2025 Books - June!

Fewer books than my recent averages....but wow, so many excellent books this month!

1.  The Knight and the Moth, Rachel Gillig - I dove into this beautiful book as soon as it was released, having loved Gillig's first duology last year.  To my delight, loved everything about it!  The world-building, the characters, the movement of the plot!  And then it hit....this was not the standalone I expected, but the first in a series....and I completely lost momentum and sat it aside for a bit.  Sigh.  I used to be great about finding completed series and/or waiting until a series was finished to start.  I feel like I have one too many up in the air these days, and it's hard to keep track sometimes.  It was a gorgeous book, though, and I'm really looking forward to where it goes next.  I do feel like two main plot points were telegraphed very, very early on, so the "twists" weren't really, but that's ok.  

2.  A Drop of Corruption, Robert Jackson Bennett - I loved the first book in this series.  This one, not so much.  Maybe because the concept is no longer new, or maybe because it was almost too convoluted of a story, for whatever reason it really didn't grab me this time around.  I went in expecting a locked room mystery (as per the blurb) and got a whole lot more political intrigue than expected.  Will probably continue reading if more in this series comes out, though.  There are just so many unique details about this world, and I love Bennett's version of Sherlock and Watson.  

3.  The God and the Gwisin, Sophie Kim - I loved, loved, loved this book.  I first discovered Kim because the first book in this series - The God and the Gumiho - was on NPR's Best Books list last year.  I fell in love with the way Kim honors Korean folklore while putting her own spin on it, and with the amazing characters she's developed.  This book follows our trickster god as he searches for the reincarnation of his lost love.  There's a murder mystery, a trip on a luxury cruise in the underworld, a lot of hilarious interactions between the characters, a path to redemption, and a new love story which is delicate and sweet and true.  So glad I found Kim, and I look forward to whatever she does next.  

4.  His Face Is the Sun, Michelle Jabes Corpora (audio) - I am so, so mad at Skylark.  They made me read this book, and it was beyond amazing....AND IT'S ONLY THE FIRST IN A SERIES!!!!  Argh.  It's killing me that I don't know what happens next.  This book is their July fantasy bookclub read, and I preordered it back when it was announced on a whim.  (Due to scheduling, I can't actually go to the fantasy bookclub, but I'm reading the books they select to expand my horizons.)  And this book is everything.  Four major characters, ancient Egypt (which I was obsessed with as a child) based world-building and magic system, beautiful writing, and plenty of tension.  It was super fun!  

5.  Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V. E.  Schwab (print and audio) - In 1997 I finished my first ever read of A.S. Byatt's Possession, tucked into my bedroom in my great-grandparents' home.  The ending hit me so hard that I had a physical response - a rush of excitement and buzzing energy.  I jumped out of bed, pacing the room, desperate to call someone to talk to about the book,  dancing about, rereading the last few pages.  It was really hard to go to bed after that.  That was the only time I'd ever experienced that sort of physical response to a book. 

Until the day I finished Bury Our Bones.  Same thing - physical rush, need to jump up and let out the energy, texting my friends about it, pacing my office, and then spending a long, long time spilling my joy out to my husband when I got home.  It was just that damn good.  

If you've been reading these blogs for a while, you'll know that Schwab is one of my absolute favorite writers.  I reread the Shades of Magic and Addie LaRue on a regular basis, I buy all of her new books in three formats (digital, hardback, and audio), and I even named my dog after one of her characters.  

Which is why it was such a treat when I discovered that Schwab would be in St. Louis for this book tour the day after it was released.  I got to sit five rows from the stage, so I had an amazing view, and as it would turn out Schwab is an amazing speaker.  She broke down the three main components of the novel and talked about her writing process.  I was about half way through the book when her talk started, and the things she said significantly deepened the reading experience for the rest of the book.  With about an hour left in the book I had a major epiphany based on her words, and I spent the rest of the book on the edge of my seat, so tense and excited as the pieces fell into place.

Of what she said, there are a few things to remember when you are reading this.  1.  Every detail Shwab puts in a book is there for a reason.  2.  It's told in three different perspectives - and you should remember that no two people are ever going to tell one story the same way.  3.  It truly is a book about hunger.  

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, other than to say that the "toxic lesbian vampires" tag is spot on, and that the book is very deep and meaningful.  It throws back to the monsterous vampires of the Gothic past, which I happen to love.  (I'm frequently annoyed with the 'sanitized' version of vampires in more recent works.)  As Schwab said, it's a book about hunger...and I was left feeling full and satisfied.  If you'd like to add to the experience, there is an official playlist out and it is perfection.  

Can't wait to read it again.

6.  Business Casual, B.K. Borison - The fourth in the Lovelight Farms series, I only picked it up because it was on big sale. (I read the first back in December, and it wasn't my favorite.)  I do not know how the B.K. Borison of Lovelight Farms is the same author as the B.K. Borison of First-Time Caller.  First-Time Caller was an amazing read, and these books are just maybe ok.  Big problem with telling, not showing.  Too much exposition from the main characters.  Boring.  

7.  The Book of Love, Kelly Link - This was an NPR Books We Love 2024 pick, and was one of the books that I was most interested in.  At 640 pages, it's a beast of a book, and it took me several attempts to really get into it.  It's a literary book that's about teenagers, (in other words, not at all YA), and overall I really enjoyed this book.  It was a rare case of me hating many of the characters and yet still loving the journey.  They were truly awful in the way that teenagers can be, and it was glorious.  The fantasy elements kept ratcheting up, sweeping the whole town into their wake, in a deliciously tense way....for all that this book is a very slow build.  Loved the structure of the book.  Loved how unique it was.  Loved all of the digressions that weren't digressions at all.  Beautiful.  

8.  The Sirens, Emilia Hart - This was my friend Carrie's most recent selection for me!  She promised me a book that would really make me feel and smell and taste the salt from the sea, and it more than delivered.  I loved that this story was focused on sisters, and as with her first book, Wayward, it had a highly satisfying ending.  I loved the historical tie-in, and the magic through it all.  It was an excellent read.  I will admit to some discomfort with both books in that Hart's FMC's are victims of various degrees of awfulness by men and society.  Yeah, a lot of books I read are like that, but something about Hart's work bugs me in a way that other books don't.  Of the two books, this was my favorite.  

9. Hungerstone, Kat Dunn - Another vampire book this month, with the recommendation picked up from various book influencers I really like.  It's a take on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's book Carmilla from the 1870's, and I thought it was a really fun new take on that old story.  The beauty is that it's yet another story that's really about hunger and what we really want.  Yes, compared with Bury Our Bones this book really hits you upside the head with that theme in a very, very obvious way...but it's still an important theme to ponder.  

10.  We Are the Stars: A Misfit's Story of Love, Connection and the Glorious Power of Letting Go, Gina Chick - This is in contention for my top book of 2025.  Several years ago I watched a few seasons of the History Channel's Alone, and loved it.  When I recently discovered the Australian version on Netflix, I eagerly dove in.  My husband joined me on the second episode, and we both very soon fell in love with Gina, who would go on to win that season.  Early in the season there is a night where Gina shares the story of her daughter, who died at three years old, while grieving for her on the anniversary of her birth.  It was one of the most powerful things I've seen on tv, and was the moment when I knew Gina could win because of who she is and how deeply in touch she is with herself and the world around her.  When I discovered that Gina had written a memoir I ordered it immediately.  To my intense delight, Gina is an amazing, amazing writer.  This is the rare book that I felt I needed to savour so I spent almost a month reading it.  Instead of trying to cram it into empty moments in my life as I usually do with books, I made sure to clear quiet time for it.  I finished during a weekend my husband and I spent at a yurt, out enjoying nature.  Gina has had quite the life, and I was obsessed.  Her emotional openness, her connection to books, her life of connection with nature, the poetic way she writes...I could go on and on and on.  I took pics of passages to keep them close.  It's quite possibly one of the most beautiful books I've ever read.  

