The cover of this book is so pretty!! I requested this book expecting a light, fluffy romance. What I got was all that and more. The characters in this story were very developed in that their flaws and insecurities were right out in the open for everyone to see. No one is perfect and everyone has some type of emotional baggage. You have to take the good and bad; past, present and future. No sugar coating, although this is a sweet romance. Loved this story!

I have noticed (new people I follow on BookTube) that when some people are discussing a book, they give trigger warnings. I had never thought of this before and I can understand the need for it. So I thought I would share that I think this book has trigger warnings for alcoholism, anxiety and sexual assault.

This was such a sweet quirky book! So awkward and funny but still deep and touching. It was emotional, realistic and honest. I feel like I can’t explain it in a way that will do it justice so I will just say I really really loved it! It was definitely more of a coming of age story then a light romantic story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. * I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

FEEEEELINGS!

Just like with Nice Try, Jane Sinner and Fangirl – I am LOVING these YA books that are set after high school. Penny and Sam’s story just felt so real! Their friendship starts awkward and then, like a lot of friendships today, blossoms over technology. Both Penny and Sam are in their own ways, artists. Penny, an aspiring writer, has some serious problems with her mom, and couldn’t wait to leave her hometown behind. Sam, an aspiring movie director, is fresh out of a crap relationship, is broke, and is sleeping on the floor of the coffee shop he works at. The characters were realistic and loveable and the book was adorably awkward, overall a delightfully cute contemporary that I would totally suggest to YA contemporary fans.

4.5/5

Emergency call was actually better than I tought. It was a quick and easy read, the kind of book you bring to the beach with you, that you read in just a few days that makes you feel good. I would have liked to know the characters a bit more… it somtimes felt like I didn’t know them enough… that is the only reason i am giving it a 3 stars. I also did not know all the acronym meant whane they were texting...and I was sometimes annoyed by it...

I was actually surprised by this book. I expected a light, typical YA romance, but this book is so much more. Told in alternating points of view, the reader gets to see the struggles of both Penny and Sam, and how they manage to pull each other through some intense situations.
I loved how real the characters were. They were awkward and flawed, and that was okay. Some parts were difficult to read, but that just made the book that much better. It touched upon real life problems that many people deal with, and it did it in a way that completely sucked me in.

Not applicable as I could not read this novel in the format it was downloaded in. My apologies.

For aspiring author Penny Lee, beginning her first year of college is a welcome escape from so much that is lacking in her life. Now she has a chance for a new start, but will her shyness prevent her from the better future that she is dreaming of?

Sam Becker, a coffee shop baker with no money, a failing laptop, and a manipulative ex-girlfriend, dreams of being a movie director, but the odds seemed stacked against him. Will he ever gain enough footing to find some joy and purpose in life?

These questions and more set the stage for Mary H. K. Choi's new novel, Emergency Contact. Sam and Penny meet by chance in a minor emergency, swap phone numbers, and become "emergency contacts." Neither of them expect anything to come of it, but both find that they can text each other with ease. Soon they are texting daily, able to express their thoughts, opinions, darkest secrets, and dreams without any of the social awkwardness of actually having to see each other or meet in person. Sam and Penny "click." They understand each other so well, and it is wonderful to always have someone there "at the touch of a button." When their relationship unexpectedly escalates into a second real-life meeting, will it be able to survive and even thrive, or will reality and face-to-face conversation crush the freedom and ease they both felt with only texting?

Sam and Penny's text message conversations are confusing at times. There are a few sections where it isn't readily apparent which texts are sent by whom until much later in their conversation. This confusion is amplified by the fact that sometimes Sam's texts are on the left side of the page and Penny's on the right, but not always. (As my copy of the book was an uncorrected ARC, hopefully this issue will be corrected in the editing process).

Emergency Contact is a light and fun read, but it does have its dark and serious moments as well. At times it seems too heavy for the young adult audience to whom it is targeted. Both main characters have serious issues with their moms, and there is a heavy amount of cursing and bad language for a young adult book. The story that Penny works on for her writing class is dark and morbid. That aside, Emergency Contact is realistic, yet fun to read, and the ending is satisfying without seeming false. The pros definitely outweigh the cons with this book, leading me to give it a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

Emergency Contact had my attention from the start—Choi is able to draw the reader in and keep them there. Her writing style is relaxed, her descriptions clever, and her dialogue realistic yet witty. Choi's characters are a flawed blend of light and shade, some realistic and likable, other realistic and hate-able—a sign of a good writer. Emergency Contact is dialogue-driven and drama-based, with enough subplot to keep you reading until the last page.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided for review purposes. The opinions expressed are my own.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Trigger Warning: rape, panic attacks, racism

My Review:

I received this E-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!

When I got approved for this ARC I was super excited! It isn't often that I read a synopsis of a contemporary and think wow i really want to read it. The whole concept of the emergency contact and them becoming inseparable and reliable on one another was one I really liked. I was expecting this great platonic relationship.. and then I didn't get that. I mean, I did, but I feel like where this book fell short for me was the romance between Penny & Sam.

