CBR17 Book 50: "Great Big Beautiful Life" by Emily Henry

Page count: 384 pages

Audiobook length: 12 hrs 2 mins

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR17 Bingo: G (A book title starting with G)

After months of online research, Alice Scott has tracked down the reclusive former tabloid darling Margaret Ives and hopes to persuade the woman to let Alice write her biography. Imagine the unpleasant surprise for Alice when it turns out that Margaret might not want to tell her life's story at all, and she basically wants to 'audition' Alice and another writer for the next month, before she makes up her mind. That other writer, Hayden Anderson, acclaimed journalist who won a Pulitzer for the last celebrity biography he wrote.

Since Hayden seems taciturn and generally disapproving of everyone, and especially Alice, Alice hopes that she, with her much more outgoing personality, might persuade Margaret to pick her to chronicle her eventful life. Meeting with the woman several mornings a week, Alice comes to realise that while Margaret has a story to tell, it doesn't start with her own birth, but involves several previous generations of the Ives family, all with skeletons in their closets and delectable secrets which have never previously been uncovered. 

Since they are both stuck in the small seaside town together, taking turns interviewing Margaret, Alice and Hayden keep running into one another, and as the weeks pass, Alice discovers that Hayden might not be so arrogant and unpleasant as she initially believed. Because of the iron-clad NDAs they've signed, they can't really speak about the information they're getting from Margaret, so it becomes more natural for them to talk about other things. By the end of the month, when it becomes time for Margaret to make her choice, Alice is no longer sure that she wants to be in competition with Hayden, and that no matter what decision Margaret makes, it's going to lead to heartbreak in some way or other.

Some things have become clear to me over the last few years. I will auto-buy and even pre-order any book by Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood, and I will probably enjoy the heck out of said books (or love them fiercely). As with Funny Story last year, I bought Great Big Beautiful Life and devoured it in about 48 hours, and then got the audiobook and listened to it again, taking more time to soak in the story and the characters. 

With this book, Henry is doing something different from her previous romances, in that this book is just as much a tragic family saga, slowly unfolding in the tales from Margaret, and Alice and Hayden's romance becomes more of a secondary plot, just as important, but not quite the main focus. It's Emily Henry channelling Taylor Jenkins Reid, if you like. From reviews I've seen online, this shift has worked fine for some readers, while others didn't like it at all.

Because Margaret is a fascinating character, I didn't mind it, and especially when revisiting the book in audio for the second time, I came to see that Alice and Hayden's story is still woven through the entire framework of the book, and that there was a wider connection to everything in the story that was wrapped up very satisfyingly in the end. It also made me tear up a few times, but that's partially because it deals with some pretty heavy grief themes throughout, and it doesn't take much to make me cry these days. 

The audiobook is narrated by Julia Whelan. She does an amazing job, as always. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 29: "Funny Story" by Emily Henry

Page count: 395 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 23 mins

Rating: 5 stars

CBR16 Sweet Books: Exciting

Daphne used to have the perfect life. Working as a children's librarian, living in a beautiful house with her fiancée Peter, Then, returning from his bachelor party, a shame-faced Peter confesses that he is in fact in love with his best friend Petra, and Daphne has one week to move all her things out of the house (which is owned entirely by Peter). Concluding that Petra's equally dumped boyfriend Miles probably has some free space in his flat, Daphne moves in with him and begins her mental countdown for when she can get out of town. She's not willing to leave until she's pulled up her big end-of-summer Read-a-thon at the library, but she also can't bear the thought of staying in Waning Bay any longer than necessary - forced to witness Peter's new happiness with Petra.

After having to be told off from smoking weed in their shared apartment to dull his heartbreak, Miles turns out to be a pretty great roommate. They barely see each other, and Miles clearly doesn't seem to understand Daphne's need to map out her entire life on a whiteboard wall calendar. He's also the only one who can truly understand how sucky this whole situation is for Daphne. When they receive wedding invitations to Petra and Peter's wedding, they decide that the only thing to do is to get blind drunk. Their night of drunkenness leads to Daphne accepting the wedding invite, and complicating the situation further by telling Peter that Miles is, in fact, her plus one to the wedding, what with them dating now (he calls to reassure her that she doesn't need to come to the wedding if it'll be too painful).

