I am *always* ready for magical realism once autumn hits.

I mean, who doesn't want a tiny bit of magic in their lives in the fall?

I was captivated by the cover, title, and premise of this book. However, I was underwhelmed by the execution of the story.

I appreciated the overall themes and storylines, but the plotting felt clunky and confusing.

I have now read four books by Adrienne Young and not one has disappointed me. The Unmaking of June Farrow is my second favorite after Spells for Forgetting.

The Farrows have an ability to go through a red door and pick a different time to go to. No one knows when or why the door appears but the main rule is you cannot go to a time where you already exist. It has been long known the Farrows are just different. June’s mother (who vanished without a trace) and grandmother have been known to be living in two timelines and it’s only a matter of time before June falls to the same maddness.

Anytime time travel is involved I have to be careful. I find myself looking for plot holes and start questioning everything and it ends up making my head hurt. I think in the end it all works out- my reasoning will stay in my head to avoid potential spoilers.

Once I got out of my head with technicalities I loved June’s story. The beginning June is grieving her grandmother and still trying to solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance. She’s told by her grandmother's friend to go through the red door when it appears. Although I had a ton of questions throughout it was easy to be patient because of the writing. I definitely recommend The Unmaking of June Farrow ESPECIALLY if you liked Spells for Forgetting.

This was my 1st Adrienne Young read, and will definitely not be my last. I picked this as my BOTM and I'm excited to get a physical copy.

The Unmaking of June Farrow wasn't something I was ready for. It was absolutely breathtaking and different. A different I didn't know I needed in my life.

It follows June Farrow and the Farrow woman. The Farrows knew they were different and every woman has a choice to make when the red door arrives.

I was blown away with how Adrienne Young spun this story. It unfolded before my eyes in the right amount of time. I cried, I laughed, it warmed my heart. It's been a long time since a book has touched me so completely. This book is a must read. It has an amazing fantasy element that seems so real.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

✨ARC REVIEW✨

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young (@adrienneyoungbooks )
4.5 stars ⭐️
Publication Date: 10/17/23

This was such a perfect fall read! I have never read a book by Adrienne Young before, but this certainly won’t be my last. I am so excited to dive into more of her stories, because her writing was so beautiful, captivating, and atmospheric. It truly takes you far away and submerges you deep into the story.

This book is part murder mystery, part fantasy, part romance. I have never read anything liked it. And I loved it so much. The characters were strong, the story was beautiful, the writing was incredible. Read this book if you like:

✨Magical Realism
✨Time Travel
✨Romance
✨Family Stories/Curses
✨Murder Mysteries
✨Beautiful, Atmospheric Writing

I highly recommend adding this book to your fall TBR – and to make it easier, its an October selection on @bookofthemonth (use the link in my bio to sign up and get your first book for $5!)

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @randomhouse for giving me access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Unmaking of June Farrow
Thank you to both NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I had been waiting on a 5 star read to come into my life since July, and when June Farrow showed up she brought that 5 star home!

I went into this book very blind, based on the fact that I absolutely LOVED Adrienne Young’s adult debut, Spells for Forgetting, last fall. And that trust was well placed! Going in blind made it feel like I was trying to figure out what was going along right with June, it upped the suspense in the first half of the book as well. I suggest taking a similar approach if you trust me, but I will provide you with some vibes!

✨a family curse that causes madness, passed through generations with no cure
✨a twisty turny timeline
✨an unsolved small town murder with repercussions decades later
✨the cost of family secrets
✨underlying feelings of mystery, suspense, suspicion, and romance
✨the lengths we will go to for the people we love 🥺

This book is absolutely unique and had me enthralled the entire time. It’s the perfect addition to your fall lineup, the story is beautiful and kept me guessing the entire time. Be sure to grab it on October 17! Maybe grab Spells for Forgetting too if you haven’t yet, they are both so gorgeous!

I'm speechless. This book tore me right in two. How AY can create such magical characters is truly beyond my comprehension.

4*

Young has found herself in the sweet spot of magical realism. Her literary craft was made for this genre and the beauty with which she builds these worlds is second to none.

The mystery of June and the Farrow women is one that is captivating and heart breaking and I loved watching the way they interacted with each other.

I did feel that Mason, overall, was a superfluous character and really did nothing to serve the story and was essentially forgotten about, by both the author and June. In fact, the story overall leaned away from how I'd envisioned it from the synopsis, though that's not necessarily a bad thing.

This is definitely making it to the 2023 favorites list!

Synopsis: June Farrow has spent the past year experiencing some strange hallucinations. She knows the Farrow woman are different, but it is not until she goes through a door that has been appearing in her visions that she begins to understand the complexity of her family. Ending up in a different timeline, June is faced with some difficult decisions regarding love, family and has to figure out what to do moving forward.

Thoughts: This was a complex book filled with amazing characters, a atmospheric setting and a great blend of genres. The writing itself was unreal and will sweep you away!

Read if you like:
-Time travel
-Magic realism
-Family curses
-Small town mysterious
-Addie La Rue and The Dream Daughter

Thank you Random House for the ARC. Pub 10/17

I was thrilled that I got the opportunity to read a NetGalley digital ARC of The Unmasking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young. I couldn't remember the synopsis that I'd read months ago, but I also knew that I wouldn't be disappointed.

I LOVE this book. Go in blind and let the story unravel.

I want more! I need more!

This needs to be a movie or a show, I could visualize this so we’ll while I was reading it, I loved it so much. Will be adding this author to my auto reads list, I loved her other book Spells for Forgetting as well!

This started out as a slow burn. I was trying to figure out what was going on, but by the time we got to the meat of the story I was invested. I maybe would have liked a little more on Mason and Birdie so that the climax had a touch more emotional punch, but I loved the rest of it so much. Beautiful writing, great story with the loose ends all tied up. 5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Big thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!!!

Outlander meets Black Mirror in The Unmaking of June Farrow!!

This book is everything you can expect from Adrienne! Lyrical twisting of words, wrapped around moments of heartache that leave you longing for more!

I want the kind of deep rooted, heart aching, hopeful, endless love the characters in this story have for one another! Especially the familial love within it. It’s everything I wish I had and seeing that tight knit bond between the Farrow women let me live out that dream.

June is a very tenacious MC unyielding in her pursuit of the truth by chasing threads down until she knows everything, no matter the painful/hard truths. The twist and turns left you on the edge of your seat until the end!

I want more books for each of the characters within it, them growing up, their struggles, and their love stories.

*Second chance romance
*forced proximity
*Slow burn-- in a different way
*Found Family -- in a twist way!
*Family Secrets

I loved this book just as much as I loved Spells for Forgetting. Love the mystery, magical realism, and romance - my three favorite genres.

Do I understand a single thing that happened? Not really. Did I enjoy it? Yes indeed. Really the only thing I can think of to describe this is "no thoughts, just vibes". This was twisty and confusing and oh so magical.

Adrienne Young masterfully creates a multiverse with different timelines and time travel and so many twisting story lines that you will want to keep reading just to find out what everything means. I could have finished this in one day if I didn't have to actually be an adult and go to work *sighs*.

I normally do not like ending a book still feeling confused, but I am actually quite satisfied with how this wrapped up. I'm glad June made the decisions she did *no spoilers* and I think it was the best outcome we could have gotten for this story. June is a much bigger person than I am, because if I had to face some of those decisions I would have simply curled up in the fetal position in a corner and cry.


OKAY SPOILER NOW DON'T READ

SERIOUSLY SPOILERS

STOP NOW

LAST WARNING.......

okay so the one thing I wish was done differently, is that I wish the book was longer in the end. Once June started figuring things out and remembering things, everything went by super quick and I didn't get a chance to sit and enjoy the nice romance moments. I want to see June live in her new old timeline and be a family with Eamon and Annie. Even just an epilogue with a scene of them living a mediocre suburban family life, cooking breakfast in the kitchen. There were so many things happening and so many things I was trying to figure out and June was trying to figure out, that we didn't get many nice moments of just peace and vibes.

This is now a Book of the Month choice! If you read and enjoyed Spells for Forgetting by our author I highly recommend getting this one. Spells was in my top 10 books read I 2022 and this has a very similar vibe. This was a 5 star for me.

A perfect cozy fall vibe here readers! We have it all in this book. A small town with a generational curse on the women of a family, a mysterious door that appears. Some mystery and romance to top it all off.

Our author really has a way with creating a setting you can really visualize and set yourself in. This book included a non-linear time line and I don’t think that is always smooth to conquer and it was very smooth and seamless in this story. I didn’t get lost or lose track of what was going on and that’s super important for me in a book like this. Our characters! I really enjoyed our protagonist, her feelings and back story were so well developed. It very easy for me to say I loved this one and recommended it.

Thank you to our author, Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me with an advanced eGalley copy of the book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This will be available on October 17th, 2023. I hope if you choose to read it you enjoy it also.

Dang! Another banger from Adrienne Young. Seriously, she is one of my absolute favorite authors. No one can put me into a story as well as she can. I can’t say much about the plot of this one without spoiling everything, but I was enthralled and read through it so quickly that I wondered if I had missed some of it (I hadn't). Spells for Forgetting is still my absolute no. 1, but this was very, very good and well written. 4.5 stars!

This author has fast become "one to watch " for me. I loved her last novel and this one was even better. I related with this one and enjoyed the storyline more..I can't wait to see what she comes out with next.

Adrienne Young is an auto-buy author for me and this book did not disappoint.

The Unmaking of June Farrow has all the magic and mystery of Spells for Forgetting in an all new way. June is just trying to live her life and avoid her family's curse, the curse where she'll eventually start seeing things and the small town where she lives will think she's gone insane. However, June has a secret, she's been seeing things for a year already and is scared the curse has already been underway. When her grandmother passes and leaves her a picture of her missing mother dated years before her mother was born June will have to decide to embrace her family's curse and discover the truth or keep ignoring the doors that are open to her.

This story will have you quite literally walking into a different time period with the amazing writing and well detailed world. All of the characters come alive and the world is extremely easy to get lost in even for someone like myself who isn't usually a fan of historical fantasy/fiction.

Even though I guessed the twists and the mystery aspect of this book very early on I couldn't stop reading and pushing for June to piece it all together and decide which life she wants to live for herself. All of the side characters are well thought out and the romance is extremely sweet if not entirely a second chance romance it feels like one and will have you rooting for them throughout the story.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is one of my favorite books of the year and I recommend everyone give it a shot.

Adrienne Young can do no wrong! This book is EVERYTHING. Adrienne knows just how to write a book that makes you want to curl up with a cup of tea and a blanket to feel the small town vibes and fall in love with the characters she creates. Women who were cursed to lose their minds is such a compelling read with mind boggling twists. It was a guessing game from start to finish and I was not at all disappointed. I love that it was not predictable AT ALL. I’ll be recommending this book to everyone I know!

I received this ARC via NetGalley and Random House Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

This was a beautifully written story about the women in a family who are cursed to lose their minds…. Or are they?

At its heart, this book is about the love a mother has for her children and vice versa. It’s about the life we want and the choices we’re willing to make to have that life.

It is an amazing story that will stick with me forever. I highly recommend it.

I received an ARC from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.