It was inevitable, but I had hope that they could just be friends. It was more a book about finding your place in the world than it was a romance, that part felt forced to me. It was an almost 400 page read and sometimes it felt all over the place. I didn't know, I still don't really know where the plot was intended to go. Most of it was talked about for one page and then never fully resolved.

There also was some troubling content in terms of things the main character, Penny, thought. She isn't a sunshine and rainbows girl, but at the same time her sense of humour wasn't really all that funny. She makes a comment about depression 'suiting' Sam and well, I don't ?? I don't like that wording. There was also an instance where she is pointing out the racism of others while also thinking negative things about an other country. 

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book for everyone. Though it is an OwnVoices book with a Korean-American MC, there is problems within the other content in the book that I couldn't look past. It wasn't my favourite, but it wasn't horrible either.

EMERGENCY CONTACT releases March 27th from Simon&Schuster.

This book was so good and refreshing. It was nice to read a book based solely on friendship, and that only had a bit of romance near the end.

Both Penny and Sam are intelligent and accepting of others and each other. They also learned lessons about honesty and keeping secrets. It was also nice that the main protagonist were a minority group and not one of the majority groups in society. I enjoyed that the main character Penny did not always get along with her mother, and sometimes had to be a mother to her mother. It was also a good depiction of anxiety and how different people deal with this as a mental illness. Sam is very supportive of her, but does not come across a person who is going to swoon any time she looks at him or vice versa. The book covers many modern topics in a realistic fashion without coming on to strong or preachy. I also enjoyed how the chapters switch between both Sam and Penny's viewpoints.

I think fans of John Green and Turtles All the Way Down would enjoy this book. I think this book would also appeal to fans of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. I also really love the cover and think it would make a great print. As people are saying now, this book provides all the feels!

The concept behind Emergency Contact is pretty cute: Sam and Penny meet at a coffee shop and after Sam has a bad night and Penny is the one who gets him home safely, they agree to be each other's 'emergency contact,' the person the other can text for help at any time. Over time, their texts become less about actual emergencies and more about flirting through emojis. The book isn't a romcom, however, and Sam and Penny end up helping each other through some difficult times.

Mostly, Emergency Contact made me feel old. There was a time I may have been totally caught up in Sam and Penny's drama, and may very well have found this a very deep and emotionally moving tale of friendship and love. As it was, I was mostly unmoved.

Part of it is that both characters felt quirky hipsterish in a way that reminded me of so many other main characters in teen dramas. Penny is an aspiring fiction writer who studies English at university. Sam is an aspiring documentary filmmaker who works at a coffee shop to make ends meet and doesn't even have enough money to buy a laptop for making his films. Penny's main project is a short story inspired by a news item from Korea, and a breakthrough about the perspective that tells the story elevates her work to brilliance in her teacher's eyes. It was a good idea, and certainly unusual, but I thought the story ended up feeling pretty flat. Sam's main project is a documentary about neighbourhood kids, which isn't super groundbreaking in terms of documentary ideas, though I do like a decision he made about how best to respect the best interests of his subjects.

A lot of Penny's problems also had to do with her mother. I liked the cultural aspect of it, where Penny's non-Korean roommate complains that Penny's mother is too involved in her life considering she's now in university, and Penny explains that that's just how their relationship is. I thought that felt very realistic, and I thought the roommate's reaction was also very true-to-life. But overall, I felt bad for Penny's mother, with Penny being so judgemental of her romantic life and her love for trendy, youthful clothes. I can understand where Penny is coming from, and perhaps if I had read this when I was Penny's age, I may have even sympathized, but as it is, I felt sorrier for the mother.

Still, the story got better the further it developed, and I especially liked how the friendship between Sam and Penny evolved over time. I think younger readers or at least more angsty or less jaded ones, may enjoy this book more than I did, but this simply wasn't for me. One thing I did absolutely love is the cover art: the illustrations and cover design are gorgeous!

+

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The review will go live on my blog on March 26.

I loved this book! I loved the characters and the plot. I loved how awkward both Penny and Sam were. The characters were so delightfully real both in their struggle to keep it to "just friends" and in their eventual relationship. Everything these characters had to deal with resonates: dysfunctional parents, switching from high school to college, fitting in with a new peer group, being an adult....the story flowed, I had to keep reading.

Highly recommend!!

I couldn't connect with the characters. They sounded so childish and acted the same way, I thought.
Do all YA books have to have conflict with their parents? It's so cliche.

Not one of my favourites. (less)

This is a very charming story about two oddballs who find each other. I enjoyed how Choi wove texting into the story—normally this is so awkward in fiction, but here it really serves to help illustrate both characters and how they interact with the world (and each other). The story is entertaining and well-paced, although I found that it glossed over some serious subject matter that could have benefitted from more careful consideration (Penny's relationship with her mom was both relatable and a little puzzling, and I wish it had been explored in more depth). But overall, a fun and entertaining read with very likeable main characters.

