Hello!

Another month has come and gone and we are officially half way through the year!

I’ve got a whole post planned to look at my end of Q2 and mid-year stats, but I got overwhelmed last weekend and didn’t get time/motivation to write up my July TBR, so I thought I’d tie it in with my June wrap up!

I think I’m in a bit of a reading slump – I call it an ‘active’ slump because I read every single day without fail, but it’s been taking me way longer than my usual to finish books and I’m not sure if it’s cos I’m slumping or if I’m just not reading books I love that much.

So I only read 3 books in June, which is below average for me, but one of them was about three times as long as I usually read so it does feel like more, but here’s what I did finish!

A Curse Carved In Bone – Danielle L Jensen (4.5 ⭐️)

The final book in the Saga of the Unfated duology which was on my May TBR – I did start in in May, it just took me two weeks into June to finish it…

I really liked this series! I haven’t read any Norse mythology before but I really enjoyed learning about the Gods and some of the associated culture, the romance was sweet, the plot was a little predictable and then would hit me with something quite unexpected – it wasn’t groundbreaking but it was fun and I had a nice time.

(I’m trying to keep the reviews a bit shorter so I don’t ramble on for thousands of words, we’ll see how that goes!)

Maximum Ride: Saving The World and Other Extreme Sports – James Patterson (5 ⭐️)

This series was such a core part of my early teenage years and re-reading it has genuinely been one of the best bits about this year so far (though that sounds a bit sad when I write it out lol).

I needed a quick win considering A Curse Carved in Bone took me so long to finish and the audiobook I was reading took over a month as well, and this was the perfect choice – whether it’s the writing style, the short chapters or the formatting I don’t know but I can read these books so quickly and I’m having the most wonderful time.

I do feel the need to acknowledge that this rating is 100% a nostalgia rating – if I was reading this series for the first time now I would think it was super cringy and childish, but I’m not and I love it so I’m giving it 5 stars.

Shogun – James Clavell (3 ⭐️)

I feel like I need a fanfare for this one – I finally finished Shogun! All 1,125 pages, all 53 hours and 34 minutes of the audiobook, over 44 days so many car trips, I finished it.

Giving it a 3 star rating was a little disappointing considering I spent 2 literal days of my life reading this book, but it was insightful – this was a wedding gift from my mum as a book that gave her a new perspective on life when she was about my age and it was interesting to consider her perspective.

She told me that this was the first she ever really learned about Japan because she didn’t have resources like the Internet or media that celebrated other cultures, but having grown up in a generation that has much broader access to that kind of information it was fascinating to see where our opinions differed.

I do think I’ll come back to the rest of the series at some point, just not right now. I need a break from Shogun for a little while!

And then we get to the July TBR!

Tears of the Giraffe – Alexander McCall-Smith

From the wedding library this month (tl;dr – when my husband and I got married we asked our guests to gift us a copy of their favourite book and in an endeavour to read them all I choose one a month, I’m currently using a spinner because I hate making decisions) – this is the second book in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series which I started reading in February and I really enjoyed it so I’m excited to read the next installment!

Plus the audiobook is relatively short so I might even binge it whilst doing some crafts? It’s an idea, we’ll see how well it goes!

Rose In Chains – Julie Soto

A new release that I bought almost exclusively because the Waterstones sprayed edges were gorgeous and I’ve heard good things about this author’s romance books and I’ve decided I like their writing style, despite not having read any of their books.

It’s Julie Soto’s fantasy debut, it has arrived because it came out really early in the month (and I’ve already seen people selling it on Vinted which made me irrationally angry) and I can confirm it is absolutely gorgeous, I actively didn’t read the summary before I started reading it and there’s a really clear page detailing trigger warnings before the story starts and I love when it’s not the responsibility of the reader to have to go searching for this information.

All round, a fantastic first impression and I’m excited to keep reading!

Killers of a Certain Age – Deanna Raybourn

This book is described as Charlie’s Angels meets The Thursday Murder Club and I’m so in.

I got this recommendation from YouTube in at least 2023, if not before, and I found it pretty cheap in The Works, and it took pulling the title out of my TBR jar for my 25 in 2025 list and then pulling it again for my monthly TBR for me to actually make the effort to read it.

I think spies having a retirement trip and ending up having to fight for their lives sounds like so much fun and if it has a similar writing style to Richard Osman I think I’m going to have a lot of fun!

Shatter Me – Tahereh Mafi

I feel like I’m a million years late to this series, especially knowing that it came out when I was the peak age to enjoy a series like this, but I bought the box set in the Works exclusively because I’d seen it on TikTok and now I’m actually going to commit to reading it.

Just the first book, I feel the need to clarify! If I enjoy it, I will read the whole series but for the sake of my TBR and my 25 in 2025 (which is why I’m reading it, lol) I only need to finish this first book. If you see me buying all the novellas and finishing the series, mind your business.

The Shadow Cabinet – Juno Dawson

This is the sequel to Her Majesty’s Royal Coven that I read in February of this year and this is one of the only books I have carried over from a previous TBR. Exclusively because of…

Human Rites – Juno Dawson

The third book in the trilogy coming out this month! I am really making an effort to read my pre-ordered new releases as soon as they come out and I can’t do that if I’ve only read the first book in the series.

I loved Her Majesty’s Royal Coven so I think it’ll be really fun to binge read the last two books to finish the series and actually finish a series! I also have the prequel novella Queen B so if I want to stick around in this universe I absolutely could.

Not Quite Dead Yet – Holly Jackson

Adult debut Holly Jackson? Absolutely. Sign me up. I am sat.

This comes out on the same day as Human Rites so my plan is to binge Human Rites, cos I’ve preordered the Kindle edition so I will have access to it from midnight, but I’ve preordered this book physically so I have to wait for it to arrive, so then when I finish Human Rites it will hopefully have arrived and I can read both of them.

Watch me not get through that much of my TBR but I am going to try my best!

So that’s all SEVEN books on my TBR for July, having only read seven books total in the last two months (lol).

But I have hope! I always have an unfounded confidence in my ability to read my monthly TBRs but this month I don’t have any books that I would describe as ‘a brick’ so I do have more faith that I can actually do it. I really want to binge read some books and stop feeling like I’m playing catch up all the time, so wish me luck!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx