Monthly Recap : June

As we near the end of the month and I try to finish any last pages of books to fit into my June reads, here is a round up of the books I completed in June. This months recap contains 3 re-reads but if I am being honest, sometimes it feels like I'm reading them for the very first time.

Here are the 6 books I read in June:

Every Last Word - Tamara Ireland Stone ~ 5 stars

My month began well with this contemporary YA novel that had been sitting in my wishlist for a very long time. Main character Samantha deals with OCD and this gripping, emotional novel shows her day to day battle with dark thoughts and worries as they consume her mind. The book shines an important light on mental health and specifically on OCD, but does not frame it in a negative light and instead shows a sense of promise and hope by the ending. Alongside this, it conveys a message of how crucial it is to be supported by the right people to ensure that you are always authentically yourself. By the end of this book, I myself was thinking over the way that I live my life and the people that I surround myself with. It really helps to put a lot of things into perspective. As a whole, it was an excellent read to start off the month strong and left a long-lasting message with me.

And the stars were burning brightly - Danielle Jawando ~ 5 stars

Moving on, I went back to my bookcase in search of a new book to read and found Danielle Jawando's beautiful contemporary YA novel which I had yet to properly read. This was heartbreaking and brought a tear to my eye. The book has deep meanings throughout and directly faces the issues of social media and discrimination straight on. The main character, Nathan, goes on this journey to discover exactly what happened to his brother Al and what drove such a passionate and talented person to lose that hope. I whole-heartedly believe that this book should be read by anyone who enjoys the contemporary YA genre because it is beautifully written and holds such a powerful message within it. It definitely deserves all five stars.

By this point you're probably thinking, is she going to rate them all five stars? But I assure you that it does not happen all the time and that these two books really deserved it in my opinion.

(Re-read) The truth about keeping secrets - Savannah Brown ~ 3 1/2 stars

I am not sure if this review is skewed due to the fact that I have read this book before but I would keep that in mind when reading my opinions. The main plot of this mystery YA book had a sense of tension and suspicion throughout which was vital to its drama but I found that by the end, the final moment was obvious to me. Again, I do not know if I just remembered the ending from the first time I read it but I found myself having a general idea of what was going to happen from just over half way in. Maybe I'm just a good detective? I did enjoy the book despite this seemingly obvious plot line and I also enjoyed the LGBTQ+ representation that it was able to showcase through the main character Sydney. As a whole it is a book I would recommend but I did not necessarily love.

(Re-read) This lie will kill you - Chelsea Pitcher ~ 3 3/4 stars

I began this fourth book of the month around half way through June and turned to yet another book I had previously read because I was running out of new material. You can probably tell my hesitation to give this book 4 stars and it is because I take giving higher scores quite seriously. This mystery YA book was definitely a thriller to say the least and took a number of new directions and spins along the way. The only thing I found that faltered was the slightly confusing ending. In some ways it felt very rushed and panicked and whilst this reflected the erratic nature of the events occurring it left me feeling a bit lost amongst the chaos. The main plot of the book is incredibly interesting and was enough to pull me in a second time if that tells you anything, it is a shame that the ending let me down.

If we were villains - M. L. Rio ~ 4 stars

This book was not a book that caught my immediate attention until a lovely friend of mine suggested that I read it because it was one of her favourites. I can see why. A contemporary mystery novel set in the late 1990s that combines the theatrics of Shakespeare with the darkness of murder is exactly the new kind of book that I was excited to read. The book is set from the perspective of main character Oliver as he recounts the events which happened a decade ago as he is released from prison. In all honesty there were moments of this book which left me on the edge of my seat wanting to know more but unfortunately the solution to this mystery was a little too easy to work out. I text my friend about my suspicions just before I got halfway through the book and I even doubted myself because I thought it would be too obvious. The only thing left for you to do would be to read it and find out how early on you can guess.

and finally....

(Re-read) The million pieces of Neena Gill - Emma Smith-Barton ~ 3 3/4 stars

My final book of the month and one I finished only yesterday is this emotional contemporary YA novel focusing on the effects of grief and anxiety. From the outset it is not overly clear that Neena is struggling but slowly as the book develops it becomes more and more obvious that she is starting to fall apart. Whilst this book deals with challenging topics and shows the true reality of life after the death of a loved one, it felt like it was lacking a little. I cannot explain what exactly it is but there was a kind of essence missing from the story being told, which made me not enjoy it as much as I ought to. But again, this could be due to the fact it was my second time reading it so maybe the magic had rubbed away.

Overall, June was a good reading month for me and I enjoyed the balance of new and old books as I went through. Hopefully July will be equally as good and bring me new and exciting reads that I will be rushing to gush about this time next month.