Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway
June 23, 2015
Harper Teen
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* e-ARC courtesy of HarperCollins + Edelweiss

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?

First sentence: “The last time Emmy sees Oliver is on their forty-third day of second grade.”

Have you ever expected to like—even love—a book, but once you’ve read it, it turns out that you don’t like it as much as other readers do? That’s me with Emmy & Oliver. I loved Robin Benway’s writing, but I felt very disconnected from it.

The story goes: Emmy and Oliver have been friends since they were babies in diapers until Oliver disappears when they were in second grade. Ten years later, Oliver reappears, and everybody—Oliver, Emmy, and their parents—have to deal with the effects of his kidnapping and his return as they attempt to rebuild their lives. Even though Emmy wants to go back to the old days when she and Oliver were close, she realizes things have changed for them. She tries to get to know present-day Oliver who is more subdued and hurting, and they both face their struggles and confront their past and their future together.

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Also Known As by Robin Benway
February 26, 2012
Walker Books for Young Readers
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Which is more dangerous: being an international spy… or surviving high school?

Maggie Silver has never minded her unusual life. Cracking safes for the world’s premier spy organization and traveling the world with her insanely cool parents definitely beat high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations. (If it’s three digits, why bother locking it at all?)

But when Maggie and her parents are sent to New York City for her first solo assignment, her world is transformed. Suddenly, she’s attending a private school with hundreds of “mean girl” wannabes, trying to avoid the temptation to hack the school’s elementary security system, and working to befriend the aggravatingly cute son of a potential national security threat… all while trying not to blow her cover.

From the hilarious and poignant author of Audrey, Wait! comes a fast-paced caper that proves that even the world’s greatest spies don’t have a mission plan for love.

First sentence: “I cracked my first lock when I was three.”

What a funny and delightful book! I love spy books, but recently, I’ve been apprehensive about picking one up because I’ve been burned by one that angered me sooo much. However, I absolutely adored Also Known As. It is about a girl, Maggie, on her first solo-spy assignment, adjusting to life as a regular teenage girl in New York City while making sure her cover and the Collective’s cover aren’t blown. Two things I loved: the humor and the friendships! I frequently found myself grinning at all the characters’s sass and squealing at how adorable the friendships happened. There wasn’t a lot of heavy dose of spy stuff that forced you to suspend your disbelief, which I appreciated.

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Inspired by Pure Imagination Blog and Stacked.

Let’s be honest, nobody follows the age-old cliché that tells us not to judge a book by its covers. If you say you do, I am side-eying you. Book covers are the first thing that attracts any of us readers to a book. Before you pick up a book, the cover can essentially make or break a book. If I don’t like a cover design, I won’t pick it up. Lucky for us, publishing companies publish different cover designs, especially when a paperback book comes out. Sometimes we like it, sometimes we don’t. Whatever the changes with cover designs, I will discuss it.

Today, we look at the cover of Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway.

I looovveee the hardcover of Audrey, Wait! The main reason is the beautiful background. Look at it! Look at those colors! Pretty. I love the way that the title is repeated and framed within each color. You can’t forget the title of this book. ;) It makes it seem like the girl on the cover is rocking out (to music) as she falls through a tunnel. It’s a really eye-catching design. The paperback cover is okay. I don’t really like the font that’s used for the title. It’s too…bubble-y? And I find the white background to be off putting. I actually have the paperback version and I’m not a big fan of how it looks in person.

And can we talk about how dated their outfits look in both covers? WOW. I haven’t seen that type of fashion since 2005 (if memory serves me right). I know the book was published around that time, so it makes sense the fashion looked like this, but still. Boot-cut jeans with a thick white belt? Umm, no. The outfit in the the paperback cover is slightly better. I like her top ensemble, but her skirt has got to go. It’s something Lizzie McGuire would wear. (I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. :P)

I haven’t read the book so I can’t judge if the cover fits the content.

What did you think of the cover design and the changes? Did you find yourself critiquing the clothing like I did? Is there anything you would change?