REVIEW: Dear Emma by Katie Heaney

 
In Dear Emma by Katie Heaney, College junior Harriet has caught the eye of senior Keith in their shared Spanish Civ class. But what started out as some stolen moments and even a day and night together just talking and flirting (okay, maybe some kissing) suddenly turned cold seemingly overnight. Keith just stopped texting and communicating with Harriet which is honestly driving her a bit nuts. As a ‘semi-professional’ advice columnist for the college newspaper, she should probably know how to handle things but it’s definitely different when it’s her own personal problem and not that of a relative stranger.

‘You weren’t supposed to be right about the frantic, crazed, Internet-stalking-based conspiracy theories you came up with to explain the disappearance of boys you liked.’

To add to the issue, she finds out that senior Remy, a fellow library aide with whom she has a budding friendship, has been seeing Keith since he stopped talking/texting Harriet. So when she gets an anonymous letter for her ‘Dear Emma’ column and it turns out to be Remy waffling over what to do about relationship problems with Keith, Harriet has to decide if she can be objective. She has the power to push Remy into either breaking up with Keith or to give him a chance to explain himself. Which way is best for the situation, not based on her own hurt feelings?

‘All this time I’d thought I was helping people decide to do the right thing. Or to at least act in that direction. But what if I was wrong about what the right thing was?’

Dear Emma was an introspective and oftentimes funny look into the life of one college girl who just so happened to also write an advice column for the campus newspaper. However, she was a tad lacking in the real-life-experience department. How could it not be interesting, right?

College junior, ‘semi-professional’ advice columnist Harriet started off right away as sort of (I hate to say the word) neurotic, but she was also an intelligent, comical young woman. She fell into the trap that I’m sure a lot of us do at some point, or all the time, being that she over analyzed pretty much everything. Especially when Keith stopped texting her and she basically resorted to cyberstalking him. I thought the way Katie Heaney described Harriet’s feelings and her inner monologue over the Keith debacle was genuine and definitely on par with her age bracket.

While I loved the premise of the story, the sharp, nicely detailed writing style Heaney used, and the overall tone of the story, I felt like the middle of the book could have been shortened up a bit. Or maybe gotten to the resolution faster. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed watching Harriet form a friendship of sorts with Remy, but it wasn’t until the last chapter or so that everything with the Harriet-Keith-Remy triangle kind of rushed to a conclusion. I did actually really like the ending, though. It honestly didn’t turn out how I thought it would, but it seemed like a rather logical way for things to have finished.

Although it’s not a traditional HEA, I still enjoyed Harriet’s reflective personal journey. I have a feeling this New Adult novel will probably go over best with readers a little closer to the character’s age (twenty-something), but either way I think you’ll be chuckling and agreeing with some of her surprisingly sage advice as you read her column responses.

Book Info:

 March 1st 2016 | by Grand Central Publishing |

Harriet, the author of her college newspaper’s pseudonymous student advice column “Dear Emma,” is great at telling others what to do, dispensing wisdom for the lovelorn and lonely on her Midwestern campus. Somehow, though, she can’t take her own advice, especially after Keith, the guy she’s dating, blows her off completely. When Harriet discovers that Keith has started seeing the beautiful and intimidating Remy, she wants to hate her. But she can’t help warming to Remy, who soon writes to “Dear Emma” asking for romantic advice.

Now Harriet has the perfect opportunity to take revenge on the person who broke her heart. But as she begins to doubt her own motivations and presumably faultless guidance, she’s forced to question how much she really knows about love, friendship and well-meaning advice.