My first 5 star read of 2020!

I will openly admit right here that this book goes completely against my reading grain. I am 25 years older than the main characters, so teenage romance has not been an interest of mine in a loooooong time, and I don't normally like mysticism as a genre, even in teeny tiny doses like this. However, a few months ago, I stumbled across the premise and it just called out to me, so I added it to my TBR immediately. I am SO, SO happy I got to read an advanced copy because I was waiting on pins and needles for its release!

OMG, this has to be one of the most beautiful and romantic books I have read in a very long time! I absolutely adored the author's lyrical style of writing!

Told from dual POV, we first meet Evie. She is in Iceland with her father for the summer because of a project for his job and is completely miserable. She misses Miami, where she is from, and she misses her abuela and friends back home. On top of the usual teenage angst and boy drama, she is dealing with her grandmother being put into an assisted living facility for early onset dementia and she is battling resentment against her parents for both being absent in her life. Her mother abandoned her when she was younger to pursue her own interests and her father is always working and never around. She is lonely, frustrated, and confused and it causes her to lose her passion for her main love, which is painting. One day, about a week after arriving, she finds out that not too far from the rented house she is staying in, there is a farm with the only cherry orchard in all of Iceland. Hoping it will motivate her to paint, she sets out to explore and when she finds it, she is overcome with inspiration. Images flood her mind at lightning speed and she must rush to get them onto the canvas as quickly as possible. One of the images is of a beautiful blond haired boy her own age, who shortly after her painting is completed, she comes to find out is real. Curiosity about the boy and how she painted him with such accuracy before ever laying eyes on him, causes her to want to get to know him.

Oskar, although young, is the epitomy of a tortured hero. An insanely talented singer and musician, he is ostracized and outcasted by almost everyone around him because of a severe stutter that makes it very difficult to communicate with people verbally. He finds companionship in his journal and uses it to express all the feelings he cannot put into words. He lost his parents and younger brother several years before and now lives on his family's cherry farm with his aunt, who tries her best to bring him out of his shell and move past his tragedy, but is unsuccessful. When Evie appears in his orchard one day while he is working, he is completely fascinated by her. She is the first person he has met in a very long time that doesn't know about his stutter or his family, and although it is deceitful, he finds a way to spend time with her without having to actually speak.

This is where the book becomes unputdownable because these two characters find a way to fully connect and communicate without words and in a way that is totally believable. I found myself hanging onto all of their moments together because they use eye contact to do most of their talking and it speaks volumes. There are very, very few books that could ever be this romantic without the character's ever conversing with one another.

So without giving away any of the plot (because there is a mystery element to this story), I will simply say that it is entrancing, swoony, and just so beautifully and realistically written that I cannot stop thinking about it. The only thing that could make it more perfect would be an epilogue. I really feel this book needs one. The ending is a bit abrupt, so while we can kind of tell how things turn out for our main characters, I would much rather actually know.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for an advanced reader's copy of this book. It was a real honor to be one of the first to read and review it!

Follows two creative teens from different worlds and different ethnicities discovering each other and trying to communicate without words and falling in love.

Oskar has a stutter and choses to communicate with evie through music. Evie is an artist and paints images from her dreams that turn out to be Oskars deceased family.

The setting if Iceland was beautiful. I could truly picture the orchard and the lighthouse with all the beautiful scenery.

I also loved that not only were they of different ethnicities and backgrounds but they were both creatives. Which to me helped even more with the way this book was beautifully written as theres so much talk about colour and painting. I wouldnt be able to pick one line that stood out as there were many.

There was talk of consent too and respect within a relationship or friendship which I appreciated as well, especially in these times.

However to me the story fell a bit flat but I didnt really mind as I enjoyed the writing so much. The setting stood out to me more than the character's did.

But all round i did really enjoy the book and could quite easily see this being made into a movie.

