Mary Had a Little Book Blog: Blog Tour: Lucky Caller by Emma Mills

Today I have the pleasure of kicking off the blog tour for one of my favorite authors! Emma Mills's newest release Lucky Caller releases next week, and you can enter to win your own copy below!

Rating: 4 stars

Release Date: January 14, 2020

Publisher: William Morrow (Harper Collins)

Genre: young adult contemporary romance

Format/Source: DRC, from the publisher

Status: Book 2 of the Wait For You companion series
Links: First & Then review (4 stars)
This Adventure Ends review (5 stars)
Foolish Hearts blog tour (in which I analyze Emma's characters, assign them Shakespearean counterparts, and gif-ify them all using teen movies based on Shakespeare)

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book by the publisher. This does not affect the content of my review.

Summary:

With the warmth, wit, intimate friendships, and heart-melting romance she brings to all her books, Emma Mills crafts a story about believing in yourself, owning your mistakes, and trusting in human connection in Lucky Caller.

When Nina decides to take a radio broadcasting class her senior year, she expects it to be a walk in the park. Instead, it’s a complete disaster.

The members of Nina's haphazardly formed radio team have approximately nothing in common. And to maximize the awkwardness her group includes Jamie, a childhood friend she'd hoped to basically avoid for the rest of her life.

The show is a mess, internet rumors threaten to bring the wrath of two fandoms down on their heads, and to top it all off Nina's family is on the brink of some major upheaval.

Everything feels like it's spiraling out of control―but maybe control is overrated?

Review:

Emma Mills has done it again. Every time I pick up one of her books, I know that when I set it back down, I will be filled with a sense of satisfaction and utter contentment. I also know I'll immediately be filled with the desire to reread every single one of her books again immediately. Without fail, after I finished Lucky Caller, I felt the need to binge.

Lucky Caller does start off a bit more slowly than I expected, but it really delivered where I wanted: endearing characters, interesting relationships, wacky hijinks, and kissing. There's also the added bonus of some non-prose, which is a recent trend I really enjoy. In this case, we get snippets of several different radio shows produced by the characters incuding Nina's group, her dad, and some classmates. I also love a good fandom storyline, which this book has in spades with two band fandoms.

Obviously a big focus is on Nina and Jamie as they rediscover their friendship after a few "off" years during high school. I do so love romantic tropes, and in this case we get a bit of childhood-friends-to-more and second chance. It's so... comfortable to read their dynamic. Even if I weren't invested in the romance, the friendship hooked me, from their childhood pretend game Kingdom (LOVED this storyline!!) to the kind, supportive manner Nina and Jamie treat one another. These two are great. I definitely could have used oh so many more scenes of them together, and not just in a romantic way (but like, *dreamy sigh*).

I also love the relationship both Nina and Jamie have with Nina's sisters and their groupmates Joydeep and Sasha. Secondary characters are important to me, and I think when they feel complex and real, the story feels more well-formed. It's not all about the lead. If the main character is surrounded by flat caricatures, what's the point? There are so many details sprinkled throughout Lucky Caller that help round out the characters and the story, and again, although the beginning was slow for me, I picked up the details like they were the pieces of bread Hansel & Gretel trailed behind them and put them in my pocket to save for later. (It's not a perfect metaphor, forgive me)

One of the small things I find exciting about contemporaries is when an author creates a universe, even when books aren't in a series. I love Easter eggs and common threads woven throughout multiple books. In the Dessen-verse, it's the settings and bands like Spinnerbait. For Emma Mills, it's 1D-esque band TION, This Is Our Now. I love this level of continuity across books that aren't otherwise tied together the way outright series and even companions are.

I feel like it's one of my greatest failures as a book blogger that there are still so many readers IN THE COMMUNITY who have not yet read an Emma Mills book. I mean, I kinda get it. They aren't part of a splashy genre series that's destined for a major movie franchise. They aren't gut-punching realistic stories that strike out at the ways society is failing our teens. Emma Mills books are quiet. They hit me in the feels, but they hit like the softest clufy pillow. Like a sip of hot chocolate or cider when you come in from the cold. Like a warm hug. They're books about realistic teen just... living life, and I find a lot of comfort in these kinds of books.

Don't get me wrong: Emma Mills books are also fun and vibrant and witty and utterly delightful, and that is precisely why you should read them. Feel free to start with Lucky Caller!

Purchase Links:

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/6: Mary Had a Little Book Blog & onemused

1/7: Do You Dog-ear? & BookHounds YA

1/8: Kait Plus Books & Nerdophiless

1/9: Not In Jersey & She Just Loves Books

1/10: Lifestyle of Me & Eli to the nth

Week Two:

1/13: Smada's Book Smack & Wonder Struck

1/14: Fictitiouswonderland & A Dream Within A Dream

1/15: The Heart of a Book Blogger & Fire and Ice

1/16: DJ Reads Books & A Bookish Dream

1/17: Rants and Raves of a Bibliophile & Two Chicks on Books

About the Author:

Emma Mills is the author of First & Then, This Adventure Ends, Foolish Hearts, Famous in a Small Town, and Lucky Caller. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and has recently completed a PhD in cell biology.

Author Links: