I haven't read much of the books but what I did like about them was the way they dove into the emotional turmoil that comes with divorce and remarriage. That is something that not a lot of kids movies/shows do, so I was excited to see them become a show.
This show, while it does follow most of the books' plotlines, seems to tone down the themes of divorce, making it a more sanitized version that doesn't hit as much as the books.
In the beginning, Amber's parents have been divorced for a while so Amber seems to have already adjusted to it while in the books, the divorce was recent and Amber was still coming to terms with it. It does deal with Amber's parents finding new love and Amber being upset about it, but it unfortunately tends to gloss over the other parts of divorce, the broken family aspects.
Even when you get an episode where you think that they were going to dive into the results of a broken family more, you get a middle school plot about a school play. It's fine, and I understand that they have to squeeze everything into a 10 episode season, but they could've focused more on Amber trying to adjust to being in two homes, and the school play plot could replace the weird and boring Hollywood plot?
On its own, though, I enjoyed the characters and some of the episodes fine. They do have some cheesy dialogue and scenes here and there, making this obviously a show for the tween crowd, but they were believable and there's a lot of heart in their interactions and stories (the last episode especially is excellent at this).
I also like Amber's cartoon drawings and vivid imagination. It's a creative way to show her world and her perspective.
