When I first saw the gorgeous cover of When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry, I fell in love. In love with the swirling blue hues, gorgeous green font, in love with friends banding together, and in love with the sparkling spaceship in the center, ready to haul people up into it’s beam.
I love mysteries, cryptzoology, and aliens so this book was a perfect read. Huge thank you to the amazing Friya and my friends at Penguin Random House for letting me read this book a little early.
First, a little about When the Sky Fell on Splendor.
The Serpent King meets Stranger Things in Emily Henry’s gripping novel about a group of friends in a small town who find themselves dealing with unexpected powers after a cosmic event.
Almost everyone in the small town of Splendor, Ohio, was affected when the local steel mill exploded. If you weren’t a casualty of the accident yourself, chances are a loved one was. That’s the case for seventeen-year-old Franny, who, five years after the explosion, still has to stand by and do nothing as her brother lies in a coma.
In the wake of the tragedy, Franny found solace in a group of friends whose experiences mirrored her own. The group calls themselves The Ordinary, and they spend their free time investigating local ghost stories and legends, filming their exploits for their small following of YouTube fans. It’s silly, it’s fun, and it keeps them from dwelling on the sadness that surrounds them.
Until one evening, when the strange and dangerous thing they film isn’t fiction–it’s a bright light, something massive hurtling toward them from the sky. And when it crashes and the teens go to investigate…everything changes.
What I loved ?
- This reminded me of an X-Files meets Stranger Things episode and I’m SO okay with that.
- I loved the witty banter between characters. It had me giggling out loud and it felt realistic, the kind of crap you’d give your friends in real life. It also reminded me of the witty banter that I loved about the Gilmore Girls.
- Friendship – Friendship (and a dog!!) is at the center of this story and I loved it so much. It reminded me of Stranger Things (Friends Don’t Lie) and reminded me of the sanctity and necessity of friends to get you through this crazy life.
- Story – I LOVED that I couldn’t predict this story. In fact, that might have been one of my most favorite things about this book. And I DID NOT SEE THE END COMING.
AUTHOR BIO
Emily Henry is the author of The Love That Split the World and A Million Junes. She is a full-time writer, proofreader, and donut connoisseur. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. She tweets @EmilyHenryWrite.
VISIT THE TOUR STOPS
There are some fantastic bloggers participating and doing some cool things for this tour. Check them out.
Week One
March 4 – Butter my Books – Moodboard
March 5 – Adventures of a Book Junkie – Top 5 Things
March 6 – Margie’s Must Reads – Playlist
March 7 – Flying Paperbacks – Review
Week One
March 11 – BookCrushin – Pop Culture Alien Invasions
March 12 – Elysian Artiste – Review + Moodboard
March 13 – The Midnight Society – Author Guest Post
March 14 – Morganreadsalot – Creative Instagram Picture
TLDR
There are secrets and mystery and confusion and friendship and a cute dog and witty banter and basically your life is cursed if you don’t read this amazing book.
Read this book. The truth is out there. 😉
Jolene
Jolene + Mulder forever