The Love That Split the World

The Love that Split the World is by debut author Emily Henry.

Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves. 

Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.

That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

The Breakdown:
1.  Henry's debut novel was wonderful adventure.  I loved that she was able to mix contemporary issues, like ex-boyfriends, friends, family, and starting college so well with the fantasy aspects, alternate dimensions and time travel.  The story was engaging and the characters were fun to read. Bonus, that it was a stand alone book.  I feel, at times, that I have committed to way too series.

2. I enjoyed reading Natalie's character so much.  She was fun, and I loved her sense of humor. Her interactions with her best friend, Megan, and Beau were so wonderful. They were characters that just clicked so well together. Plus, she really does hold it together so well, when the world appears to be going crazy and no one else can see it.

3. Then there is Beau, who is wonderful and has hidden depths to him.  He is not perfect by any means, but appears to be so comfortable with his faults.  He and Natalie together is just magic.

4. I loved the fact that as I was reading that the him Natalie has three months to save is not obvious.  Even at the end, I wondered if it actually referred to more than one person. Also enjoyed the Native American legends that were told by Grandmother during the story.

5.  I have to say my biggest complaint is that I guessed who Grandmother was so earlier in the story, that is was not a surprise when the reveal was made for me.

To Read or Not to Read:
Read