“Sometimes there just aren’t enough words to fill the crack in your heart.”

When Emmy and Oliver were seven Oliver’s father picked him up from school for a three day weekend. When Oliver wasn’t in school the following school day it became clear that something awful had happened. Oliver’s disappearance rocked their Californian suburban neighborhood and, ten years later, his reappearance is equal shattering.

While Oliver was missing Emmy grew up under the weight of her childhood best friend’s absence; her parents’ fear of losing their daughter manifested itself into extreme over protectiveness and led to quiet rebellion on Emmy’s part. My biggest complaint in the writing would be Emmy’s parents. Their phobias and rules were comical caricatures of over protective parents and it was almost distracting.

Oliver struggles to fit in at school and at home; his mother, Maureen, has remarried and Oliver now has twin half sisters. Since his father is still “at large” for his kidnapping crimes Maureen has trouble letting Oliver live a normal adolescence. Emmy is tasked with befriending (refriending?) Oliver and she lets him in on her biggest secret- surfing. Because this is YA, Emmy & Oliver begin dating and their relationship feels both natural and a bit rushed.

The pair become inseparable and Oliver begins to share what the last ten years were like for him, namely that he thought his mom abandoned him and his father was the good guy. Emmy tries to help Oliver adjust to his new old life and Oliver tries to get Emmy to come clean to her parents about her surfing.

I absolutely loved Benway’s Far From the Tree so I was looking forward to reading another one of her novels. Emmy & Oliver is very good YA but is not quite as excellent. As I said, the parents are caricatures of every overprotective parent you’ve seen in a teen movie but the teenagers are better developed. Emmy’s two best friends, Caro and Drew, add a lot to the story and keep it from just being a sappy romance. Benway is also a master wordsmith and her novel is filled with beautiful imagery. Overall Emmy & Oliver is a predictable story but filled with heart.