June First by Jennifer Hartmann

Are you ready for a heartbreaking forbidden love story that will leave you breathless? A slow-burn, taboo romance about the kind of love that defies rules—and changes everything.

From Jennifer Hartmann, author of Still Beating, comes June First—an emotional contemporary romance novel that explores the razor-thin line between protection and passion, loyalty and longing. If you're drawn to forbidden love stories that are as soul-shattering as they are beautiful, this is the book that will stay with you forever.

Brant's world was shaped by tragedy. And in that broken world, he found his purpose in June—the one girl he was never meant to love. He's been by her side through every milestone, every joy, every sorrow. But as the years pass, innocent devotion turns into something deeper, something dangerous... something they can't ignore.

If you're searching for a romance that will break you, heal you, and remind you why we risk it all for love—look no further.

“Passion is meaning. Passion is purpose. And tragedy is simply the risk we take in order to experience it.”

June First is a slow-burn, contemporary, taboo romance (M/F).

Where do I even begin? This story hooked me from the very beginning as we followed Brant, June, and Theo’s lives. I don’t want to give too much away because this is a book that deserves to be experienced firsthand, but I will say to have tissues nearby. You’ll probably need them.

This book tore my heart into pieces and somehow managed to put them back together again. There were so many moments that resonated deeply with me and tugged at my heartstrings in ways I wasn’t expecting. Jennifer Hartmann has a way of making her characters feel incredibly real, and I found myself completely invested in them. All I wanted to do was shield them from everything life kept throwing at them, especially Brant. His journey was one that stayed with me long after I put the book down.

There were several times I had to set the book aside for a day or two simply because of how emotionally heavy it became. Not because I wasn’t enjoying it, but because I needed a moment to process everything that had happened. It seemed like as soon as the characters caught a break something else would happen. The emotional weight never felt forced, though. Jennifer Hartmann allows the tension to build naturally, giving readers just enough time to catch their breath before pulling them back into the story. Every emotional moment felt earned, making both the heartbreaking scenes and the hopeful ones even more impactful.

The romance, the heartbreak, the healing, and the relationships between the characters all blended together into a story that I’ll be thinking about for a long time. I even found myself loving June, which is rare for me since I don’t often connect with female main characters as strongly as I did with her.

I can safely say that I’m officially a Jennifer Hartmann fan, and I’ll definitely be reading the rest of her books.

About Jennifer Hartmann

Jennifer Hartmann resides in northern Illinois with her own personal romance hero and three children. When she is not writing angsty love stories, she is likely pondering all the ways she can break your heart and piece it back together again. She enjoys sunsets (because mornings are hard), bike riding, traveling, bingeing Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns, and that time of day when coffee gets replaced by wine. She loves tacos. She also really, really wants to pet your dog.

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