i actually took it slow this month: june reading wrap up

---

Hi friends!

What a month. How have you all been? The world is literally imploding and I don’t really understand why humans are so consumed with hurting each other.

Anyway.

In June, I made sure to slow the fuck down with my reading. Especially after last month, I knew that I wanted to take June slowly. And I did. I read a total of 8 books in June, with at least three of them over 500 pages. My most read genre was LGBTQIA+ and Historical, mostly slow paced books and mostly reflective, emotional and challenging in terms of moods.

My average rating for the month was 3.56 which might possibly be the lowest average rating in a month for this year.

But I did have two five star reads which is wonderful.

Shall we get on with this wrap up? How should I organise this post today? From most disappointing to my favourites of the month? it’s not that creative, but that’s all I can think of! If you have any ideas for future organisation of wrap ups, let me know!

---

The most disappointing book of the month is 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒍𝒅 𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒑 𝒃𝒚 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒔. Yes, I finally completed reading this book. It only took me TWO GODDAMN MONTHS. If you want me to provide you a synopsis for this book, I legitimately cannot give it to you. I was so freaking bored reading this book that I think I might have zoned out a little bit.

If I had to pinpoint my issue with this book it would have to be this overall vibe that I felt whilst reading: it did not feel like a 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒔 book. It did not have his signature beautiful writing, the characters were dull and the story was uninteresting.

Even when I was reading 𝑶𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒕 which is not my favourite 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒔, it is one of my most highly annotated classics because the writing was so goddamn gorgeous. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒊𝒑𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝑷𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔 was not my cup of tea but it was hilarious and fun. 𝑵𝒊𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒔 𝑵𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒃𝒚 was, again, not my kind of book but it did have some fascinating characters (such as Kate Nickelby, I loved her). But 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒍𝒅 𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒑 was such a chore to read.

I also had a real issue with the character of Quilp. Quilp is the villain of this novel and he was, I think, a little person. 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒔 loves to villainise people from marginalised communities. I also found his morality is a little to black and white in this. There is no nuance, no grey – I didn’t quite understand why Quilp was the way he was.

Overall, just a really boring reading experience.

2 stars.

---

I think you all know what the next book is going to be as I wrote an entire blog post about it. 𝑱𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒓 𝑵𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒚 𝑺𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝑪𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆 was not what I wanted from a novel that I thought was going to be a new all-time favourite. Check out my blog post for more of my thoughts.

3.5 stars.

---

So I read a 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒕 𝑨𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅 in June. I finally read 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚, her most recent poetry collection and I did not enjoy it all that much. Now, reading is incredibly subjective – and poetry even more so. I didn’t connect with𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒕 𝑨𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅’s poetry but someone else will think that it speaks directly to them.

I just didn’t resonate with this collection – there were a few poems I liked but overall, I found it to be slightly disappointing. I think I was expecting to be blown away from 𝑨𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅 poetry but it was just another mediocre book from her for me. I have read a total of three books from 𝑨𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅 and they’ve all been…okay? 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒅’𝒔 𝑻𝒂𝒍𝒆 was good but 𝑯𝒂𝒈-𝑺𝒆𝒆𝒅 and 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 have been so so average.

3 stars.

---

I then read two romance novels and though I wouldn’t necessarily call them ‘disappointing’, they were just an easy 3 star good time. They were 𝑬𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝑷𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒃𝒐𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑷𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒃𝒐𝒚 𝒃𝒚 𝑺𝒂𝒙𝒐𝒏 𝑱𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑬𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒍𝒆𝒚 and they were fine. I read them wanting a good time, and that’s what I got. They weren’t anything more than gay sport romances (I have this thing where I love romances about hockey??) and they didn’t have a third act conflict – it was just cute. I gave them both 3 stars.

---

The last book I read in June was 𝑳𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝑲𝒘𝒐𝒏 𝒀𝒆𝒐-𝑺𝒖𝒏. I really enjoyed it! I read this book as part of an upcoming blog reading challenge than I am doing (be on the lookout for that!) so I won’t say much about it, other than it was an interesting study on grief and mourning, with some twists. It was a sort of psychological thriller-ish that was punchy and fast paced.

4 stars.

---

Now to my two five star reads of June!!!!!!!!!

I was able to get my grubby hands on 𝑨 𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝑫𝒖𝒌𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒍𝒍. I LOVED THIS BOOK. This is a historical romance novel with a trans heroine and all the pining and angst. This was one of the most beautifully written historical romances I have ever read. 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒍𝒍 is one of my favourite authors – he is so incredibly talented and the characters that he writes are so unique and wonderful.

𝑨 𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝑫𝒖𝒌𝒆is essentially about a woman named Viola Carroll who used the opporunity of her supposed death at Waterloo to finally be able to live her truth. But her supposed ‘death’ left behind her best friend, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood.

Oh, how gorgeous their love is. This is a friends to lovers with a fabulous cast of characters that I’m really hoping 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒍𝒍 will decide to make a series.

This novel is serious and emotional and intense, but if you want another 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒍𝒍 historical romance that is more ridiculous and silly and fun, I would recommend 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑭𝒂𝒃𝒖𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒔.

5 stars.

---

And now to what is possibly my favourite book of the year so far. I finally finished 𝑴𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝒃𝒚 𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝑬𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒕 and to say I loved it would be an understatement.

I think might want to write a dedicated blog post for this book because I have so many thoughts and I need to scream my love for it to you all. But what I’ll say here is that Dorothea would have to be one of my absolute favourite characters in a classic. She was so incredibly complex and intelligent, her growth throughout the novel was incredible to witness. Her relationships and friendships, her moral and spritual contemplations, and the way her story ends were just so perfect.

This novel also has one of the most tender and affectionate love story I have ever read. Dorothea and Will – DOROTHEA AND WILL?! – were beautiful. 𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝑬𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒕’s weaving of their love story is something that I have no critiques of – we are talking pining and angst, of adoration and dedication to the other. It was a masterpiece.

The other characters like Lydgate and Rosamund, Mary Garth and Fred Vincy, were also interesting and I think that’s why I also love this novel. Every storyline I was hooked. Truly, a fantastic feat of writing.

5 stars.

---

And that’s it for today, friends! I hope you enjoyed reading. What was your favourite book of the month? Your least favourite? Let me know!!!

Until next time, happy reading.

All the love,

allie

xx

---

𝓽𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻

𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓶

𝓰𝓸𝓸𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓼

𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓹𝓱