Hello!

I say this every single month but June? Really?? The sixth month of the year? The month where people start doing mid-year content and I get a little bit frustrated cos the middle of the year isn’t till the end of June, but every year I resist making comments about it (except this one).

My May TBR went about as well as I expected considering the book I chose from the wedding library was over 1000 pages long and I actually started working more in one of my part-time jobs but I did really enjoy the books I did read, but I’ll save that for the wrap up!

My TBR consists of 5 categories – a book from the wedding library, any new releases I’ve pre-ordered, two books from my 25 in 2025 list, a book to continue a series and sometimes I do a buddy read with my sibling. This month I only have five books on my TBR, but I’m very happy to keep it that way!

Let’s jump right in!

The Wedding Library Book

The Glass Lake – Maeve Binchy

Everything about this cover screams romance to me, but then the other book that my Aunt gave us as a wedding gift was ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ so I didn’t think it would be, but it does appear to be somewhat of a cosy mystery! It’s a chunky one – it’s around 700 pages but despite being originally published in 1994, an audiobook was produced in 2019 so I’m glad I’ll get to listen to this one because I find mystery’s to be really suspenseful when listened to.

I was dubious going in to ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and I ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would, so I’m more optimistic about the content of this one, but the length still concerns me a little as the audiobook is 24 hours long…

(I have somewhat of a plan, I’ll explain at the end)

New Release Pre-Order

I actually don’t have anything pre-ordered for June, but I do have three books ordered for July and one of those is the third book in a series where I haven’t read book 2, so that’s what I’ll be doing for this category this month!

Next Month New Release Pre-Order Prep Reading (not as catchy though)

The Shadow Cabinet – Juno Dawson

I read ‘Her Majesty’s Royal Coven’ in February and I rated it 5 stars, I absolutely adored it so in looking into the rest of the series, I then found out that the third book in the trilogy comes out this year so I’m eager to catch up on the series!

The audiobook is included in the library on Bookbeat and is narrated by Nicola Coughlan, Bridgerton’s Lady Whistledown herself! She was such a fantastic narrator in the first book and I’m so excited to dive back into the story told in her voice, especially considering the cliff-hanger from book 1!

25 in 2025

After The Forest – Kell Woods

This is the first of two books I picked out of my mini tbr jar for this month and I’m moderately excited about it, but considering this was an Illumicrate book and I’ve seen precisely zero people talk about it, I wonder if it will follow the trend of all the other Illumicrate books I’ve read and be a 2-3 star rating.

I don’t know why I remember, but this was from my second ever Illumicrate box and the other items were incredible – I think there were book ends and a journal, I can’t remember all of them (it was October 2023), but I didn’t get round to reading it that month and it just hasn’t been a priority since.

I do keep getting the title wrong exclusively because of the author’s surname – I keep calling it ‘After The Woods’, so hopefully reading it will cement the title properly in my brain!

Such A Fun Age – Kiley Reid

I couldn’t tell you why I know about this book – I feel like it was big on bookstagram in 2021 when I’d properly gotten back into reading and was getting more involved in the bookish community. This is when I was peak susceptible to buying a book because people were saying it was good and, to past-me’s credit, this is my favourite kind of literary fiction that addresses cultural and political issues that give me an insight to a life I’ve never lived and I’m fortunate enough to have the privilege to never experience.

I love feeling challenged by what I read, but often that comes with flowery writing that I don’t have the capability (or the will) to decipher and comprehend, so the genre can have really mixed results for me, but I’m really excited about this one!

Continue a Series

Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports – James Patterson

This book has been on my monthly tbr for a few months now, but I reread the first book from one of my favourite childhood series in January and had an absolutely fantastic time, so I’m rereading the series (at least the ones I own – I have six, the series is now on eleven and still going I think!).

I don’t know if it’s the formatting or the writing style but I can read these books so much faster than the average speed I read other books which makes me even more excited to read them. Maybe if I get to this part of my TBR I should try and binge it in a day!

Even though it’s only 5 books, I’m slightly dubious about finishing it for the following reasons – my wedding library book for May was ‘Shogun’ by James Clevell, which is over 1000 pages and the audiobook is 54 hours long so whilst I’ve managed to read about half this month (which is the equivalent of, like, a book and a half) and I know finishing that is probably going to take at least another couple of weeks. But I’m also reading ‘A Curse Carved in Bone’ by Danielle L Jensen because I started it on the last day of May mostly because I wanted to have at least started every book on my May TBR (wrap up coming up next).

So having a slightly shorter tbr in June is probably going to work in my favour!

I’m feeling a little bit behind, but I am enjoying the books I’m reading which reminds me what the point is!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx