Special thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this book, but had such a hard time reading it. The characters fell flat and seemed more like caricatures than fleshed out. I thought there would be more family drama, but a lot of this book had to do with things that were not included in the premise and changed the feel of the book.

I unfortunately didn’t enjoy this book, and after reading a third of it, I decided to stop. I really thought it was perfect for me - queerness! Family drama! Intrigue! But it fell flat. There were so many characters to get to know and so many moving pieces, and when I didn’t feel settled in by 1/3 in, I didn’t think I could keep going. Part of the issue is that I couldn’t get invested in the siblings’ lives because we didn’t get to know them enough to care, and what we did learn was largely not great. That said, I do think I would give this book another shot in audiobook format!

This book was really challenging to get into for me. The characters very flat feeling and it was as if the author pulled out every obscure fifty cent word they knew and used it in the novel. It was not at all like the premise / blurb.

April May June July by Alison B. Hart was such a beautifully heartbreaking story. The story begins with Aprils perspective as she tells the reader about her improper thoughts at work and how she’s been cheating on her husband. The story continues as each sibling give us their POV. June is getting married, July is graduating and May is working at a Zoo holding her emotions down. You quickly learn that these siblings have something very unique to them and this that their father disappeared when they were little in Afghanistan. Although they are now grown, the loss lingers. And when April decides to take her mother on a cruise to get away, the last thing she expects to see is her father. This story is one of sibling relationships and what can break a family bond. It was so extraordinary to read everyone’s separate perspectives and just how much each sibling was affected in their own different ways. I thought it a lovely but sad story. I really enjoyed the detective aspect of it all and just how this hunt for their father brought them all back to each other, just like how his loss tore them apart. It was a special read.

The combination of a complex family drama with a missing persons case and kidnapping/spy stories makes this an interesting, compelling, and unusual read.

This book tells of four estranged siblings who find themselves at a wedding, one of the siblings has seen their long estranged father.
Each of these siblings are at a stalemate on their own lives. Having trouble moving forward, or committing.
It was a quick read!

This book was not what I expected and not in a good way. While I typically enjoy a multiple POV book, I didn’t feel like I was able to fully sink my teeth into each of the 4 siblings. The only character I really felt for and was rooting for was July, the rest were hard to root for.

I didn’t realize that this was going to play out more of a historical fictional book as opposed to a family drama which caught me off guard and I maybe wouldn’t necessarily would’ve read.

I wish we were able to get a glimpse more into all of the interconnectivity of how the siblings interacted and relationships grew. That part felt rushed to me especially from the description, I thought that was going to be the central theme/plot.


Thank you for the opportunity to read this book and provide honest feedback.

Four siblings have grown apart since their father went missing ten years ago while working in Iraq. This novel follows the impact of their loss and how the start to put the pieces back together.

What I liked

The book is about four siblings named April, May, June and July. Each of them had an interesting story about how their lives had gone in the past ten years. The book also followed how a personal tragedy could tear a family apart but also bring them together.

Two of the siblings were queer. June, who went by Juniper/Junie, is a professional soccer coach who is about to get married now that gay marriage is starting to become legal in the United States. She is a little bit androgynous/masculine leaning but doesn't feel super comfortable with that yet. Her story was the most fleshed out to me and the one I enjoyed the most. July is the little brother of the gang and is figuring out what to do with his crushes at college.

What didn't work for me

I thought this was going to be a family drama. The book cover has twinkle lights around the four siblings names that hint at a wedding. The blurb talks about everyone's relationship problems with spouses and crushes.

However, a lot of this book is about the Iraq War that started in the early 2000s. There is nothing wrong with that -- it is an important topic! But it's not what I was expecting to read when I picked up a book to help me relax at the end of the day.

A book set ten years ago doesn't feel like long ago enough to make this a historical fiction novel. But many of the political events in the book are not recent enough to feel fresh in my mind. So the author had to do a lot of heavy lifting to remind us what happened in the Iraq War twenty years ago.

I would have been more open to this if the history lessons were woven in a bit more to the story. But much of it was delivered in monologue form. It wasn't in-depth enough for me to actually sink my teeth into and learn. And the details didn't have enough personal stakes to the characters to make me push on through and engage. I started skimming parts of it, which made me feel very guilty!

Recommendation

I think knowing what this book is really about, will help it find the right audience. So if you want an (almost?) historical fiction book about the impact of the Iraq War on an American family, this book is for you!

This story follows the four Barber siblings, April, May, June, and July, as they try to find out what happened to their father who went missing ten years earlier and how to cope with the ways they have developed to deal with the trauma. It’s told through alternating parts of each sibling, so you get four POVs. This is done remarkably well, as each character has a strong individual voice. April is the eldest and she apparently has her life together with her nuclear family and career as a lawyer. But she is as unmoored as her siblings, and has been secretly having an affair. Meanwhile, May is dealing with depression and her dreams of travel have been crushed after losing her father. June has turned to alcohol, even as she plans her wedding with her future wife. July is obsessing over his straight roommate and trying to deal with the fact that, as the much younger sibling, he never truly knew his father. Over the years, the siblings have drifted apart, unmoored by their father’s unsolved disappearance after he was kidnapped while working as a private contractor for a company in Iraq. When April thinks she spots their father abroad, and with June’s wedding looming, the four are forced to come together and attempt to find their father.
The author very clearly understands people and how they work, and one thing this book does exceptionally is accurately portray sibling interaction. I have several siblings, and it’s difficult to find media that accurately reflects the way these family dynamics work. This book did it incredibly. I also found myself learning a lot about the politics of what was happening in Iraq and the surrounding areas at the time, and the story explores how in the US we’re often told one thing to excuse this country’s violence, while the opposite is often true. Overall, this is an honest and open portrayal of family and how they cope with trauma, and how that can be echoed around the world in various ways. Personally, I would love to read Tariq’s story, it was very compelling even though he was a minor character. Alison B. Hart clearly has a way with characters, and this was a well written story.

This was such a delightful read! I really loved all the characters and their stories and how they were all interconnected. I highly recommend this book!

I really enjoyed April May June July and recommend this novel for fans of family dramas. Hart has crafted each of the characters so well that you feel you know each one. Right away we sympathize with their issues. As they get caught up in trying to figure out what happened to their father, and the wedding date approaches, the drama ratchets up. I think fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid would enjoy this novel. While it may seem frothy and light at first, the story is woven with deeper, more serious issues, which are rewarding ultimately, especially since we have grown to care about the characters.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the advance e-galley; all opinions expressed herein are my own.