Hey y’all! It’s been a long time since I’ve written one of these. But don’t worry, I have been reading books this whole time! Life just got away from me taking the time to go out and shoot content and sit down and put together a book review post. However, to make it up to y’all, this week I’m going to be doing a monthly book review every day to not only get caught up, but to share everything I’ve read through September with y’all.
The last time I wrote a book review was for the month of May and I talked about how I was going through a book slump. Well don’t worry, we are officially out of it and one of my favorite books I’ve read this year is a part of June’s book review. This book also got me out of my book slump and back into my passion for reading. I believe part of what helped me was sticking to book that I knew I would enjoy, i.e. lots of contemporary romance novels and psychological thrillers.
For the month of June, I read five books. Most of them are in the contemporary romance section, with one being a young adult novel. I also read a thriller and a historical fiction book. So without wasting anymore time, here are the five books read.
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Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall
I grabbed this one from the library because I thought it would be the perfect book to start off Pride Month. The story follows Luc, who is the son of famous divorced rockstar parents. He is struggling to find his way in the world and gives the media plenty of ammo to drag him across the front page. In order to fix his appearance to keep sponsors for the non-profit he works for, he needs to find someone who is everything he’s not. That’s where Oliver steps in. Both need dates to events and are both struggling with their own problems – Luc with his abandonment issues and Oliver with trying to appease his parents and make them proud of him.
This was a perfect book to read during Pride Month and for those who loved Red, White, and Royal Blue, I highly suggest reading this book to continue with our love of British men.
Rating:
ššššš/5
The Switch – Beth O’Leary
The Switch is the first book I read by Beth O’Leary and I loved it so much that I actually ended up reading another one of her books the next month. The Switch follows Leena, who was just forced into a two month sabbatical from her work after botching a presentation, switching houses with her grandmother, Eileen. Eileen has been living in a small countryside town and wants to see what it’s like to live in a big city for a short period of time to look for love. Along the way, they start to rediscover themselves and what they want out of their lives.
This book not only deals with self discovery, but it also deals with grief, with Leena struggling to move on from the death of her sister, and cheating. This book is a healthy balance between the countryside and the city and I loved it. I was so excited to read her newest book next month and need to go back and read her first book, The Flatshare.
Rating
šššš/5
Girl A – Abigail Dean
Girl A was actually my February Book of the Month pick and it took me forever to get around to reading it, between all the library books I was reading and the other books I wanted to finish first. This one was a completely different type of book than my first Book of the Month pick, but that is what I wanted to use my subscription for, to have the chance to read different genres. Girl A follows Lex, a survivor of child abuse, as she returns to her home country after the death of her mother. She has to meet with all her siblings to discuss what they want to do with the house they grew up in and suffered their abuse in. She wants to turn the house into a center for children who are going through what her and her siblings did. As Lex meets up or gets in contact with her siblings, we continue to get pieces of the puzzle for what happened in her childhood leading up to the night she escaped from the house and became Girl A.
This book started very slow for me and I wasn’t the biggest fan of how the author switched back and forth in time. It was honestly confusing at times and I had a hard time keeping up with what was going on. However, the redeeming part of the book was the plot twist at the end that had me shocked. This is a heavy subject book, so it’s definitely not a book for everyone.
Rating:
ššš/5
Daisy Jones & The Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
I have been wanting to read this book for years and I’m so mad at myself for waiting until now to read it. But I believe that everything has a perfect time and place, and I needed to read this book when I did to get out of my book slump. Daisy Jones & The Six is written in an oral interview setting, which makes it a fast read. The interview is talking about how the band Six came to be and how Daisy Jones ends up joining the band and them becoming a global sensation. Set in the 70’s, the story is full of love, music, sex and drugs and the rise and fall of the band leading to them breaking up.
Heavily influenced by Stevie Nix and Fleetwood Mac, this book takes you on a journey and captures you in from the moment you begin the interview and had me crying at not just the real reason why the band broke up, but also the ending in the present time. I was told the audiobook version is also unmatched, so I will be finding a way to get an audiobook version and listening to it. Taylor Jenkins Reid has proven that she is the hottest historical fiction novelist in the past few years, first with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and now Daisy Jones. I cannot wait for the miniseries to come out on Amazon Prime.
I borrowed this book from a friend and need to get my own copy ASAP.
Rating
ššššš/5
Instructions for Dancing – Nicola Yoon
A Young Adult novel, Instructions for Dancing had me in all my romcom feels. Evie has stopped believing in love after her father leaves her mother for the woman he was having an affair with. One day, while deciding to get rid of every romance book she owns, she sees a couple kiss and has a vision of how they met…and how their relationship will end. Confused with these visions and trying to find herself, she ends up at a dance studio where she begins to learn ballroom dancing with a guy named X.
Deciding to enter a ballroom competition hoping to win the grand prize to help save the dance studio, Evie is struggling to connect on an emotional level with X on the dance floor because of the wall she’s put up to not let anyone in emotionally for them to leave. Between having these visions and learning the different ballroom dances and the connections needed, Evie starts to learn that maybe love is worth the risk of a broken heart.
This book had me in all the feels and I loved every second of it. There’s something so innocent and pure about a young adult novel because it brings back all the feelings you have when having your first boyfriend or first crush or experiencing heartbreak for the first time . This book is also filled with so many romcom references, which I loved. The only thing I wish we could’ve explored more was the relationship between Evie and her father and her father owning up to all the mistakes he made in damaging their father-daughter relationship.
I read this book as an e-book through the local library.
Rating
šššš/5
June Roundup Statistics
5 books
1,733 pages
own -2
library – 3
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