After the first book I finished this year, I longed for a more quietly paced book. 'The Language of Cherries' turned out to be the perfect choice for that.

I liked the surroundings, and the way old words were spilled throughout (and explained at the end of every chapter). I also liked how Oskar's journal entries were like poems. Sometimes the language was just a bit too simple and childish to my taste, especially when I take the themes of the book into account.

I would recommend reading this book to a couple of readers I know, of whom I know they would love this book. I cannot say that I did, but I did enjoy it.

The writing in this book is so uh-mazing, Also this story broke my heart in all the best ways possible.

Actual rating 3.5, rounded up.

A slow YA contemporary set in the beautiful and mystical Icelandic landscape, this book is told part narrative, part verse which makes for a beautiful picture and story, with hints of magical realism throughout.

Evie has been dragged to Iceland against her will, forced to leave her friends and possible boyfriend behind to move for her father's summer work. In Iceland, she is bitter and angry, but begins to find solace in the local Cherry Orchard she finds, which, along with Oskar, the boy she meets there, begins to inspire her to create magical pieces of art. She paints scenes she dreams of, of people she's never seen before. They just so happen to be pictures of Oskar's dead family. Oskar, still griefstricken 5 years after the deaths of his family, freezes when he first meets Evie. Terrified his stutter will push her away, he pretends he doesn't speak English. Together, they find solace and inspiration in each other as Evie's relationships with her family deteriorate.

The verse poetry sections, Oskar's POV, were my favourite parts. The language and poetry is absolutely beautiful, filled with such emotion. It really gives insight into who Oskar is and why he continues with his admittedly stupid decision to pretend he doesn't speak English. Oskar is clearly still suffering after the death of his family, and it really shows. He struggles to trust and be close with anyone, and his character devleopment over the novel as he grows and begins to live again is really well done.

I did find issues with some of the characters however. Evie is one of those annoyingly stubborn but not really in a good way female characters. Unwilling to believe her grandmother's dementia, stupid decision after stupid decision causes a lot of pain and grief for her family. She has a complicated relationship with her mother, but it's one I wish we saw a bit more of. Evie is vehemently angry at her mother, seemingly without much understanding of how it must have felt for her mother to a) have been forced to have a kid she didn't really want by the father and b) who suffered horrific depression and was hospitalized at one stage for it. Evie seems neither sympathetic nor understanding to the struggles her mother went through. Instead, she idolises her grandmother, which contributes to her inability to see the quickening onset of dementia.

I also found Evie's father unbearable. He desires to be so controlling over Evie yet never bothers to spend time with her, constantly breaking his promises; alongside his threats to kill Oskar at one stage, despite the fact he literally slept with Evie's mother out of wedlock then forced her to keep the child because he's Catholic. The hypocritical energy is strong with this one.

The magical realism was an interesting and mystical thread throughout the book. I loved the cherries and the spells and druids and how they very subtly swam through the plot. It brought such a mystical quality to what otherwise could be just another straight YA love story.

All in all, the style of writing, particularly the verse sections, were my favourite part of this book, absolutely beautiful writing. However some of the characters annoyed me quite a bit, particularly Evie's father and Evie herself at times.

Review will be posted on my blog on publication date (Feb 11).

This is a book about two characters falling in love in the Icelandic summer, complete with an orchard full of magical cherries... a fantastic premise, and I was really looking forward to something charming and fun.

Instead, the two main characters were both selfish and insufferable for the entire book - one of them spends 80% of the time lying about his ability to speak English and pretending he doesn't understand while his love interest spills all of her secrets to him, and the other is endlessly rude and snarky to everyone (except the love interest), has no respect for private property and takes risks that put other people's lives in danger. And neither of them ever face the consequences for their actions.

The writing is overwrought and the descriptions often take a lot of effort to parse (though perhaps, in hindsight, I should have expected flowery language in a book called "The Language of Cherries"). In the first paragraph there was "trickled sadness through her bones", quickly followed by "the clatter [of a fork dropping] made a sharp statement she wasn't bold enough to make herself". At that point, I really should have stopped, paused, and realised what I was getting myself into.

