I loved reading For Emily! Slee has created such a wonderful and light book about an author who dedicates all her books to Emily, her grand-daughter. When she passes away suddenly, Emily goes on an adventure following clues across the world to piece together things from her grandmother's life and finding herself in the process.
I really rooted for Emily in her journey and would love to know what comes after the book for her!

For Emily is a charming, warm, uplifting novel about love, loss, and finding your way in the world. I loved this little story and found it really lovely and moving. A great debut novel and I look forward to reading more by this author.

This is a lovely story of loss and finding yourself.
Emily has lived in her grandmother’s shadow for her whole life.
The famous author helps her granddaughter to find herself after her death through a series of clues.

enjoyed this book alot! honestly cant even see how this was a debut novel because this was excellently written!
i dont want to give alot away but this book was exceptional

A story in an adventure story that teaches no matter what happens to you, you don’t need to hide away or stay isolated, get out there scars ‘n’ all, show off your talents, and enjoy all the ups and does life has to offer, you never know you might like it.

For Emily, tells the story of Emily’s famous author grandmother, whom becomes Emily’s caretaker after her parents die in a car crash that leaves her disfigured. Emily’s grandmother helps nurture Emily’s dreams and creativity through using her illustrations in her book to tell her own story, but, Emily is withdrawn and isolated. On her grandmother’s death, her grandmother takes Emily on one last puzzle adventure for her to discover who her grandmother really was, about her life, what it means to live, love, and loss getting Emily out of herself to live a little, and she might just like it.

Didn't review in time for release, premise sounds really good will be picking up a physical copy and come back to review soon.

A fabulous book that allows you to escape the world for a while.
Beautifully written, lovely characterisation and a story that encourages you to keep turning the pages, what more could you ask for.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

I volunteered to read this book, through netgalley in exchange, for an honest review.
A heartfelt and bittersweet book to read. I absolutely loved it.

This very sweet and heartfelt book is about learning to survive and love yourself, even through terrible loss.

When children’s author Catriona Robinson dies, her granddaughter Emily reacts by shutting herself away. But Catriona has other ideas in the form of a treasure hunt hidden in her published books, sending Emily off on a journey of discovery across Europe, and one of growth in herself.

This has definitely inspired me to try new things; after all, the book says, if you don’t push yourself out of your comfort zone, how will you know you can? The cast of characters we meet along the way are instantly memorable, and even if the romance doesn’t quite take off in the way it should- thanks to some truly acidic jealousy on Emily’s part, which soured the tone of the book somewhat- I still rooted for her enough to be pleased about watching her become stronger and more confident.

One for all those with wanderlust!

When children’s author Catriona Robinson dies, her reclusive granddaughter Emily starts to look at the dedications in her books. Each one was dedicated to someone who impacted Catriona’s life the most, including Emily herself. Now each dedication feels like a cryptic clue towards the location of a missing final manuscript. Emily could solve the mystery, but it means going out into a world that Emily has been avoiding for some time, Can she walk in her grandmother’s footsteps and find her last lost book, and maybe find herself in the process?

This was a joyful little book to read at the moment - when we’ve all become a little more insular and reclusive. It was also uplifting to travel alongside Emily and take part in the positive changes it makes. Her grandmothers books featured a little girl called Ophelia who travelled the world using a magic atlas. When Emily was younger her parents were killed and she was seriously injured in a car accident, Her injuries kept her separated from the world for a while and she has been reclusive ever since. Now that she’s lost her grandmother too she is lost and struggling with grief. The quest she goes on using the dedications, but also her grandmother’s letters and diaries, brings her closer to her grandmother and away from her comfort zone. As she visits Paris, St Tropez and Rome we see her blossoming and discover her inner strength.

This is a gentle and bittersweet story, as we watch someone who has suffered terrible losses, find a joy in life she hasn’t had for a long time. It was uplifting and beautiful, including the illustrations of birds that Emily draws. I would buy this for anyone who needs to be inspired and uplifted.

Excellent book with an excellent story line.
Emily the main character has spent most her life with just her grandmother since her parents died in a horrible accident. It left her in hospital and not wanting to be part of the world. Emily’s grandmother dies and leaves her a trail of clues to find her will. She travels all over to different countries and meets people from her grandmother’s life. Hears stories about her and makes her wish she asked when she was still here.

Wow! What a book! I was hooked right from the very beginning and couldn't wait to see what came next in this fab book. The title of this novel drew me in in the first place as my daughter is called Emily (she is also a great artist!), but I liked the look of the description as well. In fact, I enjoyed it even better than I thought I would. I felt that the story flowed at a great pace and they were plenty of surprises / developments along the way. I have been lucky enough to have been to quite a few of the places featured and this brought back some lovely memories. There was a lot in the story that made me think and indeed, there is quite a bit that I feel will stay with me - you really do need to try things to get the most out of life.

I would thoroughly recommend this book. As a bird watcher, I loved the inclusion of the birds and in fact, I can't see a magpie now without calling it Milton!

Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publishers for allowing me to review this book in return for a honest opinion. I can genuinely say that that is what this is - don't hesitate to read this great story.

When famous children’s author Catriona Robinson chooses to reject a second round of chemotherapy and allow her life to end, she leaves behind an international assembly of mourners. People across the world had been touched by her Ophelia series, about a young disabled girl who embarks on a number of adventures with the help of a magical atlas and her loyal pet duck. Also left behind, on a more personal scale, is Catriona’s granddaughter Emily. Now 28, Emily is a reclusive freelance artist who has taken to squirrelling herself away in the cottage she shared with her grandmother.

Without Catriona’s effervescence to force her out of herself, the reader can already notice Emily’s declining social habits: she ignores letters from well-wishers, unplugs the phone, and procrastinates on her illustration deadlines. All of this is done, it seems, in order for Emily to avoid having to speak. Her connection to the Ophelia series is quickly revealed to be a very literal one: Catriona took her inspiration from facilitating the recovery of her granddaughter, left in a critical state after the brutal car crash which claimed the lives of both of her parents. At 13, Emily had to learn how to walk and talk again, and was left with permanent facial scarring which would have inhibit her speech for the rest of her life.

Catriona may have been protective over her granddaughter to the point of swaddling her, but she was not blind to the consequences such coddling would bring once she was gone. Therefore, she planned one final adventure for Emily, leaving a series of clues at key locations from her own life for her granddaughter to follow, with the promise of an unfinished manuscript at the end. The clues, taken from Catriona’s diary entries, guide Emily from her Norfolk home to London, France, and Italy, forcing her to face her insecurities and fears of the wider world.

There is much to like about For Emily, if you’re in the mood for some escapism. Unhindered by financial limits thanks to Catriona’s enormous wealth, Emily and her childhood friend Tyler are able to flit around Europe to their heart’s content. Katherine Slee’s prose is whimsical and rosy, making for an almost summery reading experience. If we were allowed to leave the house, I probably would have spent an enjoyable couple of hours reading this in a beer garden or outside a Caffe Nero. However, I still managed to have a nice time while staring yearningly at the sunlight streaking through my curtains. Somehow, Slee has managed to write a perfect quarantine novel before she even knew that quarantine was going to happen. It was a welcome experience for me to forget the immediate world and follow two rich kids gallivanting around.

We must be in truly dire straits if I’m expressing happiness at the prospect of reading about two Tories going on holiday.

For Emily is certainly not without its faults, which become increasingly more glaring as the novel progresses. While the writing is initially charming, it suffers horribly from Unnecessary Double Adverb Syndrome. I wish I’d taken a note of how many times I read “really quite adjective,” because it might have given a vindictive purpose to my indignation. A more damning issue with this novel, however, is its protagonist. Emily has been critically mis-aged, with Slee expecting us to believe that a 28 year old woman would think and act like a petulant teenager. When Tyler’s girlfriend turns up after a couple of days’ worth of unremarkable maybe-flirting, Emily is consumed by jealousy to the point of becoming openly venomous to Tyler and Phoebe. For me, this decision is inexplicable. I can see no reason why Emily couldn’t have been aged down, so that her immaturity would be less inconspicuous and irritating to the reader.

I can also see no reason why someone, preferably an editor who is paid to notice things like this, couldn’t have called Slee out on the blatantly misogynistic tropes which are perpetuated in For Emily. Phoebe, for example, is depicted as being annoying, spoiled, a normie, and too perfect, for the terrible transgression of being a loyal girlfriend to a disloyal man. At no point is Tyler punished for his behaviour, and at no point does Emily reflect on her tendency to blame the woman connected to the man who hurt her instead of the root cause.

