This book is pure beauty. It makes my heart so happy. It’s been quite a while since these sorts of feelings have been evoked within me when reading a book.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is a journey of love and hope that crosses all bounds. It shows us that where there is love there is hope and not even time can steal memories for they are etched into the very fabric of ourselves and in our DNA.

This is a time traveling novel but it is so much more than that. It’s a mystery, a beautiful romance and the story of a young woman who must cross time to find herself. Every aspect of this novel sang to my heart.

I love the way Adrienne Young writes her fantasy. Cosy yet mundane worlds with elements of magical realism sprinkled through. The small town and atmospheric settings added so much magic and cosiness to the story and June Farrow as a protagonist perfected it all.

There are not many books that give me the feel of Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman but if you want anything close this is it dear readers. Prepare to have your heart and soul completely engulfed by this beautiful book and its characters.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this beautiful book!

This unbelievably beautiful novel was a top five read for me this year. The story of June Farrow ripped out my heart and pieced it back together again. In such a way, I never knew my heart could feel so whole and complete. THIS BOOK UGH. I cried. It’s been years since a book made me cry.

My heart physically aches just thinking about how good this book is. How is that even possible? I don’t know but I’ll be rereading this novel until the end of time.

Junes heroic story of ending the century old curse that plagues the Farrow women, will end up being her salvation. Getting a chance at soul shattering love. Solving her mothers disappearance. Mourning and rediscovering family ties that will make you weep.

This book will open your eyes and heart and you’ll never be the same. I can’t wait to gift this book to everyone I know, because something so good should never be kept.

The writing, PERFECT. The Farrow women, PERFECT. The atmospheric town of Jasper, North Carolina, PERFECT. The love, PERFECT. The unmaking and remaking of June Farrow… just utterly PERFECT.

I will be posting my social media reviews in the next few days, I will come back to add the link. THANK YOU Delacorte Press for the advanced copy!

Adrienne can do no wrong!
I have loved all of her books and this one is no exception.
This book is perfect for anyone who was a fan of The Time Traveler's Wife.
It is so easy to get lost in this book and realize its coming to an end before you know it.
The vibes in this were perfect for fall and it was just a great read.

Wow, I do think this is @adrienneyoung ‘s best work yet. She takes us on a magical realism journey into June Farrow’s life that is just chef’s kiss perfect for a fall/October read.

Thank you to@delacourtepress for my early copy and to @prhaudio for my audio copy, the narration was so perfect for the characters!

This is a story of mothers and daughters, of love and sacrifice, of the past and the future, of tough decisions and the beauty of love. Don’t think of this as romance though, because it isn’t, even despite the love within. It is however magical realism in that it involves the folds within time, traveling between doors of the past and the present/future.

Set in a small town in North Carolina in the Appalachian mountains, I could feel the wind blowing through the fields, hear the rushing of the river waters, and Young made it feel as if I was stepping back in time with June as she worked to piece the mysterious puzzle of her life together.

The supporting characters make the novel as endearing and my love for June Farrow; from Birdie to Esther and Margaret, Eamon to Nathaniel and Susanna, such beautifully written characters!

Highly recommend it, of course! There may be a couple of triggers, so reach out if you have questions!

Wow! This book is simply stunning. It is a story of family, motherhood, and the choices we make. June's beloved grandmother recently died and she believes she's next. Her grandmother slowly loses her mind. Her mother is believed to have done so as well around the time she disappeared. And now, June is seeing and hearing things that aren't there. She believes it's an inevitable part of the curse the Farrow women carry with them. After finding a cryptic message from her grandmother, mailed just days before her death, June decides to take a chance and lean into the visions she's having. She opens a door leading to what she never could have imagined.

June's story is heart wrenching at times as she grapples with her own mother's disappearance as well as the discoveries she makes beyond that door. I loved the almost lyrical quality to Young's writing of June's story. The intergenerational relationships that are shown through June and her family were so poignant. I loved the quiet love story that June experiences. The setting is perfect and the mystery kept me turning the pages desperate to know what choices June would make.

