Saturday, May 3, 2014

"GOOD NIGHT JUNE" by Sarah Jio



Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (Goodnight Songs) is an adored childhood classic, but its real origins are lost to history. In Goodnight June, Sarah Jio offers a suspenseful and heartfelt take on how the “great green room” might have come to be.

June Andersen is professionally successful, but her personal life is marred by unhappiness. Unexpectedly, she is called to settle her great-aunt Ruby’s estate and determine the fate of Bluebird Books, the children’s bookstore Ruby founded in the 1940s. Amidst the store’s papers, June stumbles upon letters between her great-aunt and the late Margaret Wise Brown—and steps into the pages of American literature.

My thoughts...

I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first Sarah Jio novel and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like her writing style. The first few pages didn't wow me but as I kept reading I was drawn into the story and June's life as though she were a good friend. Happy that she made the decision to keep her aunt's dream alive I grew to love that little bookstore and could imagine what it looked like and June searching the shelves for each "clue". How sad it would be if print books were no more.

I thought I had Aunt Ruby's secret figured out but was wrong, it was a nice surprise as I read the last pages. The ending is beautifully sad and at the same time it was a happy ending. I read it in one day and immediately went online to order her other novels! Can't wait to start reading the next one, the problem is deciding which to read first. A nice problem to have!

I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

2 comments:

Michele said...

I've read several of Ms. Jio's books. She's a master at weaving past and present in a novel. Is this similar?

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is. She does a wonderful job and made this fun to read.