The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry // Not For Me At All

The Love That Split the World, by Emily Henry
Publication: January 26, 2016, by Razorbill
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 396
Format: Hardcover
Source: Borrowed
Rating: ½

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.
Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.

My Thoughts:

DNF @ 150 pages

I usually do not have a problem with YA that includes characters who time travel. That has been done in Claudia Gray and Erica O'Rourke's work and their work is some of the best I have ever read, in all of Young Adult Fiction. WHAT HAPPENED HERE, MY FELLOW BOOKS AND REVIEWERS? I had a big problem with this book and I just did not want to keep reading after those 150 pages: strict boredom. 

Why do I, as a reader, have to force myself to read a book? For an in-depth review? To recommend/not recommend the book to other readers on Goodreads and on my blog? I do not want to waste my time reading books that are not my kind. The Love That Split the World was one of those. I fell in love with the cover ages before it was released, and I was just really excited to read it. I thought that the Grandmother concept would be different and exciting, but I just felt that Emily Henry has provided readers with a bland story. I do not know if I could pinpoint this one with another book, but I just did not enjoy it as much as I wish I had.

Listen, I liked the fact that our protagonist, Natalie, is Native-American. This provides diversity and it goes so well with what the book is supposed to offer. Supposed to. It was supposed to offer readers a chance and glimpse at what it is like to be at the point of your life where you do not know what is coming next. I am not there yet, so I couldn't relate. Aimee @ The Social Potato's review just summed my feelings perfectly. IT WAS TRYING TOO HARD TO BE NATURAL, INTERESTING. I just did not feel the contemporary, you know? I could not even point whether this is contemporary, fantasy, romance or something in between. I just gave up.

Possibly, if I had been in a different mood, I would have finished this. When my mind began to be distracted by other things (because of how boring this was), I decided that I wanted to move on to my next read. To be completely honest, I do not even remember what this was all about. It is just a girl who is trying to save some guy that an imaginary "Grandmother" told her to save. That's weird, if you ask me.

I have realized that I made a good decision with books (for once, in my life): I DNFed a book that disappointed me. Perhaps it will not disappoint you; there are many positive reviews out there, anyway. Emily Henry writes a little weirdly, if you ask me, but there is a lot of potential for this to be praised with its diversity and interesting heroine. The romance? I do not recall anything special about it. And trust me, I am a romance lover. The Love That Split the World really did split me apart.

What is the last book you DNFed? What was wrong with it? What are some NEW books that feature diversity?