During their drunken night out, Miles also discovers that Daphne is mentally counting down to leave town. He decides to be her tour guide and show her all the awesome things the town and surrounding area have to offer since he doesn't think she should have to uproot herself entirely just because Peter and Petra turned out to be selfish homewreckers. They post some pictures on social media to make their lie about dating one another more believable, and since Waning Bay isn't a very big place, soon most of the residents think they're a couple. 

As their friendship develops and their exes' wedding comes closer, Miles' plan to make Daphne appreciate her new hometown appears to be working. As they spend more time together, they also appear to be falling for one another. But falling in love with her ex-fiancée's new fiancée's ex-boyfriend can't possibly end well?

This is Emily Henry's fifth romance for an adult audience (I've still only read one of her YA books) and while I suspect Book Lovers is still my favourite, this is certainly a close second. I loved it so much that only weeks after finishing it, I got the audio book (as always excellently narrated by Julia Whelan) to re-read it. There are so many things I love about it, but the protagonists are probably on the top of the list. 

Daphne is a wonderful heroine, especially because she's by no means perfect. Having never been able to rely on her father, she and her mother have always been all the more close-knit. Unfortunately, to be able to support them, Daphne's mother had to move around a lot as she got promoted into bigger and better positions. Daphne never really had time to make lasting friends and learned not to get too attached to any of the places they lived. When meeting Peter, she allows herself to start dreaming of a lasting home but also works very hard to be his perfect partner. They spend their spare time doing the things he enjoys, socialising with his friends, eating the food he prefers. Because of this, Daphne is even more adrift when she is dumped shortly before their wedding - she hasn't really thought about what she wants and enjoys. One of the things she also has to completely reassess is her impression of Miles. 

So much of Daphne's impressions come from Peter, who has clearly been both very vocal in his disapproval of Miles, and very restrictive about what parts of the town he has chosen to share with Daphne. She would not be so amazed at all the new places in the town and surrounding area if she'd been encouraged to explore more while she was with Peter, and she wouldn't feel so alone and alienated, desperate to get out of there either. 

While Book Lovers is probably still my most favourite, Miles is absolutely my favourite Emily Henry romance hero. He reminds me a lot of Levi from Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and that is NOT a bad thing. Levi is one of the swooniest characters ever. Miles' cheerful and outgoing nature, his friendliness and positive attitude (almost toxic positivity as we discover later), and the way everyone can't help but fall a little bit in love with him - very Levi. Miles has a lot more self-doubt and angst, though, and Petra choosing Peter over him certainly doesn't help. 

One of the many things I love about him is the way he's there for his sister Julia and I'm glad they finally talk through their issues in the end, so he can forgive himself for his believed abandonment of her in her childhood and allow her to care for him as much as he cares for her. Julia is one of the very enjoyable supporting characters, even though she also appears to be chaos in human form. The other really great supporting character that really adds to the excellence of the book is Ashley, Daphne's fellow librarian, a seemingly grouchy single mother who unlike Daphne (who seems to want to avoid anything uncomfortable and confrontational) is unafraid to tell people exactly what she thinks. Having moved around so much growing up, it's quite clear that Daphne has barely managed to make any lasting friends, so the new connections she makes with Miles, Julia and Ashley are all significant.

It's not like we get to know Peter much before he shows up and crushes our Daphne's heart. He really is a self-centred, stuck-up idiot. He eventually explains why he acted the way he did by replacing Daphne with Petra, and the whole thing is just laughable. The fact that he assumes that there is a chance he could be forgiven and that Daphne would take him back - the audacity! Even if Daphne hadn't found someone much better and more deserving of her in Miles, she would be absolutely insane to take him back after the things he put her through. Petra seems pretty bad as well, but she also seems to have fallen victim to Peter's desperate attempts to have his cake and eat it too. Both of them and their well-meaning, but clearly secretly judgemental families can go to the devil. 

