June Wrap-Up – 2021

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Hello Hello! How are you all?

June was another kind of crap month for me reading-wise because I was finishing up writing my thesis in the first half of the month, and then started my internship on the 15^th and have been preparing my thesis presentation until last week. I finally had my presentation on th 2^nd of July and it went very well, so I’m very happy with that!

My internship goes on until the 14^th of August, but I have all that time ahead of me to read in the evenings and on my breaks, so I am very excited and will try my best to tackle my July TBR!

In June, I was able to read a total of 7 books, which is definitely not my best, but not my worst either! Given everything I had going on last month, I think I did fairly well to read that many books if I’m honest. Keep on reading to find out what I read in June!

BOOKS READ

Favourite Book of the Month

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon – 5 stars

This is the first book that I have read this year to make me cry. If you know me, you know that it takes a lot to make me cry while reading and this one gave me all the feels and more – I was sobbing at 4 am in the morning while reading this. The story was just so great, with lots of important messages, strong characters, dancing, love, loss, growing up, and it was such an enjoyable read. I highly recommend it and you can read my review here!

Malamander (#1 The Legends of Eerie on Sea) by Thomas Taylor – 4.5 stars

This was the Middle Grade Marvels book club pick for June and it was so amazing. I had heard about this book so much in the last year or so, and I’m so glad it was picked in the monthly poll because I doubt I would have picked it up anytime soon otherwise. This was such a fun story, very unique, in a nautical setting, lots of lore and myths, it was just the kind of book I fall in love with and the second book in the series is already on the way to me. I can’t recommend Malamander enough, to readers of all ages!

June Books

Carrie by Stephen King – 3.5 stars

I have been participating in the Stephen King readathon hosted by Hannah and Helen since May and I was able to finish Carrie in the first days of June. I had seen one of the adaptations before so knew what to expect, but this was just a bit mind-blowing in intensity. It has a lot of fanatical religious stuff from one of the characters, which really annoyed me. But what I really enjoyed was the way the book was written and set up with articles and book extracts. As a first Stephen King book, it wasn’t amazing, but I did enjoy it.

Broken Homes (#4 Rivers of London) by Ben Aaronovitch – 4.5 stars

I absolutely loved this book and the ending completely shocked me, I never saw it coming – OMG. But I have to say more than just that don’t I? Ahaha! I have really come to cherish my Friday evenings where I catch up on reading the weekly section of the current Rivers of London book and discuss it with my buddies. This series is now one of my favourites, and Broken Homes is up there with Moon Over Soho as my two favourites at the moment, I adored it.

Body Work (#1 Rivers of London graphic novels) by Ben Aaronovitch – 4 stars

I also got to read the first graphic novel in the Rivers of London series and it was very fun, quick, and enjoyable. The art style was really good, I loved seeing how the artist depicted Peter, Nightingale, Molly and other characters, and the actual mystery was very intriguing. I look forward to the next graphic novels in this series!

The Mostly Invisible Boy (#1 Casey Grimes) by A. J. Vanderhorst – 4 stars

This was my second middle-grade book of the month and also my second blog tour book. I enjoyed this a lot and it was very unique. Kind of reminiscent of Percy Jackson, but completely its own thing. I did have a few little issues with the pacing and construction, but otherwise, it was a solid first instalment in a series I’m going to continue as soon as I can. You can read my full thoughts on this book here!

The Big Four (#5 Hercule Poirot) by Agatha Christie – 3 stars

This was the Hercule Poirot book of the month and while I adored the actual mystery and seeing Poirot and Hastings figure it out and catch the culprits, I have to admit that there was a massive amount of racism that did put me off. I am very aware that it is a thing of the period in which the book was written and we can’t change it, but it is jarring to read nowadays. The mystery though was top-whole, and I do recommend it, especially on audio!

June Reading Stats

Number of books: 7 books

Number of pages: 1,964 pages

Star ratings:

3 stars: 1 book

3.5 stars: 1 book

4 stars: 2 books

4.5 stars: 2 books

5 stars: 1 book

Average rating: 4.07 ⭐

Genres: 1 horror, 1 urban fantasy mystery, 1 fantasy mystery graphic novel, 1 YA contemporary romance, 2 MG fantasies and 1 classic mystery.

Physical Book left for Ellie’s TBR Game: 737 (it looks like it is getting out of control again, argh!!)

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this post, see you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx