Book Shaped Magic // ARC Review: A Million Junes by Emily Henry |A Thousand Words A Million Books || A Young Adult Book Blog

Title: A Million Junes
Author: Emily Henry
Publication Date: May 16th 2017
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin Random House)
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Penguin Random House International
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Blurb Description: 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.

The books that end in:

a) Ugly crying in the middle of a crowded airplane in the middle of the night and

b) Forgetting heavy turbulence in a two flight binge read

Are ones that fall into the REALLY REALLY GOOD variety and A Million Junes was one of them.

I haven’t read Emily Henry’s debut novel, The Love That Split The World that released last year but there was a lot of hype surrounding it and it’s GORGEOUS cover and so when I got the opportunity to read A Million Junes this year, I JUMPED.

Let it never be told that Emily Henry can’t create a story or chemistry on paper or make magic feel real because A Million Junes did ALL of the above and did it REALLY REALLY WELL.

Thoughts:

1. A Romeo and Juliet Retelling! WOOHOO! (They’re not my favourite fictional couple but I do love retakes on classics)

2. THE CHEMISTRY OH MY GOD. June (Jack) O’Donnell IV and Saul Angert (aka Juliet and Romeo respectively) had this palpable, quick witted and undeniable chemistry that floated off the page and I loved it. There’s nothing better than star crossed, forbidden lovers with AMAZING chemistry to make you root for a romance.

3. This was so positively best friend positive. I loved the friendship between Hannah and June and this bond they had with each other. I loved that they believed each other, they supported and made fun of each other and I actually wish that there was more in the book that was just the two of them.

4. I loved the magic of the town of Five Fingers. There were so many stories, most of them unbelievable but they definitely added to the mystic element of everything. I liked the ghosts too, but I most definitely preferred the chemistry between Saul and June and their double dates with Nate and Hannah.

5. Honestly, the reason I closed this book with tear stains on the last pages is because of the magic that Emily Henry managed to create between June and her dad. It was honestly heart-breaking and so beautifully written and I find it so hard to explain but it just was something you NEED to read.

I can’t capture the magic of this book because I don’t write like Emily Henry does. It was a truly astounding, gorgeously constructed, chemistry filled book that will stay with you long after you’re done.

Magic in the shape of a book, I should call it, because everything about it was PERFECT. 5 stars.

Emily Henry is 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.