This is absolutely delightful and exceeded my already high expectations. By now, Henry is not only an auto-buy author for me, I pre-order her books months in advance. I own all of her romances in paperback and have acquired most of them in audio as well (I love re-reading books through audio). Now I just have to see what she comes up with next.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover shows Daphne and Miles drowning their sorrows at a local bar, and the postures of both of them are so well-done. While cartoony, they really capture the essences of the characters. Cover Miles is even wearing crocs. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR15 Book 30: "Happy Place" by Emily Henry

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR15 Bingo: Adulthood

15-word review: Harriet and Wyn broke up months ago, but can't tell their friends. Sexual tension follows.

Official book description:

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.

They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week… in front of those who know you best?

I read this book at the start of May, so apologies if this review isn't as witty and informative as some of the others I occasionally write. Ms. Henry deserves a great review for her achievement, but I've just let my review backlog get bigger and bigger, so this is what she gets instead.

I picked this book for the "Adulthood" square of Cannonball Bingo because all of the characters in Happy Place, not just Harriet and Wyn, are struggling with both having to be adults and accept that sometimes things change irrevocably, and want to hold on to their happier youthful days. Their friends Sabrina, Cleo, Parth, and Kimmy are just as devastated that Sabrina's rich father is selling the cottage they've shared so many good times in, and as their last week progresses, it's becoming very clear that Harriet and Wyn aren't the only ones keeping big secrets. 

Harriet has always dreamed of becoming a surgeon, but her residency in multiple hospitals is wearing her down. Wyn was miserable living with her even before he moved away months ago to take care of his grieving mother after the death of his father. So now she lives alone and barely seems to function between her various hospital shifts. Not that she's going to say any of that to Sabrina and Cleo, her best friends since college, or Parth, Sabrina's boyfriend and Wyn's former roommate, nor Kimmy, Cleo's lovely partner. The cottage in Maine is the place Harriet pictures when she's close to having a panic attack or a depressive episode, she's not going to sully her last week ever there with depressing truths about real life and struggling.

Because it's their last week there, and Sabrina and Parth have something big planned, neither Harriet nor Wyn is going to burst their bubble by revealing that they're no longer together. It would spoil the brief time they have left there. Of course, they're not the only ones lying through their teeth about how things really are, and refusing to tell their friends what their lives are really like at the moment. So many secrets bubbling under the surface, waiting to pop. 

Happy Place, like People We Meet on Vacation is told in dual timelines. The book switches between the present, at the cottage in Maine, where the friends are spending one last week enjoying their dream location, and the past, where we find out how Harriet, Sabrina, and Cleo met, how they got to know Parth and Wyn, and how Cleo later introduced the group to Kimmy. Slowly, ever so gradually, we finally see how Harriet and Wyn's relationship went from being each other's perfect partners, to people who struggle to even look at each other. At the same time, the sections in the present make it very obvious that while they broke up, Harriet and Wyn still love each other and that their attraction for one another still burns very strong. I liked this a lot more than People We Meet on Vacation (my least favourite book of all Ms. Henry has written - it's perfectly fine, it just didn't resonate with me the way her others do). Nevertheless, the jumping back and forth all the time occasionally got tiresome, which is why I'm deducting half a star from its near-perfect rating. 

Judging a book by its cover: The publishing industry wants you to believe that Emily Henry writes light-hearted rom-coms, despite the fact that all of her books tend to feature some pretty damaged people trying to find their own place in the world, as well as love. This bubblegum pink cover with people frolicking merrily in the water very much does not match the contents within in the slightest, with two deeply insecure individuals desperately trying to keep it together so as not to ruin their friends' happiness. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR14 Book 15: "Book Lovers" by Emily Henry

Page count: 398 pages

Rating: 5 stars

You know in a lot of romantic comedies, the hero already has a girlfriend, but she's stern, and demanding and seems to have absolutely no feelings that don't revolve around her career and probably living in the big city? The woman who eventually gets left, so the hero can get with the charming, free-spirited, understanding and much more laid-back heroine of the rom-com?

