Reading Lately – June 2018

With the end of June just around the corner – and the school holidays looming – the chances of me finishing another book before the weekend are looking minuscule. So I’ll go ahead now and share my monthly round up – in bookish terms, June has been very, very good 🙂 . It’s also been a pretty good month in terms of my own writing and I finally finished the first draft of my young adult fantasy romance (*does happy dance*). One of the reasons you won’t find many (possibly, any) negative book reviews on here is because I appreciate what a difficult task writing a novel actually amounts to (and possibly because I’m a bit scared of bad reviewers too 😉 ). I’m also the type of person who will try to find something nice to say wherever possible – the truth is, if I’m not enjoying a book I tend to just put it quietly back to the library or back onto the shelf. So if you’re here, hopefully you’re okay with mostly happy, happy, let’s all be kind to each other and general positivity 😉 . Of course I won’t lie and tell you I’ve loved a book if I haven’t actually enjoyed it – but the truth is, if I really haven’t liked something, it probably won’t even appear on here at all.

Anyway, back to the blog post in hand and my first book for June was The State of Grace by Rachael Lucas, a lovely read about family, friendship and first love. I’ve read a lot of young adult fiction over the years and it’s a genre I keep coming back to – I like the shorter word count and the way it transports you back to those heady teenage years.  The story centres around teenager Grace, who has a fantastic best friend, a horse she loves, a loving family home – and Aspergers. Life seems to be going along smoothly until Grace meets a boy she likes, her sister starts acting strangely and her Mum makes a new friend who seems intent on getting in the way. Grace learns how to deal with change, growing up and making mistakes in a warm, witty and heartfelt story – I love Rachael’s writing (and the fact that she always comments on Insta when you post a picture of her books 🙂 ). If you like novels like Fangirl I’d really recommend this. And if you’re looking for pure comfort reads do check out some of Rachael’s other novels too!

Talking of pure comfort, my second book for the month was Still Me by Jojo Moyes, the last in the Me Before You trilogy. Oh how I loved this novel – and being back with Louisa Clark for a new story felt like spending time with a dear and trusted friend. The final instalment sees Lou in New York, working for a wealthy family, trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with new love Sam and realising that the shadow of Will is never far away from her. Life is never without its ups and downs for Lou though and naturally, the waters get choppy before too much time has passed. I absolutely love JoJo Moyes’ writing and the fact that she can inject humour and warmth into just about anything she tackles. This was a lovely rounding off to Louisa’s story and although I’ll miss her, I was happy to wave goodbye as I turned the final page.

My final book for the month was Together by Julie Cohen, a beautiful love story told backwards with a final, shocking twist. It tells the story of Robbie and Emily, who share an unbreakable bond, as well as a startling secret. When Robbie starts to lose his memory, he makes a decision in order to protect that secret from ever leaking out. This is a proper book club read and its final revelations will really get you thinking. I came across it on the Richard and Judy Book Club – still one of my favourite places to find new books to read. I also listened to Julie Cohen being interviewed on an old episode of the Worried Writer podcast last week (episode three, if you’re interested), and she was really engaging and funny. Reading Together has made me want to seek out a few more of her novels – particularly, of course, if they are anything like as good as this.

So that’s it for this month’s round up – I’m looking forward to the to-read pile I’ve got lined up for the holidays. I’m always ready to add to it though, so do let me know which books you’ve been loving lately – and in the meantime, book lovers, happy reading for July!

Gx

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links which means that I will receive commission should you choose to purchase something via them. This enables me to earn a small income from the time I spend on blogging and does not in any way affect the price you pay.

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