Review – A Million Junes by Emily Henry @EmilyHenryWrite @PenguinTeen

A Million Junes by Emily Henry
Publisher: Penguin Group – Razorbill
Publication Date: May 16, 2017
Date Read: April 12, 2017
Source: First to Read
★★★★★

Romeo and Juliet meets One Hundred Years of Solitude in Emily Henry’s brilliant follow-up to The Love That Split the World, about the daughter and son of two long-feuding families who fall in love while trying to uncover the truth about the strange magic and harrowing curse that has plagued their bloodlines for generations.

In their hometown of Five Fingers, Michigan, the O’Donnells and the Angerts have mythic legacies. But for all the tall tales they weave, both founding families are tight-lipped about what caused the century-old rift between them, except to say it began with a cherry tree.

Eighteen-year-old Jack “June” O’Donnell doesn’t need a better reason than that. She’s an O’Donnell to her core, just like her late father was, and O’Donnells stay away from Angerts. Period.

But when Saul Angert, the son of June’s father’s mortal enemy, returns to town after three mysterious years away, June can’t seem to avoid him. Soon the unthinkable happens: She finds she doesn’t exactly hate the gruff, sarcastic boy she was born to loathe.

Saul’s arrival sparks a chain reaction, and as the magic, ghosts, and coywolves of Five Fingers conspire to reveal the truth about the dark moment that started the feud, June must question everything she knows about her family and the father she adored. And she must decide whether it’s finally time for her—and all of the O’Donnells before her—to let go.

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There was so much to love about this book.  It was almost a magical experience reading this book.  The story just kind of sprang to life for me and I was really swept away by the story.  I couldn’t get this story out of my head and if I had a moment free I was reading this book.  This was a book that I quickly learned to expect the unexpected and just let the beauty of the storytelling take over.  Simply put, this was an amazing book.

Jack goes by many names.  She answers to Jack, Junior, and June but her real identity is wrapped up in the fact that she is an O’Donnell.  Her family has a long standing feud with the neighboring family named Angert.  Jack doesn’t have a whole lot of rules that she has always been told to follow but staying away from the Angerts is one of them.

Saul Angert is back in town and it doesn’t take him very long to cross paths with Jack.  His family has also told him to stay away from the O’Donnells for his entire life.  The problem is that they don’t want to stay apart and are in fact drawn to each other.  They start spending more and more time with each other and strange things begin to happen.

The magical realism in this book was wonderfully crafted.  There are ghosts and pieces of light that let you see the memories of those that came before.  If you leave your shoes unattended, the coywolves will most likely steal them.  Jack and Saul both get swept up in the memories of their ancestors and start to unravel the true reason for the long standing feud.

I cannot say enough good things about the writing.  This is a story that was beautifully told.  I loved how easily the author was able to blend the magical elements into our contemporary world.  The relationships in the book felt very authentic and I ended up loving all of the characters.  I had no idea where this book would end up and to be honest I didn’t care since I was having such a good time on the journey.

I would highly recommend this book to others.  I enjoyed Emily Henry’s debut novel, The Love That Split the World, but loved this one even more.  I can’t wait to read Emily Henry’s future works.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Penguin Group – Razorbill  via First to Read.

About the Author

Emily Henry is the author of The Love That Split the World, and is a full-time writer, proofreader, and donut connoisseur. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. She tweets @EmilyHenryWrite.

Author Links:  Goodreads |  Twitter

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