What I Read This Week: February 20, 2022
I finished two books this week.
The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry
Young adult/Magical realism
This wasn’t the magical journey I was expecting. Instead it’s more of a sci-fi tale. There’s young love and time travel and high school football. Emily Henry writes rich, realistic relationships and family dynamics and she’s done so here. Ultimately, this is a story about love. It explores the different kind of loves we experience and then asks what are we willing to do for those we love most. Natalie and Beau are great characters, I was rooting for them from the beginning, even when I didn’t know what the heck was going on. I did feel some spots were over my head as far as the science aspect and the possibility of multiple realities. I recommend this one for readers of young adult fiction.
The Sign For Home by Blair Fell
Contemporary fiction
Advanced copy from NetGalley, expected publication April 5, 2022. I went into this expecting a light romance novel, and that’s NOT the case at all. This is more a coming of age tale with a romantic side story . It’s a heavy novel, about faith and family and coming into your own as a young adult. I’ve never read a book with a deafblind character and it was challenging. There were a few times early on that I thought about quitting because the writing was difficult to follow and repetitive during scenes with signing. I realized I wanted to quit because I was uncomfortable outside of my normal reading material. I stayed with it and am so glad I did! The novel alternates between two points of view. One is Cyril the interpreter’s first person perspective. The other is Arlo’s point of view, and it’s written in second person. That took some getting used to but eventually worked very well at getting me to think and feel from Arlo’s perspective. This is a powerful novel, the writing is strong and I’m glad I read it. But the cover and blurb are misleading. I wouldn’t recommend this for romance readers in general. It would be a better fit for readers of coming of age stories and contemporary fiction.
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