Dear Emmie Blue....you are amazing! While yes, there were times I wanted to reach into the book and shake Emmie Blue, and loved her and this cast of characters. A few times I felt tears prick my eyes. I laughed. I was in love with this book.

Dear Emmie Blue is a beautiful book. It is a good book to read and once you start you might not stop. This tellls the story of Emmie and how she falls in love with her friend but is unable to tell him and thus watches him fall for someone else. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it for fans of books dealing with self-reflection and light romance.


I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Dear Emmie Blue is one of those sweet romances that most people that love chick-lit will fall in love with. It's a well-written slow burn that just didn't push past its predictable story line for me. When I'm reading romances, I want to feel. Emotions are so super important to me, especially when the story is as predictable as what we've got here. Unfortunately, I just didn't connect with any of the main characters (the side characters seemed to have the majority of the personality in this book) enough to care about their story.

Emmie puts her email address into a balloon and releases it to the world. Weeks later she finds an email in her inbox from Lucas. This sparks a 14 year friendship between Emmie and Lucas. Over the years Emmie hides her love for Lucas and then watches him fall in love with someone else.

Emmie is a girl you can't help but love. I couldn't help but see pieces of me in Emmie that made me root for her. Not only did I love Emmie, I loved all of her wonderful friends. The whole tale was a charming page turner. I was laughing, crying, cheering, and at times nearly throwing the book down .

I wanted to love this one, I really did. But it just didnt do it for me. I found the book as a whole hard to get into. I ket putting it down.

Dear Emmie Blue was one of the books I was really looking forward to reading this summer. Unfortunately, I was thinking it was a light.cutesy read but the story really is a bit depressing and sad.. However I was really curious to see how Emmie’s story was going to play out. I know many people have absolutely loved this one and I think it will be a summer favorite for many.

DNF at 20%. I think this is a case of “it’s not you book, it’s me.” I have so many friends who read and loved this book - found it charming and touching and often five stars. I also saw charming and heartwarming thrown around a lot - and maybe that’s my problem. At this moment as I sit midpandemic - I’m not sure charming/heartwarming is where my head is at. I’ve listened to 20% and don’t feel it’s really gotten anywhere yet. Maybe I’ll return to this at another time when my head is in a different place. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading and listening copies.

This book! What an amazing story. It was the type of story I needed in my life at that moment and I loved it so much. I ended up getting a physical copy for my shelves and recommend it to everyone. Such a wonderful book!

I didn't finish this book because it reminded me too much of other books I've read recently, like In Five Years and One Day in December.

Ready for a book that you’ll finish in one day? Then read Dear Emmie Blue. Let me be clear, it’s not a short read, it’s a riveting one. That’s why you’ll stayed glued to each chapter rooting for this young heroine who’s had so many hardships but still finds a way to put the pieces back together. Dear reader, bring your tissues along, but know that it’s not a tale of sadness but rather a sweet love story that opens your mind to the possibility that two souls are destined to be together despite the odds. And I know what you’re thinking, as you’ve read that last line, but buckle up. This will not end as you might expect..... read more https://booksuplift.com/dear-emmie-blue/

4.5 stars

What a poignant, moving book. I am so glad I requested to read this and mad at myself that I left Covid interfere with completing it. But, am I ever glad I did finally finish it. This book was everything I didn't expect rolled into a complete package.

Emmie Blue, at the age of 16, released a red balloon into the air with her name and email address. Weeks later she gets a response from Lucas in France. Over the vast 14 years they formed a tight, unyielding bond, along with his brother, Eliot, and his parents. They became a surrogate family to her in a way. But all of that is about to change when Lucas lets Emmie know he is engaged and wants her to be his best girl.

Her traumatic past thrusts Emmie forward in search of family, love and acceptance. And if she'd only open her eyes and let down some walls she would see what's in front of her. But it feels as though her life is spiraling apart as not everything goes according to how she wanted it to be.

You will definitely want to pick this book up - you will not be disappointed to find that things happen for Emmie how they were meant to be.

Emmie Blue is watching her life-plan fall to pieces, but maybe it’s really just revealing the real path? As her best friend has told her, she’s made of strong stuff.

Despite Emmie’s unique life history and struggles, she felt universally relatable and easy to empathize with. As she turns 30 years old, she’s convinced her love for her best friend is all she’s had to rely on for years. She doesn’t know who her father is, her mother hasn’t been reliable or supportive since her mid-teens, and she never made any more close friends after an incident when she was 16-years-old left her on her own. She thinks all she has is the hope for her and Lucas to get their happily-ever-after.

Through the course of the book, Emmie learns that there’s a lot more depth and value to her life and her friendships than she’s been recognizing. Unfortunately the only way for her to learn all this is to have the security blanket that is her relationship with Lucas shaken loose. Watching Emmie realize who her true friends are and how much joy is really in her life is so emotionally rewarding.

