Book Shaped Magic // ARC Review: A Million Junes by Emily Henry

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
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

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.

Have you read either of Emily Henry's books? What did you think of them?

What are some of your favourite retellings? I can't wait for your recommendations!

I'm so sorry I haven't been replying to comments - I've been on vacation and I'll be sure to do it as soon as I find the time!

A Masterful, Mystical Tale // REVIEW: The Careful Undressing Of Love by Corey Ann Haydu

Title: The Careful Undressing Of Love

Author: Corey Ann Haydu

Publication Date: January 31st 2017

Publisher: Dutton Books For Young Readers

Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone

I Got A Copy Through: Penguin Random House International (THANK YOU!)

Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || The Book Despository || Wordery || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Everyone who really knows Brooklyn knows Devonairre Street girls are different. They’re the ones you shouldn’t fall in love with. The ones with the curse. The ones who can get you killed.
Lorna Ryder is a Devonairre Street girl, and for years, paying lip service to the curse has been the small price of living in a neighborhood full of memories of her father, one of the thousands killed five years earlier in the 2001 Times Square Bombing. Then her best friend’s boyfriend is killed, and suddenly a city paralyzed by dread of another terrorist attack is obsessed with Devonairre Street and the price of falling in love.
Set in an America where recent history has followed a different path.

The Careful Undressing of Love is a mystical book, filled with love and the gut wrenching pain it brings, with superstition and curses, with death and family all set on the shortest street in New York.

Devonairre Street isn’t a normal street with standard brownstones and people traversing the sidewalks. It was once where people flocked to find love; where people flocked to find love that they thought the world owed to them.

And because of it, any girl who lives on Devonairre Street today, will cause the death of the boy they love.

Lorna, Delilah, Isla and Charlotte are the Devonairre Street Girls. Apart, they’re just your regular pretty girls but together, they’re something else. They’re mystical and magical; they have long hair and keys around their necks. People stare as they walk by, and to them, the Curse is all a game.

Until the boy Delilah loves dies in a freak accident, and the lives of the girls on Devonairre Street change forever.

I didn’t know what I was expecting going in, but The Careful Undressing of Love sounded SO SO UNIQUE that I knew I had to read it anyway.

THINGS I LOVED:

1.       THE TRADITIONS: Devonairre Street has so many of these quirky traditions (is it okay to call in that?) like keys around the neck, Shared Birthdays, lemons for grief and honey cake just to name a few. It really tied in the whole element that people REALLY BELIEVED that a Curse existed, and it made the book a lot more believable in its mysticism.

2.       THE GRIEF: Whatever else I say about this book, I could feel the sadness and heartbreak wafting off the page. It was such a raw thing, so fragile and real and moving that I felt myself getting sucked and FEELING EVERYTHING in every time I read a few pages. Corey Ann’s writing was on point, making you feel it all.

3.       THE CURSE – REAL OR NOT? Normally, I would never believe that a Curse that kills the person you love existed but HOLY WOW THIS BOOK MADE ME QUESTION IT ALL. Don’t get me wrong, I still wanted to shake Angelika and Delilah and the other older ladies of Devonairre Street, but IT MADE ME QUESTION EVERYTHING.

Gorgeous Graphic Designed by Jen @ Pop!Goes The Reader

4.       THE MEDIA FRENZY: I actually liked the media frenzy that occurred in the latter half of the book, when the article about the mysterious Devonairre Girls went viral. It gave a mystical and magical book an air of madness and utter loss of control and I REALLY REALLY LOVED IT.

I don’t think I’ve properly captured the magic that is The Careful Undressing Of Love, but I could not tell you how much you need to experience the journey that is this book.

A masterful, mystical tale about A Street, Four Girls and the love that encompasses all of us. Highly recommended!

is the author of YA novels, OCD LOVE STORY, LIFE BY COMMITTEE, MAKING PRETTY, the middle grade novel, RULES FOR STEALING STARS and the upcoming YA novel THE CAREFUL UNDRESSING OF LOVE. Her second middle grade novel, THE SOMEDAY SUITCASE comes out in June 2017. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and The New School’s Writing for Children MFA program, Corey has been working in children’s publishing since 2009.

In 2013, Corey was chosen as one of Publisher Weekly’s Flying Starts. Her books have been Junior Library Guild Selections, Indie Next Selections, and BCCB Blue Ribbon Selections.

Have your read this book yet? What did you think of it?

Do you believe in Curses? 

What do you think of the cover of this book?

I can't wait to chat with all of you lovelies!