Young has outdone herself with this novel. It is imaginative, beautiful, and entertaining all in one. I highly recommend for fans of Alice Hoffman, espeically those looking for a new fall read to immerse themselves in.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is a beautifully written novel that blends magical realism, mystery, and romance. The story is both cozy and suspenseful at times, giving off major Practical Magic vibes. Young’s writing is gorgeous, as always, and will transport you to the sleepy, small town of Jasper, NC.

Read if you enjoy:
-time travel
-small town mysteries
-themes of motherhood
-found family
-generational curses
-atmospheric writing

I can't sing the praises of Adrienne Young and her writing enough. Much like Spells for Forgetting, The Unmaking of June Farrow utterly enchanted. The atmosphere, the characters, the writing style, all of it was so perfect. Try your best to avoid spoilers for this one - you'll thank yourself later for going into it blind.

I have enjoyed all of Adrienne’s books. So it’s no surprise that I enjoyed this one too. I have enjoyed many books over the years, and given many five star ratings but, this book is not just enjoyable it is absolutely special. This book is not only incredibly well written but it tugs at the fibers of my soul with every word. I could not put this book down. I went in blind and recommend it for anyone wanting to read it to go in blind because it captured a piece of me. It was like Adrienne knew some magic to weave these words and these time lines and these lives to truly matter and drag you into every single mystery. Not only did I hang on every word but the book was amazing all the way through to the very last word. This book is beautiful and so incredibly authentic feeling. I felt like I was right there. I felt like I was June and every question she had was my own. I can’t even fathom how Adrienne managed to make me feel everything but she did. If I could give more than five stars I would. This is art. A true masterpiece.

4.5

I know many people absolutely love Adrienne Young’s adventure-filled YA books, but I have to be honest in saying that I prefer the subtler slow-burn of her adult novels. Spells for Forgetting was among my favorites last year, and The Unmaking of June Farrow hit that same sweet spot for me. It had some similar vibes to it, with a small town setting, mysterious circumstances that are slowly woven together, a magical element, and characters with deep inner lives.

I thought the story was compelling, the characters were layered and authentically flawed, and the way everything connected at the end was perfection.

I wrote in my review for Spells for Forgetting that I hoped Young would continue to write adult novels with creeping dread, ominous tones, and slow-burn plots… and I’m so happy that this one fit that description beautifully!

Thank you so much to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this advanced copy!

I really enjoyed this tale! It’s quickly added to my shelf of favorites! The woven threads of lyrical notes throughout the pages was just what I was looking for and I highly recommend!

This book was excellent! The only reason that I can't give it 5 stars is that I still don't understand time travel! But that's really a me problem. I was completely enamored with these characters. It was such a creative way to tell a multigenerational story! I loved the mystery and the high-stakes decision making. The writing was beautiful and the love story was passionate! I will say that I felt like the author did Mason dirty a little bit, but every other part of this I absolutely loved! I almost feel like going back and immediately starting it again just to see what I missed the first time around!

Oh man, it’s so hard to talk about why I loved this book without giving any spoilers. Suffice it to say that I found this book to be propulsive and unexpectedly beautiful. It’s a story of family, love, secrets, and sacrifice.

The magical realism in this story hit exactly right for me and the way she sets the scene makes you feel like you are right there with the characters. I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting when I went in, but this story surprised me several times with twists and reveals I did not see coming which made for a really fun ride. I also loved the ending and was impressed with the way the author wrapped up all the different things that were going on in a satisfying way but without being too saccharine or tidy.

I gave The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young five stars and highly recommend it to anyone who likes a little magic, mystery, and romance.

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me an ecopy for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this digital advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. This book came out on October 17, 2023.

This is my second book by Adrienne Young, having read Spells For Forgetting recently.

Upon starting this book, I knew immediately that I would once again be transported by Young’s lyrical prose. Her talent for atmospheric world-building is unmatched, in my opinion. This time, instead of a misty island town in the PNW, I found myself in the sun-soaked flower fields of rural North Carolina. This book is on a lot of fall TBR lists, however, it would be a perfect read for the height of summer. Once again, as was the case with SFF, I found myself nostalgic for a place I’ve never been.

