Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Read via Scribd audiobook. 4 stars.
Very intriguing story. I do wish the ending would’ve told us a few more things. Felt like I was left hanging. Great book and a really good narration by the author!
Very intriguing story. I do wish the ending would’ve told us a few more things. Felt like I was left hanging. Great book and a really good narration by the author!
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I listened to the author read this audiobook, and it was so amazing to hear him read it. I loved June Bug. As it is told from her young viewpoint, it is so easy to fall in love with her. She is an amazing, intelligent nine year old. This story will pull at your heartstrings, so make sure to have kleenex with you. I wish there was a second book to learn more about June Bug and her Dad.
I read this book the whole way through because of the concept and the mystery of the plot. The characters were pretty good, but the writing was really lacking. Terrible metaphors and similes. And it really bugged me how the narration jumped between more than three different characters. Definitely would have been better to stick to one or two Point-of-View characters. Still, an interesting concept and good, fairly-realistic ending.
June Bug has always loved her life on the road with her father. Travelling around in the RV she has gotten to see lots of interesting places. Sometimes she does long for a real house, and she really wants a dog, but her Daddy takes good care of her and helps her whenever she feels scared. But now she has a secret from him. She was in a Walmart and saw a picture of a girl on a missing child poster. A girl that looks just like her. What is her Daddy not telling her?
As this story plays out the reader encounters a smart and brave little girl (June Bug), a man with past secrets that he'd rather not dig up - but he has no choice (Johnson, her "father"), and a Grandmother who has never stopped praying, hoping and believing that her grandchild is out there somewhere - despite what the sheriff and everyone else seems to think.
This story drew me in from page one. As the reader, I knew something wasn't right about June Bug's situation with her father - but was he really her father? What secrets was he holding that he wasn't telling her about? The strange thing was that he seemed to really treat her well, not like a child abductor would. As the story unfolded I was rooting for June Bug to get what she wanted - a happy and stable home, and for the Grandmother to find her lost granddaughter, and for the Sheriff to put all the pieces together. There are many memorable characters that pop up along the was as June Bug and her father travel back to West Virginia to confront the past and set things right - a preacher who gives them a ride and some good advice, a family who gives them a wonderful memory at a swimming pool, and an old friend of Johnson's who provides just what they need to keep going. This was one of the best Christian Fiction books I've ever read. I highly recommend it
As this story plays out the reader encounters a smart and brave little girl (June Bug), a man with past secrets that he'd rather not dig up - but he has no choice (Johnson, her "father"), and a Grandmother who has never stopped praying, hoping and believing that her grandchild is out there somewhere - despite what the sheriff and everyone else seems to think.
This story drew me in from page one. As the reader, I knew something wasn't right about June Bug's situation with her father - but was he really her father? What secrets was he holding that he wasn't telling her about? The strange thing was that he seemed to really treat her well, not like a child abductor would. As the story unfolded I was rooting for June Bug to get what she wanted - a happy and stable home, and for the Grandmother to find her lost granddaughter, and for the Sheriff to put all the pieces together. There are many memorable characters that pop up along the was as June Bug and her father travel back to West Virginia to confront the past and set things right - a preacher who gives them a ride and some good advice, a family who gives them a wonderful memory at a swimming pool, and an old friend of Johnson's who provides just what they need to keep going. This was one of the best Christian Fiction books I've ever read. I highly recommend it
Such a good book! Drew me in immediately and helped get me out of my reading funk :)
3.5/5 stars.
Decent story. Drug on too long. It should have wrapped up sooner.
Decent story. Drug on too long. It should have wrapped up sooner.
June Bug is a contemporary novel that kicks off when the titular character sees an age-progressed face of a missing child on a poster in Walmart and recognizes it as her own. For as long as she can remember, 9-year-old June Bug and her daddy have been traveling around the USA in a dilapidated RV. But armed with this new information, June begins to question everything she's been told about herself.
With their RV broken down, June and her daddy are forced to accept help from the kindness of a stranger who suddenly seems to have ideas about becoming more than just friends with the twosome.
This is where I first started having issues with the book. My initial thoughts when it began was this would likely be a 4-star read, however, Miss Sheila's sudden transformation from good Samaritan into pushy woman with fantasies threw me off a little. It also, unfortunately, set the tone for later in the book.
Around 55% through, some of the previously interesting characters turned preachy. I mean, I felt like I was being recruited and about to be handed a cup of Kool-Aid.
I don't have issues with religious characters in books, but when it comes without warning as it did here, it feels like the author is intruding their own beliefs into the story. Don't. Not when it hasn't previously been shown to be part of the character's nature.