Overall, I’d give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. Emmie’s character and relationships were so fulfilling and comfortable, once they were recognized; I wish they all could be my neighbors and friends.

I started Dear Emmie Blue on a whim one night while I was rocking Brynn. I got pretty far pretty quick but for some reason didn’t pick it up the next day. Life happened, probably. 😂

I started reading it again and probably finished it in 24 hours. I loved it. The writing got me right away, I loved the characters and seeing their WhatsApp messages and the titles of the songs on the mix CDs. I kinda want to go back and reread all the titles again. 😩😍🥰. If you love romance and women’s fiction I think you’ll love this one. It made me laugh, teary, just so so good.

This was such a sweet and captivating story! I fell in love Emmie quickly and rooted for her every step of the way. Her story seemed so heartbreaking at first, but it turned into a story filled with hope and determination. I loved the supporting characters too and the setting. That cottage sounds heavenly and I wish I could live there!

Emmie Blue is an adorable story that deals with the themes of family and belonging. Part light romance, part self-reflection and growth, all the characters are well-defined, multi-dimensional, and infinitely lovable. I just wanted to hug Emmie multiple times throughout the book. Lovely!

What a lovely, lovely book.

Dear Emmie Blue broke my heart over the first few chapters and spent the next 300 pages lovingly and, sometimes, painfully stitching it back together. It hurt my feelings and warmed my heart several times over.

From the first few chapters, I was a little bit hesitant to continue reading because I was not sure what to expect from Emmie Blue. Was this a Love, Rosie situation where I would watch two characters dance around each other, always making the wrong move until finally, blessedly making the right one to bring them together? Or would Emmie Blue go a different route?

It took me a while to get into it, but by the end, I wish I could fold up this story of love, family, belonging, and tuck it into my heart for safekeeping.

(Except for Lucas. Lucas can stay out in the cold.)

A girl named Emmie Blue ties a note on a red balloon and sends it into the air. An equally lonely boy Lucas finds this balloon. And right away Lucas and Emmie become email friends. Even better for their friendship, they share the same birthday. Over the years Emmie and Lucas become the best of friends. Emmie has been in love with Lucas, for a very long time. But Lucas is getting married to someone else and he asks Emmie to be his best woman. I really liked that Emmie got to be a part of Lucas’s wedding. As well as she really liked Marie, Lucas’s bride to be.
I can honestly tell you that I was rooting for Emmie and Eliot throughout this whole book. I figured out pretty early on that Eliot was the one sending Emmie the CDs.
If you are looking for a fluffy contemporary book, this is not it. There are some dark secrets that in my opinion didn’t get explained fully enough.
Another thing I diskliked was Emmie wanted to know who her dad was the whole book. And when she finally figured it out and meets him, it’s kind of brushed aside. I believe the author didn’t fully execute this storyline really well. Emmie spent Easter with her fathers wife and her half sister, but we never got to read about that. It was briefly talked about, but should of been a more monumental moment in the book.
Thank you to netgalley for the letting me read an early review of this book.

This book was so so good. I enjoyed every bit and didn’t want it to end. Wonderful story & characters and just an overall feel good sweet book.

A mash-up of My Best Friend’s Wedding and While You Were Sleeping, Dear Emmie Blue is a charming and relatable story set on both sides of the English Channel. I really liked that author Lia Louis made the characters a bit older than is usually the norm for books like this; Emmie and her best friend, Lucas, turn thirty as the novel begins, and his brother, Eliot, is three years older. I always hate when twenty-four year-old characters freak out about not having their lives together—you’re not supposed to at that age! That anxiety is way more believable coming from Emmie, who dropped out of college a decade earlier and has drifted from one job to the next since then but never really gotten a handle on any area of her life.

Since Emmie is the narrator and starts the book in love with Lucas, at first he’s a bit too perfect and inscrutable. Even when Emmie starts to notice his faults, though, and then learns about something he did in the past, Lucas is never irredeemable. It’s nice to see two adult characters work through issues and talk about how their lives are changing as they grow older without it being a big “I will never forgive you!!” thing.

Emmie, Lucas, and Eliot have fourteen years of history together, which Louis parcels out in very small increments. There were times when I wanted to know more, sooner—I was tired of vague references and just wanted her to explain what had happened among the characters before I met them. But that’s never a huge stumbling block in this story, and by the end all is revealed.

Dear Emmie Blue started a bit slow but soon grew on me, and by midway through the book I was resenting any interruptions that kept me from powering through and finishing it in one sitting. I wound up reading way past my bedtime to get to the end, because there was no way I could fall asleep without learning how Emmie’s story turned out.

My only unresolved question at the end of the book was: what songs are on Emmie’s mixtapes??? We need a playlist, Lia Louis!

The characters in this book are likeable and I cheered for them throughout the story. I loved the character development and growth, it all came together beautifully, a fully feel good book.