June Wrap Up and July TBR

June

I can’t believe we’re over halfway through the year already. It’s almost a whole year sine I moved out of my home in Australia to start a life with my boyfriend here in the UK. Unbelievable! June has been a wonderful end to that year and not a bad one for books, too!

 

The Books I Finished/Read

I started this in May and finally finished it mid-June. My boyfriend read it together like we read it’s sequels The Shadow of the Wind and The Prisoner of Heaven. Though it’s the weakest of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series (SO FAR! I CAN’T WAIT TO READ THE NEXT INSTALMENT!!) and probably also the craziest and most confusing, I definitely enjoyed reading it and living inside Zafon’s head for awhile :).

Speaking of living inside author’s heads, Neil Gaiman’s is one I have never encountered before in any shape or form. I have no idea how his mind works, it’s incredible and admirable. This book is insane. Half the time I had absolutely no idea what was going on and I’m still not sure if I liked it. It was fascinatingly weird. The TV series is even weirder! Definitely thought-provoking and original.

I enjoyed reading the second Dark Artifices book loads, as I always do when I return to Clare’s Shadowhunter world. Some parts of Clare’s books I’m always happy to overlook (the too many love triangles, for example) because, overall, I just really enjoy the characters and the magic and the monsters and the drama (yeah, okay, so I do love the angst even if I don’t particularly like the triangle storyline). I love Emma and the Blackthorns and Kit and everyone who takes part in this instalment. It was so entertaining and heartbreaking. I cannot wait for the third book and then, many years away, The Wicked Powers! eeeek!!

Emma Mills is a brilliantly creative, hilarious and touching writer. Sloane is a wonderful protagonist, she felt like a friend I’d love to have and that’s a great thing to find in a character. This was a lovely YA read and one I think is worth reading over several cups of tea on rainy days.

I finally finished this mammoth of a book today, which I am quite proud of! I always find it such an accomplishment when I finish a book that’s over 600 pages long. My boyfriend has been begging me to read this pretty much since I turned the last page of The Dark Tower (his most beloved series and now mine as well), and I know before long he’ll be pushing The Twelve into my hands. Now, I wasn’t sure about The Passage at first. It took me awhile to really get into it, which is always how I first react to multi-perspective narratives, because I hate getting into a particular character and then them being taken away for various reasons. I have to say it wasn’t until about half-way through the book that I was really into the story that was taking shape, though of course there were many things about the first half I liked a lot. I found the longer I spent with certain characters, the more I loved the story. So much happens in this book, and it’s pretty insane, but so worth sticking with. Cronin is a crafty and clever writer and his characters are all spot on, even if I didn’t connect with all of them. In the end I was left wanting more, which is always a great sign and I can’t wait to find out what happens next, especially to my favourite characters.

 

July