Am entertaining and humorous rom-com but Emmie was so whiny as a main character, it was off putting after awhile. Overall, a good plot nut just wish the main character had more confidence and balls. I would still recommend this as a lighter read to anyone.

Thanks to NetGalley, publisher and author for an ARC in exchange for an ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dear Emmie Blue was a sweet, well written story about friendships, family, and love. I loved the complexity of Emmie, and that her story wasn't just all lighthearted love & fluff. There were relateable struggles, and lessons learned. A quick, fun read that will keep you interested throghout. I mean how could you not fall in love with a story about people being brought together by a message in a balloon! A solid 3.5-4 ⭐️ read you should add to your tbr list.

I enjoyed this one! It was a light and fun romance novel, and its summer release date makes it perfect for a beach read!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. While there are so many romances out there, I felt like Dear Emmie Blue provided a very unique and serendipitous way for two main characters to meet. I started this book thinking I knew exactly how the novel would end, but I was pleasantly surprised.

While I found this book to be very well-written, I think the author tried to delve into many heavy topics (parental abandonment, financial struggles, and lost love to name a few). There were a couple points where it was a bit overwhelming only because it didn't seem as if there was enough time to address these topics to the full extent in an approximately 350-page novel. Besides this, I truly loved Emmie's character growth and development. Once I reached the halfway point of the book, I could not put it down! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who appreciates a romance novel.

This delightful novel follows Emmie Blue as an adult after a difficult childhood. After sending a balloon off into the world the balloon is found by Lucas who reaches back out to her and a lovely friendship is born. Emmie Blue grows attached to not only Lucas but also his family. Throughout the years romantic feelings blossom for Emmie all the way to present day as she navigates these feelings. I found all the characters to be very likable and couldn't put the novel down!

I fell in love with this wonderful book and with Emma Blue. This was such a terrific book a book with all the emotions love laughter a few tears.Each character comes alive makes the story so so enjoyable.A five star read for me highly recommend.#netgalley#atriabooks.

I ABSOLUTELY ADORED THIS BOOK! This was one of the best reads that I have had so far this year. This will probably make its way into the top ten best books I will have read this year. That is my prediction. I adored it. This book has a bit of a slow start, but hang in there (which I do not say very often) because it gets so good. This is a clean and beautiful romance that just gives you hope and all of the warm feels. I really enjoyed this book. Please do yourself a favor and pick it up the second it comes out. This was a complete delight to read and I cannot wait to read Louis' next book! Seriously, such a treasure.

"Someone shouldn't be defined by one mistake for the rest of their lives."
This is a story of friendship, love, wishes, mistakes, forgiveness and hope.
Emmie Blue wished for a friend and sent a balloon in the air with her name and email.
The beginning of a friendship and two who become bestest friends as teens now adults!
I loved the novel, but will admit I had a tough time in the beginning sticking with it. However, it is definitely a great read that you will truly enjoy!

A very different "coming of age" novel that has a happy ever after ending.

Fourteen year old Emmie Blue is the only child of a disinterested single parent, living in the UK. She longs for a family to love and to share her life with. In desperation she sends up a balloon into the sky with her email address and her secret attached. When she gets an email from France from Lucas Moreau, who found the balloon, she is hopeful. Sixteen years later as her 30th birthday approaches her life is shattered when a wedding proposal from Lucas isn't the one she expected. He wants her to be his best woman when he marries Marie in 9 months time. In true Emmie fashion she agrees and puts her whole self into fulfilling the duties of a best man/woman.

Emmie finds her best friend Rosie and her landlady Louise a source of encouragement as they insist she needs to let people in. Finding a father never knew is another Emmie effort that her mother finally shatters.

Absolute must read!! Dear Emmie Blue grabbed my heart at hello! This moving novel had me feeling a huge range of emotions from laughing out loud to crying (and everything in between)! Packed with relatable characters, I found myself cheering them on and more importantly I didn’t want to this book to end! Dear Emmie Blue is 5 star book that will most definitely be on my 2020 favorites list! I have never read a Lia Louis novel before and I am truly wow’ed and will be keeping her on my radar!