I'm keen to see what Jen Marie Hawkins writes next because there were some great ideas here, but this was not the book I expected or wanted to read.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I can't decide if I liked it or not. I did finish it, which is a plus. There were times I was drawn in, and then suddenly I would be like "what?".

I think it was a sweet love story. I love how it took place in Iceland, which was something different.

I normally love books with dual POV - in fact, that's my favorite style. However, in this case, it didn't work for me. Since Oskar didn't speak, we read his thoughts from his journal. But it didn't read like a journal, and I felt a real disconnect from him.

I would like to thank the publisher and #netgalley for the advance read. This didn't impact my review. I usually write my reviews for future readers; however, I am not sure I was helpful in this case. I was just so torn about this story.

This was a lovely slow burn read. I usually don’t read many YA books, but I found this one’s blurb so interesting that I decided to give it a shot. And I’m glad that I did.
Evie and Oskar’s story is captivating. I finished the book in one sitting, wishing that it was longer. I loved it!

The Language of Cherries is a tough one for me to review because, while I liked the story and the characters, I had a hard time with the style of the book.

I loved the premise; girl stuck in Iceland for the summer with her workaholic father. While exploring the area one day, Izzy meets Oskar, and she mistakes his silence for rudeness. Eventually the two form a friendship. Its a slow sweet burn and I really enjoyed the spirit of the story, but not the execution.

I really did not like the parts labeled "Oskar's Journal". Yes, it was a way for us to hear Oskar's side of things since he doesn't talk, but I don't really feel like a journal would be written the way this was. "I lounge backward on my bed and readjust Pabbi's old guitar." If this was him writing down his thoughts, I cannot imagine anyone saying it in first person present tense like this. Also, it's supposed to be lyrical, but the things he is writing about is odd in terms of lyrics. It might've worked for me if it was just "Oskar" or "Oskar's Thoughts", but it just didn't match the style of a journal as it is.

This book kind of surprised me. I went into it looking for another hit for my magical realism addiction, but to be honest, that wasn't quite exactly what I got. But I'm not mad about it.

The Language of Cherries is the story of Evie Perez, an American girl spending the summer in Iceland with her father. Leaving behind a chaotic life in Florida, Evie discovers a local cherry orchard and befriends the woman who owns it and her jaded nephew, Oskar. Afraid to reveal his stutter, Oskar pretends he doesn't know English, and Evie begins to spill her life story to him while she paints.

The story is told in dual POVs, Evie's and Oskar's. One thing I didn't love about the book is that those POVs are told in different formats: Evie's in third-person narration and Oskar's as first-person excerpts from his journal, where he writes exclusively in freeform poems. Initially, I didn't like it. Switching perspective every chapter was jarring and I'm generally not a fan of books in verse. The poetry did grow on me by the end, but the perspective switches never stopped bothering me.

Evie and Oskar's love story was really touching and poignant, and I ended up loving it much more than I expected. This is a deceptively simple story that's kind of hard to explain because so much of it is in the atmosphere and the magic, which is what I love about magical realism.

Because Oskar refuses to speak English to Evie, their relationship takes a long, long time to go anywhere. However, that same language barrier made the telling of the story feel much more intimate, somehow. It was different and refreshing to unfold a relationship that exists so beautifully for both characters, but that they never have a single conversation about. I'm not sure it's particularly realistic or healthy, but it was lovely to read.

All in all, The Language of Cherries is a quiet book. Nothing about it felt urgent or thrilling. But honestly, I don't see that as a drawback at all. It was about beautiful art, and beautiful music, and love. Sometimes, that's enough.