Slee gets tantalisingly close to providing some meaningful commentary on Emily’s perceptions of women, during a conversation held between Emily and Phoebe on a train. Emily learns that Phoebe is a Cambridge graduate who wants to run wildlife sanctuaries in Africa, who suffers from mental illness which leads to self harm. Instead of acknowledging that she has judged Phoebe out of jealousy, however, Emily decides to grudgingly accept her on account of her being damaged goods. It’s distasteful, and part of a larger Not Like Other Girls trope which rears its hideous head consistently during For Emily. Phoebe is described by Tyler, verbatim, as being “too normal” for him. The prospective wildlife sanctuary owner is too normal for the white boy who carries his acoustic around with him so that he can play country music in coffee shops. Personally, I found Phoebe to be the only entirely tolerable character in the novel. Perhaps I’m not damaged enough. Or perhaps Slee has some internalised misogyny which she needs to tackle.

I will briefly mention that there are also some questionable representations of disability in this book, such as the only thing truly separating Emily and Phoebe being Emily’s disfigurement, implying that the only thing making Emily less normal and more interesting than Phoebe is her trauma, Emily suddenly getting over her stutter because the plot says so, and the good old chestnut of Emily being secretly beautiful underneath her scars. There’s also a scar kissing scene, and scar kissing scenes always invoke a physical response of nausea in me. However, I am not going to delve too deep into a topic I have no lived experience of. I instead encourage you to come to your own conclusions.

For Emily is a fine afternoon read if you want to forget that the wider world exists, which makes it ideal for the current climate. However, if weird perceptions about women and disabilities get on your nerves, I’d recommend looking elsewhere for your feel-good book.

Wow, just wow. This is the 80th book I've read this year (I was furloughed two months ago so I'm reading more than usual) and this is definitely one of my favourite books of the year.

I have a small confession. The main reason I looked at the book on NetGalley was because my own daughter is called Emily. I liked the sound of the synopsis and asked Orion Publishing Group for a digital ARC which I'm delighted to say they provided. My thoughts are my own and not influenced by the free copy.

This is a stunning novel which left me feeling bereft when I finished it, not because I didn't enjoy the ending (I loved the ending) but because I had become so involved in Emily's journey of self discovery.

The book looks at how Emily's grandmother, Catriona, sends her granddaughter on a 'treasure hunt' after Catriona dies. Emily needs to learn how to be independent, how to deal with her past (including the tragic accident which killed her parents and left her seriously injured) and to meet the people who met and loved her grandmother after she left the UK for adventures rather than marry young and settle down.

Each chapter features a different bird, partly because Emily loves birds, especially drawing and painting birds. The stories of Emily and Catriona unfold as Emily travels to London, then France and Italy. She believes she is looking for the 'last book' her grandmother wrote, however the truth is much deeper.

The strands of the stories are woven so well, including the use of the birds, the main characters are easy to visualise and feel empathy for, and the love of books is apparent (book shops, libraries, books). I will be treating myself to a paperback copy of this book - and maybe a copy for my own Emily (she isn't good at using bookmarks, so we won't be sharing a copy!).

This book is being published in paperback in the UK on Thursday 28th May 2020.

This book had a good premise, but also a pacing issue. The writing style caused some parts to be very slow and unnecessary.
Overall, I liked the idea, but the execution could be better.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Emily and her Grandmother are renound author and illustrator of children’s books. They have a huge fan based and after her Grandmother dies, rumours abound that there is another book written by her Grandmother but never published. Set shortly after her Grandmother’s death, this story tells of how our protagonist discovers her Grandmother’s past, and in turn discovers the truth about a secret book by her Grandmother. Travelling to places with her childhood friend on a ‘treasure hunt, come mystery tour, from her Grandmother’s past, she uncovers the truth.

This premise of this book was right up my street; following a diet of treasure hunt, Emily travels across Europe to discover the truth behind her grandmother’s secrets, secrets that may affect her future. However I wasn’t able to connect to any of the characters or their journey. I did enjoy the bird imagery used by Slee.

A quaint, light-footed debut from Katherine Slee. It had enough mystery to satisfy me and enough charm to keep me powering through. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Whilst the story had a magical, fairy tale element, I felt I didn't connect with the characters. The slow, descriptive passages reflectd Emily's state of mind and reluctant attitude, but after a while it became labourious. Not as attention grabbing as I expected.