Wow, this book was such a surprise. By the synopsis, I didn't get suspect I would be emotionally taken by Emmie Blue and her relationship with Lucas and Eliot. This book really had me thinking about friendship, going the distance for someone you love, and seeing them for who they are and not what you want them to be. I fell in love with the characters and wanted to jump on a ferry to travel between these beachside towns to get a sense of place and the distance.

Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis is a wonderful, sweet, heartwarming book that I think anyone can truly identify with.

We find Emmie, a 30ish woman, in a rough patch in her life. She is battling a difficult family situation, a loss at where she is on her path in life, and hopelessly in love with Lucas, who we find out is marrying someone else. While Lucas sees friendship and not much deeper, Emmie ends up focussing on the wrong things, almost missing out what great things were truly in front of her all along.

Without giving away too much of the story and the wonderful ending, we find Emmie truly does have so much to be thankful for: friends and relationships with Louise, Rosie, Fox, and of course Eliot. I enjoyed reading the transformation that occurred in Emmie throughout the book as she matured and awakened to see all the joys that surrounded her despite her frustrations and slip-ups. I am so glad she found her way and her happy ending.

I enjoyed the characters, the imperfections and positive heart and soul of Emmie, and the slow burn of a romance that blossomed between her and Eliot. I enjoyed the smooth pacing, and of course I loved the ending.

This book brings home the ever important themes of :love, friendship, loyalty, forgiveness, acceptance, and finding yourself and your path along the way.

An excellent read.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

Oh, how I loved this book! Dear Emmie Blue was such a fun, sweet story about friendship and love. The premise of a lifelong friendship all due to someone finding a message filled balloon was interesting enough, but the story along the way had me in tears (both happy and sad) the whole time. Reviewed on Goodreads.

I am emotional wreck! I felt like my throat not only filled with cotton balls, but it seemed like at least 3000 acres cotton land invaded my entire body! Eyes are red-rimmed, nose is like tomato juice ( bloody red and runny) and my cruel heart is broken into pieces!

Dear Lia Louis, what have you done to me? I loved this story so much and I wish it could be adapted into screen. I can already visualize the billboards at the streets chanting for “Team Lucas” or “Team Eliot”! This is one of the best second changes, facing with your past to reborn from your ashes and searching for happiness book!

There are so many great Brat Pack movies vibes (from “Say Anything” to “Sixteen Candles”), weird movie references mashes with brave #metoo movement representation.

This book is sweet, swoony and cute but it also moving, heart wrenching, soul-crushing, tear jerking. Normally I hate love triangles and characters’ indecisiveness about their own feelings, that’s why this book starts like a three stars –I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it, too- story for me but as I start moving back and forth between past and present, seeing those beautiful messages at the mixed tapes, slow burn romantic moments, past regrets, future’s stumbling, present’s struggles, the characters’ flaws, their heartfelt story start growing on me! I couldn’t put it down and I let myself get lost in their beautiful, complex relationship.

Emmie looks for a real family, neglected by her mother throughout her teenage years, abandoned by her father, outcast of her school, being judged by her friends for something she didn’t do. She really needs someone stand by her and hold her hand as a confidante, a real, honest friend. And she is only 16. It is not fair to be in some much pain in those ages, forced to face the shitty hand life had dealt you. So Emmie Blue releases a balloon with her email address and her big secret into the sky and Lucas finds her balloon. That’s the part their 14 years long friendship started.

Now Emmie thinks she’s head over heels in love with Lucas and he meets with her to ask one of his most important questions of his life. But no: he didn’t ask to be his wife, he asks her to be his best man and Emmie accepts it. Whattttt!!! Yes, this is big mistake and I want to kidnap Emmie to prevent her obvious heartbreak and suffer!
You may think this is angsty, edgy and irritatingly torturous story and you ask yourself why Emmie accepts his offer (that was the moment I thought I should have given three stars ) but don’t you dare to stop reading till meeting with Lucas’ half-brother Eliot, always protective, kind, but also witty, sarcastic with amazing taste in music.

