Amelia Unabridged is a delight for book lovers. I felt an instant connection to Amelia. She is bookish, a photographer, and lost in a sea of grief after losing her best friend in a tragic accident. Serendipity takes her on a life-altering trip that begins in the most magical bookstore I’ve ever had the delight of imagining. I want Val’s to be a real place!

I loved this novel and can’t wait to purchase a copy for my teen daughter once it’s released,

A beautiful and heart warming coming of age story that travels through the pushes and pulls of friendship, through grief and guilt and out into the revelation of incipient adulthood. With a nod towards novels that act as lifelines during difficult times of life, this is one of those rare contemporary YA novels which I highly recommend.

Requested at the encouragement of my friend Cassandra, I enjoyed this! She pitched it as heartfelt and emotional and genuinely authentic, all of which I found this to be. Well done.

On the day Amelia’s father left, Amelia and Jenna’s friendship had begun. Years later, Amelia and Jenna are still inseparable as ever, and they are huge fans of the Orman Chronicles. To Amelia, Orman is not just a simple book series, it is the series that got her through a difficult time in her life. Amelia and Jenna have only one summer left before they begin college, and they decide to go to a book convention to meet the reclusive N. E. Endsley, author of the Orman Chronicles. Upon arriving at the convention, Amelia and Jenna discover that Endsley decided not to show up. Disappointed, they fly back home. On the plane, Jenna tells Amelia that she met Endsley briefly, and the two have a huge fight ending with Jenna leaving for Ireland for a few weeks.
A few weeks later, in Ireland, Jenna is killed in a car accident. Amelia is left directionless and does not know where to turn, until a mysterious package shows up addressed to Amelia.
Amelia Unabridged is a young adult contemporary novel that takes us on a journey through dealing with grief and finding your place in the world. I think every eighteen-year-old has the same feeling of restlessness that Amelia has when it comes to knowing what you want to do in the future. Jenna tells Amelia that she should be an English Literature professor, and she makes a detailed life plan for the two of them. But after Jenna’s death, Amelia begins to question Jenna’s plan.
I was a bit torn with rating this book. On one hand, I loved the story and the characters. I loved the dialogue between Amelia and Nolan. On the other hand, the writing style – the narration – bugged me a lot. The writing drew attention to itself and took me out of the story. I kept feeling as if the writing were telling me how to feel instead of showing me how to feel.
After reading Amelia Unabridged, I really hope the author would consider writing a book (or maybe a short story) about the Orman Chronicles. I know that Orman is just a made-up book series, but I really hope that it might take on a life of its own (sort of like Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On).
I would recommend Amelia Unabridged to bookworms.

It may sound strange to rate a book 5 stars that made you cry at least 3 times. Amelia Unabridged is the type of book that makes you feel so many different emotions. One minute your smiling due to something a character said or how someone acted in a certain situation and other times you are trying to hold back tears as you read about a young girl experiencing so much grief and confusion. This book was amazing from beginning to the very end. The pacing was fast enough to keep me interested, but it knew when to slow down and let certain scenes breathe. The characters felt like real people and even the setting felt like a little Michigan town that I would want to visit too (especially Val's bookstore.). I really don't know what else to say about this book, but I know you won't regret reading it. This book will make you feel emotions that you may want to feel or may even not want to feel. But this is a book that will make you feel, care, and want to know more...which is what every good book should do. And Amelia Unabridged is definitely a good book to say the least.

<i>A huge thank you to the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</I>

4.5 stars
<U>Amelia Unabridged</u> captured my heart and soul. Amelia's struggle after the death of her best friend, Jenna, became a beautiful story about resilience through love and loss. This novel focused on the messy process of finding yourself after surviving unexpected tragedies, and I loved it.
The characters were lovely and eccentric, the atmosphere was absolutely magical, and the plot had me enraptured from the first page. I could not stop thinking about this one even as I set it down. What bibliophile would not want to find friendship and romance in a quaint small town bookstore? My only qualm was the writing style felt periodically unpolished and stilted, but as this is Schumacher's first published novel I only expect their writing to improve from here.

