Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!!!

I am going to be honest that I did not read the description for this book before I picked it up because I was lucky enough to find this book in the Read Now section one day, so I did not realize that it was a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma. I saw the beautiful cover and I just went for it!!! I am so glad that I did though because this book was fantastic.

While I think that I would have loved this book even more if I had read Emma previously I still adored this book. It actually made me want to go and pick up a copy of Emma because I enjoyed this book so much. I am definitely going to read Emma by the time this book is released in November and then when my physical copy gets here I will re-read this book to see all of the references that I definitely missed.

I do think that this book can definitely be read and loved without reading Emma first though because that is exactly what I did.

This book is being marketed as "a modern-day gay YA Emma" with hints of romance similar to Bridgerton so I knew that I had to read this book as soon as possible. This book did not disappoint.

I thought that Emmett was a really fun main character and I loved to read all about his life. I do wish that we got to see a little bit more of the main relationship develop because it did seem a little rushed at the end. That is sometimes an issue that I have with stand-alone books. However, that is a me problem and is in no way a negative reflection of this book. I just would have personally liked to see a little more of the after when the relationship was established. The ending was really cute though so I still really enjoyed it.

This book is also really diverse which I thought was great. I also really loved all of Emmett's friends. I know that the author has other books published and I can't wait to read them!

4.5 stars which I will be rounding up to 5 stars on Goodreads and here!!!

Emmett by L. C. Rosen was such a beautiful, big, warm, queer hug. The characters are so relatable and well fleshed-out, and the lessons learned by them are so incredibly valuable no matter who you are or what stage of life you occupy. I absolutely adored everything about this book!
The plot and pacing of this book is phenomenal.
This was such a great read. Full of laughs and amazing characters, I couldn't put it down.
This was a book that I just needed to finish and I am so glad that I got to read and review.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

A modern gay YA Emma. Emmett is trying to fix his friends' romances and messing things up just like Emma.

Emmett is a charming character. Love the social commentary. Enjoy the biting satire and humor as well. Laughed out loud so many times. A fun take on Austen. An interesting read.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Thank you to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing this ARC!

Emmett is an exceedingly charming queer YA take on Jane Austen’s classic Emma starring a California high school senior who is committed to perfection in all areas of life—and to remaining unattached until age twenty-five. Although the story follows the contours of the original novel (Emmett tries to play matchmaker and finds himself out of his depth), the novel explores problems of grief, mental health, and queer communities and relationships in a way that both honors the source material and more than proves itself as a contemporary retelling. Our main control freak was so endearing, even when he was being kind of narcissistic, and the demographic-appropriate life lessons were balanced with humor and heart. The ending did seem to move more quickly than the rest of the story, but overall the book (and the romance!) was a true delight. Some of the best of what YA can be: honest, genuinely profound, quite funny, and deeply satisfying.

This was so much more than just an Emma retelling. Of course, the book contained all the elements of the original. I loved Emmett, his friends, and the romance. Emmett was a better person than I expected, making him more of a likeable character. He was certainly not perfect but he had strong development and good qualities. His relationships were also so wholesome, even the more messy ones. I did think the love interest could have had more development and more major conflicts with Emmett. But overall I adored everyone. Rosen also brought his own nuances to the story. Specifically, I loved the way he wrote about queer relationships and grief. He does an amazing job showing all forms of queer love, relationships, identity, and community. Rosen also shone a light on grief in the Woodhouse family, using it to shape the development Emmett's character and his relationship with his father. It was these elements that made the book stand out to me, and make me highly recommend it to others.