Emmie has always complex feelings about Eliot and she still resents him what he’s done when she was 19! But nothing as it seems! Emmie should change the way to look at you’re her life because sometimes people may be blind enough to see things in front of them.

Emmie slowly understands she is not lonely. She is loved and she is cared deeply and now it’s time to get her head out of her ass (I think this book could be named like this, because most of the characters are acting like blind, especially at some parts I wanted to scream at Emmie to open her eyes because some clues were so obvious and she was so stubborn to believe in wrong things about herself and people who deeply cared for her.)

And I adored the supporting characters, especially Rosie Kalwar needs her own book, her witty comments, carefree, artistic, genuine attitude and her honest sense of humor made me laugh and love her more. And let’s not forget the sweetpie Louise.

There are two heroes and it is obvious who I’m rooting for! Especially chapter 41 made me cry out loud! I’m not giving you the spoilers but that character I rooted for passed the best book-boyfriend exam with flying colors!
And ending was also sweet, emotional, inspiring, promising.

Overall: I’m still cutting off half star because of the characters’ obnoxious actions but this book already stole my heart so let’s round up 4.5 stars to 5 and keep smiling for the heart melting story the author created for us!

Special thanks to NetGalley and double special thanks to Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books (because I got both digital and hardcover copies) for sharing this amazing ARC with me in exchange my honest review. It melt my heart and healed my soul!

I received an email from Atria Books asking if I would like to review this book. The description compared it to a few books that I had read and loved, so I accepted. “Dear Emmie Blue” is the story of Emmeline Blue, who shortens her name to just Emmie after a horrid event in her life. The book takes place when Emmie is thirty, but flashes back throughout to earlier years. Feeling lonely and isolated at 16, Emmie writes a note, attaches it to a balloon and sets it free from the field of her school in England. Lucas Moreau (also 16), finds the balloon on a beach in France over a hundred miles away. Thus begins a friendship for the ages, one that changes both of their lives for the better, but most especially Emmie’s. Lucas’ family, his parents and half-brother Eliot, embraces Emmie as if she is one of them. I will say I had some trouble getting into this book in the beginning. Emmie seems a little too sad and dramatic, but once the story started to unfold, I couldn’t put it down. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed “Evvie Drake Starts Over” or similar books. It is a great story of friendship, hope, possibility and overcoming tragedy. Thank you @netgalley for allowing me to preview this book which comes out in July.

Thanks to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster, for providing me a copy of this lovely book in exchange for an honest review. First of all, I thought this book was super cute, it mentions parts of France that I have personally visited, it made me relive all these nice moments. The book is about Emmeline, but everyone calls her Emmie, like every kid, she loves to play. One day she was playing with a balloon, she had the wondrous idea of writing a message on it, she releases it. On the other side of the city, there was a boy playing, Emmie's ballon casually falls over him. I'm not going to let you know what exactly was in the balloon, all I can tell you is that her email was one of the contents of the message. The boy's name is Lucas Morceau, he was so intrigued by this fortuitous event that he couldn't resist sending Emmie an email. They built a very cute friendship, but maybe for one of them developed other types of feelings, beyond the friend zone. Years later one of these friends is ready to get married, feelings are going to be tested in this new chapter of their lives. I loved this book, it was a very cute love story.

This book was legit hard for me to get into. Truthfully I was worried!
I had high expectations and right off the bat I was having a hard time figuring out the writing style and pacing. It's frantic! And by frantic I mean you feel as though you're only getting pieces of the story the author is telling and you aren't entirely sure if that is a creative decision or just bad writing. So yeah, I was concerned!

However, it soon became apparent that it was a creative choice and as our main character begins to level out a bit so does the writing. It's actually quite ingenious!

