I haven’t been able to get this book out of my head since I finished it. What a stunning world, filled with characters that just drag you in. I described this book to a friend as, “it nestled in under my collarbone next to my heart and refused to let go.” My recommendation is to read it without knowing anything - you’ll be better for it. 10/10, I wish I could read it again for the first time.

The description of this book suggested similarities to Sarah Addison Allen and other “witchy” Appalachian tales. What I found was much more akin to The Time Traveler’s Wife or even Outlander, with the primary concept not being special abilities but time travel. Once I understood that, the story went quickly.

Young’s writing is expressive and charming, with a sort of delicate delivery that settles over June as she moves between times.

Keeping track of the Farrow women’s timelines was a bit confusing and required some attention, but it is worth it. This is a memorable story that will captivate readers for years to come.

I’m almost at a loss for words over Young’s recent adult novel, The Unmaking of June Farrow. This story is different from anything I’ve ever read before and I loved it. The prose is gorgeous. The setting is atmospheric. The characters are so well-written. I have no idea how Young constructed this magic system that deals with time the way it does. It’s not quite like the time-traveling I’ve seen in movies before and even though I still can’t fully wrap my head around the rules of it, I completely trusted June to figure it out for herself. I still can’t stop thinking about this book and would definitely recommend it to friends and family and would most likely read again just to study Young’s craft.

Thank you to the author, publisher and @NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to like this so much but (as with many other time travel novels) it was extremely confusing with all the timelines and characters. Not as hashed out as I would have wanted it to be. The writing was phenomenal per the usual with Adrienne Young and although the last two I read from her haven’t been my favorites, for the right person I’m sure they’re magical.

What I loved:
✨Generational Family Saga: Young fully develops multiple generations of Farrow women with well-plotted backstories and legendary curses. I enjoyed the deep feminist roots of the Farrow women, who showed up time and time again to help and support other women.
✨Intense Love Story - I can't say much more. It's not what you expect but everything you crave: what would you do for the ones you love?
✨Mystery: Clues sprinkled along the way, but my jaw dropped at every twist and turn, all unexpected, all mind-boggling, and all wholly satisfying.
✨Narration: Brittany Pressley is a premier narrator! She performs voices for multiple characters and weaves the non-linear timelines expertly. I definitely recommend the audio, but grab the physical, too, because you'll want to reread sections of this beautifully written story!

My only slight caution is that the story starts a little slow. However, once the story hits the 1/3 mark, the tension builds…the mystery unravels…I couldn't put it down!

SUCH a beautiful story and so well written. I absolutely loved this book. I will be buying a hard copy and will tell everyone about it. I didn’t want to put it down, and it definitely put me in a slump after because I felt like I wasn’t going to find another book that could hold up to this one.

I read this authors Fabel series and was so excited to get this ARC and for good reason. young did it again with her immerseful writing and world building. I would read Young’s grocery list. The writing of this story is so well done that I often forgot it was YA.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Within the story, there's a little bit of magic, family relationships, love, mystery, and self-discovery. June is part of a family that is known for their thriving flower farm in the small mountain town of Jasper, NC. However, there is a mysterious curse that seems to plague the women in the family that has been ongoing for many years. Raised by her grandmother, June seeks answers after her death when she begins discovering cryptic clues regarding June's mother's disappearance many years ago.

A determined June sets out to discover what this family secret is and in turn realizes that she a huge sacrifice to make. I could see the landscape, I could hear the sounds, and I could totally feel what June was feeling. Such a wonderful story.

Thank you @randomhouse and @delacortepress for my advanced reader copy. I loved it so much; I ordered my own hardcover copy of the book.

I’ve been a huge Adrienne Young fan ever since picking up Fable last summer. Actually, since then I’ve read a total of 8 of Young’s books, with The World of the Narrows series being my favorites. While many of Adrienne Young’s books have a similar vibe to them, this one and Spells for Forgetting deviate a bit.

***Spoilers***

What I liked:
The writing - Like every book of Young’s that I’ve read to date, the writing is absolutely stunning.
The time traveling - The Unmaking of June Farrow gave me The Time Traveler’s Wife vibes and I was here for it!
The genre bending - The Unmaking of June Farrow is part fantasy, part mystery, and part historical romance.
Following multiple generations of Farrow women - While this story centers around June Farrow, I really enjoyed June’s relationships with the women in her family spanning generations.
The second-chance romance - What a unique spin on the second-chance romance trope!
The atmosphere - This book gave off mad fall vibes!

My only criticism of The Unmaking of June Farrow was that I wish it was a bit longer. I would have liked to spend more time in 1951, which would have allowed for more time to develop the relationships between the characters a bit more.

Overall, Adrienne Young does it again with The Unmaking of June Farrow. She has solidified her spot as one of my auto-read authors.

***Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review***

June Farrow is the last Farrow woman after the grandmother that raised her dies. The Farrow women have long been cursed and when June starts seeing things that aren’t there she knows the curse has found her. She walks through the door only she sees and goes on a journey that could change her past and her future.