11.  The Wedding People, Allison Espach (audio) - I avoided it for a while because it was all over the place and didn't really seem to be my thing on first examination.  That was silly of me.  It was a really, really good book.  It reminded me of In Five Years, even though the stories are really nothing alike.  It was funny, and reflective, and hopeful, and I think it will be with me for a while.  Bonus, love a story about an older woman! 

12.  Better Than Fiction, Alexa Martin (audio) - This was an NPR Books We Love Pic from 2 or three years ago.  It was sweet and cute, but was almost too fluffy and low-stakes.  Also, the romance part was really the least exciting aspect of the whole thing with our MMC being so bland that he was a tad boring.  I loved Drew's relationships with her friend, her sister, and her grandmother's book club.  I loved the bookstore concept and Drew's search to find a life that makes her happy.  

13.  The View Was Exhausting, Onjuli Datta and Mikaella Clements - Apple books had an Emily Henry Recommends page around the time of her most recent release, and because they offered all five books for sale I picked them all up!  All were about/written by POC, and most were based around tropes I hadn't explored yet.  This book was a Hollywood romance, and while I think the writing quality was miles above the standard romance novel, I don't really think that trope was for me.  I felt sad and angry through most of it (which is how you are supposed to feel), and honestly the stakes were a little too high for me.  (Ha!  I know I complained about the opposite in the last book.)  I didn't particularly like either of our lovers either.  Still glad I read it.  

14.  How To End a Love Story, Yulin Kuang (audio) -  This was the perfect sort of romance novel for me!  It was an NPR Books We Love pick, which almost always means I'm going to enjoy it.  Also a Reece's Book Club pick, which I'm starting to trust.  It's also the first romance novel I enjoyed as an audiobook, and the dual narration was lovely.  (Confession...much as I love audio, I find it difficult to listen to spicy scenes that I have no trouble reading on the page.)  Helen and Grant had a more challenging path than most romance couples, and I was there for every minute.  Bonus, some excellent mental health representation. 

15.  A Forgery of Fate, Elizabeth Lim (audio) - I adore Lim.  Her writing is beautiful, and I love the way she weaves fairy tales from the East and the West together.  She's a must-buy author for me, and honestly, this is my favorite book yet.  I loved the worldbuilding and the magic (I seem to be traveling under the sea a lot lately!), and I loved our main characters.  Beauty and the Beast has always been a favorite, so of course I loved that it was at the heart of the story.  Really, really loved the ending, which was hopeful and sweet without being the sort of ending where they get everything without having to work for it.  Going to need a copy of this for my shelves.  

16.  A River Enchanted, Rebecca Ross (audio) - This book kept popping up on the Apple sale page, and while I thought about it I kept passing it over.  (I enjoyed Divine Rivals, but didn't think the duology was the be-all, end-all that most people think.)  Silly me.  It's an absolutely gorgeous book - the sort of celtic-based fantasy that made me fall in love with the genre once upon a time, and it was yet another example of the perfect audio supporting the story.  Reminded me a bit of Juliette Marlier, who has been a favorite for a long time.  The characters, the family ties, the love stories, the magic...I ate it up.  So glad I read it!

Unfinished: 

Rough month....

1.  Witch King, Martha Wells - I largely picked this up based on how much I loved the Murderbot books and word of mouth.  On the second attempt to read it, I found myself enjoying it...but I put it aside wanting to read other stuff instead.  When I tried picking it up again it was just a no.  No idea why.  Maybe later.  

2.  Five Broken Blades, Mai Corland - Same thing.  I got it on sale, actually was enjoying it when I started.  Set it aside to wait for the final book in the trilogy to be released.  Tried again and it wasn't for me.  Maybe later.

3.  Dallergut Dream Department Store, Miye Lee - I love cozy fantasy, but this was just too precious for me.