[Diane’s Review] Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher

Eighteen-year-old Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the famous Orman Chronicles, written by the young and reclusive prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded. So when Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. It’s the perfect way to start off their last summer before college.

In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight like they’ve never experienced. And before Amelia has a chance to mend things, Jenna is killed in a freak car accident. Grief-stricken, and without her best friend to guide her, Amelia questions everything she had planned for the future.

When a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia is shocked to find herself face-to-face with the enigmatic and handsome N. E. Endsley himself, the reason for Amelia’s and Jenna’s fight and perhaps the clue to what Jenna wanted to tell her all along.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book was not what I expected it to be. It was so much more.

As we go through the story of Amelia and her life without Jenna the author shows the true sides of what it’s like to struggle with mental illness, to struggle with the death of a loved one.

On many occasions throughout this book my heart ached for Amelia. Jenna’s parents clinging to her as the only piece of their daughter they have left. But Amelia’s torn by guilt from wanting to follow her own path instead of the one Jenna had so carefully laid out for them.

She finds unexpected friendship, but even that haunts her. Emphasizing the fact that her best friend is gone and can never come back.

Overall, this book just made me sad. It tapped into a part of me I had long buried, a part I wasn’t too wild about revisiting. But I’m glad I did. This book told a story that needed to be told. A story that wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but storm clouds and tornadoes. For someone to know that because their boat may be filling with water now, eventually the clouds will break, the sun will dry the water and the journey to carry on won’t feel so impossible.

Diane

Hi there!

I’m Diane, I suffer from wanderlust and am from Toronto, Ontario.

Since I was a wee bairn I was obsessed with reading and the fantastical worlds books would sweep my away in. Flash forward 28 years, I can now be seen running through the trees in hopes of being carried to a world far far away, but mostly just tripping over tree roots.

When I’m not reading or watching What We Do In The Shadows on repeat, I can be found tracing my lineage to the ancient Vikings and Scots. Oh! And making organic dog treats for my high-maintenance pets.