Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher follows Amelia, who is struggling after her best friend dies after the two girls had a major blow up over their favorite author N.E. Endsley. After her friends death, Amelia receives a mysterious book in the mail of a limited edition copy of the Orman Chronicles by N.E. Endsley, she believes it was sent by her best friend and is searching for answers. Her search for answers leads her to a bookstore in Massachusetts where she makes friends, tries to find closure, and may even find love.

I really appreciated the way this book deals with grief in both of the main characters. I also loved all of the side characters such as Val, Alex, and even Wally! Plus, I'm always a sucker for characters that are writers and/or love books, so having the majority of the book take place in a bookshop was amazing. Definitely recommend!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was so sweet and heartbreaking. It deals with grief and books and heartbreak and love. I love Amelia and Nolan and Wally (especially Wally, the mess of a pup.). I loved Jenna and Amelia's friendship. Amelia and Nolan were so cute!

Amelia Unabridged feels like a classic in the making. Its story feels real and raw and has a particular richness to it I can't describe. It feels human. It feels like a book everyone can get something out of.

There's a certain magic to Amelia Unabridged that leaves me breathless and hopeful even when it makes me shed tears and feel my core tremble. Amelia is initially held together by her best friend, Jenna, who bond over their love for the Orman series, a book series that entails the magical journey of two sisters. When Jenna dies unexpectedly, Amelia feels her world unraveling and her only comfort comes in the form of a gift from Jenna: a limited edition of Orman that sends Amelia on a journey to find where the book came from.

Schumacher's descriptions are poignant and beautiful; she is able to make her sentences poetic while still making them feel like the thoughts of a girl who is entranced by novels. Her paragraphs aren't inordinate and, though they are easy to swallow, they still lie heavy in your heart.

The biggest strength of Amelia Unabridged is its messages about family and friends and how we must learn to embrace what we've lost and also let it go. Nolan, the author of the Orman series, perfectly matches Amelia and their relationship feels organic and precious. Even the side characters feel like true individuals and the weight of their own grievances still feel important and add to the story's messages about loss and love.

I feel this isn't done well all the time, but Schumacher also excels in creating a "book within a book" plot that feels real and even makes me want to read this Orman series. She doesn't give away too much information where we feel confused, but what she details heightens my curiosity for learning about the books. Schumacher exceeds in this sort of inception because she has a stunning ability to make everything feel relatable and remind you of the love you have for novels.

Incredible debut. The story may not be about going on an epic quest or being a harrowing hero, but it is exactly what it needs to be: a tale of losing someone you love and finding out how to move forward.

Okay, so this one was a real heart wrencher of a story. It’s about two broken characters dealing with tragedy and grief. The story revolves around Amelia who loses her best friend and then a mysterious book is sent to her. Amelia thinks it must be from her friend so she goes to investigate it and find the sender and this begins the story of how Amelia meets her favorite author. The story handled grief and anxiety very well, but my one issue was how Nolan kept using it as an excuse for his poor treatment of other people. The romance between Nolan and Amelia is sweet and I liked it. Overall this was a sweet story about two people dealing with grief and finding each other.
*thank you netgalley for sending me this arc*

A few years ago, when Amelia's dad left, she was introduced to the Orman Chronicles by a semi-popular girl at her school, Jenna. After finishing the book, Amelia becomes completely obsessed with the Orman Chronicles and becomes best friends with Jenna who feels the same way about the book.

Now, the girls have just graduated high school. They attend a book festival - thanks to Jenna's rich parents = in hopes of being able to meet the young and elusive author of the Orman Chronicles, N. E. Endsley. After Jenna meets him and Amelia doesn't they have a huge fight, then a week later, Jenna is dead.

When a mysterious package comes for Amelia, it somehow leads her to N.E. Endsley. He isn't what you would expect a world famous author to be like.

I loved all the characters. Amelia, Nolan, Jenna and Nolan's best friend Alex and his mom. This book is so much than relationships that are just at a romance level, the friendships here are just as important. I also just loved the writing and Amelia's narration. I absolutely loved this book. I love books about books and authors, so I was definitely interested just from the synopsis.

**Review will be posted to goodreads and my blog one month before publication date.

What an epic story!!!!!! What can I say about this story? The characters are amazing! Dynamic. Realistic. And relatable. The plot was absolutely amazing! My attention was held the entire time. Twists. Turns. Suspense. I love the entire story!!!! I was sad when I finished. Amparo has an amazing story!!!!