I also thought the way narrators were used was odd. Chapters written from June Bug's perspective were in first person, while those of every other character (to the best of my recollection, there were 3 others) were in third person. It just gave the book a very uneven, inconsistent feel, and the chapter transitions felt very jarring to me because of it.
Brief pause for a confusing plot spoiler:
So, there wasn't really any offensive content that I feel would warrant warnings. The heavy preachy tone of the second half of the book might be off-putting to some (it was to me). There were a few grammatical/formatting issues in the Kindle version I read. I didn't note the first one but it was a long word that was erroneously broken in a weird place. Something like "ramshackle shed" only written as "rams hackle shed." Once, the word "coming" was written "com ing," and a Mason jar was referred to as a mason jar. Little things that probably wouldn't annoy a lot of people, but which irked me.
I really liked the character of June Bug, and the overall idea of the plot. Unfortunately, I felt like this was yet another case of the blurb being actually better than the book. The idea was great; the execution was not.
2 out of 5 stars
With their RV broken down, June and her daddy are forced to accept help from the kindness of a stranger who suddenly seems to have ideas about becoming more than just friends with the twosome.
This is where I first started having issues with the book. My initial thoughts when it began was this would likely be a 4-star read, however, Miss Sheila's sudden transformation from good Samaritan into pushy woman with fantasies threw me off a little. It also, unfortunately, set the tone for later in the book.
Around 55% through, some of the previously interesting characters turned preachy. I mean, I felt like I was being recruited and about to be handed a cup of Kool-Aid.
I don't have issues with religious characters in books, but when it comes without warning as it did here, it feels like the author is intruding their own beliefs into the story. Don't. Not when it hasn't previously been shown to be part of the character's nature.
I also thought the way narrators were used was odd. Chapters written from June Bug's perspective were in first person, while those of every other character (to the best of my recollection, there were 3 others) were in third person. It just gave the book a very uneven, inconsistent feel, and the chapter transitions felt very jarring to me because of it.
Brief pause for a confusing plot spoiler:
Spoiler
June Bug's dad deciding to leave her with Sheila while he went home made absolutely no sense based on what he actually did while there. The more I consider this, the more confused I get with what this was supposed to accomplish.So, there wasn't really any offensive content that I feel would warrant warnings. The heavy preachy tone of the second half of the book might be off-putting to some (it was to me). There were a few grammatical/formatting issues in the Kindle version I read. I didn't note the first one but it was a long word that was erroneously broken in a weird place. Something like "ramshackle shed" only written as "rams hackle shed." Once, the word "coming" was written "com ing," and a Mason jar was referred to as a mason jar. Little things that probably wouldn't annoy a lot of people, but which irked me.
I really liked the character of June Bug, and the overall idea of the plot. Unfortunately, I felt like this was yet another case of the blurb being actually better than the book. The idea was great; the execution was not.
2 out of 5 stars
June Bug is a 9 yr old girl that travels the country in an RV with her dad. For the most part she enjoys her lifestyle although she occasionally wishes for sleepovers with friends and other 'normal' girl things. One day she sees a missing child poster in Walmart that looks just like her and she begins to wonder more about her past and why they're always on the move.
About this same time, a car belonging to a woman whose daughter disappeared 7 years ago is pulled from a lake in West Virginia. The missing toddler's grandmother has never given up hope and law enforcement brings someone in for questioning based on a tip.
The two story lines are woven together to create suspense and one is left guessing until nearly the end as to how the two are connected. This book has well developed characters that make errors in judgement and a great plot that doesn't have a cookie cutter ending. The cover says June Bug is a retelling of Les Miserables but I've not read the novel to make a comparison. I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a crime drama (without gory details) with family relationships and an occasional reference to Christianity mixed in.
About this same time, a car belonging to a woman whose daughter disappeared 7 years ago is pulled from a lake in West Virginia. The missing toddler's grandmother has never given up hope and law enforcement brings someone in for questioning based on a tip.
The two story lines are woven together to create suspense and one is left guessing until nearly the end as to how the two are connected. This book has well developed characters that make errors in judgement and a great plot that doesn't have a cookie cutter ending. The cover says June Bug is a retelling of Les Miserables but I've not read the novel to make a comparison. I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a crime drama (without gory details) with family relationships and an occasional reference to Christianity mixed in.
Amazon freebie. It was a fairly good story that kept you guessing about what the end would be like. The religious overtones were hard to escape, and the feel good ending left you wanting for more at the end.