Another of Young’s strengths is genre-weaving: she nails the perfect blend of mystery, historical fiction, and magical realism. For those who want both an intriguing plot AND transportive vibes: this is your author.

One note: if you aren’t into books that deal with time travel, this might not be up your street. For me, this necessitated a certain amount of mental capacity which made early-morning and late-night reading difficult. I recommend having caffeine nearby if that’s your thing.

Keeping this spoiler-free: once you can see where the story is headed and the potential choices characters must face, this was hard to put down. Adrienne Young has solidified herself on my auto-read list.

This book had me drawn in deep by the end of the first chapter, I knew I would not be able to put it down! It is my favorite book of 2023!

The story takes place in a small town in North Carolina. June Farrow runs the flower farm that the women before her ran and she recently took over after the death of her grandmother. The flower farm isn’t the only thing the Farrow women have in common, they are also cursed with a slow descent into madness, a madness that led to the death of Junes mother and now June has begun to see and hear things that are not there. But June is determined to end the curse that has affected so many of the women in her family. To break the family curse, June risks a lot!

This story is filled with rich characters, multiple time lines and brain bending events that made this story just so good!!!

I loved this book SO much! It was so atmospheric and perfect for the fall. I loved learning about June's life all through the different lives she was in. It got a tiny bit confusing at parts trying to fully understand the time travel and the way it all worked, but once I got it figured out I was completely in to the story. I also just LOVE Adrienne Young's writing. It's so detailed and just really helps me imagine the world that she builds. This really made me want to read Spells for Forgetting just because I want to read more of her adult books, so I'll definitely be grabbing that one soon!

Wow, this book was amazing. This is a very well written genre-bending novel, with sci-fi and magical realism elements. The addition of the murder mystery also gave it a thriller vibe which I think really made this time travel story stand out. You are finding out things and piecing the story together the same time as our lead woman June and makes it un-put-downable, after the 60% I could not put this book down until I found out what happened. There truly was no part of this book where I was certain what had or was going to happen until the reveal at the end! This story will stick with me for a long time and is a new five star read for me! Will be recommending to everyone.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Delacorte Press, and Adrienne Young for providing this beautiful book for my honest review. Oh my goodness! What did I just read? This is my favorite book of the year! I love the time travel aspect, the romance, the mystery, and the family drama. It’s so twisty and atmospheric. I couldn’t put this down! If you love magic, romance, mystery, and time travel then I highly recommend this one! I love how atmospheric this is! Adrienne Young’s writing style pulls the reader right into this world and I didn’t want it to end. Thank you again for providing this wonderful book for my honest review.

One Sentence Summary: When June starts seeing things that aren’t there just like her late grandmother and mother had, including a red door, she thinks it’ll be the end of her, but it’s really just the start.

In Brief
A rich, atmospheric story full of romance, mystery, and family, The Unmaking of June Farrow isn’t exactly spellbinding, but certainly propels the reader forward with a sweet romance, a tangled murder mystery, and charming prose. In the present day, June is a 30-something year old woman coping with the loss of her grandmother amid an increasing number of episodes where she sees and hears things that aren’t there. When a family friend tells her to go through the red door when it next appears to her, she does just that, sending herself back in time to 1951. There, she meets a man who doesn’t want her there even though they’re married and have a daughter she never allowed herself to dream of having. But, with the town’s beloved minister’s murder fresh in the town’s memory, and with June having some connection to it, whether through herself or her long-vanished mother, June is in danger and must depend on herself to piece together what happened, and how to save her own family. The Unmaking of June Farrow is perfect for fans of magical realism and Young’s Spells for Forgetting, but the time travel is mind boggling. Fortunately, the romance and murder mystery are strong enough to step in to offer an intriguing story to captivate the reader.

Extended Thoughts
Family is a complicated thing, especially when the family members themselves are complicated beings, with a curse thrown in for good measure. This is exceedingly true in The Unmaking of June Farrow, and sometimes my brain still explodes a little when it tries to figure out how everything was connected. While I can safely say I enjoyed this one far more than Young’s first adult novel, there were still details that I felt were lacking or left flapping in the wind. I wouldn’t mind so much, but those details kept coming up and I just couldn’t figure out where they came from or where they were going.