When I saw this on NetGalley, the first thing that drew me in were the Rainbow Rowell references. What can I say? I really liked both Eleanor & Park and Fangirl that those comparisons get me every time! But the second thing that made me really want to read this book was the texting bit! I really like the idea of people getting to know each other more through text, opening themselves up when they wouldn’t have otherwise. So, needless to say, I’m really grateful that my request was approved by NetGalley and the publisher!

Firstly, I really want to say that these characters were great! They really popped in this story, every single one of them! Sometimes, I find that while the main characters are really developed within a story, the secondary characters are either flat or aren’t seen as much, and thus become flatter characters in comparison. And yes, while Penny and Sam take center-stage in this novel, the other characters are given such detailed description that I feel as if I know every character within the book!

But honestly, I did love the dual POVs alternating between Penny and Sam! I think it was seeing how they saw themselves versus how the other person saw themselves that made it really worthwhile! If it was just one POV though, I probably wouldn’t have liked it as much. Especially with Penny constantly berating her looks and personality. It just rubbed me the wrong way. It wouldn’t be once in a while; instead, it would occur in every other chapter. I get the fact that she has such a beautiful mother as well as the fact that girls are taught to monitor their appearance and find themselves lacking is a part of it. But seriously, I wish I could read about a character who was mostly confident in their appearance. They don’t have to be Mary Sue confident about it – I just would love for it not to be a main hang-up sometimes. Sam’s also insecure about his appearance, being really skinny and covering himself with tattoos to compensate, which helps. The great thing, though, about their inner thoughts is that you see that the things that bugged them are loved by the other person. It was the balm that soothed my soul!

I did enjoy reading about Penny’s journey as a writer in school as well as Sam going to community college to study film. Penny’s experience did remind me a lot of Cath’s in Fangirl, so the comparison to it was pretty accurate! I loved seeing her written story develop within the main story, and kind of want to read it in its entirety now! Likewise, it was interesting to see Sam’s process on how he filmed his documentary and I wish that I got to know more about what happens afterwards, in terms what he does with it later…

Well, that’s all I have to say about Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi! For now, at least (I honestly have a whole lot more good things to say 🙂 )! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of Rainbow Rowell or contemporary novels in general! Especially if they’re looking for YA novels with a post-secondary setting!

4.5/5
I received a free e-arc in exchange of an honest review.

The First thing I’m going to say is that I want more. Way more. I want to read about Sam and Penny for the rest of my life. I want to know everything about them. I fell in love with the characters the minute I started reading.
The author created amazing, diverse, and strong characters. They are humans, with flaws, and weakness, but they are also so real and raw. I enjoyed the awkwardness their relationship brought up. I love the fact that neither of them had to change for the other. They both did a personal search to be a better person without even realizing it.

I enjoyed the writing style, I will definitely read more from this author. I can say that Emergency Contact is a new favorite. This book gave me so much feels.

**Spoilers**
The only negative point I have is the rape story. It didn’t bring anything more to the character of the story, and it was unnecessary. I understand why the author wrote that part, but Penny had enough background story and complexity, it didn’t bring more to who she was already.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the e-arc.

An interesting and sweet story. I enjoyed reading it.

What a pleasant surprise. I went into this book with no expectations, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were relatable and easy to feel for. I only could partially relate to some events, but I could easily sympathize with the characters since they were well-written. I grew to really like Penny throughout the book and further felt for her and her flaws.

Emergency Contact follows Penny and Sam at pivotal moments in their life and how their lives become intertwined. They develop a relationship through texting and we explore each character as they go through big life events and how they connect with each other as "emergency contacts."

The story was slower moving, but it worked. You get invested in the thoughts and feelings of Sam and Penny and go through their life with them. It somewhat reads like a lighter contemporary, meanwhile you're being hit with heavy and real things. There's a lot of issues hit on in Emergency Contact, and it gives you a glimpse into the harsh realities that some people face daily.

What I felt was lacking, however, was some more plot. There were ongoing issues that were eventually resolved but an overarching plot was on the weaker side. The story was still enjoyable, as the writing and characters are well-done. The book remains more character-driven than plot-driven, and just a bit more to the story would bump this up to a 5-star.

PS: This is a really great #ownvoices book.

A sweet book that will make you smile, laugh, cringe, and sigh with utter contentment. Young love is a great thing, and this book captures it really well.

I thought this was a very cute YA read. The protagonists were likeable and well developed, and the (written) chemistry between the two of them was lovely. A fast, entertaining read.

** spoiler alert ** I had to immediately request this book from NetGalley when I saw that it was recommended for fans of "Eleanor & Park". Much to my excited glee, my request was accepted!

While I really enjoyed this book, I wouldn't necessarily plunk it down in the same grouping as "Eleanor and Park".

I loved the characterization in this novel. The witty banter between Penny and Sam was my jam. I loved that they were two normal humans. With regular human problems and feelings, as well as the regular drama that pops up like it does for us non-fictionalized characters.

I didn't mind that there wasn't much plot, but I do wish that some of the YA cliches weren't thrown in. Not every young adult needs to have been raped - stories can still have gravitas without that happening.

Overall, it was a well-written book, with characters that I fell in love with. I would read more from this author! Recommended for anyone who likes smart and witty YAs.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the eARC!