firewhiskeyreader

I always knew that I am so lucky to have the family that I do, but June has really brought that home for me. And when I say family, I mean the friends who are like family too. Work has been stressful and will be even more so during the next month and I’ve really leaned on the people in my life. I say all this to let y’all know that my reading in July should be ARC heavy, but is probably going to be (a) light in terms of quantity and (b) full of whatever it is that will give the opportunity to escape from the stress. It’s also a really busy month outside of just work and I’m really looking forward to some of my plans. Anyway, let me just tell you about what I read in June and get to my tentative July plans!

Oh, and most important update, I have a cat now! You can probably expect Mocha content to appear periodically on Twitter and Instagram if you follow me there. I’m currently very in love and I think he’s coming around to the idea that I’m his human.

A Visual Representation of the Books I Read in June

5 Stars

4.5 Stars

4 Stars

3.5 Stars

3 Stars

2.5 Stars

1 Star

DNFs

Statistics

• Total Books Read: 22
• Audiobooks: 17
• Ebooks: 4
• Physical Books: 1
• Owned: 6
• Hauled: 7
• Borrowed: 6
• ARCs: 6
• Most Read Genre: Contemporary Romance

My June Posts

• May Wrap Up
• June TBR (Readathons Galore)
• Contemporary ARC Reviews: Boyfriend Lessons, As Seen on TV, D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding, and An Island Summer
• Historical ARC Reviews: A Daring Pursuit, The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes, and A Lady for a Duke
• Mid Year Freak Out Tag
• Favorite Contemporary Romance Project
• Narrowing Down My All Time Favorites

Posts from Around the Internet

• Amber’s brilliant post on The Tropification of Marketing Romance Novels
• Nick’s incredible (and time consuming to create) Guide to July to December 2022 Romance Releases
• Speaking of Nick, she also posted her second installment of Romance Books that Define Her and I’m loving these posts!
• And this post from The Smut Report sums up my thoughts on June’s headlines pretty succinctly and I’m grateful. I’m also grateful for this craft analysis on Tension because I really do agree that this is where a lot of lackluster books lose the thread for me, but I’ve never been able to put it into words.
• This video about Historical Accurate dresses for Romance Novel covers is INCREDIBLE. Thanks to Dani for posting about it on Discord!

July TBR

I genuinely have so many ARC for July and I still have four June ARCs to finish up. I’m sorry to the publishers for being horrifically behind. Fingers crossed you’ll see reviews for at least some portion of these books by the end of the month. Or by the end of the year at least.

How was your June? What books are you excited to read in July?

xx