 Guys, I just, is there a point in me doing a wrap up this month? Who knows? Hi guys, how are we doing? It is time for my June wrap up where we tell about the book store in June and I'm gonna be honest with you guys, this might not be very long because I don't have a ton to say even for last month. I had no five star other than a reread and I had a lot of low ratings. It was my lowest rating ever. I think if you took out my reread, my average rating was a 2.95, which like, good God, good God. Like I was going through it in May. June is not a lot better, right? Although my average rating, which we'll get to in a bit, is like deceptively high. For me, complaining. You're like, girl, you're complaining over what the average rating is. Um, I had nothing this month other than threes, 3.5s and fours. No other rating. No other rating. This is where my blood starts to boil. Boil. So we're still in a five star desert. We're barren of five stars. Like how boring is that? At least give me a tour of one to like spice it up a bit and give me something to feel. I just want to feel something. I feel like I'm Buffy and Buffy, I want someone with feeling and she's like, I touch the fire, it freezes me. Like I want to feel something and I can't. So there's like nothing this month of no, in my opinion, threes, 3.5s and fours. There's cars outside. It's so hot and clammy today. I feel like I'm always telling you it's hot. You're like making your own jumper. Yes, because I feel like I've worn all my summer clothes and videos lately. And so I'm just going to like overheat for you. This is already a chaotic intro. So if you are regular here, you know, I do my reading stats first, then we go through all the books with just the ratings I gave them. Then we usually go through disappointment, surprise and hits. I'm going to tell you now, there's no surprises this month. There's one hit. So I'm going to briefly chat about the books I read on holiday at the start of this month because they're not in vlogs anywhere. Every other book that I read this month, it's in a vlog or going to be in a vlog on my channel. So like you can hear it. You can hear my own more in depth thoughts if you want them. But um, yeah, yeah, yeah. This month, guys, when will I get a five star? I think my last five star, when was my last five star? Let's just go there for a second before we get into the reading stats. My last five star other than that reread was Finley Donovan is killing it in April, in April, mid-April. Mid-April was the last time I had a five star. We're almost in July. What does it feel like to be God's least favourite? Oh wait, I know. This is Satan's work. So anyways, enough of me moaning. Let's get into the reading statistics. Okay, so in June I read 11 books in total. That's pretty average for me as you guys know. That's like, you know, perhaps on the low side, but like, you know, some years ago if I would be like 11 books! So like, listen, it's all relative. The amount of pages I read was 4,212, which means an average pages per day of 140, which is great, and an average pages per book of 382. So I read a lot of like, longer books this month. Perhaps that's my issue. I feel like I'm still craving short books. For like, in the next couple months, I need to read some novellas, some short books, because something has to give. My average rating was a 3.6, which isn't terribly low, but that is my second lowest rating so far this year. My lowest rating is obviously last month, you know, but this is my second lowest rating of a month so far this year. And the average time a book had spent on my TBL was 12 months. So I read a lot of books this month that had been on my TBL for a long time. So that's a positive. We're looking for them wherever we can get them. I'm still so angry. Just 3, 3.5s and 4s. Like, that is so boring. Oh, I did have a 4.5. But I did tell a bit of a lie there. Actually, I had one 4.5. I lied to you. One 4.5. But does that, you know, that means nothing to me. Okay, so in terms of genres, I read three fantasy, two horror, three mystery, two nonfiction and one sci-fi. I'm happy I read two nonfiction. Go me, applause. I'm always willing to read more nonfiction. Pretty good split. I would say a fantasy and mystery are always, I would say my two largest genres on average. Ratings. I had three 3 stars, three 3.5 stars, four 4 stars and one 4.5. Boring. Boring. Darling. Next. You know, but in terms of how I read the books, one was an audiobook. Three, I read physically and seven were mixtures. I obviously really needed the audiobooks this month alongside my physical books to get through because a girl was struggling. In terms of audience, eight were adult and three were YA. In terms of series stats, one was what I would cast as a companion novel. That's where it's not part of a series, but it is connected to other series that I've read. Two were parts of a series. Five were stand-alones. Two were last in series. And one was the first in the series, but the book that was the first in the series, I'm not continuing that series. So guys, I finished two series this month. Are we proud of me? Because I am. I am so proud of her, I could cry. In terms of where I acquired the books from, one was from Audible, four were gifted to me, and six were books I'd bought myself. And then finally, in terms of author status, two authors were new to me, two were debuts, and seven were authors I'd read from before. I feel like I need to get a little bit better at reading authors that I haven't read before, because I think over 50% of the authors of the books I've read this year are from authors I've read from before. And