I’m returning to NetGalley after a short break (if only because sometimes it can be very clear that the books on this site have yet to be published) and this was the first book I read upon my return. Not only did The Language of Cherries exceed my expectations, but it also helped restore my faith in the good books NetGalley may have to offer. Hawkins’ imagery was great, in such a way that while she painted a spectacular picture in my mind, it wasn’t so overwhelming and detailed that it took away from the plot or from what my imagination could conjure up on its own. The storyline was pretty unique, and it flowed at a nice pace as well. My only complaint was the amount of unimportant information I was given about her friend and her crush when I could be given more background to her connection with her abuela. I understand the crush part was sort of relative to the whole Oskar thing, but it played too big of a role in the book for there to be no continuation after she cut them off in the beginning. Overall though, I really had no complaints and my only gripe didn’t even affect me until after I had finished the book and was reflecting on it for this review.

So, this book lost me in the beginning and in the end for a bit, but had me twirled around its little finger for most of the rest of it.

On paper this book has all the makings of a favourite: beautifully written, magical realism, an exotic location that's on my bucket list (Iceland), druidry and art.

And I did really enjoy most of it.

I think in the beginning I was a little bit put off by the overwrought language - it seemed as if the writer was trying too hard to make it poetic. It's OK if someone sometimes just looks at someone else, you don't always have to find a more creative way to say it. Also the formatting of Oskar's journal to look like poetry even when it wasn't was kind of distracting to me - it made me read it in a non-natural way, to which I saw no benefit.

That being said, I did also really enjoy the language, and after a while I just decided to go with it.

The other thing that bugged me was Oskar's going back and forth all the damn time about telling Evie or not. At some point that got a little stale. Crap or get off the can, as they say.

However, overall it was a good story with interesting characters and I loved the descriptions of the Icelandic surroundings, the cherries and the painting. I love me some magical realism, and this was the perfect setting to tell that kind of story. It was different than most things I've read, in a good way.

I thought the romance was pretty well done and not overwhelming. It was a very enjoyable read, and I would recommend it for fans of YA and magical realism.

#TheLanguageofCherries
#NetGalley
A lovely written young adult novel about family relationships that can transform us from young people into adults before we know it. A definite must read for 2020.

From the beginning, I had an intuition that I would enjoy this book. So it was. I feel blessed for having read the premise of this gem available on February 11, 2020. There are many things I want to point out about this novel, but first things first.

What is this book about?
Evie Perez is forced to leave the life she once knew in Florida to move out to Iceland with her father. She takes her canvas and paintbrushes into the cherry orchard behind her guesthouse. She resists enjoying this new life until she meets Oskar, a mysterious guy who sees her in his family's orchard place. But Oscar remains silent because he's too ashamed to reveal his stutter.
Between sweet cherries and a magical connection with him, Evie begins to feel that maybe she belongs to this new home. When Evie reveals to Oskar confessions about her life back home, he knows he has to tell her the truth, or he could lose her forever.

Words are not enough to express how beautiful this book is and how brilliantly it's written. As a Latin person, I can tell the references about Cuban culture are portrayed accurately. The vocabulary in Spanish was precise, too.

Another thing I enjoyed was the writing of two perspectives. We have Evie's perspective in the third person. On the other hand, we have Oskar's perspective through his diary entries in a lovable poetic language. This way of writing makes us feel the emotions of both characters, which is fantastic because they are entirely different, and their personal experiences greatly enrich the plot.

Most of the books I have read are the Mystery/Thriller genre, so I was surprised to find myself weeping in some parts of this novel, maybe because the story feels so real. The characters are too human not to love them. It is a relatable book that I not only read but also hugged, savored, and for which I felt a lot of empathy because of the protagonist and her relationships.

This book deserves five stars. Thank you, Jen Hawkins, for writing a necessary Young Adult book about diversity and inclusion on its main characters. Thank you for writing a novel that feels as real as the cherry red and the hidden love in every word of its language.

Such a beautifully written story about friendship, love and trust. Enjoyed the lovely Icelandic setting of the story. Can not wait to read another book by this author.