The Unmaking of June Farrow opens with June’s grandmother’s funeral. Raised by her grandmother after her mother disappeared when she was a baby, June now has no one except her grandmother’s oldest friend Birdie, who lives with her, and her childhood friend Mason. But she’s not interested in forming relationships because her family is cursed to slowly lose their minds, and she intends on being the last of the Farrows. She holds fast, though, to the mystery of her mother’s disappearance, and the arrival of a photograph in the mail has her linking her mother’s disappearance with the long ago murder of the town’s beloved minister. What June isn’t telling everyone, though, is that she’s been seeing things for about a year. When Birdie uncovers that secret, she encourages June to go through the door. And, when she does, she lands herself right in the middle of a murder mystery in a past she doesn’t understand with people she doesn’t know, but who certainly know her.

The Family
For a few generations, the Farrow women have lived with this curse, and there’s one daughter every generation. It’s not a complex family since the daughters seem to be either raised by their mother or grandmother and there never seems to be a father in the picture. June is the last of her line, and intends on keeping it that way. She’s watched her grandmother slowly deteriorate, though Margaret described it as living in two different times, so doesn’t want to make anyone she loves suffer. For that, I had to commend her. Just reading about the curse that afflicted the women sounded like it would be hard to live with. At the same time, these are just women.

I enjoyed reading about all of them. Even if the reader only really gets to know June, her grandmother Margaret, and her grandmother’s grandmother Esther, it’s enough to see how the family has suffered, how the people have treated them, and how different they are from each other. I enjoyed getting to know them and coming to understand them and why they did what they did. It was particularly fun to get to know Margaret as a young woman, especially since she was very different as the woman raising June while dealing with her own demons.

My favorite part of the characters, though, was they felt suitably mature. In Spells for Forgetting, I was bothered by how much younger the adult characters felt. I had no such feeling with these characters, though that might also be because there was a young girl who relied on all of them to take care of her. Sometimes June did feel a little too impulsive, but I liked that she felt a lot more mature and went into things with her eyes as open as she could make them.

The Time Travel
This is always hit or miss for me. It did boggle my mind a little, especially when I was trying to reconcile timelines that were diverging. The how was explained as much as magic is usually described in magical realism, and I had no problems with it. But, when time travel is involved and takes multiple people back and forth in time, well, things can get messy. This was messier in my head as I tried to reconcile everything I know about time travel and how it was used in this story than it was on page, but I’m not sure if it’s just because that messiness was simply ignored in favor of the unraveling mystery June finds herself in.

As much as the time travel was necessary in telling this story, I didn’t feel satisfied with how it was done. It was an interesting device, but it just brings up so many questions, and even more questions when the fact that this is a small Southern town comes into the picture. Fortunately, I was able to enjoy most of the story as long as I didn’t think about it too hard or too long, but I felt like The Unmaking of June Farrow was just asking too much of me, especially when the whole story depended on the idea of these women being able to travel back and forth in time.

The Questions
And that leads me to my questions, because they left me feeling a little dissatisfied with the book. I certainly enjoyed it more than Spells for Forgetting, but I hate it when books leave me with pressing questions that contribute to my enjoyment of a story.

In the case of The Unmaking of June Farrow, the curse on the Farrow women felt like the main cause and problem of everything that happened in the story, yet it’s never really addressed; it’s just there. It exists and it’s up to the reader to believe it exists and to go with it. I’m not the kind of reader to just go with it just because the author asks me to. This is why I usually struggle with time travel stories. In order to make a story believable, I need to understand the root of the problem. In June’s case, it’s the curse. Where did it come from? Why is it just the Farrow women? What, exactly, is its purpose? Generally speaking, just why? I don’t understand the why behind the curse. I don’t understand where it began. So, I spent the whole book waiting for those questions to be answered. While I did manage to be caught up in the story of family, the romance, and the mystery, those questions were always at the back of my mind and eventually impacted my enjoyment as I reached the end and felt threads were just left flapping in the wind.

