Life doesn’t always go the way you planned it. This book destroyed me but it also reminded me about my love of reading. Two friends bonded by one book. When one of those friends has to leave, the other takes to journey on a path like she didn’t know she was fated to take. This was a love letter to friendship, two books, to the imagination. I really can’t see more because I don’t want to spoil it but it was amazing and I highly recommend this book.

I received a copy of this book from Wednesday Books and Netgalley.

I adored this beautiful, heartbreaking book about friendship and loss.
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I'm still a little teary-eyed if we're being honest.

Amelia's world is falling apart, her dad just left to be with his pregnant girlfriend (who's barely older than Amelia) and her mom checks out, spending all her time watching TV. In an aimless stupor, Amelia wanders downtown one day and stops outside a bookstore window. After she's been staring awhile, Jenna, a classmate Amelia barely knows. sticks her head out the bookstore door and invites Amelia inside. Eventually, the two become best friends and Amelia is unofficially adopted into Jenna's family. Fast forward 4 years and the girls have just graduated from high school and take a trip to a huge book convention to meet the author or their favorite series, the series that got Amelia through her roughest times. Through a freak twist of fate, Jenna meets the famous author but Amelia doesn't, which puts a huge strain on their relationship. A few weeks later Jenna is killed in a car accident and her parents and Amelia are left adrift, drowning in grief.

When Amelia unexpectedly receives a leather-bound, first edition, signed copy of the first book in the series that brought them together, she assumes it's Jenna reaching out from the beyond to help her. When she calls the bookshop in Michigan that sent her the book, the employee who answers gives vague deflections. Amelia decides to go to Michigan and find whatever answers Jenna is trying to send her. What ensues is a heartfelt, genuine look at grief, families, love and loss.

I enjoyed every minute of it. The characters (even peripheral ones) were fleshed out and real, the bookshop in Michigan just quirky enough, and the dog brought levity to the story. This one is highly recommended and I look forward to reading more from this author!

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Omg I loved this book so much. It was real, and gut wrenching and beautiful. A debate that should not be missed!!

Amelia Unabridged is PERFECT YA. I mean it. This book is FLAWLESS. Literally every single part of this story hit it out of the park for me. I'm pretty thrifty with my own pennies so I don't normally tell people they should buy a book, but this is an instance where I'm gonna call it - if you love YA, go ahead and click pre-order for this one.

Y'all probably know how much I loved Words in Deep Blue. I'm going to be honest...I loved this one even more. The friendship between Amelia and Jenna is one of the best things I've read in a long, long time. And the way in which the author writes about the exhausting and terrifying pressure of living up to someone else's expectations really hit home with me. I wish I would have read this book when I was 17.

Amelia Unabridged is written with an authenticity that is painfully disarming, yet the hope that is weaved through every chapter is that intangible sweetness that makes the YA genre so special. This book is beautifully written and is a promise of all the good that life can hold, even in the midst of tragedy and pain. It's a love letter to stories. It's an exploration of trauma. It's balanced and good and deep and sad and uplifting.

I will absolutely be buying this one when it comes out in February, and it is going on my favorites list! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐+❤

This story was beautiful. It took me through such a wave of emotions. The story was rich and the characters loveable.

Ameila Unabridged is a beautifully written book about life, grief, found family, fate, and those magical moments in between moments that only a camera can capture. It's bout finding your own path, and the people who save you along the way.

This book is not about grief. This is about what comes after the grief. This book is about being at the cross road of your life and realizing you get to make your own choices and live your own life. This is beautifully written with enough magic to keep the reader believing and enough heart to fall in love too. Well done, truly enjoyed.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about Amelia Unabridged. I certainly didn't hate it, but it was missing a certain oomph for me. I guess ultimately I found the premise itself a little too farfetched. It's wish fulfillment in the vein of self-insert fanfiction--which is fine for the right reader, but not for me. It didn't help that I found Amelia occasionally very annoying. I really didn't believe that she would be able to chill out enough to be in a fulfilling relationship with her favorite author, especially not in the short time in which the story takes place. Perhaps me reading this as an adult was the issue but I have read a lot of YA that I love--this wasn't it.

4 Stars

I really liked this book. It kind of slowed down in the middle but picked back up in the end. The prose was beautiful and made jealous that I don't see the world like that. It definitely reminds me of how I felt reading some of my 1st books. I would absolutely love for an "Alex Unabridged" to follow but I won't hold my breath.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC of this book.

Oh. Wow. This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. The atmosphere throughout the whole book was reminiscent of a cozy rainy day in the fall, where it’s cloudy but there’s still a bit of sun peeking out. A day when you’re curled up and daydreaming and reminiscing, and while it’s bittersweet, you’re also present and content. I really don’t know how to describe the feeling eloquently, but reading this book was just an incredible experience.

I adored all the major characters in this book. They all had their lovely qualities and their flaws, and my heart ached for each of them. I found that Val’s Bookstore and the books themselves (Orman Chronicles, etc.) were also characters in the story. I’m now on a mission to read more books featuring books as characters.

Look, I don’t read much hetero romance. I’m queer, and so are most of the books on my shelves. But that being said, the romance in this book has gotta be one of my favorites date. Oh my god. The things these two say to each other...the forces that bring them together...it’s so soft and achingly beautiful I might just explode. I’m surprised that, even though the main events of the story happen over about a week, I didn’t find it to be too rushed. In fact, I wouldn’t even say it reads like insta-love at all.

If I had one complaint (and it’s really is our just one), Chapter 3 felt awkward to me. I felt like a lot of the emotions were just glossed over. It would’ve hurt, but I would’ve liked to have seen more depth in this chapter.