Nora Stephens is that woman. She loves her life in New York City, she loves her Peloton bike, she loves her designer shoes and she really doesn't give a fig for the outdoors. However, the fourth (!) time one of her boyfriends goes out of town for a few weeks to small-town America, only to call her to let her know that they won't be back, because they've realised their careers in the big city are hollow and they need to do something completely different with their lives, she is understandably quite upset. That the break-up phone call happens right before she's about to have a very important business meeting, causing Nora to be late (she's never late) is possibly even worse. 

The meeting does not go well. Charlie Lastra, known in the publishing industry as the Storm Cloud, seems entirely uninterested in editing and publishing the book Nora is trying to pitch to him. Obviously, Nora feels rather triumphant two years later, when the book is a massive bestseller with a film adaptation in the works. However, she's also worried about her pregnant little sister, who seems utterly exhausted and has decided that she needs a break from her husband and two daughters, so she (Libby) and Nora will go away for a month to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, which just so happens to be the setting of Nora's author's very successful novel. 

Nora's life is pretty much her work, where she is the most cutthroat literary agent in Manhattan, who will do anything for her authors, especially make sure they get excellent publishing deals, and Libby, the reason she works so hard in the first place. Raised by a single mother who came to New York to chase her dreams and frequently kept having them crushed while trying to make ends meet to support her girls, Nora and Libby were both devastated when she died. For a long time, they've only had each other, and Nora has worked hard her entire adult life to make sure neither Libby nor she ever faced the sort of difficult financial burdens their mother did. She can't really say no to Libby, even though she's unsure about a whole month away from NYC and the very long checklist of items her sister seems to want them to get through during that month (one of which includes saving a failing business). 

Nora is worried Libby is going to be disappointed with Sunshine Falls, which is a lot more run-down and deserted than the best-selling novel made it seem. Libby, however, seems perfectly happy to be there, it's Nora who's feeling like a fish out of water. Imagine her surprise when on one of her very first days in Sunshine Falls, she runs (literally) into Charlie Lastra, her grumpy publishing nemesis, and very quickly, they not only seem to have struck up a friendship but are pretty much constantly flirting via e-mail or text. Turns out one of the reasons Charlie passed on the novel is that he's from Sunshine Falls, and didn't really like the way his childhood home was romanticised in the pages of the book. Now he's back home, helping his parents (his father had a stroke and needs a lot of physical rehabilitation), running the family bookstore while his dad recovers, and working long-distance as an editor. 

While Nora and Charlie's first meeting may not have been the best, it's very quickly clear that they are two peas in a pod, and care deeply about most of the same things. They also have absolutely sizzling chemistry, but as they end up working together to edit the new manuscript for Nora's top author, they are both determined to keep everything professional. Not that Charlie seems all too pleased about Libby's plan that Nora just needs to become the heroine of her own small-town romance, and to do so, Libby wants her to go on dates with at least two of the locals. Of course, the first one seems deeply intimidated by how tall Nora is and how big her shoes are, while the other one turns out to be Charlie's cousin, and while he's got the good looks, charm, intelligence, and humour of a perfect small town leading man - Nora just keeps thinking about Charlie's scowl and prominent eyebrows. 

Nora can't stand not being in control of every situation and being in North Carolina has put her very much out of her comfort zone. She can't sleep well with all the silence of the countryside. To add to her worries, Libby is clearly hiding things from her, when in the past, the sisters have always confided in one another. Charlie Lastra is nothing like the men she's dated in the past, where she could keep her head cool when things inevitably imploded. She realises far too quickly that she's falling hard for him, and he keeps insisting that their flirtation, much as he clearly returns her feelings, is not leading to a HEA. 