I loved this book. The voice was great, I enjoyed all of the main characters and how the story kept me guessing.

I wasn't sure where the story was heading in the beginning. Was Orman a real place? Were they going to go there? Was Jenna really dead or was she waiting there? Maybe this was my imagination running wild, but I liked that I didn't see the clear path from the get go.

Around 50% I was totally hooked. I read from there to the end in one sitting. I loved the budding relationship between Nolan and Ashley. I loved Alex and Val as supporting characters, and of course Wally.

I especially loved how Ashley didn't give up anything after she fell for Nolan. She got everything she wished for, and more.

This is just an amazing and powerful debut of a novel.
Beautiful and heartfelt. It had everything I was looking for in a book- love, friendship, mystery and the power of books. I loved Amelia's character and her world, I was so drawn in. This was a book I savored over several days.
Classified as YA but I think anyone can and should read it.
Looking forward to more from this author.

Thanks yo Netgalley for my advanced copy.

After Amelia’s father leaves her, Jenna swoops into her life, giving her a friendship and second family. The two initially bond over a shared love for a book series called the Orman chronicles, and it’s author. But only days after the pair attend a book conference centered around the series, Jenna dies in a car crash. When a mysterious first edition copy of the book that brought them together arrives addressed to Amelia, she feels it must be from Jenna, and sets out on a quest to discover where the book came from...but she ends up finding more than she ever could have imagined.

This is the kind of book that sneaks up on your heart when you’re least expecting it.

What I loved most about it was the characters. Amelia, Jenna, Nolan, Alex, Valerie, and especially Wally are all so incredibly tangible. I was captivated by their personalities, and thought that their narratives were woven together with just the right amount of banter and poignant moments.

Initially I was scared that this was going to be an extremely sad book given the subject matter, but I was pleasantly surprised. While it definitely deals with heavy topics, Amelia did a great job at working through grief and the process of finding joy in life after tragedy. By the end I felt more of a bittersweet kind of happiness, but wasn’t at all disappointed in the feeling.

The one thing I have to say is that it took me a while to get into this one. The initial romance seemed unlikely and very fast, and by the end it still was a bit unbelievable. I love romance, but when two characters are head over heels for each other after less than a week, I just don’t buy it. Some of the motifs (blue whales, photography) also felt abruptly included at first. However as the story went on these things stopped bothering me as much. I think you just can’t focus on them too hard, and a sort of suspension of disbelief is necessary.

I really did enjoy the journey of this book, and found enjoyable even if some aspects of it weren't quite realistic. I believe it falls somewhere between 3/5 and 4/5 stars, but definitely closer to 4/5.

Intended audience: young adult
Content warnings: death of loved one(s), mentions of suicidal thoughts

First off, the cover is gorgeous. There was some great imagery in this book, from the reverence paid to stories to the magic of bookstores and the way that books can bring people together. I think bibliophiles are really going to love those parts of it.

In terms of its portrayal of grief and anxiety, I just don’t think I would recommend it for that. There were times when I felt like instead of just letting the characters be, they were forced into a narrative and some of their actions or the words they used felt a little melodramatic or cliche. For example, Nolan had pretty severe anxiety being around water because he lost someone he loved in a drowning accident, and mere days after a triggering incident, he gets in a boat with two other underage kids where they drink alcohol. (He doesn’t feel anxious anymore because he has Amelia.) That not only felt pretty irresponsible to me, but didn’t really fit with who the character was and what he was dealing with.

I think the timeline also just felt too short. It might have felt more natural if Amelia had been in Michigan for weeks, but within a few days she essentially cured Nolan of his anxiety, gained his trust even though he had become extremely guarded, and made some major life decisions. I know it’s a YA book which means there might be heightened emotions and higher stakes (which I usually love!), but some of those things actually took me out of the story rather than being able to get swept up in the magic of it.

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.