An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I tried to like this book, but I found it to be very slow for a big portion of the book. Other than that, I find the characters to be extremely well developed and I had a fun time reading this book. I will be reading more of Hawkins' work because I am a fan of the writing style.

I went into this pretty sceptical because I'm not the biggest fan of the cover an the covers are what usually bring me in (I know I know I'm working on it!). But this was amazing!!! So good! Te format was so great, I loved that Oskars chapters were written in a poetry like structure! The subtle magical realism was so well done and felt so real! This book took a completely different direction than I was expecting! Actually making me emotional at times! I'm very excited to see what else this author writes :)

This YA contemporary made my creative heart so very happy. I can pretty much guarantee it being enjoyable and easy to read for anyone who enjoys the genre. Open your heart and your mind and get ready to be visually and emotionally stimulated.

The Language of Cherries was a quick, easy read for me. At only 260 pages I polished it off in a few hours one afternoon.

I don’t have a lot to say about this one. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a YA contemporary romance. What sets it apart is the inclusion of magical realism elements, which were a nice touch and helped move the story along.

Chapters alternated between third person, following Evie’s perspective; and first person diary entries from Oskar’s point of view.

I thought that The Language of Cherries was well written, and I enjoyed reading about Oskar and Evie’s relationship as it developed.

Both characters are extremely creative individuals, and both have their share of problems. Oskar has a stutter, which causes him a lot of anxiety. But he’s also dealing with grief. The two combined have caused him to isolate himself from basically everyone around him. Meanwhile, Evie is dealing with family problems, and the declining state of her grandmother’s mental acuity due to dementia. In addition, she has been physically isolated by the move to Iceland.

I liked how there was a balance between the romantic elements and the exploration of the characters’ lives in general. I thought the themes of grief and isolation were handled really well, and I appreciated that both characters are experiencing those things for very different reasons.

Overall, I’d recommend this book to fans of YA contemporary/ romances.

When you are reading a book and realize you a reading something special, something profound, something that gives you literal goosebumps, something you never want to end you are in book lover heaven. The Language of Cherries by Jen Marie Hawkins is that book.

This YA is one of the most poignant lyrical, mystical magical books I have ever read. The story of Evie Perez, an aspiring painter, who at 17 is forced to spend her summer in Iceland away from family and friends. She is lonely and miserable then she discovers the cherry orchard and her life will never be the same.

Oskar has always lived on the grounds of the cherry orchard but he is weighed down by unspeakable grief and does not enjoy its beauty, in fact, he resents it. Then he sees Evie painting and eating his cherries and his life will never be the same.

Told in alternating POV between Evie and Oskar we are able to fully understand their pain, their anguish, their loneliness, and their mystical connection. Oskar misleads Evie when they meet but only because she truly leaves him speechless. Evie opens up to him assuming he can't speak English and she is safe confessing all of her emotions.

When she starts to paint pictures of the orchard with people she has never seen but who Oskar knows intimately they come to realize there is something more than just a chance meeting across the world between a boy and a girl.

When we read Oskar's side of the story we are given the gift of his lyrical poetic prose that is so beautiful it left me in tears. When Evie expresses her self doubts and insecurities it is written with such honesty that I kept wiping the tears away.

I delayed finishing this book because I did not want it to end. I was scared the ending would leave me empty but when I got to the last word I smiled through the tears. The author has given readers a true literary gift!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and Owl Hollow Press and the author for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was not what I expected. I was expecting a magical romance, but what I got was just kind of bland. I considered not finishing, but I stuck it out.

I found the plot to move very slow. I’m a fan of a slow burn, but it was 10% and I wasn’t into it, then 20% then 30%. Finally it started to pick up around 40%, but even then, it felt like hiking through mud.

Evie was immediately unlikeable. She was a bratty, stereotypical teen and I just don’t like to read stories lie that. Oksar’s stutter seemed gimmicky. His weird pseudo-poetry chapters really were really disruptive to the flow of the story.

I also experienced formatting issues with the digital file, and that made the experience even more unenjoyable.

Thank you to Owl Hollow Press and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Owl Hollow Press for early access to this book!

This romance was a beautiful story about two young adult (teens) who find love when they least expect it.

This book was full of beauty, heartbreak, frustration, laughter, and much more. I really liked the story line of the book– two strangers coming together from two different parts of life. I felt like the author did an excellent job and streaming together their love story.

I also enjoyed the style of the book. Oskar’s chapters, or point of view, were written in a different manner to emphasize his lack of speech and I really appreciated this. His chapters were more like journal entries and I think it gave the character more depth and insight.

The author created such a unique dynamic between the two characters that kept me entertained throughout the whole book. I was equally entertained and moved their love story. And I was rooting for them the entire time! I also loved how each of the characters were battle their own struggles while also dealing with their love story– it made for such a good book.

I loved this read, I recommend it!

5 "All the Cherries" Stars

I had no idea I would fall in love with this book quite so much. The Language of Cherries definitely stole my heart and I couldn't be happier. First of all, it is set in Iceland - which in itself thrilled me. I don't know that I've read anything set there before. Secondly, it had an air of mysticism without being a full out paranormal story...I also ate that up like it was candy. There was a very wounded hero, Oskar, who was much beloved by his aunt (she happened to be from Scotland) - - bonus points!! Evie, our heroine, is fighting her own battles but she will grow up and find her strength during this story. Lastly, there are cherries....and a farmer's market...and I could go on...

Seriously, this book is lyrical and poetic. It blends the past and present beautifully - - in a way that helps you understand the characters' feelings and emotions. Oskar has dealt with an extreme trauma and is having difficulty moving forward. He doesn't talk to Evie through much of the book. Yet they fall deeply in love. Evie uses her ability to paint to escape. She is in Iceland with her father but it's temporary. When she returns home, she will have to move from her old home in Florida and leave behind her school, friends and her grandmother (who she is extremely close to). Evie is working through the bitterness she has for her parents for making her leave everything she loves behind. I'm not even sure how the author does it but the way she leads these two characters to find one another is quite perfect. They don't make sense together. Yet, once they are together, they don't make sense apart. I apologize for all of my ramblings but I simply adore this book. The words written inside are truly beautiful and spoke to my soul....

"Maybe some people were meant to come into your life, but maybe they weren’t meant to stay."

Thank you to NetGalley, Owl Hollow Press and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The premise to this book sounded incredible, and I am so sad that I did not like it. I was expecting a whimsical novel with the magic of love and Iceland. What I got were some super unlikeable characters that made paying attention to anything else impossible

Evie is probably the most selfish, hypocritical, and petty young adult character I have ever read about. Sometimes I am able to overlook some of these character traits because of character development, or if the story is propelled forward by some other element (i.e. plot, family, et-cetera). However, when the purpose of the book is for me to be rooting for the main character, when they are unlikeable the star rating immediately drops.

Speaking of character development, Evie had none. The only thing/person that made her a better person was her grandma. Seriously, it’s like a magic potion. Grandma talks to her and then *bam*, a sentence later she’s forgiving everyone that she was cursing a few sentences before.

Another aspect of this book that made Evie unlikeable was the teenage drama that ensued. We are supposed to dislike Evie's friends that are back in Miami because the guy she "had a thing with" was into her best friend, and vice versa. However, both of these characters acted more maturely than Evie herself. Like I said - petty.

Not only was I expected to root for Evie, I was expected to root for this hate-to-love romance. Unfortunately, it was poorly done. The love interest was also unlikeable: extremely ignorant, prejudiced, and insensitive. Further, when their relationship transitioned from hate to love, it was like a flick of a switch, which read unrealistically.

There are other things about this novel that made it feel sloppy. Frequent shifts of third to first person and past to present tense were occasionally distracting, the predictability of the story did not give me agency to continue reading, and the pacing was not consistent (abrupt ending).

