Carrie and her mother are packing up and leaving Hendersonville after the events at the end of “Emma and Me”. They barely have any money, so it's not easy to start over. In the new town, Carrie meets Cricket and her mother, who are super-nice, but dealing with the loss of their sister/daughter, so when Carrie shows up, looking just like her, they can't help but want to become friends with the 9-year old.

I feel like I can't do the summary justice without giving things away from the first book. I really enjoyed this, though. Not quite as much as the first book. It might have been wrapped up a little too neatly at the end, but – at the same time – if the author decided to write a 3rd book, I'd read it. (And despite the feeling that it was wrapped up, there is somewhere to go if there was a third book.) ( )

Far too many coincidences for my taste. ( )

Plain and simple, this sequel to Me & Emma wasn't that good.

One of the biggest no no's in writing is to "tell", instead of "show." I felt at the end of the book, the author had all of her characters scrambling to "tell" what happened instead of enabling the story to unfold by showing. There were still quite a few unanswered questions as well... example; the whole Charlie Chaplin thing which was just downright strange. Maybe there was something about it, somewhere, but since I was skipping pages, something I hardly ever do, I could have missed it.

I found Honor's constant internal dialogue irritating as hell. Yes, the author was probably trying to show that she had identified a "voice", for this character, but it was just over the top. And, it seemed to take forever for her to come to some conclusion that Carrie was severely abused. If Carrie was reduced to sucking on ketchup packets, pieces of clay pots and eating dirt, I think she'd have enough sense to see she was abused - on top of the terrible injuries she sustained at the hands of dear old mom. Was Honor blind on top of being a motor mouth?

And Carrie's mother... If she was as bad as this, somebody in today's society would have spotted the abuse problem a LONG time ago. For example, there was a question in the back of Me & Emma about why the author didn't pinpoint the year or exactly when Carrie and Emma were born, etc. But, she clarified that very well in this book with the laptop, cell phones, internet searching, and Cricket's constant "Geez, alright, alright" sort of answers. A very 21st century kid.

I can't stand it when I buy a bad book and this one, to me, was one hot mess. ( )

Took a while to get going for me, but I ended up really enjoying this. I hope there is a follow up. Make sure you read [b:Me & Emma|80534|Me & Emma|Elizabeth Flock|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388360733s/80534.jpg|600345] first! ( )

Took a while to get going for me, but I ended up really enjoying this. I hope there is a follow up. Make sure you read [b:Me & Emma|80534|Me & Emma|Elizabeth Flock|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388360733s/80534.jpg|600345] first! ( )