ALA Booklist (Fri May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2015)

Emmy and Oliver, next-door neighbors born on the same day, had been best friends since birth. When they were seven, Oliver's dad kidnapped him from school, and the world changed immediately. Scarred lives and altered relationships are front and center while everyone tries to maintain a sense of normality. That uneasy status quo suddenly is tested by Oliver's return 10 years later. No one is certain how to handle what was always hoped for, but little by little, as Emmy makes her way into Oliver's life, the healing begins. This coming-of-age tale with a twist is filled with emotional wounds that are deep and painful and conversations that are awkward and revealing. Rather than focusing solely on Emmy and Oliver's relationship, Benway fearlessly examines the effects of loss and return from every perspective: Oliver, his friends, his mother and her new family, Emmy's parents. Hope, confusion, frustration, and love coexist without shame as teens and parents come to grips with the realization that nothing stays the same no matter how desperately we want it to.

School Library Journal (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2015)

Gr 9 Up-Emmy and Oliver were the best of friends up until the third grade, when Oliver disappeared, leaving their community forever changed. Years later, high school senior Emmy still lives next door to the house where Oliver lived with his mother and she has never been able to forget him. Emmy lives with the consequences of Oliver's kidnapping, as her parents smother her with rules and restrictions meant to keep her safe. She doesn't feel like she can be her own person with the weight of the past constantly influencing her life. But then one day, Oliver is back. He is grown up, guarded, and confused. Oliver thought that his mother had abandoned him, when in fact his father kidnapped him, and he was discovered by chance when he gives fingerprints on a school field trip. Although Emmy is a vaguely familiar face, he doesn't know how to bridge the time gap and find a place to belong in this community again. Oliver and Emmy try to do just that, amid the chaos surrounding Oliver's past and Emmy's uncertain future. The circumstances of this story provide a perfect setting to explore how two young people navigate new adulthood and forge new identities. This book is at times heartfelt, funny, irreverent, and ultimately satisfying. VERDICT Plot driven as well as introspective, it is a good choice for fans of Stephanie Perkins's Anna and the French Kiss (Dutton, 2010) or any of Sarah Dessen's novels. Tara Kron, formerly at School Library Journal