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June by Miranda Beverly-Whitmore
June: A Novel
Fiction, mystery, thriller
Crown
May 31, 2016
hardcover, kindle, audible, audible cd
400
Twenty-five-year-old Cassie Danvers is holed up in her family’s crumbling mansion in rural St. Jude, Ohio, mourning the loss of the woman who raised her—her grandmother, June. But a knock on the door forces her out of isolation. Cassie has been named the sole heir to legendary matinee idol Jack Montgomery's vast fortune. How did Jack Montgomery know her name? Could he have crossed paths with her grandmother all those years ago? What other shocking secrets could June’s once-stately mansion hold?
Soon Jack’s famous daughters come knocking, determined to wrestle Cassie away from the inheritance they feel is their due. Together, they all come to discover the true reasons for June’s silence about that long-ago summer, when Hollywood came to town, and June and Jack’s lives were forever altered by murder, blackmail, and betrayal. As this page-turner shifts deftly between the past and present, Cassie and her guests will be forced to reexamine their legacies, their definition of family, and what it truly means to love someone, steadfastly, across the ages.
If walls could talk…
How many of us have wished at some time in our lives that the walls around us could give us the answers we seek? Wished they could share with us the things they have heard and seen? Miranda Beverly-Whitmore uses the grand old house, Two Oaks, as a character in her spellbinding thriller, June, to do just that.
From the very beginning it is a captivating story. Miranda’s writing style is easy to read and she paints vivid pictures with her words. We enter Cassie Danver’s world after she has returned to Two Oaks, the childhood home of her recently deceased grandmother, June. June moved away from Two Oaks when Cassie’s parents were tragically killed in a car wreck with Cassie strapped in the backseat. While Cassie flounders in depression, Two Oaks relishes in the return of people under its roof and sends dreams of two young girls living in Two Oaks to Cassie. 
It’s the parallel story of these two girls, June and Linda Sue, that unfolds as Cassie is confronted with the knowledge that she has just inherited millions of dollars from Jack Montgomery, a famous movie star she has never met. Of course this inheritance is met with unbridled resistance from his daughter. The story seamlessly jumps from the present to the 1950’s and back as Cassie embarks on discovering what happened to her grandma, June, all those years ago and where her life goes from here.
I did not want to put this book down once I began to unravel the layers of intrigue and deception that occurred so many years ago. I was repeatedly surprised by plot twists that I didn’t expect but which filled out the story perfectly. I loved how imperfect and real the characters were and how easily it felt to be a fly on the wall to the events both present and past. This book definitely deserves the five star rating.
You can purchase June on Amazon and find out more about Miranda Beverly-Whitmore by visiting her at www.mirandabw.com and on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Tanya’s love for books has been a lifelong passion that she likes sharing with others. Reading is also the thing that relaxes her after a day of juggling the many responsibilities that come with being being wife to an amazing man, mother to four great kids spread around the world, business manager, and farm hand on their place in southwest Missouri; home to Akaushi cattle and a menagerie of pygmy goats, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.
