Hi and welcome to another monthly overview!
Another month done and dusted! Sure, it wasn’t all rainbows and puppy dogs, I mean there was that one weekend when 9 out of 12 of my fish keeled over and died (😩) but all in all it was a pretty good month. I saw my parents again in real life, after having seen them only on FaceTime for months, and we had a family barbecue with the in-laws and I had a great time with my nieces.
I had last week off work and I actually managed to switch off and relax and it did me a world of good! I did quite a lot of blogging prep and I read heaps, which makes June my best bookish month of the year so far. Good thing too, since Audible had a sale and I went on a bit of a spree (#sorrynotsorry).
I read the second Dexter novel for my one Spanish book per month challenge and I stepped out of my comfort zone by reading a romcom and a comedy I’d discovered through Zoé’s author takeover posts (check out Zooloo’s Book Diary). After reading Hinton Hollow Death Trip and the whole fish debacle, Rich Amooi and Gina Kirkham were exactly what I needed! If romcoms are your thing, you definitely need to read some Rich Amooi, and Gina’s Mavis Upton is guaranteed to make you snort very unladylike at the very least.
June definitely ended on a high when Lynne (@ Fictionophile.com) informed me that I had won her contest and gifted me a £15 Amazon voucher, thanks again 😍 I haven’t spent it yet, carefully weighing my options, do let me know any suggestions you might have!
In figures June looks like this:
June
Novels: 5280 pages over 17 books
Audiobooks: 76 hours over 9 audiobooks
And here’s what I did last month, and some of what I’ll be posting this month:
What I read:
Countdown, Matt Phillips
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix
We Were the Salt of the Sea, Roxanne Bouchard
The Resident, David Jackson
The Deck of Omens, Christine Lynn Herman
The First Lie, A.J. Park
Hinton Hollow Death Trip, Will Carver
It’s Not PMS, It’s You, Rich Amooi
Querido Dexter (Dearly Devoted Dexter), Jeff Lindsay
A Cat-Shaped Space, Milly Johnson
Alpha Omega, Nicholas Bowling (review to follow)
The Big Chill, Doug Johnstone (review to follow on the tour)
One By One, Ruth Ware (review to follow)
Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (review to follow)
The Witch House, Ann Rawson (review to follow on the tour)
Incendiary, Zoraida Córdova
The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa
What I listened to:
Wicked Game, Matt Johnson
His & Hers, Alice Feeney
The Other Mrs, Mary Kubica
Alone in the Wild (Rockton 5), Kelley Armstrong
Magpie Lane, Lucy Atkins
Handcuffs, Truncheon and a Polyester Thong, Gina Kirkham
Horrorstör, Grady Hendrix
The Legacy, Yrsa Sigurdardottir
The Perfect Wife, JP Delaney
What I read earlier but reviewed in June:
The Last Wife, Karen Hamilton
The Dark Game, Jonathan Janz
The Nightmare Girl, Jonathan Janz
Given in Evidence (anthology)
Afraid of the Light (anthology)
Slasher Girls & Monster Boys (anthology)
Last month I also signed up for the 20 Books of Summer challenge, I shared an extract from The Last One to See Her and The First Lie and I did a FairyLoot Unboxing.
I hope you had a good month and that you are safe and well! Thanks for joining me today and happy reading xxx
Wow what a great bookish month!
Really sorry about your fish Kelly, what happened? xx
Thanks Nicki! There was too much ammonia in the water. We had it tested and were told it was fine and we could add the fish, and two days later all but three were dead 😥
Oh wow what a fantastic reading month! So many excellent titles too… What did you make of Incendiary? I kind of can’t wait to read that one as the blurb sounds brilliant. I’m also sorry to hear about your fish! So sad… xx
Thanks lovely, it was very sad and another one died yesterday so there’s only 2 now 😥 I enjoyed Incendiary. It took a while before I was fully engrossed and there’s a little to much attention to romance at first (for my liking in any case) but it soon picked up. Definitely not my fave YA fantasy ever but worth your time, I reckon.
Oh no! That’s so sad… Did you get the water sorted out in the end?
And yikes! Romance doesn’t sound promising for me either, although it’s good to be warned before I start Incendiary so I can prepare myself. 😉
The water is still not 100% what it should be but we’re getting there.
The important thing to know about Incendiary is that if you don’t like it very much at first, hang in there, it gets really good 😊
Awwww!! I am soo sorry about the fish, Kelly!! 🥺🥺 I remember I used to beg my parents to get me one when I was a kid. They never did. My mum hates fishes. “They’re slimy” she says! But I LOVEEEE THEMMM!! I think I’ll finally get one now!
HEYYY!! Congrats on winning the voucher, though! 😍😍❤️❤️ I am pretty sure you’re gonna spend it on something bookish? 😉🤣
Whoaa! That’s…WHOA! 😱 That’s soooooo manyyyyyy manyyyyy MAAANNNNNYYYYYY books Kelly! You’ve had an awesome bookish month! I AM PROUD OF YOUUU! 😍🤣❤️
Yeah my poor little fish 😔 It was actually the hubby who wanted fish but I love them now, and it’s nice to watch them swim. When they’re not dying that is 🙈
Thanks Rain, I doubt July will be as good as I started it with The Priory of the Orange Tree and that thing is ginormous and took me 5 days 🤣
Ohh?! I have heard about that one! It really is quite huge! BUT hey, taking too much time to read a book isn’t a bad thing. 😉❤️
Oh Kelly sorry to hear about your fish 😓😓 hope you are ok!
But wow thank you so much, that means so much to me that you read books because of my blog. 😮 thank you. It makes me feel like I’m making a small difference xx
Of course I pick up books because of you! You’re an influencer, lady 😂
I’m OK but it was a sad weekend when they all died, and another one died yesterday 😔
I am so sorry about your fish, Kelly! I hope everything is ok. It sounds like you made the most of your week off. I did the same thing last week. What a June in reading you’ve had!
Thanks Jenni 😘 I’m pretty sure I’ll never be able to recreate that bookish month 😂
You just devour audiobooks, lady!!!! xxx
I’m already halfway through my fourth audiobook this month 🙈