I don't even know where to begin. I read Amelia Unabridged in a day. It was such a beautifully written book. I loved the characters and the story,

What I thought was going to be a really sad story filled with a lot of grief, it wasn't. It was a book about hope and new beginnings and moving on from the things that have happened in the past.

Amelia, Jenna, Jenna's parents, Val, Alex and Nolan all have a place in my heart. This story was fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Amelia Unabridged is a remarkable story and one that has the potential to hit on a deep level. If you consider yourself a booklover, have experienced loss, and/or are a fan of YA fiction, don't hesitate to pick this book up.

Amelia's father ran off with another woman and her mother barely pays attention to her. A chance encounter at a local bookstore marks the start of Amelia's friendship with Jenna. Soon they are inseparable and Amelia essentially becomes a second daughter to Jenna's parents. Both Jenna and Amelia are avid readers and after graduating high school they attend a book convention. The author of The Orman Chronicles, N. E. Endsley will be there, and to say Amelia is super excited to meet him seems like an understatement. This is a story of love, loss, and finding direction just to name a few things.

I really don't want to discuss much of the plot because I think the reading journey will be better without many preconceived notions. I will say I absolutely loved how much books and reading played such a crucial role in this story. And of course the topic of grief is something that has been covered extensively in fiction, but the way it was handled in this book felt unique. It's a touching story and is a good example of how the YA fiction genre is capable of providing meaningful reading experiences.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was one of those where I just had to set it down after I read it and take a breath. This book was stunning! Everyone has a different experience with grief, and I think this book did a good job depicting that. The characters were done beautifully! There wasn't as much of a character arc for the side characters, but Alex and Val were so easy to love! I recommend this book if you enjoy bittersweet books.

I have cried, I have laughed and then cried some more but most of all I felt every word of this beautiful story!

I didn’t know what to expect from this book but the cover and description really brought me in! Some events in the beginning felt rushed and I was a little discombobulated but it’s later I discovered that looking through the lens of an 18 year older that exactly how it all would feel!

What I found in this book though is a book about hearing! It’s about the pain that comes into life and how we have to find our way! Amelia and Nolan are two broken souls trying to figure out what comes next!

I loved Amelias imagination and I loved experiencing the clever wind and how life has way of showing us where to go and what to do to find our way! The strength and reliance of Amelia is what kept me captive in this book and didn’t let me go!

A very beautiful and memorable read! A 2021 YA Must!

If you want to read an incredible story about loss, this is your book. Every single character in this book deals with loss in their own way, all tragic. While some of the plot points were either very contrived or rather trope-y, overall I found the writing to be compelling and artistic while sharing a sad but intriguing story. I love Amelia, our MC, and find her to be very relatable. I like the other main characters as well and find their personalities to be quite well fleshed out. The one that made me the saddest though may be a character that other readers skip by without notice. I found Amelia's mother to be so painfully tragic my heart hurt. She becomes a shell of a woman, ignoring her daughter and just watching TV all day. It's heartbreaking. This is stellar for a debut author. Simply stellar.

"We've already been hurt. What's one more scar?"

This will be a top book of 2021--and this is happening before the first month of the year has even concluded.

I'm not sure if I've ever highlighted so many passages in a YA book before. The writing in this book is powerful, but this isn't just a book rife with beautiful passages--it's a book filled with broken characters who help each other, and themselves, put their lives back together.

When Amelia meets her best friend Jenna, it's in a book store. Everyone needs a friend like Jenna, someone whose sage advice is, "There's nothing in the world a good book can't cure." However, when Jenna is tragically killed at 18, Amelia feels lost and broken, losing her best friend in the world, while her own mother remains the distant presence she's been since her father left. Amelia believes the only way to try to re-build her life is to continue on the path that both she and Jenna would have taken together. However, an opportunity presents itself to show Amelia that there may be a different path to find healing and happiness.

One of the most beautiful parts of this book is the journey of healing. This is tough stuff to deal with: death, panic attacks, depression. The healing is a slow-burn, and any reader's heart will ache out of happiness and comfort through reading this. However, this is also a book for book lovers. There are so many literary allusions for book lovers (this Outlander lover was so excited to read references to that royal blue book that has magic stones and highlanders in kilts). Plus, any time a significant part of the setting is in a bookstore, it's a win.

This book is about books, their healing power, and also the healing power of love and friendship. I cannot recommend this one enough. I'm calling it--one of my top books of 2021. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Publishing & Wednesday Books for this ARC.

This is a lovely book about healing from loss, learning to stand on your own, and letting yourself trust that life has more beauty to offer you. I recommend this for fans of Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley.

What a beautiful and haunting read. I need a moment to say thank you so much to @netgalley, Ashley Schumacher, and St. Martin's press for the copy for a review. What an absolute gift. My heart is overwhelmed.

This book left me speechless in all best ways possible. To say this book is a masterpiece isn't enough. There are times books leave an imprint on your heart and mind and this book takes front and center stage. It left me speechless, full of wonder and grateful. Amelia brings about the meaning of life. All its beautiful moments, all the hard moments, and how truly beautiful grief can be for the soul. Life is beautiful and while it isnt perfect, it's yours and what you make of it.

The story of friendship and the ability to to cherish it is well executed, and throughout this book I found myself texting my bestfriend periodically. Life is not promised, loss is hard, and the way we heal is unique.

A book about grief, loss, love, forgiveness.... Amelia is so special I cannot wait to buy a physical copy. My library is not complete without her. This book brought life to me. Read it.

Thank you again to the tagged publishers and @netgalley!

This was just the best story. It starts off with Amelia whose parents are getting a divorce and she feels alone ,when she meets her best friend Jenna . Jenna dies in a car accident and Amelia has to learn how to deal with the grief of her friend and the life they planned together. These girls both love books. The story talks about many popular books or stories we know about. When you read this book it brings you into a new world of books and the love of books and stories. Amelia is in love with an author and this story will intertwined her and Jenna and the author of her most adored series of the Orman world. It also has the best characters and book store . Also the most craziest and untrained dog in this story. This book has so much goodness in it that it is a must read for everyone that loves books and loves to read. Thank you to netgalley and Wednesday books for the early copy for an honest review.

Get your tissue box ready, because you're going to need it! I absolutely loved this book and couldn't put it down. I was immediately drawn to this book because of the stunning cover. I think the artwork beautifully reflects the story inside. This book covers a range of topics, including: friendship, grief, love, and life itself. We follow Amelia as she learns how to navigate the world after her best friend, Jenna, dies. After a limited edition copy of their favorite book shows up, Amelia sets off to figure out who sent her the book. Along the way we meet a few other characters: Alex and Nolan. I absolutely loved their characters! My only complaint for this book is that I wish it were longer. I would love to spend more time with these characters as their lives progress past the end of this book.

This book was so beautiful.
It was a really cute story about grief, healing, and love. It made me cry a few times, Jenna reminded me of my best friend in a lot of aspects, so the story completely broke my heart when she died. I loved the characters a lot, especially Val and Alex.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book, it was beautifully written and I would definitely recommend it.

So many people fell in love with Amelia Unabridged and I can absolutely see why. The relatable, bookish main character. The sweeping romance. The contemplative, melancholic atmosphere and smaller lake town.

But, I admit that I was not as swept away by Amelia Unabridged as I expected to be. I definitely would say this is an "it's not you, it's me" situation because. I don't know. I personally just did not click super well with it, but I 100% see why people do click with it.

It's just such a bookish book. Amelia is a heroine so many people will relate to--she struggles with her mom's distance, she's kind of shy and a little lost, she loves getting swept away in books and enjoys photography. She is also dealing with immense grief over the death of her best friend, who was like a sister.

She ends up falling in love with a 18/19 year old boy Nolan, aka N.E. Endsley who's a famous author of a hugely popular fantasy series, the Orman Chronicles. Which is also her favorite series, even if she hasn't read since her best friend died.

For me personally. I wish it was a friendship book. I would have loved a friendship book. I wasn't super into the romance (but other people will be) because I didn't actually like Nolan that much. I guess I couldn't let go of reality enough to get swept away in the romance.

It really is just that the story didn't click with me. I can see what makes Amelia Unabridged so appealing and delightful for readers, but it just wasn't what I was looking for right now. If you're looking for something romantic and a little melancholy and full of bookish, relatable goodness, then I'd highly recommend. I still look forward to see what else we get from Schumacher in the future!

