This was this authors debut novel and to be honest I found it fun. I believe that this author and story have a lot of promise. It wasn’t overly long, I am excited to see what they put out next.

Title: A Promising Debut with Room for Growth

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review:
June Storm by Ramona Lee Soo-jun is a promising debut novel that showcases the author's storytelling abilities. From the moment I started reading, I was drawn into a captivating world of emotions and personal journeys. While it left a lasting impression, there were a few areas where the book fell slightly short of greatness, preventing me from awarding it a full 5-star rating.

Ramona Lee Soo-jun's writing style is evocative and poetic, effectively capturing the emotional depth of the characters and their experiences. The exploration of themes such as resilience, self-acceptance, and the power of human connection is thoughtfully portrayed, resonating with readers on an intimate level.

One of the strengths of June Storm lies in the well-drawn characters. Their complexities and personal growth throughout the story are portrayed with sensitivity and authenticity, allowing readers to form deep connections with them. The supporting characters also contribute to the overall richness of the narrative, adding depth and dimension to the protagonist's journey.

However, there were a few aspects that could have been further developed to enhance the overall impact of the book. The pacing, at times, felt uneven, with certain sections moving too swiftly while others lingered without significant progression. Additionally, there were moments where I wished for deeper exploration of certain plot points and character arcs to fully immerse myself in their complexities.

Overall, June Storm is a promising debut that showcases Ramona Lee Soo-jun's talent as a storyteller. With its evocative writing and well-crafted characters, the novel leaves a lasting impression. While it may have fallen slightly short of greatness in certain aspects, it remains a captivating read that will resonate with those who appreciate emotional journeys and personal growth.

In conclusion, I award June Storm a solid 4-star rating. It is a book that promises potential and delivers heartfelt storytelling. With further refinement and attention to pacing and depth, Ramona Lee Soo-jun has the potential to deliver even more remarkable stories in the future. I look forward to witnessing the author's growth and eagerly anticipate what comes next.

Three stars.

I think the shorter length of this book both helped and hurt it in some ways. It was a fast read which I always enjoy but I think it could have used a little more depth to some portions of the book. I think even another 50 pages given to help flesh out certain relationships and explain situations would have been great and I would have read them.

The writing style is wonderful and I felt like overall it was very fluid and emotions hit the mark. I will say at points it did feel like we were going in a circle or the plot was moving along quickly and I missed some things.

I enjoyed that this book was outside the norm of meet-cutes and love stories. This book felt real and sometimes hard in the way that it was supposed to.

I liked it and I hope to see this author grow more and I would read more works by them. But it was not my favorite book to date.

This is probably one of the most realistic books I’ve ever come across. It shows that life is not as easy or as sweet as it appears in movies. Life is not a rom-com. It has its ups and so many downs.

And this book, we see the world through the eyes of our protagonist, Tessa, whose struggles to find a decent man for her. Tessa goes on countless futile dates to find the right one. It’s also about Ruby, Tessa’s friend, in an abusive relationship.

June Storm is about 2 women navigating life, love and friendship. At various points, I rolled my eyes because I felt it all felt ‘unrealistic’, but until I finished this book, I didn't realise I’d been looking at it from the perspective of someone used to meet-cutes and cliche love story.

There were scenes that were off and a bit unnecessary. There were points were I got lost but I guess this book really is real life.

Was anyone else having trouble keeping this story and conversations straight? I unfortunately found myself reading parts over again just to set myself on the right track but after a while was getting frustrated and just wanted to finish it, hoping it would get better.
I felt Tessa wasn't fully relatable and that a good chunk of the story could have been edited more. Maybe a novella?Sorry to say but this was a pass from me.

Thanks Netgalley for the chance to read this book and give my honest opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for the e-arc!

Truth be told, this book was just ok in my opinion. But considering it’s only 150-ish pages it did accomplish what it set out to do. The plot was kind of all over the place but I did really like the character dynamics.

Thank you NetGalley, Ramona Lee Soo-Jun and publishers for early access to June Storm for my honest review.

June Storm is release February 7th, 2023

June Storm is story about a female, Tessa, whose life is in disarray, and also tends to overthink on her love life. This book follows Tessa as she is serial dating, and updating her colleagues on said dates. At first, its fun and adventurous, but after a while, almost all dates end up the same and become repetitive.

I really enjoyed the little glimpse we got of Ruby, one of Tessa’s colleagues. I wish there was more on her private life. Ruby’s story was more interesting to me than the main characters. All Tessa did was feel sorry for herself, when Ruby was actually facing some issues that mattered more.