Finally, there were a couple things in this book that rubbed me the wrong way. Within this book there was a couple of paces that were simply a commentary on the legalization of marijuana, which was introduced in such a way where the author makes it clear where she stands. I felt like I was being preached to, which is not something I want to be reading regardless of whether or not I agree with the perspective.

A few times the main character would make a sexual comment which were generally received as a joke, but could also be considered harmful. I really don't think it was necessary for the author to include such comments in her book - it would have been fine without them, with other jokes that are less suggestive, or even later in the book when the characters have a deeper relationship and the joke is less likely to be harmful. On top of the sexual comments, there were a few other things that the main character said that were weird, unnecessary, awkward, and some that were just plain rude.

In short, I did not like this book and would not recommend it. I like what the author was trying to do, with the inclusion of a character with a stutter (I, personally, cannot speak to the quality of the representation) and a story set within the beautiful Iceland, but for me, it simply missed the mark.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

When Evie's father takes her away for the summer for his work, Evie struggles to adjust to life in Iceland. Away from her friends and boyfriend, and away from her beloved Abuela.

The Language of Cherries is one of those stories that hooks you in from the beginning. Its chapters alternate from Evie to Oskar's Journal and over the course of the summer Evie and Oskar fall in love. While Evie shares her story with Oskar, thinking he can't understand her, Oskar deals with grief and is keeping his stutter hidden from her.

The Language of Cherries is beautifully written. I actually read this in one sitting, which doesn't happen to me that often. I loved the connection between the characters, and how they evolved as we get to know them. Wonderful book by Jen Marie Hawkins, can't wait to read more from her.

“She knew his songs before he ever sang them. Knew his pain and his passion without him ever putting them into words.“

This is a gentle YA contemporary romance that sneaks up on you and stays with you. Evie is a girl who is worried about her friends and love interest forgetting all about her while she goes away for the summer, and is worried about her Abuela, while also dealing with the push and pull relationship with her parents. She slowly but reluctantly falls in love with Iceland (and its cherry orchards!) as she gets inspired to draw a boy she’s never met, a boy who cannot speak to her but communicates in ways more profound than words.

The miscommunication trope runs rampant here, and though it may be frustrating for some readers, the book asks as you go along on a journey told by both prose and verse where Evie and Oskar reveal their true selves to each other and to themselves through cherry picking, art and music. Oskar is confronted with the fact that he has to get over his fear to communicate in order to move on with his life and find love and peace. Elements of fabulism are weaved into the story as Evie is able to find the truth in her art with a little magic to help her (and Oskar) along the way.

The book depicts what it is like for a granddaughter to deal with her aging and ailing grandmother and how the whole family deals with it. There were times I wanted to say that Evie was behaving like a child in the way she treated her father because of how he handled his mother’s health but knowing and having seen that pain and denial up close, I could understand her. But I have also seen my father having to go through that pain and there were some unfinished conversations there to be had. There are hurts there which have yet to be healed. We also get to see how a child deals with the hurt caused by her mother’s depression and the possible beginning of a road to forgiveness. Though again because it is through Evie’s eyes, we are meant to infer that her mother is callous and selfish and we can only guess at the healing and understanding points both must come to.

The writing was beautiful, lyrical and magical and a stand out in the YA contemporary genre. Give this book of art, music and language a chance.

DNF at 30%.

I would still give this three stars because I didn't stop because it was bad necessarily, it just wasn't for me. Contemporary usually isn't my thing, but I've read a few lately that I surprised myself by liking a lot and this sounded cute so I thought I'd give it a shot and unfortunately this one didn't work out. The writing style is very much what you'd expect from a book called The Language of Cherries, and it made it difficult for me to concentrate on what was going on. Also, Oskar's POV is entirely his journal entries, all of which are poems, which I wasn't a huge fan of.

But if those things don't bother you, you might enjoy it much more than I did.

The Language of Cherries by Jen Marie Hawkins
This book is so different than other books I have in the past. The plot was very unique. I immediately fell in love with the characters in this book and the world.I loved everything about it!
This is the type of book that you can finish in one sitting.
When Evie is sent to Iceland for the summer to focus on her art she takes her canvas and paint brushes to the cherry orchard near her guest house and starts painting a boy she never met.........
I highly recommend this to people interested in Young adult romance.
Thank you Jen Marie Hawkins for writing this brilliant book!

A beautiful cover for a beautiful book. The Language of Cherries by Jen Marie Hawkins is a story of loss, love, family and survival. Magical realism is a genre I struggle with, but I actually really enjoyed this , and I loved how the magical elements were worked into the story.which is a dual narrative from the perspectives of the two main characters, Evie and Oskar.
Evie has recently moved to Iceland with her father for the summer and is really struggling. She misses her boyfriend and her friends, and most of all she misses her Abuela , who is starting to show signs of dementia and has been moved into an assisted living facility. She is angry with her father , lonely and uninspired. Despite loving to paint and hoping to go to an art school, she can't bring herself to pick up her brushes despite her dad's attempts at encouraging her. When she finds a thriving cherry orchard in the middle of the sparse icelandic countryside she is puzzled and strangely inspired, and she starts to paint again, but the images she produces make no sense to her.
Oskar lives with his aunt, who runs the local shop, and they own the cherry orchard which has captivated Evie. His life has been difficult, and he keeps mostly to himself. When he sees Evie in the orchard, he is tongue tied, and embarrassed by his stutter, so he does not speak, causing her to assume that he doesn't speak English. As the two start to make friends, prodded by his aunt and her father, she sees him as a safe confidant and tells him things she would never have if she knew he could understand her words. He is trapped by his lie so writes his feelings, in the form of snippets of poetry and journal entries. As the book unfolds we learn more about the magic that keeps the orchard thriving in the harsh climate, and how it causes Evie to paint things she could not possibly know about.
This book is a slow, gentle and lyrical read, and while it may not be for everyone, if you invest the time, you will find yourself really rooting for these characters, who have really come to life on the page. The dynamics between Oskar and his Aunt, and Evie and her dad were good, though I struggled to believe that Oskar's aunt would have helped him to keep his secret for so long., and I think the fact that he did is probably the biggest problem I had with the book overall. The alternating narratives worked well , particularly since they were so different stylistically. As I said at the outset, magical realism is a genre that I struggle with, but here they use a druidic style magic which works incredibly well.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

3.5/5 stars

This is the first book I review in a while and I'm glad to say it is a good one.

While there were some things that ticked me off, I must say that the premise and pace of the story were great. I did not feel that it was slow and it kept me entertained throughout the book, never feeling like it was dragging. The one thing I didn't like about the writing were the chapters written in verse as I didn't really feel like there was any rhythm to them and they became tiresome by the time I reached the 50% mark.

The instalove was kind of a letdown but I feel that the development the relationship went through was enjoyable. I enjoyed the fact that they could deepen their relationship without having a two-way conversation, it does give the sense that they were able to connect with more than words. Even though I still don't approve of Oskar's lie and the way he betrayed Evie's trust.

While I believe that most characters were pretty realistic and relatable, the main character seemed very immature and most of the time I thought of her as a 15-year-old, instead of 17. Also, some of Oskar's thoughts made me cringe and uncomfortable as they seemed out of place for the moment.

This book read odd to me, so I think that was ultimately why I couldn't get into the story. While I found the characters more immature than I expected, even given the Teens & YA category, it was more the style of writing that kept me from really enjoying it. Oskar's entire POV is written from his diary, in an odd poetry-like format. However, we get conversations in there, so it doesn't truly feel like his diary. It was just written in a very unusual way that didn't appeal to my eyes or mind. Evie's POV was written in typical prose, but it felt very disjointed. Both main characters were so bitter and angry, I never really felt like their romance made sense.