This novel was an easy read, there was a slight bit of magic in this contemporary style novel. It was written in a lyrical prose that is not my favourite but it did keep my interest. It was an enjoyable read about young love and family, I'd recommend it!

The Language of Cherries review

I have mixed feelings about this book because there were some things I loved, but there were other things that made me uncomfortable.

I really enjoyed reading about Evie and Oskar. Both of them have difficulties they have to deal with, and I thought their journey was very well written. I especially liked how Oskar was portrayed; we need more diversity in YA fiction where the main characters deal with physical conditions or disabilities that readers can relate to.

The writing was really beautiful in parts of the book. I found myself wishing for cherry pie and fresh fruit straight from the orchard while I was reading. I don’t usually read poetry, but I enjoyed Oskar’s journal sections. I really enjoyed the author’s writing style. That being said, I really disliked the strong swear words that were liberally sprinkled throughout the book. There were so many beautiful descriptions that I enjoyed, but I was jolted out of the story each time I encountered another swear word.

One of the main things that made me uncomfortable was an intimate scene that took place. It was unnecessary, and I wish it hadn’t been in the book.

I enjoyed reading about the different cultures, and it was fun to read about the Icelandic setting. Those made this book stand out to me. I didn’t care for some of the middle scenes of the book, but ultimately I liked the ending. I felt it was realistic, but it also made me happy.

Content:
Swear words were used liberally throughout the book.
Some kissing, one fade-to-black intimate scene.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed The Language of Cherries. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Evie is forced to move to Iceland for the summer where her father is working. While there, she finds a cherry orchard and finds inspiration in her surroundings to paint beautiful paintings. She meets a young man, Oskar, who lives on the orchard and begins to form an interesting relationship with him.

I really liked how the author created the way that Oskar and Evie communicated. Evie‘s wit and candor were entertaining to read. I also loved the bit of legend and whimsy that was present due to the aisling tree.

Really enjoyable book with characters you’ll be drawn to right from the start.

5 Stars ☆☆☆☆☆

"Music is my only refuge, because when I sing, my strings aren’t broken."

Where do I even start? This book was perfect, it contained everything one would want in a contemporary. The whimsical writing style, the Icelandic setting and just the whole plot was spectacular. This is the kind of book you read in a day, and then immediately reread when you've finished because it was just lovely 😂❤  

Things I Loved: 
• The writing style! Jen Marie Hawkins has a beautiful way with words, it's the kind of poetic and enthralling writing style that makes you want to savour and hold onto every word.
• For me, romance in books is very hit or miss, and this was definitely a hit. I often found myself laughing, squealing and shouting (in a good way 😂) at the INTENSE attraction between Evie and Oskar. I think the romance was beautiful, and portrayed flawlessly ❤
• The characters were completely fleshed out and so humane and relatable, it's unbelievable. The author has a rare ability to allow us to feel every emotion the characters were feeling. I cried with Oskar, and laughed with Evie... it's just everything 💕

There wasn't anything I disliked, and I do think this book was an amazing read. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy! If you like contemporary books with hints of Magical Realism and beautiful, poetic writing as well as a romance that'll make you laugh, and cry and 'Aww' multiple times then definitely give this a go 😁

**I received a copy of this book, provided by NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.**

The Language of Cherries is a genuinely beautiful book. The story follows Evie as she travels to Iceland for the Summer months. Bringing her easel and paint, she begins painting a mysterious boy called Oskar. She paints in a cherry orchard that's owned by Oskar's family. The book unfolds their story and, as I followed along, I fell in love with the picturesque detail of Iceland, the loveable and relatable characters, and especially the way that love can be discovered in any language. What a beautifully written and meticulously executed book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to feel good. This is one of those books that you finish in one sitting and then you just hug the book right, remembering the characters and their love for one another.
#thelanguageofcherries #netgalley