Overall, this was amazing. I am blown away and I can’t wait to read more by this author!

Thank you Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the free eARC!!
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Amelia is grieving the death of her best friend, Jenna, when a surprise package arrives for her. Inside is a special edition copy of Orman Chronicles, Amelia’s favorite book that also originally brought the two friends together. In seeking out where the mysterious gift came from, Amelia stumbles upon so much more.
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Amelia Unabridged is heartbreaking and heart-mending. It’s beautifully written; I don’t remember the last time I highlighted so many passages in a book! It speaks to the power of books, the importance of friendship/chosen families, and the rush of first love. It’s rooted in reality and loss, but also has a certain fantastical feel as well. I had a couple minor critiques until I slowed down and put myself in the place of these characters - their ages, their life experiences, etc. and remembered that 18 year old me was very different than present day me.
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I highly recommend this for those that love books about books, Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley, and Julie Buxbaum’s books.

This book offers a bit of everything for bibliophiles! A little bit of romance, intrigue, adventure, and LOADS of bookish references. I was not fully anticipating a romance going into the story, but WOW I am so glad it exists! It was so swoon worthy and I loved how the pairing met. This was amazing.

i really enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed going on this journey. I look forward to more from the author.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book for an honest review.

This was my first request on NetGalley because I was so hooked by the book's summary and the beautiful cover. The first few chapters of the book had me intrigued, especially when the two young friends attend a book conference to meet their author idol. The significance of that first moment formed the basis for the rest of the story and pulled me in.
I also really enjoyed the description of the bookstore Amelia visits and the reclusive author she grows to know and love. His dark broodiness was appealing but at times I was confused by what was happening. A lot of the prose felt unnecessary and something I had to wade through to get to the real story.
On the whole, however, this book was light and enjoyable and in the future, I will look for other books by this author and give them a try.

Amelia is obsessed with the book series the Orman Chronicles, When a rare edition of the series is mysteriously sent to her, Amelia is sure it came from her best friend Jenna, who recently and suddenly passed away in a car accident. As a bibliophile, the description had me intrigued... I'm thinking literary mystery, a story of young woman overcoming grief, but instead it was more sappy YA Romance, my least favorite genre. Everything was all too convenient.: Jemma's meeting the author during an anxiety attack at a conference; Jenna's parents paying for everything for Amelia, Amelia's being invited to stay with the owner of the bookstore (despite her being a total stranger), the owner having connections to the author, the author falling in love with Amelia, and on and on. This one just wasn't for me.

I don't want to give a full review since the book doesn't come out until Feb, but OMG. I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. It hit me in a way that I wasn't expecting to be hit and I'll be honest I cried.
If you are getting ready to put together, your 2021 TBR, you need to add this book. It has everything, love, loss, friendship etc. I can't thank #NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Full review to come closer to publication date!

What in the world did I just read?
I haven't the faintest idea of how to begin this review but I'll try.
As impossible as it sounds, the inside of the book is even more beautiful than the cover *heart-eyes*.
I thought that a book could get any better than some of my favorites, but this one was in a category of its own. The character's emotions seemed so deep and lifelike. It was incredible to read and I felt myself feeling their emotions as the story progressed. All the characters were great and I would really love to see more about Alex someday.
Normally I am not a fan of epilogues but this one completely different from any other that I've read.
The writing style just drew me in and all the bookish references kept this bookworm quite giddy with excitement.
Now, I HIGHLY recommend that you find a copy of this book ASAP once it releases on February 16.

Rating: can I give it 10/5?
Language: a**, s***
Romance: kissing
Spiritual: n/a
Violence: deaths of loved ones

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required.


Reveiw scheduled to be published on Jan 16, 2021.

Rating 5

Wow. Having just finished reading "Amelia Unabridged" by Ashley Schumacher I am at a loss for words. When I started reading this book I knew I stumbled upon something beautiful but it was more than that. Once you start reading this book it is so hard to put down and return to everyday life. How Amelia feels about books is exactly how I feel about books. Your favorite book world is always on your mind and you never want it to go. I thought the author captured this love perfectly. I loved the little references to other books and how it was compared to her own. This book will make you want to re-read an old favorite just so you can capture that feeling that you once had. If you have not experienced what Amelia is experiencing with Orman then sadly you are missing out and you NEED to go searching. What Amelia went through in losing Jenna and the promise she felt she had to keep to her felt so real and relatable. She lost her better half and it left her alone and confused which is of course normal. During this time Amelia had no enjoyment from reading because she was too burdened by her grief. She was too angry, hurt, sad, and guilty to focus on the words on the page. Personally, I think all readers will go through this in their life but with help from a loved one they can find that enjoyment in reading again. I honestly loved all of the characters in this book. They were all written so well having their own emotions, personalities and likable traits. I loved how the bookstore was described and have actually visited a bookstore like this and like Amelia I never wanted to leave. 

Should you read "Amelia Unabridged"?
YES!! This book shows a character struggling with grief who doesn't want to lose their friend who is already gone.They struggle with keeping old pinky promises or deciding what is better for them no matter the cost. You will want to follow Amelia as she struggles quietly cheering her on. I guarantee this book will make you feel again. 

**Received an advanced copy through NetGalley in return for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the review copy!

THIS BOOK WAS GREAT! I loved this story so much. It gave me all feels I was looking for. If you are a reader and you love books over bonding over a book! Pick this one up. This plot and story were done great and so easy to follow. The characters were written very well!

I highly recommend this read!