Doing an audit of all my books after donating a bunch and clearing out some space. Yikes, I haven't read many of my actual physical books.

I was going to do this for e-books too but er that might look even worse!

I'm reading my 1998 edition of Ship of Magic and the pages are like tissue paper!

This is more of a thriller mystery than a cosy mystery. This may change as the series goes on as it's set in a small town with a gay bookstore owner.

The town felt alive and vibrant. I enjoyed the characters and I'm looking forward to seeing more. The ending was a little bit ridiculous but I was okay with it.

Look at this stunning 90s book cover by Michael Whelan. Magical.

Here is the book club's leaderboard for the Farseer Trilogy. I know we lost a few which I understand, sometimes this trilogy is a merry go round of pain and 1st POV doesn't work for everyone.

Do you agree with the ratings? What was your favourite book?

Time to vote for the August #QueerBC author. This year's is flying by!

So keeping that in mind, start thinking about some spooky and wintery books you'd like to suggest for the October and December buddy reads

It sounds ages away but it will sneak up on you!

July's author is Nino Cipri. Looking forward to your thoughts and reviews

Vote for August's author here: https://forms.gle/fF4BD1pa9f1RnL98A

I read some terrible books this month! It was really disappointing and I don't feel like reading much now

#MonthlyWrapUp #PuddleJumperWrapUp

Mid-year #ReadingBracket2025

June's favourite was Heavenly Tyrant and the wild card was Guardian Volume 1

SVSSS 1 is still winning which I'm not surprised about

A positive thing about this book is that it's a fast read. That's it.

This is described as YA, it's on the younger side of YA. The ending is very ‘makes it easy‘.

I did not like Kellen, he's got very little compassion. He's magic pixie dream girled into thinking for himself. Ferius guides him to consider things, to think about things, and to make changes and honestly I don't think he deserves that kind of chance.

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Everyone is so unlikeable in this book. Not in an interesting villain kind of way, more in an arrogant arsehole kind of way

June #2025Stats

I had a clear out and donated 37 books, these were books that I'd had for years and was never going to read them. Many of them had come up multiple times on #Roll100

Steadily going through my shelves and Kindle. I read a lot this month but only had a few good books, the rest are 1 or 2 stars. I probably read so much because I was speed reading to get through them

We are half way into the year and half way through Alola #GottaCatchemAll

So far nearly 300 books have been logged and 59 Pokemon caught.

Drampa has been the most caught Pokemon with 8 people catching it!

How are we all doing with the challenges? I've definitely got some tricky ones left

If you want to join the Discord for recommendations, advance notice of new challenges and chatting then him here: https://discord.gg/uFtZ9ChYuY

We are nearing the time where we say goodbye to FitzChivalry and hello to magic ships and I am so excited!

Next book for #RealmofElderlings will be Ship of Magic which starts the Liveship Trader trilogy. This is by far my favourite trilogy

I'll do a Farseer trilogy wrap up when the leaderboard gets generated

Are we excited to explore a different part of Robin Hobb's world? What are your expectations?

#RiordanverseReadalong July book is The Throne of Fire, the next book in the Kane Chronicles

How did everyone find The Red Pyramid?

I enjoyed it. The magic was very different and I liked how the gods were portrayed.

@mom2bugnbee @LitsyEvents

In the middle of a heatwave with a touch of heat exhaustion and there is no way I'm switching the computer on

July's #Roll100 via dndbeyond 🤣

Roll 1 - 64
Roll 2 - 84
Roll 3 - 46

This is not a cosy fantasy. Setting it in a tea shop does not automatically make it cosy. It flips between trying to be a cosy fantasy and a more traditional fantasy plot.

I was a lot more interested in the dragon mystery and that got a bit hand waved which was frustrating.

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I've been having an urge recently to spend money because if I buy something that will solve all my problems!

I had to go to a different part of the county today and hit up two libraries. I did not think about it at all and was lugging these books around in 30° heat 🥵

Home now and sitting in a dark room

Watch me not read any of my #libraryhaul but it scratched my itch

I really enjoyed the first half of this book, it got a bit more challenging in the second half. I still enjoyed it enough to read the next in the series.

However, there were things that I greatly disliked. The crass humour was overdone and the descriptions of women could get unpleasant. It wasn't enough to make me quit the book but it was enough to make me uncomfortable.

If it continues then I might stop the series.

With a few changes this could have worked as a children's/middle grade book. It did not work as an adult romance, the writing was very juvenile and repetitive, there was no plot tension or relationship tension, and it was an instalove romance which I can't stand.

It was too twee for me. I will also never forgive the author for calling a dragon ‘Sparky‘.

#PrideRec2025 Summer vibes for sunlight. They all look like they should be read by a pool

This started off as an original female character fanfiction for The Lost Boys (1987) film. It morphed into something more and was published as an original work.

It reads like an early 2000s fanfic. Everything is overly described, the language is flowery and repetitive, epithets are used constantly, and the story is bloated with unnecessary characters and plot.

It's a dense read and I wouldn't say it was enjoyable.

This may be a very specific memory but in the 2000s there were fanfiction authors that wrote insanely long self insert fics.

They would go on for years with regular updates. Plots would become convoluted, there were so many unnecessary characters and the self insert would be perfect and everything revolved around them.

This is giving the same vibes and it's unlocking some cringe memories.

Does anyone remember them?!

This is a The Lost Boys (1987) self insert fanfic turned original work.

If you want to get hammered, drink every time the words ivory or obsidian are mentioned. I'm 50 pages in and I think I'd be passed out.

It's also set in 2037? But not like a cool 2037 with crazy tech. It's like 2018.

#RiordanverseReadalong has finished the Heroes of Olympus series

Here is the book club's rating of all of the books. Do you agree? Disagree?

Son of Neptune was definitely my favourite

July's #bookspinbingo

I'm mood reading too much to put down titles

@thearomaofbooks

I dipped in and out of this. Some of them I liked more than others

#QueerBC

This entire series was boring. I don't think I was ever going to love it because I'm a Latinist. Riordan's interpretation of Rome and Roman religion annoyed me.

Even ignoring that element, there were too many characters and POVs. It really slowed the book down and I honestly didn't care about many of the characters.

Also, not sure if it's my ace showing but damn did I not care about the teen romances.

#RiordanverseReadalong

Like a lot of Riordan's books, this was very formulaic, repetitive, and too long. It was an underwhelming book for me.

I liked the magic, the different take on divinity and divine children, and the world building.
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Another fanfiction rec because Jon Antilles is amazing and needs to be in more stuff

The Haat Mando'ade think Jon is a spirit of the Force/Manda because he does all the things Jon does and speaks an older version of Mando'a

All Mandalorians have a competency kink. I don't make the rules

I've not read any of these but they are part of the Classics Remixed series that looks absolutely amazing.

I've included it under nature because a lot of classical literature is assumed to be about the 'nature' of mankind but usually that is the experience of white cishet men.

I'm interested to see different imaginings of these stories.

#PrideRec2025

Selling books at another fair. I decided to start The Beautiful Mystery because I figured I could dip in and out .... I think I was mistaken

The messy aftermath of destroying a government. I loved this, but I can understand why many people didn't.

It's very different from Iron Widow, the tone is different, there's a lot of political discussions, and several important characters are side lined.

It made sense to me. This was a young, uneducated girl, full of rage and hope, trying to survive a catastrophe she caused.

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I don't think this counts as YA. It's a bit misleading though I guess you can't change it mid-series?

July‘s pick for #QueerBC is Nino Cipri!

If you‘ve read this author before, drop a recommendation or let us know what you‘ll be reading.

This isn‘t an author I know so I‘m excited to see what people think.

You;‘ve still got time to read June‘s author Zen Cho or recommend some books for #PrideRec2025

My ebook hold just came in! Urgh. I have work the next few days.

Looking for some recommendations for my Mum. She really enjoyed these books and the Bella Ellis series.

There has to be a murder or something, it can't just be a slice of life or romance. She doesn't like twee cosies either 😅

Either author/character insert or historical murder mystery.

I'm getting my Christmas plans in place because she's ridiculously hard to buy for.

I hated the writing style. It was so dense and confusing, it did not help the paper thin plot or the terrible characterisation.

I went with magic #PrideRec2025

These are all books containing magic or fantasy elements

Helen and Paris‘ love story but make it sapphic and mafia.

I don't think the Greek mythology element works at all. It's barely present and labeling it a reimagining gives expectations that the book doesn't meet.

It's an easy, fun dark mafia romance. That aspect of it is pretty good, it's not to my personal tastes but I can imagine a lot of people will enjoy it.

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I was really interested in this book, the magic system is unique and it's urban fantasy, but I struggled with the writing. It was hard to follow and juvenile.

Aside from two characters, the others were assholes with no personality that communicated via banter. I legit couldn't figure out who was talking sometimes, they were all the same.

There were also some things that rubbed me the wrong way including some mean jabs about weight.

Thought this was an appropriate bookmark

I loved the first one! Can't wait to read the second one

I wanted so much more of this, more depth, more narrative, the rather simplistic format left me a little bereft. It's still an amazing book though.

#QueerBC

Orange for #PrideRec2025 which is for healing

I went with books that bring me a lot of joy because for me that is very healing. These are all books that I will or have re-read and they are some of my comfort reads

Kicking off #PrideRec2025 with a more literal interpretation of spirit. These are all books that feature ghosts or spirits

Some of my favourite ghostly reads, great for spooky season

It is time to pick the #QueerBC author for July;

https://forms.gle/wFB1MJ7b7vk9FwzG9

There's a lot going on in June because of Pride

The chosen author is Zen Cho

There is also #PrideRec2025 where you can recommend books around the Pride flag and there's even a bingo board for those that like that.

I've been reading d&d books to prepare which is why I've got lots of days with only a few pages written 😅

There were some great reads this month and apparently they were longer than last month!

#MonthlyWrapUp #PuddleJumperWrapUp

Ellie needs therapy, not a new relationship. The romance was the least interesting part of this book.

I really enjoyed the food, family, and cultural dynamics. The romance was tepid -cute and fast paced but nothing interesting.

The writing was very bland for me. I kept zoning out as I was reading.

#RiseUpReads @Catsandbooks

I'm very disappointed, this just didn't work for me. I found it so dull.

I really wanted to like this, the idea sounded amazing.

So apparently this series is being adapted and this is a promo picture? I honestly don't know if it's fake. It's really giving 2005 fanedit

If it's real I'm gonna watch the hell out of it because it looks terrible

ETA: Maybe not, the production company is owned by Tosca Musk (Elon Musk's sister) and she shares some of his beliefs

That‘s pretty much a wrap on May! How are we all doing? #GottaCatchemAll

I think I‘ve hit all my easy prompts and now I‘m looking for books to fill them 😅

I know a couple of you haven‘t been logging month by month (which is fine) so I‘ll do a mid-year post in June and see how many books have been logged overall