JUNE FIRST
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Forbidden/Taboo
Author: Jennifer Hartmann
Release Date: May 17, 2022
Want to know what happens to a man who barely claws his way out of a tragedy, only to fall right into the arms of the one girl in the world he can never have?
Another tragedy, that’s what.
When I was six years old, my father made a choice that altered the course of my entire life.
Because of what he did, the only girl I ever loved became the only girl I couldn’t have.
In a lot of ways, I did have her…
I had her first steps, her first words, her first smile. I had her milestones, her heartbreaks, her dreams. I had her heart so woven in with mine, I didn’t know where she ended, and I began.
Only, as the years pressed on, lines became blurred—and the blurrier the line, the easier it is to cross.
They say tragedy comes in threes.
For me, that was true.
The first one changed me, the second one broke me, and the third one healed me.
But at the center of all that tragedy… there is a love story.
And at the center of that love story,
There is June.
** Forbidden/taboo relationship, please read with caution **
June. My sweetest blessing and greatest sin.
June First was a riveting, poignant, and unforgettable blend of emotion and and a one in a lifetime love. It was one of the most unique stories I’ve read in a long while, and one that is likely to stay with me for quite some time.
My biggest recommendation for you is to go into this book absolutely blind. The blurb sounds vague and give you a little and nothing, but trust me, you don’t want more detail.
This is a taboo/forbidden romance, but not in the predictable way. It was unique in all of the best ways. A relationship like this would be almost impossible to pull off without making it almost cringey or have an ick factor. Yet Jennifer Hartmann did it flawlessly.
The story itself is a bit lengthy in parts, with many details and pivotal moments that span years in the life of June and Brant. It spanned their highest highs and lowest lows. At times the details felt slow paced, but I can’t think of one page that could have been removed, so there’s that.
I laughed, I sobbed, I swooned. I fell so hard for this beautiful romance. And it was beautiful. It was imperfect and painful, and gut wrenching in parts. And it was completely unforgettable. The secondary characters who stole and broke my heart. The love that bloomed in tragedy. The story that I’ll never forget.