While I in no way disliked People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry's last release, it felt rather disappointing to me compared to her first romance novel aimed at adults, Beach Read, which was one of those books I had trouble putting down and kept wanting to read more of, because I loved spending time with the protagonists so much. Well, I'm happy to say that I think Book Lovers is her finest romance yet, and it completely transported me. It's incredibly obvious from the very first chapter that Henry knows every romance trope there is, and she carefully sets out to deconstruct a lot of them over the course of this book. Making her heroine the supposed ice queen, the driven, career-obsessed and unashamedly ruthless (on behalf of her clients and/or her sister) woman is a beautiful touch. Having her dumped a whole FOUR times by selfish jerks who decide to follow their dreams with carefree waifs in small towns seems rather cruel, but it's only to highlight how absolutely perfect Charlie is for her instead. Her equal in exacting professionalism, another terror of the NYC publishing world, not only is he in no way threatened by Nora and her drive to succeed and her workaholic tendencies, he applauds them and makes her realise that they may not, in fact, be flaws. 

Charlie Lastra, raised in the beautiful North Carolina countryside, who always felt uncomfortable and out of place until he moved to the city, understands why stunning sunsets, hiking, and camping under the stars are not what Nora wants or needs. She wants to take care of her sister and if completing the rather ridiculous checklist is what Libby wants, then Nora will camp, bake and try to put away her phone at 5pm each afternoon to be "present" for her sister. Yet the only time she really feels comfortable is when she's trading notes with Charlie on the manuscript they're co-editing, or even better, fighting their growing attraction and stealing kisses where no one can see them. 

Like in Beach Read, grief and the processing thereof, play a major part in this story. While their childhood was far from ideal, Nora especially adored her mother and has internalised her mother's love of New York. Losing her while she was still barely a teenager and having to act as a guardian for her younger sister, while they were both processing their loss and emotions is one of the reasons Nora has become so emotionally closed off. Having to act as a parent for her sister made her think that she could never be the vulnerable one, and that starts taking its toll the longer she spends in Sunshine Falls. 

This book does a very good job of showing that people can want vastly different things, and neither of the options are bad ones. Wanting to live in a New York loft and have a career and never raise children of your own does not make you a soulless monster, nor does wanting to have multiple children and live in a big house in the countryside make you more worthy of love and happy endings. 

This book made me very happy and I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a comforting spring read. The beautiful thing with romances is that even when it seems like the protagonists are never going to be able to find a way to make their relationship work (and things look pretty bad here for a while), there WILL be a satisfying happy ending eventually, in this case, one that made me grin like a loon.

Judging a book by its cover: Still not a fan of the cartoon covers (surely this trend must end sometime soon), but at least this is quite a cute one. The man and woman look exactly like Charlie and Nora are described and I love how absorbed they are in a book each, while also reaching out and sharing books between them. Any romance based around the love of books is probably going to work for me. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR13 Book 41: "People We Meet on Vacation" by Emily Henry

Page count: 382 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

CBR13 Bingo: Travel

Official book description:

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

In this contemporary romance, we meet Poppy and Alex, who despite their different interests and priorities in life ended up best friends after a bit of a false start in college. No matter what they do for the rest of their year, they meet up every summer for one week of vacation together. However, two years ago, something happened, and they have neither seen each other, nor spoken since. 

Poppy is a valued travel writer for a prestigious publication but feels restless and unhappy and she's pretty sure the last time she can remember being truly happy was on that last trip with Alex. She sends him a text message, not really expecting a reply, but is surprised and happy that he's willing to exchange some pleasantries. Alex' younger brother is getting married, and the occasion offers Poppy the opportunity to invite Alex on one last trip when she's determined that she's not only going to mend their friendship but hopefully convince him to take their relationship to the next level. 