The conversations Tessa has with anyone, whether it's a new encounter with someone or someone she is close with, almost always felt forced and/or awkward. The dialogue just wasn’t consistent with each scene of the book, and had me quite confused at times.

June Storm started out strong, I was really interested in the first chapter. But as the story progressed, it started to get repetitive and not enjoyable. What originally drew me in to read this book was the cover. The art is unique and the color palette was a great choice.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for an eArc.
The beginning of this book really caught my interest because I loved the friends/coworker dynamic that Tessa had at her job at a call center in London. Unfortunately, the rest of the book fell short for me. While I did find some parts of the book to be entertaining and funny, the storyline felt a bit redundant and all over the place. It was hard to connect with the characters and keep track of the story when the sequence of events would abruptly jump back and forth.
Nevertheless, I do see potential in this book and very much enjoyed the writing style of the author.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for the approval on this book!

This book was interesting for me, because I liked a lot of elements-some of the people, the concept of the dating app/pub combo, the setting....but it lacked a lot of sense. It was all over the place with the storyline, switching back and forth within the same page, so it was hard to keep track of what was going on.

I've never read a book by a non english native speaker, so there could be just a natural language understanding. Ramona's did do a wonderful job of highlighting the women of this book, which I always love to see! I sometimes even felt like it Tessa/Ruby were dual female main characters with how much we followed Ruby's journey as well.

Overall, the intention behind the book is wonderful and I did complete it so it was not a bad book by any means.

June Storm
by Ramona Lee Soo-Jun
Tessa joins a mysterious dating app. Soon after, every time it rains in London, she bumps into an eccentric cocaine addict, who drags her into his world ruled by the Law of Attraction. He guides her through various dates, until the two cross a fine line between his imagination and Tessa's reality.

The good, I loved the cover! I am leaning toward YA will enjoy this one. I felt it was too young, the wording was more like a young teen, and sometimes I just did not get the wording. But, any writer who will attempt to write, and in a second language I say, good for you. I bow to you and the book was a tough jump into the writing.

Always grateful towards Netgalley and the publisher for this eArc 🤍

I wanted to love this book so bad, especially with that first chapter being so casual and raw and relatable. But unfortunately the rest of the book is a miss for me.

The plot is pretty aimless in my opinion, with multiple repetitive scenes. Characters are sometimes funny, sometimes super predictable. Tessa as a main character is pretty vanilla.

All the stuffs with Nev is weird and confusing and lame at the same time. I struggled so much to understand to point of this book. The thing is I could see potentials in the writing style, but plot-wise it's everywhere.

Tessa works in a call center in London, her love life is facing a big crisis and she decides to start massive dating using a mysterious new dating app called June Storm. In the meantime, she meets Nev, a peculiar guy with a drug addiction that turns her life upside-down. We follow her journey in the strange world of weirdos and friend zone, cocktails and dinners, with the nagging sensation that something's going on here.

This book put me in a weird place, let me explain why. The writing style is very good, Ramona isn't using her mother tongue and despite that it sounds pretty native to me. It's funny, fluid and easy to read. I really liked the dialogues, but also the introspective sequences. The story is modern, relatable and catchy, I was really interested in knowing what was going to happen next and find out the developing dynamics between the characters. Ruby's story was pretty interesting as well, the hint to domestic violence made it a bit deeper and rooted in the present. Also the mention of drug addiction and the more serious scene with Nev were highly appreciated.
BUT. I feel like some passages were not entirely clear. Some scene felt a bit "hasty", like they could be developed further. The office dynamics could be analyzed a bit more, Nev could be more central to the plot, the part with Dean and his family could be better explained, maybe. Overall, in my opinion this book could have been stronger if it had been longer! I would have definitely read more than 200 pages!

It’s impressive to write a book in another language; but unfortunately it showed in this insistence, with a lack of fluency that therefore wasn’t convincing.
I’m afraid I didn’t gel with the writing; the characters were one dimensional and indistinguishable, and I was confused by apparent differences that were pronounced (eg nationalities) that weren’t clear at all from descriptions. The main character was to be honest annoying, and it was hard to warm to her; and how any of them stayed in the job given they did no work at all was questionable.
There were also very clear gender biases which felt a little questionable - I don’t think 20-somethings in London would necessarily have these views.

the cover is what drew me in to want to read this book. This was a cute read i want to buy the physical copy of it

First of all, I love this unique cover. This was a relatable journey of online dating while going on a self journey in the difficult and situations we might find ourselves in.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.