I would just like to discover some more. I feel like I could do a little bit better at that, maybe. Okay, that's all the stats. Wow, we're really breezing through it today. Listen, quick and fun, quick and fun, not fun, but quick. Okay, let's go through each of the books that I read this month and what their ratings were. First, I read Only Human by Sylvain Novell. This is the last in the Themis files series, and I gave this three stars. I read Death Beside the Seaside by T.E. Kinsey, and I gave this 4.5. I read Spare by Prince Harry, and I gave that four stars. I read Rules of Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall, and I gave this 3.5. I read Warner Rules by Lee Bardugo, and I gave this three stars. The Drift by CJ Tudor, which I gave four stars. The Inugami Care by Sashi Yokomizo, which I gave three stars. The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller, which I gave four stars. The Devotion of Suspect X, which I gave 3.5 stars. The Lives of Saints by Lee Bardugo, which I also gave 3.5 stars. And then finally, Unwell Women by Eleanor Clecon, which I gave four stars. Okay, so like I said, there's not many books in the categories I usually talk about this month. So what I thought I'd do is let's briefly chat about the books that I read on holiday since they're not in any vlog. Every other book is in a vlog somewhere. The only book that I'm not going to chat about that's not in a vlog on my main channel is Rules for Vanishing, because that was my Patreon Book Club pick and there is a whole vlog of that on my Patreon, but I just don't have a lot to say about it, so we're just not gonna. But if you want to know my thoughts, you can join my Patreon. So the first book I read was Only Human by Sylvain Novel. This is the last in the Themis Files, which is incredibly difficult to talk about because like anything beyond the first 100 pages of the first book is like so spoilery. I can't even give you a hint as to what is happening in this book. But basically, just know that like parts of perhaps giant alien robots are discovered on Earth and then the whole rest of the book is like them figuring that out and crazy shit happens. I think my favorite is the second in the series, or the first. I don't know, they're both pretty good. This one, I don't think it needed to exist. Now something that's called something that's called about this series is that it's all told through interviews basically or like letters or voice notes, but mostly interviews and discussions between people. And the audiobook is full cast. If you're going to read these books, I'd recommend the audiobooks. You don't really need to get them physically. The audiobooks, let me tell you, the actors are acting. They are acting. They are acting. Like they know what they're going to do and they're doing it, you know what I mean? They are so good. The rate is in the audiobooks. So that's the, that's the pro. The thing that this book is, I don't think it needed to exist, right? I think the second one ends in the way that if we could have just ended there and that a lot of this book just feels kind of pointless. Oh, do you know what? I'm not against this existing, but it felt like, it feels like it could be like a bonus novella. It could have been a novella. It didn't need to be this long. I don't think it's as fitting an end to the series as like if we had wrapped up certain things in the second one a bit differently, that one would have been a better end. Like this one just steals meandering. I can't tell you anything about why because it is so spoiled. Like it's beyond spoiled. I mean, this one takes place like 20 years from the main events of the first book, 15. Something between 10 and 20 years. I don't know, from the events of the first book. It's just like we're talking in circles, you know what I mean? So I didn't dislike it, but I just think it didn't need to exist, you know, objectively. And then I read three books on holiday, but one is in a later category. So I'll leave that for that. Believe me, the category needs it. It's not like it's got anything else. But then the other book I read on holiday was Spare by Prince Harry. Okay, right. I wasn't expecting to read this. I was gonna listen to the audiobook of Only Human on the Plane, but then I downloaded it and it undownloaded for some reason. And then the only other book that I had the audiobook for downloaded that I hadn't already read was Spare. So I just read it by chance, right? Now I'm not gonna say a lot about this because I think it's a very complex situation. What am I saying? I'm just, I get nervous. I've seen other people who have spoken about this like they come for them. The anti-Megan and Harry's come for them. And I'm like, I don't want to get involved in that. I will say there's two really good reviews that I watched right when it came out. One from Mara from Books Like White and one from Brie from Notched Bactician. They're the two that I remember most. So I'd recommend going and watching those if you want to know more. But this is basically Prince Harry's autobiography. It is ghost written. I would be intrigued to know to what extent he wrote this. Like I just, did they write it together? I'm always so intrigued with ghost written books. Like what the divide of labor was. So yeah, it's about his life. And there's three main sections in the book. First is about his mother's death. Then the second is about his role in the army. And then third is about his relationship with Megan and the breakdown of the family and what have you, what have you. For me, the most engaging part was perhaps the first section of him as a