Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Emergency Contact, by Mary H.K. Choi {ends 6/5}

"I wanted to be a documentary filmmaker," he said. Penny wondered about the past tense. "There are so many unbelievable stories going on in the world, just quietly happening around you. There's this Hitchcock quote about how in regular movies the director is God and how in documentaries God is the director. I always loved that."

He stacked his espresso cups.

Penny knew emoji hearts were flying out of her eyes. She was smitten mitten kittens. She'd never heard anyone her age talk about the work they wanted to do. Not that Sam was her age exactly. Penny swallowed the rest of her questions: whether he felt like a ghost trolling the living, mining their existence for ideas; whether or not he got lonely watching other people the way Penny did.

"Jesus, you're emo," observed Mallory, scrolling through her phone.

This book is the writer's first novel, though she's written many other stories, and it was quite good. I love YA books and this one focused on a girl who has just graduated high school, and is on her way to college in Austin, TX.

Official synopsis:

For Penny Lee, high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

Sam and Penny end up meeting because technically Sam is the ex-uncle of Penny's college roommate (long story...) so she calls him Uncle Sam.

Sam and Penny's chemistry is great in this book, and it was interesting to see how they built that up over texting vs. seeing each other in real life.

I liked how this book showed how awkward people need love too, to paraphrase, and it also talked about Penny's home life and her relationship with her mother, which affected why Penny wanted to "go away" for school (even though Austin is only about 79 miles from where she's from). It was also interesting to read a YA book that showed the transition from high school to college, as most only take place in one life period or the other.

4.5 stars out of 5. 

{click here to purchase}

*Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book. All opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Emergency Contact!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Tuesday, June 5th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only please and no P.O. boxes.

Good luck!

Hardcover copy of Emergency Contact