the love that split the world // emily henry

normally i dont care to show my tattoo but it managed to sync with this book...read and you'll see

published: 2016

isbn: 978-1-59514-850-6

pages: 390

read from: 8/29 to 9/3 - 2016

rating: 1) didn't care for it 2) liked it 3) LOVED IT

SYNOPSIS (amazon)
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 preschool 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.

Then there are the visits 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.

SPOILERS

i couldn't even try to spoil it all for you even if i wanted.

it wasn't until AFTER i wrote my ramblings that i realized in the end, it left me with some unanswered questions but i didn't even mind. and not even questions but like, i just wanted to know what happened to her mother and father and sister. i know her brother Jack grows up to marry a loving man and have children. ...but that only took place if....

anyway.

that apparition, grandmother.

boy i did not see that one coming.

Natalie was given up for adoption.

and her adoptive mother was in a car accident.

it messed Nat up so bad that she gets taken in to have her memory erased of that moment, sort of, if you will.

but she keeps having nightmares.

the same one over and over about the car accident. and it isn't until later on when she's hypnotized or whatever you call it that she realizes that it isn't a dream but a memory.

and grandmother is there to tell her stories. stories which will prepare her.

when her mother crashed, another car crashed as well. in that car was Beau and his father and in that universe, B doesn't make it.

to avoid the long-ness that this could be, I'm just going to cut to the chase.

grandmother is actually Natalie from the future coming back in time to tell her (herself) that she has 3 months to save Beau before the portal closes and its too late.

so that's what she does.

she goes back in time to the moment of the accident and because her love for B is so pure and so strong, she gives up her life for his. thus altering everything from that moment on.

because there is no her and he has a second chance.

and the trippy part is that it's future Natalie telling now Natalie to go back in time and save Beau (basically killing herself) so that he has a chance.

its like, she lived but is now going back in time to tell herself to save someone else. even if it means that now Nat will never see whats going to happen with future Nat. (yea. my head hurt too!)

except that, (and i don't know my Bible so .....) she survives.

as Abraham gave up his son for God, ultimately sparing him because of his commitment, so is Natalie.

because she has seen His face and heart just as He has hers.

(did i just read a somewhat religious book?)

i could see where people get messed up and think that they're not sure whether she ends up dying or living.

luckily because I'm impatient, i read all those comments that stated that they didn't know so i knew to super mega uber pay attention to the end once death was mentioned.

but that's my interpretation.

to me, she survives BUT they are in their own version of their universe.

it could mean something else to someone else.

all i know is, there's a crap load i left out.

soo....ya know, you gotta read for yourself.

MY RAMBLINGS

(just thoughts on the book itself)

first and foremost, this book was beautiful.

i fell in love with it when it was first released back in January because of the cover but it wasn't until right now that I'm having the library loves that i decided to check it out.

i made the fatal mistake of going on to goodreads to read the reviews and i was thisclose to being swayed away from it. i was thinking of putting it down and reading my 2 other books. but something told me stick to my gut and keep on truckin' and I'm sooo glad i did!

the love that split the world, Emily Henry, thank you for making this my farewell book to my 2016 goodreads challenge (25/25).

this book is so beautifully written, i don't even know how to convey into words.

let me start by telling you this.......

i was lost about 90% of the book. the twists and turns....i didn't see what was happening til literally the very moment i started reading the first word of the sentence explaining what i didn't understand previously.

the whole time travel thing threw me for a loop. i didn't see that twist coming but it was amazing.

this is the kind of book I KNOW i can read a second time and appreciate more because now that i know what happened, how it happened and why it happened, my eyes, my mind, heck even my soul will be more alert and accepting of what takes place.

i will be more aware of what takes place and i will better understand the read as i re-read it.

I'm definitely buying this book when its comes out in paperback (hopefully next year) and reading it again.

usually when i read a book, i can clearly visualize or create the scenario of what I'm reading in my mind but this is hands down the first book where i could CLEARLY see the location and the emotions that EH was trying to convey. the scene where she talks about the church and how it looks different, i pictured myself in that scene and my god, it was b e a u t i f u l.

this book is just, ahh!

yes its YA and yes its a love story (typical) but i feel like it was more than that.

it was more than any other YA book i have read. i feel like....i feel like I'm beyond grateful that this book was a part of my life.

this one will stay with me for a while. its weird because i wouldn't say its my favorite (i honestly don't know what book is besides the witches by R. Dahl) but this book, i don't know man, it did something to me. it freaking moved me.

i will say this though, based on the goodreads review, please take my review lightly. not because I'm not confident in the book but simply because we all have different tastes.

i honestly don't think everyone that bashed it made it through completely so they missed out on the beauty of the stories within and the meaning behind her decision of it all.

and well, those that did make it and just didn't care for it, well i don't know.

i wholeheartedly loved this book and i stand by my "review" but i understand its not everyones cup of tea.

i wont try to convince you or anyone because i feel that you need to want to read this book on your own.

for once i wont tell you to pick it up right away.

i want you to come to love it all on your own when its your time.

....and that's how you know i love a book. I'm telling you to leave it all to me! (jk)

as always, ill leave you with a few quotes.

"i realized then i didn't know where the fake me ended and the real me began."

-Nat pg 118

"we may be different, but in this moment were feeling the exact same thing: the sad kind of bliss where you realize, suddenly, how perfect your life has really been all along. so perfect it hurts, ......

so perfect that even though everything you know is ending, you truly believe life will continue to be beautiful....."

-Nat pg 130

"you never owe another person something, no matter how nice they are to you. relationships aren't transactions."

-Nat pg 145

as always, thank you for reading.