Review: Overwhelming & Consuming... But I wish I could unread it.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 8, 2014
There are a lot of words I could use to describe this book series. Disappointing comes first to mind, but hear me out.Emi Lost & Found is not a book. It's not a novel, or a series, or an omnibus. It is a life. Or rather more lives than one wrapped up into an obscene amount of pages. It is a story of love and loss and heartbreak. And to be honest, it just wasn't what I was looking for at this time. If I wanted to have my heart ripped out... if I had wanted to fall in love with a character only to have them be lost, well I'd go watch Titanic and move on with my life much faster.Because Titanic is the only way I can summarize Emi Lost & Found.In Titanic we spend almost 3 hours watching love blossom between two people who we pour our hearts into rooting for. And then we spend all of 33 minutes watching the boat sink and our favorite character die. It's like one of those punch to the chests where you get the wind knocked out of you. You spend quite some time afterwards trying to catch your breath and feeling the tightness in your body.Emi Lost & Found is like this. Except it's a book and we spend an inordinate amount of time reading descriptions that don't really matter. I felt tempted to skip ahead at times. This book is LONG.Lori spent so much time with the prequel (which was awesome) getting us to love Nate (and in turn Emi). Oh god, how I loved Nate. And then in book one we spent so much time reading about Nate's conquests. I loved Nate. And to be honest I didn't care how many women he slept with. I'm not sure if the author was trying to turn us off or on, but it left me feeling confused.Then there's Emi in Book One. I like her at first, enough to see her with Nate. But things take a turn for the worst and then all of a sudden she's pushing him away for no reason. At least not one I can see.Here's where things go awry.Because Lori spent so much time making Emi out to be this headcase (though I'm not sure that's what she was trying to do) I became disconnected with the story and just wanted it to be over. But because I was only 60% of the way through Book One (meaning 23% of the way through the entire series) I felt like I just couldn't wait. I put off skipping to the end. For another hundred pages or so, but by that time I was just so frustrated with Emi and her mind games that at 75% I skipped to the end of the ENTIRE series.I didn't actually read to much, I just wanted to get a feel for where this was headed. And I found that in the end Emi ends up with this guy named Jack. And at this point I'm so freaking confused that I'm reading to just give up on the whole thing. But I trundle on.I return to my previous place of reading and finally, finally, Emi and Nate get together.But it's not everything it could be and I can feel Emi holding back. But things start to look up and I'm willing to give this story another chance.Cliffhanger at the end of Book One: Not so cool, but since this is an Omnibus, I'll over look it.Book Two: What the heck. Just as I was starting to feel like things were looking up my entire world shatters. I'm crying huge alligator tears and my poor husband is asking what's wrong with me.And then into Emi's life walks Jack and he doesn't leave. And Jack is that "guy from college" and at this point my heart is so broken over Nate and Emi's love for each other that I can't let go. I dwell and I dwell and I dwell. It takes me to a dark place and I hate Emi and Jack. I hate what Emi has become. I hate what Jack stands for. And I hate that Nate is gone. Beautiful Nate.So, I quit reading this series. I just couldn't do it. My love for Nate is too strong. Lori wrote him too well, spent too much time with him. I can't get past the fact that he's gone. And now I've got one of those book hangovers.This just wasn't for me. It's probably for everyone else, sure. But it just wasn't for me.This series is consuming. Both in time and emotion. It is angst, fear, love, loss, despair all rolled up into WAY too many pages.Will you like it? Probably. I can see why everyone else loves it. It's a roller coaster of emotions. But I don't much like roller coasters.And... to be honest... I'm a one man kind of woman. So, Jack, I'm sorry... but there just isn't enough room in my heart for you.