"A beautiful, lyrical, and achingly brilliant story about love, grief, and family. Henry's writing will leave you breathless." —BuzzFeed
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.
I normally don't enjoy magical realism, but A Million Junes lived up to all my hopeful expectations. This book contains one of my favorite commentaries on grief - so many quotes I felt on a personal level. June and Saul are such unique and real-feeling characters, connected by their loss and sharing a sharp sense of humor. I appreciated how June's best friend, Hannah, also feels like her own person. She has her own individual wants and motivations. Basically, she's not a prop character at all, which I feel is a pitfall for a lot of "side" characters.
This is my first book by Emily Henry and I found her writing clever, vivid, and insightful. I'll definitely be picking up another one of her novels!
Sidenote: Though they're obviously different stories, if you love the Raven Cycle I feel like you'll enjoy this book too.
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11 June, 2017:
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