child. And he speaks very kindly about the effects that his mother's death had on him and also the lack of emotion and lack of support that he had as a child. Like, you know, his dad kind of patted on him on the knee when he told him that his mother had died. And that was it. There was no hug. There was no support for him really. He believed that she was alive for many years until he was like 20-something. He believed that she was alive and in hiding and was going to come get him one day. And that's just so, so heartbreaking, right? And I also, as someone who's followed, I've watched the documentary and stuff on Netflix and Harry and Megan, I did find some of the other insights in the book from his perspective interesting, you know? Because it's all from, rather than I feel like all the other stuff we've had is them as a couple. This is just him as an individual in his perspective. Okay, now I do want to point out, I think there's issues in this book with, like, he's a member of the royal family, right? And I am not the biggest, you know. He is not entirely conscious or doesn't entirely recognize the blood that is on his family's hands, right? And I don't know if you could ever expect him to do that. I don't know if, like, that's within a human's, like, you know, to re-shift your worldview that much, perhaps he'll get there one day. But I don't think he's entirely recognition, recognition of that. But I don't know if I was expecting that going into this, especially, I mean, he's gonna write, like, fucking 100 books, do you know what I mean? Like, maybe we've got to show growth, do you know what I mean? You can't get it all out in one book. But I do have problems with the way that he speaks about the army and war and his role in that. I won't get into specifics, you can look him up if you want because I don't really want to discuss it, but some of it's quite upsetting. And I just think we have very different perspectives about war, right? And like, I don't know, the ethics of war. I think me and Harry have very different perspectives on that. Here's the thing, like, as someone who lives in the UK, I think for any of you in America or internationally, I think it's difficult to grasp the hatred that is directed at Harry and Meghan, right? And as someone who doesn't subscribe to that hatred, believes that they are the ones who have been put through shit by the media, by his family, like, I don't, my initial reaction is to not critique him because it's just giving those other people more ammunition, right? That's like, I don't want to give them more ammunition to like, hate on them and like, attack them. So my instinct is just to not critique him, but I don't think that's correct, right? I don't know, it's difficult because I feel like he is overly criticising, overly persecuted, both particularly Meghan, that I don't want to like, add fuel to the fire. But yeah, the sections on war, we just have very different perspectives on the ethics of all of that. That's my overall feeling. I thought aspects of it were interesting. I don't think he recognises, truly recognises, like colonialism, his family's role in that, his family's influence throughout the world and how it's been damaging, you know, him and William saying, Africa's my thing. No, Africa's my thing. Like the idea that that is even a conversation or something that's coming out of your mouth and you're not truly recognising the problems with that is insane. That was spare for me. It was interesting. I read it pretty much on the plane journey there and the plane journey back. I just listened to that audiobook was all I did. It was interesting. Okay, let's get into my disappointments. Now, both of these disappointments are three stars. So they're not bad, right? These were like fine reads, but they're a little bit disappointing. Again, I don't have much to say. These are both in vlogs, if you want to watch them. This first one, there's a whole vlog for it, rule of all, this is my Leigh Bardugo. This, again, I can't really tell you much about because it basically is like the continuation of the whole Grishaversa series from Shadow Bone, from Six of Crows. It all culminates here. So we're following Nina from Six of Crows or we're following Nicolae and Zoya from Shadow Bone as our kind of main perspectives, but we've got a lot of characters from both series kind of popping up. And my problem with this was that it felt fan-servicing. Like at this point, I feel like we need to be done with the Grishaversa. Give me one more Six of Crows book if you want Leigh. Like I won't complain, but it just felt so fan-servicing. There was little like pop-ups or cameos from characters just because Leigh knew the people would eat it up and go, yes, my favorite character's back. Not because it actually makes sense for those characters or the story. And I am not personally happy with how much this series has intertwined Shadow Bone and Six of Crows worlds because now there's going to be Six of Crows 3 at some point. I'm pretty sure she's confirmed that. I'm pretty sure that's confirmed. And the way that the worlds have interwoven, like if you want to read that, you probably have to read this series. And I don't think it's very good to think of Scots and all of all series. I don't think it's very good. That's why I can't do it! So I think that's annoying. I wish she hadn't done that and I wish she could have kept them a bit more separate. I'm just not, I'm not happy with that. And the ending for me, like this big thing happens at the ending and then like 10 pages later, they're like, let's undo that. This thing that should be impossible to do. We've