Book Review: A Million Junes by Emily Henry

A Million Junes by Emily Henry

What it's about:

     Ever since Jack O'Donnell IV can remember, her parents have warned her to stay away from the Angerts.  Their families are linked from way back, and when members of each clan cross paths, bad things happen.  Like her father's mysterious and sudden death.

     When Jack (known also as June, Junior, JuneBug, etc) runs into Saul, the youngest member of the Angert family (who has been gone from town for years), she expects the worst--but nothing bad seems to happen.

     As the two grow closer, the magic of the O'Donnell's family farm and the mystery surrounding the curse shared by their families is slowly revealed--changing what they thought they knew about their entire lives.

What I thought:

     I ADORED this book.  The first thing I thought when I started reading about June's dad and his stories was the movie Big Fish--a dad who tells these really crazy magical stories like they actually happened--and maybe they did, maybe they didn't happen the way he says.  This book is what you would get if you took Big Fish, Romeo and Juliet, and the Hatfields and McCoys, stuck them in a blender, poured them into a glass, and sprinkled them with a bit more magic. And I couldn't be more pleased with this strange combination.

     The writing in this book is poetic and beautiful and very dreamlike--while also staying true to the story of June in the present. It kept me completely riveted and wanting to know more. I read Emily Henry's previous book, "The Love That Split The World", which I liked, but I really loved this one so much more.

     The entire first half of the book--as I fell in love with the characters and the strange circumstances surrounding this big DO NOT GO NEAR THE ANGERTS mystery--I kept waiting for something truly awful to happen.  That feeling of dread *almost* hindered my capacity to become entirely smitten with Saul (kudos to the author, by the way, for making the name Saul seem super attractive in this day and age), but I was able to overcome and totally got into the romance that blooms between the children of the warring families.

     Once the mystery begins to be solved, the story takes a real turn emotionally.  From a sweet forbidden romance, it becomes something much deeper in both depth and meaning, leading the characters through the grief they've felt for a decade, and that which has followed both of their families for generations. The writing is *so* poignant and touching, I found myself not sobbing with sadness, but consistently finding tears leaking from my eyes.  My heart ached along with June and Saul as they uncovered more about their family histories in both the present and in the past.

     I don't want to give too much away, because I really think this is one that's better when you go into it not knowing a whole lot of details. I loved trying to guess what was going on and found that a lot of my hunches were correct, which sort of added to the entertainment of reading it!  I will say that this is definitely a book I'm going to be grabbing a hard copy of to take its rightful place on my bookshelf!

Rating: 5 stars.

Book Review: Four Kings by M.D. Elster

Four Kings by M.D. Elster
**This book was provided to me for review through NetGalley**

What it's about:

     Anaïs Reynard wakes up in a 1940's New Orleans sanitorium with no recollection of how she arrived there.  Her doctors tell her she was a witness to the shooting of her stepfather, but she doesn't remember anything from that night.  A young black man has been arrested for the crime and Anaïs is the star witness for the trial, though through the fog of her mind, something tells her he is *not* the shooter.

     One night, a strange encounter with a bizarre fox-like man leads Anaïs to an adventure in another world--one that seems similar to the events occurring in her own.  

What I thought:

     So....it took me a while to start reading this book.  It took me a little bit less time to get into the story, but oh man, once I did: 

This story is just so....magical. Magical in a very serious and intense way, a la Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  The different stories (The Land of the Four Kings, Anaïs' past leading up to now, and Anaïs' current amnesia-riddled story) blend together surprisingly well, and I found myself unable to decide which part I was looking most forward to.

The mystery surrounding the stepfather's shooting was fun to try to work out based on the clues Anaïs remembered.  Getting to understand the dynamic between Anaïs and the people in her life based on the memories of her past was really interesting and showed the reader more connections than originally let on.  I enjoy reading about the WWII era so the fact that her early life took place in Europe during this time period was of bonus interest to me.

I think my favorite parts of the story were the scenes that took place in the Land of the Four Kings.  While this story does seem to be akin to stories like Alice in Wonderland or the Wizard of Oz, it definitely has its own flavor, characters, and world.  All of these seem to correspond to the events in Anaïs' own world, but I do think that the Land of the Four Kings could be a place that could stand on its own, and I would love the possibly seeing more of the stories that are still laying in wait in that setting.  

Overall, I would definitely recommend giving this book a read if you enjoy any of the aforementioned stories. It's got a Alice/Dorothy feel set in a strange and sometimes creepy world, but it's definitely worth the reading time!

Rating:   4 stars.

Book Review: Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer

What it's about:

     To cope with the death of her mother, Juliet writes letters and leaves them at the cemetery.  When someone (spoiler: it's Declan) finds one of them and writes BACK, she's at first angry, then intrigued.  Thus begins an anonymous correspondence in which the person writing to her may have more in common with Juliet than she thought. Being able to bare all in such a personal yet impersonal way seems to have a strong impact on both parties, but reality has a way of impeding even the most private of exchanges, and secrets start to seep through the cracks and into their real lives.

What I thought:

     I picked this book up at a publisher's booth during BookCon on a whim.  I was with a friend, and when we read the inside cover, it seemed like something we'd like. It also came *highly* praised by the girl who rang us each out a copy.  The plan was to read it together (we do buddy reads all the time).  It had been sitting on my TBR shelf for almost 2 months when the other day my friend texted me, asking if I wanted to start the read. I wasn't super into any of the other books I was reading at the time, and said "Yeah, sure!" 

That was yesterday.  My friend hasn't even started it yet (Sorry, Court. Please forgive me.)

I've been going through a bit of a YA Contemporary Romance phase (yes, it's waaay out of my comfort zone--the proof is in my "Read" list).  So when I grabbed this one off my shelf last night and reread the jacket info, it was like...fate.  I had just run out of the few YACR books that were in my radar, and suddenly, without even knowing it, my past self went and bought my present self a...present.

That's exactly what this book was for me.  Don't get me wrong--this book is pretty emotionally rough to get through most of the time--the main characters are heartbroken and hurt and hiding that fact from most of the people in their lives.  When they get a chance to anonymously open up and spill each of their secrets, it feels a little like a hand reaching into your chest and squeezing really hard.  The emotions come through vividly and feel very very real.  

I'm not going to lie--this book overall probably won't make you feel very good.  Parts of it are cute, and feel pretty good, but it's decidedly *not* your typical cutesy YACR.  But the growth that Juliet and Declan go through to get to the ending is raw and authentic and gripping.  If I hadn't had to do life things like...sleep and work, I would have downed this thing in one sitting.

I'm not saying it didn't have a few downfalls. The characters themselves can get a bit cliched and some of the scenarios were a tad dramatic, but when they're stuck into the story and given these huge impactful backstories and really great secondary characters (my complete and utter favorite being Rev, Declan's best friend), all that cliche and drama seems a bit *less* cliche and more on the "Oh ow, that hurts. This isn't even happening to ME, why do I feel this pain?" side of things.  

Honestly, my biggest problem with this book will be deciding how to reorganize my "favorites" shelf to fit this one in.  

AND OMG, WE'RE GETTING MORE. REV IS GETTING HIS OWN BOOK, COMING OUT SPRING OF 2018. I CANNOT WAIT.

Rating:  5 stars.