Alex is a high school teacher back in their hometown who, due to the early death of his mother, helps his father take care of his younger brother. Over the years of his and Poppy's friendship, both Alex and Poppy have had romantic partners, Alex has mainly been in an on-and-off-again relationship with a co-worker. For the last few years, however, he's been single. 

I'm not going to lie, this review will not be as good as it should be, as I finished this book back at the end of July, and we're now in the middle of October. I had relatively high expectations for this book, considering how affected I was by her first novel for adults, Beach Read. While I read a lot of positive write-ups of this book, the fact that I now barely remember many details at all about the book (while there are still scenes from Beach Read I can recall exactly) means that I've downgraded the rating of the book with half a star and will have to try to dig up my memories of what worked (and didn't) for me.

As with Henry's first novel, this story suffers somewhat from only showing Poppy's point of view throughout. We only know explicitly what Alex feels when he comes out and explains it, which for the longest time he doesn't. Since a lot of the conflict and complications in this novel come from a lack of clear communication between and a number of silly misunderstandings relating to what one or the other believes the other one is looking for as a long-term life goal, it ends up being frustrating to only get Poppy's side of things.

I seem to recall liking the various supporting players, including several of Alex and Poppy's exes, their family members, and even Poppy's demanding boss. There is no villain keeping the lovers apart here, just their own lack of clear communication. While this one didn't stay with me in the same way as Beach Read did, I will absolutely give Henry's next romance a chance when that comes out. 

Judging a book by its cover: Another bright and animated cover, this nevertheless doesn't really seem to capture the sort of journeys that Poppy and Alex like to go on. As with Ms. Henry's previous novel, the cover does not do the contents of her book justice. This suggests a different kind of book than what you're actually getting. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

 

#CBR12 Book 50: "Beach Read" by Emily Henry

Page count: 384 pages
Audio book length: 10 hrs 13 mins
Rating: 4 stars

#CBR12 Bingo: Pandemic (read what you want)

Official book description: 

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They're polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really. 

I suspect quite a few people who picked up this book, based on the bright, colourful cover and the light-hearted title were in for quite a surprise if they hadn't read up on the book in advance. This book is not a light, funny, frothy summer read. It doesn't feature anyone sitting or lying on towels on golden sand (despite living in actual beach houses, Gus and January spend remarkably little time on the actual beach). It is nevertheless a good romance, where the characters spend a lot of time reconnecting (they used to go to college together) and becoming fast friends before they realise that they've fallen for one another.

It just seems like it's important to address that our heroine, romance author January Andrews, starts the book in a pretty dark place. When her beloved father unexpectedly died, she discovered that he'd been having an affair. Not only that, but her mother knew about it, did nothing, and helped hide the fact from January. In the months after his funeral, when she was overcome with grief, January's handsome doctor boyfriend dumped her. Now she's pretty much homeless, broke, and needs to write a new book in a few months, or her publisher may drop her. Unfortunately, her belief in true love, meet-cutes, and happily-ever-afters has been completely obliterated. Because she has nowhere else to stay, she's forced to go stay in the beach house in Michigan where her father used to meet up with his mistress. Living in the town where said mistress still resides, in fact. Living in her father's love nest isn't exactly inspiring her creative juices.

To make matters possibly worse, she discovers that the surly neighbour who plays loud music at late-night parties is none other than her old college critique partner, now bestselling author, Augustus Everett. January is used to her writing being dismissed and assumes acclaimed literary darling Augustus will think the same as most others. She's rather relieved when she discovers he suffers from writing block too. The neighbours make a bet - Augustus will try to write a romantic comedy with a happy ending, while January will write something dark and serious that will please literary critics. The first one to get their book published wins. The loser will enthusiastically promote the other's work. January will teach Gus about all the popular romance tropes, he will help her do serious research and allow her to sit in on his interviews with survivors of a death cult.

Changing pace and genre seems to invigorate both of them, and soon both January and Gus are writing more than they have in months. They develop a fast friendship and start talking to each other about a lot of things, but both of them take time to share the emotional scars of their pasts with one another, which is one of the reasons the romance hits a few snags before they find their happy ending. Who wins their little contest? You'll have to read the book to find out.