I'd like to give myself a pat on the bat for figuring out a couple of the major "twists" immediately, although we'll see how other's do, maybe it's not as shocking as I think it could be!

Emmie was lovely, a total mess but lovely! She's a typical 30-year-old in away. You know where you feel like you should be farther along in every aspect of your life but in reality, you're in the same situation as the majority of your peers! I loved her relationship with Lucas, Eliot, and their family. I also couldn't get enough of her friendship with Rosie and Fox, they made me smile a lot!

The romance is quite a slow burn and while I was impatient about it I also didn't want to rush it. I think that's a good struggle for a reader to have!

I can't say much else really without giving plot points away and I certainly don't want to do that. This book was sweet but had a dark subplot that was interwoven throughout the story in an effective way. My one criticism would be that things were wrapped up a bit too quickly and too perfectly. I can go for perfect if we get more time to enjoy it before the acknowledgments I'd definitely be interested in reading more from Lia Louis in the future!

4 stars

I received a copy of this book from Atria Books & Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Dear Emmie Blue is a stunning novel about relationships, friendships, and seeing what's right in front of you. The romance of the story is so relatable and innocent with a girl falling head over heels for her 'dream guy'. As the story progresses, Emmie's growth is a beauty and joy to read.

When we meet Emmie, she sends off a balloon with a letter and is received by a boy named Lucas. They become fast friends and she crushes on him hoping that one day he will reciprocate those feelings.

Lucas and Emmie are now grown and he is engaged...to another woman. They have a strong bond and I could definitely see how Lucas gave mixed signals. They were flirty with each other and were always there for each other no matter what.

As I continued reading the story, I saw how one-sided the friendship could appear. Emmie would drop everything with a single text but sometimes Lucas didn't have the same dedication. It really led up to the question of when Emmie should stop wishing for the love of a man who has only seen her as a friend.

There are lots of surprises in Emmie and Lucas' life. I was so consumed in the story and loved how the story ended.

I give Dear Emmie Blue 5 stars. It is a story that so many of us can relate to. It is hopeful and romantic and reminds readers that love can't be planned, it just happens when you least expect it.

Thank you to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I’d like to start off by saying this book has my interest BUT I didn’t expect to love it like I do!

Emmie Blue is typically the type of character I tend to judge but for some reason I just adore her. When I think of Emmie Blue the word hope attaches itself to her just like she does to the reader. You seriously can’t help but HOPE for better for her. You hurt and ache for her in so many areas of her life that you just hope as you read somewhere something good will happen to/for her.

Emmie has found amazing friendships/family is Lucas, Eliot, Fox, Rosie and Louise. They all have entered her life at different stages but have been the family and friendships she yearns for. Lucas and Eliot have been around the longest and their have endured many challenges. Eliot and Lucas are brothers with Eliot being 3 years older than Emmie and Lucas. It was wonderful to see how their friendships started and how much they mean to each other.

As I was reading I couldn’t help but notice the dynamics of the relationships and how much each person went out of their way or not. While Lucas was her best friend my feelings for him started to change. He at one point was starting to annoy me and I was seeing him as not the perfect guy Emmie made him out for be. Rosie is a friend I think we could all use in our lives. She’s crazy, fun and definitely the life of the party. Eliot is so loyal even if you don’t see it. I know I didn’t realize the extent of it.

I think that’s one of the main points of the book...seeing what’s in front of you. I think many of us can relate with this issue. Also the idea of someone or something and how huge this affects us. I found Emmie so relatable and could sympathize with/for her. I found her to be so strong even when I didn’t realize that she was. Conquering fears, setting boundaries and moving on make her a character I won’t forget! I don’t think I can see a red balloon and not think of this book!

This was such a surprise! I didn't know much about the book going in, but given the title and cover, I made the assumption that it was going to be a light rom-com. And it is, to a point... but it also goes so much deeper than that. I loved Emmie's complex character; her wanting to be strong, to not be a victim, but also her vulnerability. I thoroughly enjoyed this and could not put it down.