Smiling from ear to ear, feeling the warmness in my heart, I could truly say: this is fascinating! The author’s way of telling how great novels can be life anchors to save us from great tragedies of life and how fill our hearts with true happiness. And the magically beautiful romance in this book, the innocence, genuineness of pure hearts of the characters widened my big smile. I’m absolutely happy to say this book is secret gem and I’m giving my five gazillion magical orman(forest)stars without thinking. I loved it so much!

Let me give you a short summary to inform you what’s happening in this promising, feel-good, heart warming, lovely story:

Amelia Griffin’s life has changed the day her father left the house for living with his young girlfriend and her mother cut her bonds with real life and turned into couch potato, giving full attention on TV reality shows instead of caring her daughter’s well being. The same day she befriends Jenna and slowly she becomes the fourth member of her caring, protective family. The girls form intimate and special bound and Amelia is saved by Orman Chronicles, getting lost in magical world of two sisters who are competing with each other winning the right to wear the crown. Jenna also shared her love of the series and both of them start finding similarities between them and those little sisters.

After their graduation, Jenna makes a big surprise to Amelia with book festival tickets where N.E.Endsley, young author (only 19) of Orman Chronicles will be attending as speaker of one of the panels. But the panel results in big disappointment for Amelia because her favorite author cancel his participation and during their travel to airport she finds out Jenna met with him and helped him relax throughout his panic attack process which pisses Amelia off. She feels like she’s been betrayed by her best friend. They had a big fight and as Jenna and she say goodbyes for Jenna’s Irish trip, they both feel sorry and startled. And yes, Jenna dies in a car accident in Ireland which completely breaks Amelia’s heart. She stop reading because she feels like if she opens a book she may betray the memory of her best friend.

She tries to heal her wounds till one day she gets a fateful post: a special addition of Orman Chronicles sent to her name. She thinks Jenna is involved with this surprise and she traces the bookstore where the book has been sent which takes her life changing journey and helps her meet with her favorite author. This special trip will help her discover herself, learn to deal with grief and find her soulmate but she needs to decide between realizing the wishes of death friend and taking risk and listening to her heart for seeing flying dolphins moving around the forest.

Overall: Well developed characters, fantasy and fairy tales vibes merging with emotional grief and second chances story stole my heart. I smiled and I cried at the same time. No more words: genuinely loved it! I love Nolan as a broken and poignant hero and I love loyalty and pure heart of Amelia! I loved their bookish, nerdish souls!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press / Wednesday Books for sharing this fantastic ARC with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Amelia Unabridged in exchange for an honest review.

This book is jaw droppingly stunning. I love books about loss, death, grief because I find that they're often the stories filled with the most life, and Amelia's story is exactly unique enough to warrant a novel and exactly relatable enough to make you cry.

I was hesitant at first about the relationship aspect of this because I'm not a big fan of a 'broken' character leaning on someone else to 'fix' them but I was pleasantly surprised by how the romance aspect of this book plays out.

There were so many gorgeously poignant moments in this book and I cannot wait for it to become insanely popular so we can all talk about it.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of AMELIA UNABRIDGED by Ashley Schumacher in exchange for my honest review.***

Amelia and her best friend Jenna bond over a book series written by reclusive teen N E Endsley. After a rare argument, Jenna dies leaving Amelia lost and alone. Amelia travels to a small bookstore in Michigan on a quest to find more about a mysterious picture, never expecting to encounter the elusive Nolan Endsley.

AMELIA UNABRIDGED is a story about friendship, family, love, grief and living life for yourself. Ashley Schumacher’s gorgeous writing dances off the pages, with poetic word building that made me smile.

In the friendship, Amelia follows Jenna’s lead. Jenna’s enthusiasm and drive is matched by her parents’ financial generosity, taking Amelia along as part of the family. Caught up in the enthusiasm, Amelia barely considers her own preferences. After Jenna’s death, I cringed at her parents financial control, under the umbrella of love and subtle manipulation, borne of grief not malice.

Nolan is both enigmatic and infuriating, using his an anxiety as an excuse for rudeness. Beneath his frustrating exterior, a story he eventually shares.

I didn’t plan to read AMELIA UNABRIDGED in one sitting, but couldn’t help myself.

AMELIA UNABRIDGED is a must read for bibliophiles of all genres.