just made this massive decision to do this. Let's undo it. That is so annoying to me. That is so annoying. And yeah, this book was just pretty meh. Like it was just pretty like, you know, as long felt fan service-y. It felt like when an author gets so big that people don't want to tell them that they should edit a little bit. Listen, so many people love this. Who am I? Like, who am I to say this? I love Lee. Lee, I love you. But like, let's focus on Night Pulse. Let's focus on a few more new things. New things. And then my other disappointment. Was that only a minor disappointment? I would say is the Inugami Curse by Sashi Okamizo. Wait, no, this is the- Oh yeah, there's a whole vlog to this one as well. I was forgetting which books were in which vlogs then. Yeah, this has its own vlog as well. This one is a Japanese mystery set in the 1940s where the head of this family dies and his will is complicated and it leaves people killing each other because everyone's not happy with how the will has turned out. This one just didn't work for me as much as The Honjin Murders, which is the only other book I've read from this author. Do I remember why not really? It just, again, it felt a bit meh. Like it was just fine. You know, I felt like the mystery was a fairly predictable ending. The whole book, I was just kind of like, not as interested in anything that was happening. It was fine. Actually, I don't know if this is fair but this is disappointment. It was just fine. It just didn't, it didn't excite me. Push me up against the wall. Give me a kiss. Then I might get excited. And I think at the moment also, like I'm feeling just, I need a book to come in and light me on fire. You know what I mean? I need a five star. I'm like begging at this point. I'm begging on my hands and knees at this point for a five star because I just want to feel something and I think this just didn't make me feel a lot. Perhaps if I'd read this in a different time, different life, I would have rated it higher but I need more. I need more right now. Give me more. And then my only hit of the month was a 4.5 star and that is Death Beside the Seaside by T.E.Kinsey. This is the sixth? One, two, three, four. Yes. This is the sixth in the Lady Hardcastle Mysteries. This is the other book that I read while I was on holiday. In this one, Lady Hardcastle and Her Made Flow are on holiday by the seaside and they are staying in this hotel and a murder happens. No, someone disappears. Someone disappears and they are tasked with basically finding out what's going on and things to evolve from there. It gets, you know, we delve into, the story devolves but it's fun. I love, I love them. Okay, this just wasn't quite a five star. When I think of the ones I've given five stars in the series, this just didn't, it wasn't quite there in terms of like 100% enjoyment. The story felt a little bit not complex enough, perhaps, but I loved it. Guys, if you're going to read this series, it's my favorite cozy mystery series, listen to the audiobooks. This is another like 100% audiobook recommendation. You don't need to get these physically. If you're not like, if you're just mainly interested, just pick up the audiobooks. They're on script and I love them. I love them so much. Like the audiobook narrator does such a good job and these characters, their relationship, I've told you so many times, their relationship, their love for each other, their dynamic is impeccable. It's impeccable. And this was really fun reading this. I read this like all on the beach, basically, side of the seaside. Even though like the running joke of this book is that they never catch the tide when it's in. When they're like not doing stuff and going to sea, it's like, it's not there. It's fun, it's silly, but it's like historic. I feel like it's really rooted in its historical setting. There's always notes at the back of research that he's done about like what is realistic to the history and which like he's kind of twisted. So like they've got like a newer card and they probably wouldn't, but because that's like, they got best friend he makes cards, do you know what I mean? So they've got a newer card and probably be possible. Like he talks about looking up the weather of each day that they were there. Like in 90, you couldn't look up the weather for like 1910 or wherever this is set. I just love Lady Helicastal and Flow, okay? I love them forever. And I think you guys should read this series. If you're even much interested, pick up the audiobook for the first one and you will fall in love is my opinion. I love them. And it just, this is the kind of series now that is a five star series for me. And I feel like every book in the series is going to get roughly a five star or like a 4.5 because I've just fallen so in love with these characters and their dynamic and like the little e-strokes in the story and little nods back to other stories and all the characters that we now know. I just love it. I love it. I love it. So, woo! Okay guys, there we have it. That is my June wrap up. Dear God, dear God, please pray that July is the month of five stars for me. I need it. I can't tell you how much I need some five stars in my life. So cross your fingers, pray, hope, sob. Like we need it. We need this. We need this. This is essential. It's a crisis. So yeah, if you got into the video, comment a bunny. Because I like bunnies. I saw a kitten the other day that thought it was a bunny because its best friend is a bunny and it tries to jump like a bunny. So I'm just thinking about bunnies. Come on, a bunny. He got to the end. And I will see you guys in another video soon. Bye!