Monthly Wrap Up- June

Hello bookworms!!!

Readers, I have been reading quite a bit and I might have to say a bit about the books too! Real life has been okay, not great but not terrible. A ringing endorsement if I ever had one. But! You are not here for that.

I tried writing reviews and I even posted them, I am not sure how successfully I actually review a book considering I like I am being either super pretentious or stupid whenever I post a review. Oh, well, that feeling might never go away and I am okay with it. I think.

Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin

As You Were by Elaine Feeney

The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty

The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty

Then I brought back the mini reviews because I couldn’t wait to review these books and I simply didn’t have enough time or brainpower to actually write the long reviews, also it was nice that they were all pride reads.

Mini Reviews – Pride Edition

Then there were the usual suspects, of course. My weekly book memes/tags, I never know what to call them!

WWW Wednesday

Down the TBR Hole

Pretty Covers

Then there were a few e-ARCs I wanted to talk about. Which I did in ARC of the Moment! June also meant that half the year had passed me by so of course, I freaked out. No, this is an actual thing, I did freak out, considering out of those six months, I had spent three at home, in lockdown. Yeah. In any case, my Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag is right here and there were some great reads along the way to soothe my actual real life freakout.

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Now, onto the actual books I read this month. I think I read quite a bit and they were mostly a great bunch! My reading was also all over the place, I think, genre wise. I read fantasy, contemporary, literary, historical, science fiction, LGBTQIA, etc. It was a fun month, now that I think about it.

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As You Were by Elaine Feeney

For a debut, it was really good, I just wish it didn’t try to handle so many topics at once. there are various themes through her patients that are shown to us and I wish this book was longer so those topics could have a room to flourish. The end result of this is too many topics and themes being introduced and none of them given enough time on the page.

The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty

I really loved the pacing and the reveals of the book and thank gods I had the next book ready because once you have finished with this one, you are gonna want that next book on hand. While not quite the five star read I was expecting, this is nonetheless a perfect second book, in that, it didn’t suffer the middle book syndrome.

The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty

It is not smooth sailing and it is, at times, a bit slow and meandering (don’t worry tho! I like my books like that! Especially fantasy ones) but overall, I really loved this trilogy with all my heart. Flaws and all. Flaws are just that touch of imperfection this series needed, I think. It’s just great and I am already thinking of ways to read it again. How much time should pass before a re-read, do you think?

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune

It’s just such a lovely book, so lovely in fact that it was only when good things were happening that I cried. Not before where uncertainties lay but right when the good things happened. I think I would like more of that in life, the whole crying while good things are happening.

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

For all that it is a book about two men in love in a time when it was still very much a struggle to even hint at being anything less than straight, it is also a story of two people who fell for each other, who are deeply flawed and who react in different ways to circumstances surrounding them.

Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye

I loved it a lot despite a few things that ticked me off once I got over the whole ‘cute, omg what a soft, soft thing this is’ phase. It has fake dating, it has soft boys and it has some real problems that cannot be ignored even in a book like this.

Tennis Lessons by Susannah Dickey

Overall, I really enjoyed the way the story unfolded, the feeling of not being good enough or being like ‘normal’ is something we are all familiar with in our way. So this will be an interesting read for that reason alone.

Spellhacker by M. K. England

I will sound very biased when I say this but frankly, it didn’t live up to the hype. I really enjoyed Disasters and I wish it at least stood on that same level but unfortunately, it didn’t. That’s not to say it’s a bad book, it just didn’t give me as much joy.

Sin Eater by Megan Campisi

The premise is so interesting with this one and the author delivered on that premise. The main character was a bit hard to get into but overall, I really enjoyed the book. It’s something I might not have picked up usually.

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Oh, this was delightful! It had woods, dryads, long lived men and just charm to it all that made me fall in love with all the characters. Even the young woodsmen who got scared of a big guy and immediately thought of only option left to them, to shoot at him.

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And that is it for June. I read a lot and I also enjoyed almost all of my reads and I am so glad for it. I am not sure how many of you are in the same boat as me and I hope everything turns out better and soon. Stay safe and take care of each other.

What about you guys? What was your best read or the worst one? Or, let’s not call it the worst, let’s call it most disappointing read. Tell me all about it in the comments.