the boy who got kidnapped. A stranger – a totally hot stranger! – with a whole history that Emmy knows nothing about.
But is their story still meant to be? Or are they like the pieces of two different puzzles – impossible to fit together?
My Thoughts:
5 stars.
This book – oh the feels!
It’s a tear jerker, a heart breaker, an amazing story of love, of hope, of family and of friends.
Emmy and Oliver were best friends, until they were 7, when Oliver was kidnapped. Emmy never gave up hope that Oliver would return. And he does, 10 years later, not resembling the boy she knew and remembered – except for his eyes.
Give him space, everyone tells her, but she can’t, she is drawn to him, and more than anything he needs a friend.
Oliver’s life has been turned upside down. Everything he thought was true for the last ten years has been a lie. Now he is back ‘home’ everything is strange, everything is hard.
But then there is Emmy, the girl he barely remembers being friends with, willing to be his friend again. Things get a little easier with her around. Their friendship is rekindled, and more than that, sparks fly.
This was an achingly beautiful romance with heart. Emmy and Oliver were so richly drawn it was easy to forget they weren’t real people. My heart broke for Oliver as he struggled to find his true self, find out where he belonged. It is a sad story but full of hope, which is always the best kind.
For contemporary fans, this is a MUST READ.
You can add it to your Goodreads HERE.
I actually borrowed this one from the library a little while back — but it had to go back before I had the chance to read! I’m glad you loved it. I think I’ll have to reborrow sometime.