June: Book summary and reviews of June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

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Tired Bookreader

Refreshing
This book is the first I've read in a while that had a good story from beginning to end...and the end really wrapped up the tale. Descriptions were concise, the characters had quantifiable emotions and events. I am hoping Miranda has another book in her...anxiously waiting...

JW

Stars Above Us
I received this as a book to review. When I first started it, I had a hard time getting into it. It took almost 50 pages to not give up and continue and then I liked it., The story came alive for me and I was glad I had read it and stuck with it. Story of an average girl and a movie star. Who ever has that chance to be a part of that world and find out you really care for someone - but June cared not only for Jack but she cared very much for her close friend Lindie and just could not leave her behind. Was it right thing to do? Only you can determine that and decide for yourself.

Jan

June
We meet Cassie, the granddaughter of June in 2015. She presents as a financially strapped, resentful young woman who has inherited June’s large and stately house in Ohio. The house, however, is in ruins and the ghosts of the former inhabitants speak to Cassie in her dreams (a good technique that provides background) depressing her further.

With patience, readers watch Cassie mature as she begins to understand long ago events that occurred between the family and townspeople who preceded her. The first event to drive this story begins when a man named Nick appears at Cassie’s door to announce that she may be a very rich woman.

Nick tells Cassie she has inherited a fortune from an unknown grandfather Jack__________, a former matinee idol, whose famously beautiful daughter Tate, is vigorously contesting the will.

At this point the announcement of the inheritance feels too weak to move beyond “a poor, orphan maiden is rescued by the generous benefactor.” Readers, be patient.

While Cassie seems the traditional protagonist, the novel pivots around June. June, her friend Lindy (a wonderfully created character) and several others are the first of this multi-generational novel who move between the early twentieth century and the present.

There are many subplots, all of which work to transform Cassie into the woman she actually is: a kind, loving woman who is young to be alone in life and simply misses the people she has lost, ending with her grandmother June. The love story, however, between innocent June and sophisticated movie star Jack is the nucleus here. While June may unfold tentatively, it becomes seriously solid – well beyond a “beach read.”

VtKat

Dual Plot Leaves Both Lacking
The most highly developed character in the book is Two Oaks, the great yellow mansion built by Gray Neeley in 1850's St Jude, Ohio. The house hums and stretches and leans and listens and groans. It is alert to the shadowy humans of the past who lived in it or partied in it and it vaguely senses the presence of the new tenant, Cassie Danvers, the despondent, depressed twenty something who has come home after the death of the grandmother who raised her, June.
In an effort to explain Cassie's mind set and to explain the brooding mansion's decrepit state the author toggles back and forth between the present, 2015, and the past, 1955, the days of June's teens and the time of St Jude's fifteen minutes of fame as the setting for a mediocre Hollywood shoot of the film, Erie Canal. Unfortunately, this flashback approach dilutes the author's ability to develop the characters of these parallel plots.
The description of St Jude and its surroundings as well as its buildings is excellent and the reader can easily envision the locale. It is also easy to see the changes in the place over the intervening sixty years. The excitement of small town folks invaded by Hollywood stars, their entourages and crews is very real. Unfortunately the sense of place does not create a sense of the inner workings of the main characters.
Also difficult to discern is the relationships among some of the characters. There are many threads introduced in the 1955 sections that are left hanging tantalizingly over the readers' heads, much as the ceiling rotting in an upstairs closet hangs threateningly over the temporary residents of the 2015 Two Oaks. Perhaps, the story would have been better told in two volumes--one before--the 1955 story with the secrets revealed--and one after--2015--with the living discovering them and making sense of the situation in which they find themselves.
I read the book in one day, almost giving up several times with impatience but pushing on in hope that with time I would find something redeeming and deeper in the story. Finished disappointed and with a sense of something lacking.

I received a free copy of this book from Blogging for Books for review.