As far as I'm aware, this is Emily Henry's first adult book, she's previously written a number of young adult novels with some form of paranormal element. I'd only read A Million Junes before this, but have now really liked two books of hers and will absolutely be checking out more in the future. 

Judging a book by its cover: Both the title and the cover of this novel are highly deceptive and frankly actively misleading to the reader. The cover and title promise a fluffy rom-com with people lounging around on beaches, reading, and relaxing. It promises a low-stress, effortless, well, beach read. As this book is about grief, and frustration and overcoming emotional abuse and generally have two characters that at least initially start out some pretty dark places, this cover feels like false advertising. You are not going to get the book promised on the cover.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR10 Book 59: "A Million Junes" by Emily Henry

Page count: 398 pages
Rating: 4 stars

From Goodreads:
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.

First of all, must all forbidden love between the children of antagonistic families be compared with Romeo and Juliet? Will this play always be the template for forbidden love, no matter how different all other aspects of the stories being compared? It annoys me. Anyway, about this actual book. The comparison to One Hundred Years of Solitude is more accurate, although I wouldn't say that they're very close either. But this is a story that features magical realism, and the story of several generations of two families, plus a lot of odd and inexplicable behaviour from local animals.

Our poor heroine, who is in fact the fourth Jack O'Donnell of her family, despite being a girl (and mostly goes by June) has always been told that she must stay away from the Angerts. However, her best friend has a crush on Saul Angert, who has recently returned after three years away, and insists on dragging June along on a strange sort of double date. While both June and Saul know from their family history that they should stay away from one another, there is undeniable attraction between them.

One of the aspects of the "family curse" that the O'Donnells experience seems to be that they can't really travel too far away from their home and the apple tree there. So while June's mother and supportive stepfather (her dad is dead) would like her to think about college, June hasn't really considered this to be an option for her. Yet she signs up for a creative writing class run by a new teacher and becomes almost obsessed with doing well in it, trying to write down the family legends, told to her by her father before she died. While her stories clearly have promise, her writing teacher wants her to improve her craft, and Saul, whose father is a NYT bestselling author (and constantly sarcastically referred to as such by Saul) offers to tutor her to make her writing better.

Both June and Saul have been told to stay away from each other their entire lives (because the O'Donnells and Angerts have been enemies for four generations, and that's just the way it has to be) and that they must never go to the waterfall in the woods. June keeps seeing visions of her dead father, and after a while, she and Saul discover that they can both see pieces of their pasts (he sees his dead twin sister) and they start to piece together what actually happened way back in the past that led to the generations long feud and cursed both families. They are both very invested in getting to the bottom of the curse's origins and figuring out a way to break it, so they can have the possibility of a future together.

I really liked June (she also goes by Jack and Junior, what with being Jack O'Donnell IV) and Saul, as well as their sidekicks (June's BFF Hannah is especially great), not to mention June's family. The first three quarters of the book were engaging and kept me entertained, but in the final quarter, where the mystery finally starts to unravel and June and Saul work to break the curse, the storytelling became a bit of a mess and the whole dramatic resolution to the story went a bit off the rails. Overall, the book was a nice, quick read, though and a lot of the writing advice that June gets from Saul and her creative writing teacher is stuff that I may shamelessly steal and use when trying to coax my own future students into becoming better and more entertaining writers. This is my first book by Emily Henry, but I doubt it will be my last.

#CBR10Bingo: Listicles. From FYA's "Swoony YA books for your next Beach Vacation"

Judging a book by its cover: In the acknowledgements, Emily Henry thanks the cover designer for doing a great job. I cannot say I agree with her. This appears to be a blurry stock photo of a waterfall in the woods, with a badly cut out silhouette of a girl awkwardly stuck on top of it. This is not a cover that would make me want to pick up a book, rather the opposite.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.