I loved this beautifully written story about family and love. I enjoy time travel and magical realism and this book was well done. The time travel can be confusing at times but in the end things wrapped up nicely. It was a little historical fiction, a little romance, a little mystery and I loved all of it.

My heart. This book hit all the right checks for me. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but nothing could prepare me for what actually happened in this book. The author was so good about ensuring you were feeling what the characters felt, right down to the indecision of the main character. The mystery in this book was well thought out and while there was romance it was not overdone. I cried, I laughed, I couldn't pick up another book for a couple days

I liked this magical realism fiction book with a historical twist! However, the timelines really did not add up in the end. It didn't totally ruin my experience but did make me subtract a star.

The Farrow women are cursed to live between timelines and June is determined to break that curse. This book is full of magical realism and love and heartbreak. It's a gorgeous story and a really interesting concept. I had a little bit of a hard time keeping all the timelines and people apart, but beyond that, this was excellent.

I have to say, this book might just be my favorite of 2023. It was my first time reading anything by Adrienne Young, and I completely fell in love with her storytelling.

The main character, June, was so relatable that I found myself attached to her from the very beginning. This is a rare occurrence for me, as I usually require a series of books to develop an attachment to characters. But with June, it was different. I was hooked from the start.

The world-building and magic in this book were so well-written that I found it hard to put the book down. As I got closer to the end, I just wanted more and more. June's frustration at not knowing her past was palpable, and the twists and turns of the path she had to take to figure it out were absolutely spellbinding.

The Unmaking of June Farrow was very interesting and really kept me on my toes, making me wonder what was coming next. I was so curious as to how it all was possible. This book was so well written and the story was very unique. I absolutely loved the whole thing from beginning to end. This is maybe the third book I've read of Adrienne Young's and she did NOT disappoint. Would I recommend it? Absolutely. I want to thank Random House Press - Ballantine for allowing me to read this.

#randomhousepress
#netgalley

This was a really great read, it started off as a slow burn but enough to keep my attention. Thanks to NetGalley and the author for this ARC.

🤎𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬🤎

📖 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑼𝒏𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝑱𝒖𝒏𝒆 𝑭𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒘
✍🏼 Adrienne Young
Publishes 10.17.23
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love Adrienne Young’s writing! This book was definitely something unique and special just like she’s delivered throughout her other works.

It starts out slow and I was pretty confused. But once the themes, setting, and back story were thoroughly established it picked up quickly for me. The women in June’s family are subject to a curse and June has decided she’s going to be the last Farrow to fall victim to it.

“𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙄’𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙞𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚. 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙄’𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙. 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙄’𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙚. 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙢𝙚.”

After her grandmother passes she quickly realizes she doesn’t have much choice in the matter. The overall themes of family, love, and sacrifices in this story just sucked me in. I enjoyed the dual timeline aspect however I did think there were a few threads left hanging that didn’t get the closure I sought as a reader.

The twists were big and there was no way to know what was going to happen up until the very end. Overall I liked this, I just didn’t love it as much as some of her other works. I do highly recommend it for those who love atmospheric, fantasy/sci-fi reads with a good suspense element!

Big thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for my eARC!

#arcreview #netgalley #theunmakingofjunefarrow #bookreview #bookrecommendations #fantasyfriday #junefarrow #bookrecs #bookstagrammer #adrienneyoung #booksbooksbooks

I really liked this book the characters were lovely and the settings were well rendered, I could see it being a movie. I would have given 5 stars but I had a little trouble with some of the timeline stuff and the looping. I couldn't figure out if I wasn't understanding it completely or if there were some plot holes with it, and the plan to end it, but I could just set that aside and still enjoy the part I was clear on.

Adrienne Young is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. I just love how she tells a story and that I can always count on her for a suspenseful and atmospheric read and this was exactly the case with her latest, The Unmaking of June Farrow.

Everyone in the small town of Jasper, NC knows that the Farrow women have been cursed for generations. They witnessed the descent of Susanna Farrow into madness as well as her ultimate disappearance that left her daughter June Farrow to be raised by her grandmother.

June grows up haunted by rumors of the curse and her mother's mysterious disappearance, and when she too starts to see and hear things other don't (wind chimes, voices calling her name, and even a mysterious door that appears in thin air and abruptly disappears), June assumes that the curse has come for her as well, but hides what she is experiences from her grandmother, so as not to worry her.

When her grandmother dies, June discovers cryptic clues that have been left for her regarding her mother's disappearance and June becomes determined to do whatever it takes to break the curse and to find out what really happened to her mother.

Following these clues takes June to places she never dreamed were possible and I found myself just glued to this book waiting to see what would happen next. Young does a beautiful job of weaving together magic, mystery, suspense, time travel, and even a little romance to create a book that is truly unputdownable!

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book. I didn't finish Adrienne Young's Spells for Forgetting and I was worried I wouldn't like this one either.

Whatever worries I had were blown completely out of the water by this story. WOW. I absolutely loved this book and was sucked in from start to finish. It is so emotional and touched with many elements of magical realism that hooked me easily.