In all honesty, it could just be me and my own preferences, but I felt like this book had a lot of potential and simply didn't live up to it. Great idea but execution wasn't to my liking.

The setting to this one was amazing. I couldn't put it down and I loved the characters and the story. I loved the verse and prose and it was just so beautiful!!


Go Into This One Knowing: Stutter, Story in Prose/Verse

The Languages of Cherries is one heck of an addictive and phenomenal book. I could not put this down! It’s so beautiful in every possible way.

The book is temperamental but in a good way. I loved every moment of it.

The story begins with a girl called Evie who’s father has forced her to spend the summer away in Iceland. Evie thinks she is being treated as a prisoner by her father, but with unstable friendships, an ill Abuela and a psycho mother she had no other choice but to stay with him. Once she gets to Iceland she finds an orchard and begins to paint the remarkable landscapes, all while slowing falling in love with a mysterious boy, who can’t even speak the same language as her.

Jen Hawkins has done an amazing job in making this book not too heavy on the romance but just enough to make it perfect. I loved how both Oskar and Evie had their own personal problems but intertwined into each others lives just when they needed someone the most.

I really do hope Jen writes more books because this was such a breathtaking and sensational read.

Stars ~ 5

The Language of Cherries is a beautifully written YA novel that I'm sure is going to be a big hit. The writing is stunning and the descriptions and metaphors used to bring everything to life on the page. The story is told in dual POV between the two main characters Evie and Oskar.

Evie has been forced to travel to Iceland with her father and spend the summer there. She feels isolated and alone and misses her grandmother terribly. She spends her time alone in their guest house as her father works but when he brings home a cherry pie, it reminds her of home and her grandmother. Her father gifts her with new paintbrushes and canvases and tells her of the cherry orchard. Evie visits the orchard and while there eats some of the fruit and paints. To her amazement, a picture forms without any effort and she is soon looking at the image of a boy she has never met.

Oskar is grieving the death of his parents and younger brother. He's sullen and doesn't speak much due to a stutter. He prefers to turn his pain into songs that he writes in his journal. When he stumbles upon Evie in the orchard and a painting of himself, the story really starts to unfold.

Oskar pretends he can't speak English and over the course of the summer, Evie reveals many hidden secrets to him while finding herself falling for his unique charm.

This story is beautifully written and tackles a number of different issues. Evie feels alone and unwanted believing that only her grandmother truly loves her. She feels neglected by her father and forgotten by her friends. Her relationship with her mother is strained. Oskar is grieving and through Evie's paintings and her company, he begins to heal even if he doesn't realise it.

There is so much to love in this story and I found myself in tears towards the end. The themes covered include death and grief, lack of confidence, dementia, and depression. It's a stunning debut that I'm sure teen readers will devour and relate to.

I want to say thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers Owl Hollow Press for allowing me to read an advanced copy of The Language of Cherries. I have read almost every title Owl Hollow Press has released to date and I have yet to be disappointed. I always know when I pick up one of their books that I am in for a wonderful story.

Giving The Language of Cherries five stars is easy and if you are looking for a realistic story about being a teenager, this will definitely resonate.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a Contemporary YA novel. It is written in the voices of the two main characters Evie and Oskar. Each chapter alternates between the characters.
Evie travels to Iceland with her father who is working there for the summer. She is very reluctant and refuses to enjoy her experience there. She misses her Grandmother, who has been put into a retirement home. She is alone for many hours each day due to her father’s absence at work. That is until she encounters Oskar, a cherry orchard and eats the cherries. She suddenly enjoys painting unlike ever before and her paintings are quite magical. She and Oskar become very close and romance blossoms. Oskar is a musician. When Evie has to return to the USA, she doesn’t expect to hear from Oskar or see him ever again! Poignant story, beautifully written. Great setting in Iceland and the characters are well portrayed. Really enjoyed this book.