June
Book Review - June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
Simply put, I LOVED this book. It was the way the author incorporated the historic home into the story that really made me fall in love with June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. She somehow captured my child-like (yet romantic) idea of old homes. She perfectly described the feeling I get when I walk into or drive by an abandoned building.
When I was in middle school, I heard that the house that had long stood empty across the street from my grandparent's home was going to be torn down. I was heartbroken. Every time I looked at that house I was filled of dreams about what it was like when it was once lived in and loved by a family. I wrote a short story about how I dreamed of turning it into a Bed and Breakfast and sent it to my Grandma. The story was full of details about how the beds would be covered with quilts my Grandma made and on top of the pillows I'd place a chocolate for the guests, the exact same chocolates my Great-Grandmother would give me when I came to visit. I wasn't able to save the home, but I never stopped dreaming about renovating and saving old, dilapidated buildings. Sometimes I think I should have pursued a career in restoration of old buildings. Or perhaps I did just that in another life.
Take this picture, for example, that I posted on Instagram last summer shortly after moving to Chicago:
This is a "tale of woe and passion, betrayal, redemption, blackmail, and revenge..." At the heart of the story is June, a small-town girl living in Ohio, and Jack, a movie-star in town filming his next movie. We also meet their respective families, sixty years later: Jack's daughters (Elda and Tate) and June's granddaughter (Cassie.) The two families meet each other for the first time when Jack leaves his entire inheritance to Cassie.
I could not put this book down and I'm eager to read more by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore.
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