Loving Emily by Anne Pfeffer

 

Ryan Mills is torn with guilt over the death of his best friend, and it's all because of Emily Wintraub. If Ryan hadn't seen those incredible gray-blue eyes, hadn't pegged her as a Potentially Amazing Woman, he would never have gone looking for her at the party that night. He would never have left his wasted friend Michael alone, when Michael needed him and asked him to stay. And if Ryan hadn't left, Michael would never have driven off, totaled his car, and taken the cosmic rocket ride into death. 

As far as Ryan's concerned, when you’ve done something terrible, you don’t deserve to be happy. He tries not to fall for Emily, but he can't help it. Before long, he is "completely, gonzo, out-of-control in love." 

Ryan then learns that Michael died with a secret. Still grieving, he feels compelled to take on his friend's unfinished business. When Emily begins to question where his commitments really lie—with her or with Michael’s memory—Ryan is forced to examine his choices. What does he owe to Michael, to Emily, and to himself? 

Review:

For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. The writing was exceptional, the plot was interesting, and the main character was fantastic.

Reading a book from the perspective of a boy doesn't happen very often--I would say about 8 books out of the last 100 I've read were from the perspective of a boy--so that's always something that makes those select books especially interesting to me, since it makes them stand out already.

Ryan is sweet and charming and adorable, and I fell in love with him right along with Emily. But for character development as a whole, I was a little disappointed. Emily herself wasn't developed well enough for me to really decide anything about her; whether I liked her as a person, as a character, as Ryan's person of interest, I was never really sure. On the other hand, Michael was developed stunningly well, especially when you take into account that he's no longer alive in the majority of the novel.

Loving Emily also happens to be one of the only general fiction novels I've read in a while, and one of the best. You won't regret snatching this one off the shelf.



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