But the biggest surprise there is none other than a boy named Nolan. Val, the store owner, embodies sophistication and has a no-nonsense attitude Amelia loves her instantly. He’s brutish and slobbery, running straight into Amelia as she enters. Amelia describes it as “A chaotic, music-swirling, cinnamon roll-smelling, warm, inviting bookstore.” There’s mismatched furniture, shelves, and shelves upon books, a fireplace, book clubs arguing, a small cafe, and Wally, the bookstore’s unofficial dog. It’s more of a house than a store, with three stories of nooks and crannies. First, this bookstore is a reader’s dream. It’s there, in Lochbrook, Michigan, at Val’s bookstore that the magic begins. She decides to go to Michigan to figure out the mystery behind the book Jenna’s parents (not hers, they have no idea what’s happening in her life) are in full support as long as she’s back to attend the seminar. She calls the store but isn’t given any information, but something keeps niggling her. But when she gets a mysterious copy of Endsley’s book from a bookstore in Michigan, Amelia knows this is Jenna working some kind of magic. She eats dinner with them twice a week, and they are her biggest cheerleaders to keep following the dream she and Jenna planned for themselves in college. Living life with grief is new for her, but her relationship with Jenna’s parents hasn’t changed. She’s killed in a car accident, and Amelia’s world is changed forever. A week later, and Jenna is off to Ireland with Amelia in charge of attending a one-day seminar that will prepare them for college. Their plans are altered when Endsley cancels his event at the festival, and when Amelia finds out that Jenna had something to do with it, she and Jenna have the biggest fight of their friendship. His Orman Chronicles are obscenely popular, especially for someone so young as him.

The plan is to attend college together (there was a whole spreadsheet involved when picking schools), but first, they are going to a book festival to visit their favorite author, N. Four years later, and the girls graduate high school. The two share a love of reading, and it permeates all they do. She’s a planner, a doer, her parents are professionals invested in every step of her life, and they welcome Amelia with open arms. Jenna is the complete opposite of Amelia. When we meet Amelia, her parents are in the middle of a divorce, her mom checks out of parenting, and she’s all alone, standing in front of a bookstore, when Jenna finds her. I’m not sure what I expected from this story, but it far exceeded my expectations and made my heart oh so happy. I have a Goodreads shelf labeled “bookstore magic,” and if I could rank the books in this list, Amelia Unabridged would be number one.

Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher