June 2018 Wrap Up!

WOW!! I think this June goes down in the history books as my most productive June ever! I managed to finish ELEVEN books this month!! June is usually when I slow down my reading to maybe one a week if I’m lucky. So eleven is a staggering number! Not only did I read a high number of books, but the majority of them were long! I was going to do a weekly wrap up today but since Sunday fell on the first day of a new month I thought I would just wrap up the month. I won’t have reviews linked for some of these as I’m currently behind on my reviews, but they will be posted shortly. There’s a lot to talk about so I’ll just jump right in!

PUDDIN’ by Julie Murphy <—– click for full review – 5 stars
This book was so great! Contemporary usually hit or miss, but it seems that Julie Murphy is a hit. I loved Dumplin’ and this one was very much the same in regards to enjoyment. Her characters and their relationships are so wonderful. They’re well developed and hit the emotional mark every single time. The plot also does take the expected route. You might think you know where the story is going but she always takes it somewhere unexpected. So good!

CARRY ON by Rainbow Rowell <—– click for full review – 4 stars
This one got off to a really slow start for me. It felt like I was starting a book on the last instalment of the series and I was constantly comparing it to Harry Potter. But after the first half I was finally in a groove with it and fell in love with the story. I wasn’t sure of the romance in the beginning but by the end I wouldn’t have had it any other way! It was announced that there’s a sequel coming and I’ll pick it up based on the romance alone! I really enjoyed this one!!

A HOUSE AT THE BOTTOM OF A LAKE by Josh Malarian <—– click for full review – 3.75 stars
This is an example of good things come in small packages. It’s just over 100 pages long but I really enjoyed it! It’s dark and creepy, painting the picture of the impossible and a world filled with obsession. I still had some difficulty with the suspense of it all. Being kept in the dark isn’t my thing. I prefer all the scary and gory details. So in that way it missed the mark for my reading tastes. But still, it was a creepy and enjoyable read!

MY PLAIN JANE by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows <—– click for full review – 5 stars!
GAH! I loved this book SO much! This trio has officially made their way on my auto buy authors list. Just like My Lady Jane, this book was hilarious, fast paces, weird, paranormal – did I mention hilarious? Each and every one of the characters shines for a different reason. And the narrator makes this book something truly special! This is technically a part of a series but they’re both standalone. They follow different characters in different time periods, so you don’t have to read one before the other 🙂

SAGA VOLUMES 7 AND 8 by Fiona Staples and Brian K Vaughn
Volume 7 was a reread and it was wonderful! I had totally forgotten how emotional it was! But Volume 8 was a bit of a let down. After such a touching and emotional volume 7, this one fell a little flat. I felt like volume 8 was a bit of a bridge to close a gap between what happened in 7 and what’s to come. Sadly, volume 8 was probably my least favourite in the series. But it was still good – it’s Saga lol! I won’t be posting a review for volume 8 but you can find my review of volume 7 HERE

SAVE THE DATE by Morgan Matson – 4 stars
This book was adorable! It wasn’t what I expected though. I expected it to be all about the chaos of a wedding (and it was) but there was also a theme of family. No family is perfect and this one wasn’t either. But it was really great to see this family work through their problems and come together. It isn’t summer unless I’ve read a Morgan Matson! Review coming this week.

THE LONELIEST GIRL IN THE UNIVERSE by Lauren James – 4 stars
Excuse my language – but this book was a total mind fuck. There’s no other way to say it! I went into this expecting a girl, alone in space, who finally gets to speak to another person, and they fall in love. Not what happened and I’m SO glad for it! This book was a total surprise that took me for a loop. It took me a little bit to connect to the main character, but once I did I fell hard and felt like I was a part of her life. This book was amazing! Review to come next week 🙂

SIX STORIES by Matt Wesolowski – 2.5 stars
…….. I’ve got so many mixed feelings about this one. I enjoyed the writing and the format. The writing was smooth and the format of it being told like the episodes of a podcast was VERY well done. As I was reading I could hear this playing out in my head as I LOVE listening to podcasts about mysteries! But, it wasn’t nearly as exciting and suspenseful as I was hoping for. It was very slow and didn’t give me as much answers and insight as I was expecting. It also didn’t help that I had it figured out 1/3 of the way through. When you figure out the “who done it”, it takes away from the excitement. Review to come soon.

A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING by Jessica Cluess – 3.5 stars
Yet another one that I’m struggling to come to terms with (You’ll notice that this is a huge trend at the end of this month). It was interesting and I LOVED the main character! She reminded me a lot of myself actually. Tame and quite but when push comes to shove she was fearless and brutal. That’s basically me in a nutshell. But, I found the pace a little too slow for my liking. I felt my mind wandering through the book. But it was well written and I really enjoyed the plot as a whole. Review to come soon.

UPROOTED by Naomi Novik – 3 stars
I was so disappointed with this one. This is probably one of my favourite covers of all time, and it’s gotten so many great reviews from people who’s reading tastes are similar to mine. But I was bored to tears. The writing was beautiful and full of detail but I felt like it was a little overwhelming as a whole. I’m normally the type of person who craves detail and info dumping, but with this one I was nodding off waiting for it to get to the point. When it finally did, things went so fast that I had to slow down my reading to a snails pace to catch it all. For that reason the pacing issues made it impossible for me to enjoy this one. No one is more sad about this than me! Review to come soon,

That was June! An incredibly productive reading month that started off fantastic and seemed to go downhill with my enjoyment. I still enjoyed all of these though and I’m thankful that I finally got to a few of these books as they’ve been on my shelves since forever! What was your favourite read in June?

Until next time, happy reading!