Books #43

[Kerrie86]

My June wrap up

We Fell Apart - E Lockhart 4/5 I liked this story, was an easy read and found it engaging
What Could Go Wrong - Jessica Fowler 1/5 this was a first reads pick which had decent reviews, all of which said how funny it was. Can only assume they were all written by her mates. So dull.
In Our Likeness - Bryan VanDyke 2/5. In hindsight I’d give this 2.5, I enjoyed the concept but it tailed off towards the end.
Into The Blue - Emma Brodie 5/5. Would go higher if I could. I lapped this up and loved it. Cried. Thought it was beautiful.
In The Likely Event - Rebecca Yarros 2/5 this was a book I bought with a £2 discount from a random kindle email. It was quite cliched and felt forced. She’s an author I hear a decent amount about but I wouldn’t be keen to read another.
We Can Be Heroes - Paul Burston 2.5/5 - it was semi interesting so a decent read but a bit righteous. It takes a really good memoir for me to enjoy it.

6 books read, two of which were old ones from my kindle. 19 unread ones on my kindle now, plus one I’m 13% through and have been for months.

I’m hoping for a whopper of a July kindle deals!

 

[Katykatykaty]

A pretty good June for me. Weirdly the two that I thought would be 5 stars (Dark Matter and Pretty Girls) were my biggest disappointments. I’m also about 20% through The Island by M. A. Bennett but won’t finish that by tomorrow.

 

[daisynoon]

i feel like i’ve talked about it here so much but kavalier & clay will always be one of my favourite books of all time. i adore it and am so glad you liked it too 🥲

It was absolutely not on my radar until the Pulitzer conversation on here! I had no idea what it was about going in, just went in on blind faith, and it paid off. I loved both the use of Prague as a setting and the use of comics in WW2. Really glad I read it (also Josef's fascination with Houdini/escape artists was delightful)

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

June Reads:

5 for Termush & The CIA Book Club
4 for Silverview
3 for All His Spies and Diary of a Murderer
1 for The Lacemaker's Fortune

Haven't decided on my next read yet

(Also, don't you hate it when there's no cover on Goodreads????)

 

[AllieBee]

My June reads

A really mixed month, with more lows than highs.

5 stars:

The Hearts invisible Furies - John Boyne. Reread because picked it up from library thinking i hadnt read it. No matter, it was as beautiful 2nd time around.

In Memoriam - Alice Winn. Absolutely beautiful, the best book I have read this year. I thought she writes really cleverly, turning the blood, gore and senseless waste of life of war into a beautiful love story.

A Family Matter - Claire Lynch. A short book, but really good. Historically based on just how badly young gay mums were treated by the courts when trying to get custody of their children and the lasting damage to them. Hard to imagine that happening at all let alone as recently as 40 years ago.

4 stars:

Barbecue at no. 9 - Jennie Godfrey. I didnt like this as much as The List of Suspicious Things but still a good read.

Watching You - Lisa Jewell. Love Lisa Jewell though I dont think her back catalogue is as good as her more recent books.

All the rest - a bit meh.

Worst book:

Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin. I love a good police procedural but this was awful.

 

[QueenBW]

My June wrap up

We Fell Apart - E Lockhart 4/5 I liked this story, was an easy read and found it engaging
What Could Go Wrong - Jessica Fowler 1/5 this was a first reads pick which had decent reviews, all of which said how funny it was. Can only assume they were all written by her mates. So dull.
In Our Likeness - Bryan VanDyke 2/5. In hindsight I’d give this 2.5, I enjoyed the concept but it tailed off towards the end.
Into The Blue - Emma Brodie 5/5. Would go higher if I could. I lapped this up and loved it. Cried. Thought it was beautiful.
In The Likely Event - Rebecca Yarros 2/5 this was a book I bought with a £2 discount from a random kindle email. It was quite cliched and felt forced. She’s an author I hear a decent amount about but I wouldn’t be keen to read another.
We Can Be Heroes - Paul Burston 2.5/5 - it was semi interesting so a decent read but a bit righteous. It takes a really good memoir for me to enjoy it.

6 books read, two of which were old ones from my kindle. 19 unread ones on my kindle now, plus one I’m 13% through and have been for months.

I’m hoping for a whopper of a July kindle deals!

Would you say We Fell Apart is summer-y? Like We Were Liars and Family of Liars are?

 

[Kerrie86]

Would you say We Fell Apart is summer-y? Like We Were Liars and Family of Liars are?

Yeah it is (as in summery setting and lots of hazy beach days type thing) It’s the third in that series, though you can definitely read it without having read the first two.
If you mean summery light read, then I’d say it’s got a few dark moments like her other books, but I found it was more than engaging enough for me to want to read more!

I’ve bought book lovers by Emily Henry and the someday garden by Ashley Poston this morning. Tempted by the night we met by Abby jiminez too - all authors I’ve read and liked. There’s a Lauren Asher book on the 99p deals as well so may consider that.

 

[Carapop]

My reading fell off an absolute cliff this month, the combination of long busy work days and utterly oppressive weather meant that by evening I just wanted to jump into the warm embrace of Instagram and brainrot. I don’t feel like I deserve to go peruse the new kindle deals

 

[veronica71]

My reading fell off an absolute cliff this month, the combination of long busy work days and utterly oppressive weather meant that by evening I just wanted to jump into the warm embrace of Instagram and brainrot. I don’t feel like I deserve to go peruse the new kindle deals

sounds more like you need to look at them to get you back into reading

 

[AllieBee]

My reading fell off an absolute cliff this month, the combination of long busy work days and utterly oppressive weather meant that by evening I just wanted to jump into the warm embrace of Instagram and brainrot. I don’t feel like I deserve to go peruse the new kindle deals

Its so so hard to concentrate in heatwaves isnt it!

 

[Honeystar]

Six for me in June which seems to be my standard, Goodreads keeps telling me I need to read 7 each month to hit my goal by the end of the year but I never quite manage it

Absolute stand out is The Killer Question, easy 5 stars and the best Janice Hallett I’ve read so far, brilliant!

Two Kinds of Strangers was also great so think it’s time I started the Eddie Flynn series from the start

The Paradise Problem/The God of the Woods/Very Bad Company were all enjoyable if not mind blowing, all a good summer themed read for anyone on the hunt for one

The Wasp Trap my mum gave me when I stayed at hers for the night and forgot a book (I know!!) so wasn’t expecting much but actually I was hooked and it was one of the more enjoyable thrillers I’ve read recently

All in all a pretty good month!

 

[daisynoon]

Mid-year review, anyone? This was the one from last year:

How many books have you read (if you set yourself a target are you on track?):

Pages Read/Hours listened (if you track):

Favourite read so far:

Least favourite read so far:

Book that surprised you (can be good or bad):

Book you're looking forward to read between July-December:

Anything else? Have you had a lot of 5 star books? Or have you mostly read duds?:

 

[Carapop]

My reading fell off an absolute cliff this month, the combination of long busy work days and utterly oppressive weather meant that by evening I just wanted to jump into the warm embrace of Instagram and brainrot. I don’t feel like I deserve to go peruse the new kindle deals

On an ENTIRELY UNRELATED matter, hypothetical actually, is Book Lovers worth reading (for 99cent)??

 

[Carapop]

A great round up of July deals here!

 

[TheStrawberryThief]

Mid-year review

How many books have you read (if you set yourself a target are you on track?): I have read 25 kindle books and 19 audio books. Tbh 7 of those were Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Pages Read/Hours listened (if you track): no idea.

Favourite read so far: Probably DCC. There has been a lot of horrible things in the world this year, and i felt like i just needed a story that I could dissappear into. It is getting me through everything going on. I am almost done with 7 and then I will be on to 8, which is the most recent. Time to find a new series.

Last year i spend a lot of time listening to a silly sports series called Player Manager, about someone who manages a football team. I don't even like football. I just wanted a popcorn story.

Least favourite read so far: The Black Jewels Trilogy. I only finished as I bought it as 3 books in 1 and felt I had to justify the cost. I kept hearing how it inspired a lot of authors so I thought i would try it. It was the most edge lord rubbish I have read for ages.

The world building/magic system was overly complicated and poorly explained. The author makes a weird choice to have no pov scenes for the main female character who the story is about. I think it is supposed to be because the main character is basically destined to be an all powerful witch queen goddess, a literal dream made flesh who would be mysterious and above out understanding.... however in practice it means that all the male characters stand around talking about what she is about to do or what she has done. There are major events that happen to her that are entirely off screen and just described after the fact bu others.

Book that surprised you (can be good or bad): probably DCC. There is a lot of silly humour and gross out moments, but then the story flips and something really sad happens. I didn't expect that it would have moments like that, or that I would find them so upsetting.


Anything else? Have you had a lot of 5 star books? Or have you mostly read duds?: I have been a little disappointed with a lot of the books I picked this year. Outside of continuing series, nothing has really stood out to me.

 

[Kerrie86]

A great round up of July deals here!

This is a much better list than the ones I’d found!

Was briefly tempted by the Carly fortune one til I realised its book two in a series.
I’ve read the skeleton key and thought it was great

I think I’m going to start with the two I’ve bought and might pick more through the month depending on how I find the dross still on my kindle (though am tempted by One Day….)

 

[Pinkii]

How many books have you read (if you set yourself a target are you on track?):
18 so far- work has been so busy and weather didnt help last week! Goal is 50, need to read 6 books to get back on track according to goodreads

Pages Read/Hours listened (if you track): Not sure

Favourite read so far: The bright years or Starside

Least favourite read so far: heart the lover

Book that surprised you (can be good or bad): probably heart the lover- went in with high expectations based on all the glowing reviews. The writing was done well, just didnt like the story

Book you're looking forward to read between July-December: The covenant of Water


Anything else? Have you had a lot of 5 star books? Or have you mostly read duds: it’s been quite 50/50, i’ve either really liked what I have read or hated it.

 

[Pinkii]

Hello Beautiful is in the kindle monthly deals and I highly recommend it. Beautiful book.

 

[NomDeGuerre]

Hello Beautiful is in the kindle monthly deals and I highly recommend it. Beautiful book.

That was one of my few DNFs of this year to date - I couldn't stand any of the characters and the writing felt very flat.

Was very disappointed as I'd had my eye on it for a year or two!

 

[Honeystar]

How many books have you read (if you set yourself a target are you on track?):

33 (oh track-ish for my goal of 75 as long as I don't pick up anything too long)

Pages Read/Hours listened (if you track):

No idea

Favourite read so far:

A close tie between The Names and The Killer Question

Least favourite read so far:

Beautiful weird by Alice Feeney (least favourite read ever, let alone this year lol)

Book that surprised you (can be good or bad):

The Correspondent - didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did and probably would never have picked it up if I hadn't seen some hype online

Book you're looking forward to read between July-December:

The Hallmarked Man

Anything else? Have you had a lot of 5 star books? Or have you mostly read duds?:

There's been more good than bad but am trying to focus on reading books I actually want to read in the moment rather than just what I see lying around on the shelf