Related to that is my question of why the rest of the town doesn’t seem to notice or put pieces together? This is a small town where generations of families have lived and been raised. How can no one have put together that the exact same women/woman existed in the past and present? Why have there been no weird stories about the Farrow women and how, in the present, grandparents never questioned why one woman they knew in the past seems to also exist in the present? Generally, why are there just no stories running around town about these women other than that there’s something wrong with them so it’s better to avoid them?

I have more questions, but they’re all wrapped up in the time travel and the how and the when. This is why I tend to have problems with time travel stories. Unfortunately, because this is magical realism, it’s just something the reader has to accept as existing and existing in this way.

The Romance
The romance between June and Eamon was a fun one. I wasn’t a huge fan of all the secrets, but, as distrustful and hurt Eamon seemed, he really was noble and I loved how he always put his daughter first. No matter how strange the Farrow women are, I liked how close he was to him, especially since the reader understands men aren’t really ever in the picture. But I liked Eamon. He felt solid and safe, and I enjoyed watching him and June together as they danced around how different the timeline turned out to be. I enjoyed the push and pull between them, enjoyed how June caught him off guard sometimes, and really loved that slow circle they made around each other as they tried to figure out what to do with each other and the nature of the relationship they’d had before. Mostly, I loved that it wasn’t front and center so the rest of the story could breathe around it.

The Mystery
The mystery was probably my favorite part of this book. It opened and ended strong with it, but I did feel it gave way to the romance too much during the middle. Still, it kept me engaged and I couldn’t wait to see how it played out. I did feel like I figured out what was going and what had happened faster than the characters, and that kind of ruined my enjoyment a little as it was a little tiresome to wait for them to catch up. But I liked how it wrapped up, and liked learning more about the characters involved. It was a sad story, but a fun mystery to read about. All the little clues were sprinkled in, and I felt like I had to be paying attention in order to catch them all. My mind was definitely working overtime to piece it together, especially when it came to sorting out the timeline.

Final Words
The Unmaking of June Farrow was certainly a lot more fun to me than Young’s first adult novel. While it had a lot of the same elements, this one felt more mature and, as a whole, suited me better as a reader. I enjoyed the romance as it felt more woven around the mystery and was certainly a lot more mature. I loved seeing June, Eamon, and Annie together as a family, and especially adored Annie. The mystery was also a lot more engaging to me, especially since I never felt like it was forgotten in favor of the romance. I enjoyed the slow peeling back of the layers and the characters involved and the aura of danger kept me hooked throughout the story. Unfortunately, there were a lot of questions I had regarding the time travel and the curse that are just never answered, and that bothers me still. Fortunately, there are a lot of good things to enjoy about this book, and I’ll look forward to what Young has to offer next as each book seems to get progressively better.


Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

June has lived her life under the weight of a family curse that seems to cause the women in her family to lose their awareness. Determined to break the curse, she lives her life without attachments and keeps track of the hallucinations she starts to have, particularly of a door. However after her grandmother's death, a close family friend tells her to try going through that door and this leads June back in time where it appears the people also know her. Thus, June tries to unravel the mystery of her family while also securing the future for herself and her daughter. Overall, a gripping mystery of one women trying to sort out the strange happenings around her and solve the mystery of her family's curse. At times it was confusing due to the various timelines and trying to keep track of the characters, but it came together in the end.

This book was so lovely! A story of family, strong women, secrets, love and dash of murder, The Unmaking of June Farrow was a moving book that will stick with me for a while. I won't share too much about the plot, as I think it is best to go in blind.

Although I was intrigued by the book from the start, once the inciting incident happened, I couldn't put it down. I spent my whole Saturday lost in June's story. I loved the focus on the Farrow women and their relationships - how they interacted with each other and what they chose to reveal and hide. I was also hooked by the various mysteries as June searched for the truth of her own and her family's histories.

This was a wonderful magical realism read and I would highly recommend it if that is your cup of tea!