Hard hitting and relatable. I think students who love thrillers and contemporary novels wills enjoy this. Beautifully written and perfect for teens. This is sure to be a popular title for teen readers.

This was a near-perfect book. The characters were so real and amazingly developed, especially for a debut novel. This author is extremely talented and I cannot wait to read more from her! This is a deeply moving tale of grief and loss, fandom, and finding your true self.

Losing a sister is never easy. While Jenna wasn’t her sister through blood, she was in so many other ways. Jenna’s parents stepped into the role of involved aunt and uncle to Amelia, whose mother never recovered from a very personal loss of her own. We are taught to avoid grief, just like so many other negative emotions, and yet, as this book demonstrated, walking through the fire of these difficult experiences can bring us, ultimately, so much joy. In Amelia’s case, it helps her meet the enigmatic youth genius author of a world-renown book series, as well as fall in love with him. But more importantly, it helps remove the burden of a dead girl’s plans for Amelia’s future. After all, Amelia isn’t who she was when Jenna was alive. While following Jenna’s plans for her seem like the right way of honouring her, Amelia begins to understand that perhaps the first step to accepting her Jenna-less life is to retrace her path forward.

Wow!!! Not only is this a beautiful and heartwarming story of grief, friendship, self-discovery, and first love but it is also a love letter to books. Like many of us who love reading, Amelia finds great comfort and escape in stories until the tragic death of her beloved best friend, Jenna. When she receives a surprise special edition copy of a book from her favorite series, Amelia believes it is a message sent from Jenna and embarks on a journey to uncover answers. This book continuously pulled at my heartstrings from one chapter to the next. The prose is gorgeous, unique and haunting and the characters are complex and relatable. There are also many references to classic books that we all grew up reading. I found myself smiling every time I discovered one of these references interwoven with the story. At times, I felt the pacing was a little jumpy, particularly towards the end of the book, but besides that one critique, I was highly impressed and emotionally captured by this outstanding debut novel. Thank you to Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an e-galley in exchange for an honest review!

3.75 stars for this beautiful story about love, loss, sisterhood and fear.

Amelia is feeling utterly lost and alone when Jenna befriends her and makes her a part of her entire world. The two are inseparable and both learn to share a love for a book series, and ultimately the author of this particular fantasy/adventure series. Shortly before Jenna spends a couple of weeks in Ireland and before they both head off to college together, they head to a convention where they are supposed to meet the author, something happens causing Jenna to meet the author and not Amelia. This causes a rift between the two that Amelia cannot get over, as she is the one with the stronger connection to the books.

When her best friend dies during her trip, Amelia is understandably devastated. She does not know how to live in a world where Jenna is no longer there; no longer a part of it as she was always such a bright light. But, when a special edition copy of a book in the series they love is left for Amelia at the bookstore they frequent, Amelia begins a journey by herself to find out if Jenna sent this book to her without her knowledge.

This book does such a wonderful job of pairing grief and loss with magical realism. I adored Amelia and the path she must venture to find not only the answers she is seeking about who sent her this special book, but who she is supposed to be without her best friend.

Watching Amelia grown and become a singular person was something to behold. On her journey she meets some new people who are absolutely integral to her coming to terms with her allowing herself to be a separate entity from the unit she was with Jenna.

The tears started early on in this book and didn't stop until the end. I couldn't put this book down and it had my heart squeezed the entire time. The summary of the book does not cut it - it's just a book you must read. For all of us bookish people, it has two friends who love a book series and want to meet the author but the road is not straight and narrow. There's also a bookstore that is described in this book that I just want to fly to immediately! I went into this without knowing anything and I think it's best that way. Just know that the emotions just pour out from the pages of this book. It's a book about grief and loss but there is also a message of hope, healing and love. Amazing YA debut by Ashley Schumacher, I can't wait to read her next title!

Thank you to Wednesday Book and Netgalley for an advance copy!

Disclaimer: I recieved this book from @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book with a book club and I absolutely loved this debut novel! This takes place before Amelia's off to college. I love that Amelia and Jenna are just as much of a bookworm as I am. Maybe even more. This book tackles grief, heartache, romance, and all the bookish nerdiness a reader could ever want in a book!

This book took me by surprise! I loved it from start to finish, its a great story that I know will fly off the shelves