ARC Review/Giveaway: A Million Junes by Emily Henry

A Million Junes by Emily Henry
Series: N/A
Published by Razorbill on May 16, 2017
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fantasy, Magical Realism
Pages: 350: ARC edition
Source: Sent to me via the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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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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Was very blessed to come home to a copy of this in my mailbox! Thank you @bloomsburypublishing @razorbillbooks! 💛🌼 (PC: @instakaylin) • • • • #books #bookstagram #bibliophile #amreading #bookworm #booklove #booklover #goodreads #bookaddict #booklr #bookshimmy #instaboooks #igreads #booknerigans #ireadya #yalit #yalovin #youngault #yareads #bookblogger #bookblog #becauseofreading #amillionjunes #emilyhenry

A post shared by Paige (@thepaige_turner) on Mar 18, 2017 at 5:02pm PDT

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Review

It’s been a long while since I’ve read a contemporary that was as sweet as this one. I haven’t felt this invested in a romance in a long while and with the “Romeo and Juliet” type trope in the background of the feuding families, it set up the entire plot to be filled with enough angst and witty banter to last through the entire novel.

June was such a compelling character and I really loved the way that her dialogue worked so well with the other characters. It was sassy without falling flat, but her internal dialogue was also something that felt achingly real and soft. She was very multi-faceted and set in a world where she had a lot of outside pressures and circumstances that were constantly throwing curve balls her way (one in particular by the name of Saul Angert *swoon*).

I’ve also never read a book with magical realism before (that I can recall), but the way it was woven through A Million Junes was so cool. My whole beef with fantasy/magical books is that it can often feel fake and stilted, slowing the plot down to where characters continually question their world, but the characters in A Million Junes went with the magical realism and accepted it as part of their life, and the way their town was.

The descriptions were what really drove this home for me since I really felt that earthy, down-home, country feeling that Emily Henry so seamlessly worked into her novel. Closing this book felt like I was resurfacing from that world, trying to hold onto those last couple seconds of seeing ghostly figures and snacking on tart cherries. This is the perfect summer or fall read because of that and will have you craving more magic and a different kind of magic – romance – for a long while after you’ve closed this and set it aside.

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Mood Board

(Major thanks to Sam @ A History of Books for helping out with the mood board!)

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Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enter for a chance to win one (1) of five (5) copies of A Million Junes by Emily Henry (ARV: $16.99 each).

 NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on May 15, 2017 and 12:00 AM on June 2, 2017.  Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older. Winners will be selected at random on or about June 7, 2017. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.