June Wrap Up: The Month I Conquered My LGBT+ TBR

Hi all!!

So this was an incredibly productive month and I honestly don’t know how I pulled it off! I read 22 books this month – 22! Like … how?? I have no idea, but I did say I would turn into a couch potato the second uni was over, and I guess I delivered!

For those of you who don’t know (and I’m sure everyone does), June was PRIDE MONTH!! To celebrate, I dedicated this month to reading LGBTQIA+ novels that I have had on my tbr and Kindle library for ages, plus a couple of new releases. Although, has anyone noticed these books are from the G, B and Q spectrum and that’s it? It didn’t hit me until a few days ago that I haven’t properly celebrated PRIDE MONTH!! if the only books I’ve read are one that feature an m/m pairing. I’m really disappointed in myself, (even though these are books I’ve been meaning to read for a long time). So if anyone has recommendations for the LBTIA categories, please leave a comment! 

Books Read:

= 17 books, 4 short stories, 1 play

So, out of the 11 books I set as my June tbr, I read 8 of those books! (Don’t know why I didn’t read all 11 when I clearly read a lot of books lol.)

Books Reviewed:

A tender romance with a steampunk, magical twist! Such a wonderful debut. I can’t wait for the sequel.
Read my review 

Always a delight reading a K.J. Charles novel. This sequel was the enemies-to-lovers book I’ve been waiting for.
Read my review

A phenomenal sci-fi romance with incredible world-building and a badass protagonist.
Read my review

A sequel worthy of the name – intricately complex, wonderfully diverse, and a delicious slow-burn.
Read my review

A fluffy, cute, and hilarious contemporary that I never wanted to end. Wish I could read it for the first time all over again.
Read my review

A comical, romantic swash-buckling adventure with a ship to end all ships. I read this book in one sitting, and you will too!
Read my review

Book of the Month:

Two books for Book of the Month, because I read so many, there’s no way I can choose only one!

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was everything I wanted in a historical novel and more! I love friends-to-lovers novels (almost as much as I love enemies-to-lovers) and the relationship between Monty and Percy was truly something special here. RTC.

I am still reeling over how incredible Laurent and the Beast was. A gay time-travel romance, loosely based on Beauty and the Beast, featuring a burned/disfigured biker and an innocent, indentured servant? Um, yes please. I need the next book in the series ASAP – it’s supposed to be coming out some time this year!

Runner-ups:

As I read so many books this month, many of them were amazing, but not quite as incredible as LatB and TGGtVaV, but still deserve a shoutout. These are the runner-ups to the Book of the Month, and definitely worth a read.

Monthly Disappointment: 

I was really excited for this novel, but once I started reading it, I became so disappointed and almost DNF’d it many times. The only thing that had me reading was my desire to find out what happens at the end. The plot was mildly intriguing, and I enjoyed reading the changes the author made from the original, but ultimately, that was not enough to save the book in my opinion. This book sorely needs to be edited by a professional editor: the author incorrectly uses em dashes and uses ellipses unnecessarily. There was also way too much insta-love, which only served to remind me how awkward and over-the-top adult hetero romance is. I’m going to be sticking with my YA romances from now on.

Netgalley ARCs:

I was so, so, so lucky to have been given an ARC of these novels and I can’t wait to read them! I just know I’m going to ball my eyes out with They Both Die at the End so I’m going to save that read for when I’m already feeling blue. And I know next to nothing about The Tiger’s Daughter, aside from the fact that many people are excited for it, so here’s hoping it’s as good as people think!

Author ARCs:

So one of my favourite m/m authors, K.J. Charles, sent out calls for reviewers for the first book in her new series, Spectred Isle. And I was lucky enough to have been provided with an ARC!! I can’t wait to read this book – I’ve read almost all of Charles’ bibliography, so I already know I’m going to love it! (Look how awesome the cover is!!)

 

Purchased Books:

I can hear you saying, ‘Laura, don’t you have a cap on how many books you buy?’ Yeah, I do but leave me alone, okay! I’m momentarily abandoning my self-imposed book-buying ban for the duration of the semester holidays.

So with that being said, you guys all know by now that I love Jane Austen, but aside from Pride and Prejudice, I don’t own any of her other books. So I decided to rectify that by slowly purchasing the Vintage Classics collection of her novels. So far I have, of course, P&P, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. It’s always been a goal of mine to read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and I’ve made it my mission to complete that goal this year. So I had to buy a copy of the book, and luckily, the Vintage Classics series had one too!

Achievement:

June was the month I completed my Goodreads book challenge! Every year I set myself a goal of reading 50 books, and I always complete it (thankfully). I’m so excited to see how many books I manage to read by the end of the year!
Current tally: 65 books

Blog Awards 

While I was nominated for this award a month ago, I didn’t get the chance to write it up until the month! Click on the award button to read my advice and who I nominated for the award in return.

Book Tags

I have been tagged in quite a few book tags, but I’m very slow at actually completing them! Sorry about this. I will always post book tags, but it just takes me a little longer than most, so if I suddenly post one you tagged me in months ago, that’s why!

This month I participated in:
The Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag
The Happiness Tag

Weekly Memes

Seeing as this month we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter, it’s was also a great time to show my House pride! I haven’t participated in a T5W in a long time, but couldn’t pass it up when it was about Harry Potter!! Check out which five books I recommend for Slytherin readers by clicking on the image below!

Extra Content 

This month I participated in a release blitz for Regine Abel’s dark romance Anton’s Grace. I will be reading this book soon and the review will be up not much long after. I’m very excited to read this, because I absolutely adored Regine’s other sci-fi romance, Escaping Fate. Click on the image above to check out the blitz!

Non-Bookish Stuff:

This month I binge-watched Orange is the New Black season 5 and it was incredible! Not as enjoyable as season 4, but still comical and dark. The season, of course, ends on another cliffhanger, and I’m so annoyed we have to wait until 2018 to find out what happens! The highlight of season 5, for me, was the female friendships, and the importance of human rights which are so often denied to prisoners. If you are going to watch this season, you’re in for a wild ride: you’ll laugh for half of the episodes, and then be crying into a tissue for the last few.

I also watched Wonder Woman with my siblings, and it was incredible! Gal Godot was incredible as Wonder Woman and I left the cinema feeling like I could conquer the world. Finally DC delivers an awesome movie. In preparation, my brother and I watched Batman VS. Superman and it was the most boring movie in the history of cinema. I still don’t fully understand what it was about, but we had to watch it to understand Wonder Woman, although we found out later, that we didn’t really need to.
I highly, highly recommend Wonder Woman! Great storyline, great acting, great diverse representation!

 

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July TBR

Also, I am one of the moderators of the YA Book Bloggers Goodreads group and July’s buddy read of the month is Cinder!

Join the group and read along with us! ☺️

How was your June? Was it as productive as mine? What books did you read? Hope you have a great July!

-Laura ❤️