June Haul and Wrap-Up

Hi, everyone. Since it’s that time of the month again, I wanted to share my monthly book purchases with you all. Many of these bookish wonders will soon feature as reviews on the blog if they haven’t already been posted, so stay tuned if you like the sound of any of this haul.

Also, a quick head’s up to anyone who buys Fairyloot or Book Box Club boxes: This haul does include the selected June books for both of these boxes, so if you’re still waiting on yours for any reason, you might want to be careful of spoilers when you scroll down 😀

And another, final note. I am going to be attempting Booktube again, so if any of you fancy watching this in video form, I will edit this article to include a link HERE when that is filmed and uploaded.

So let’s start with the books I actually bought myself this month. As you may know, the YALC convention is happening in London at the end of July, so a lot of my purchases were made with this in mind. I will be prioritising YALC reads and ARCs for the whole of July, in the hopes I will be able to make a dent in the horrifying TBR pile :’D I also went to BookCon for my PhD research trip at the very start of June [you can find my thoughts and review of it here] so lots of books were bought there for signings and things:

• Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalo. I was given a copy of Stalking Jack the Ripper by my wonderful bookish buddy Lis for my birthday last year, and although I enjoyed it, I just had too much on my TBR and wishlist to get around to buying book two. But Kerri was signing at BookCon and I missed the ARC drop of the next book in the series, so I consoled myself by buying this one to get signed by her 😀
• P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han. I haven’t actually read the first book in the series yet, but I desperately want to. Book one is still sitting on my shelf, slowly gathering dust as it gets moved further and further down the TBR. But I managed to get a ticket to Jenny’s signing line on the Sunday at BookCon and it required the purchase of a book. I didn’t think to bring book one with me, since I was tight on packing, so I figured I’d risk buying the second one and hope I liked it.
• Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han. I know, I know, I literally just said that I haven’t even read To All the Boys… yet, but this one turned up in a local bookstore for two pounds, which is an absolute bloody bargain, and I couldn’t resist owning the complete set.
• The Devouring Grey by Christine Lynn Herman. She’s one of the authors signing at YALC this year. Admittedly, I was tempted by this book, read the synopsis and changed my mind, but then I realised I’ve been following the author on Twitter for a while and I really like her tweets and some of the stuff she’s said about future projects, so I figured I would take a risk on it.
• Nexus by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsey Cummings. This is probably the next book I’ll review. Again, it was bought at BookCon to get in an autographing line for Sasha.
• A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. Another pre-YALC purchase. This one was so hyped last year, and they were giving out ARCs of it at the convention last year but they cut the ending from it to keep people hooked.
• A Girl Called Shameless by Laura Steven. Yet another YALC purchase. I loved the themes and plot of the first book in the series, The Exact Opposite of Okay when I got an ARC of it at the convention a few years back.

Books From Book Boxes:

• Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan. This came in June’s Book Box Club box.
• Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan. This was the second book that was included in the June Book Box Club box. I’ve wanted this one for a while and have been tempted to buy it a few times over, so I’m pleased it was included as an additional book this month.
• The Beholder by Anna Bright. This was the May Fairyloot box choice, but I got sent it pretty late and then had to wait til I got back from NY to unbox it. I have heard some mixed things about it and the writing style, so I’m not certain how I’ll feel about it, but I will eventually get around to it once I clear some of the other TBR books.
• Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. This was the June Fairyloot book. I have read one of her other novels and wasn’t really impressed, but I was hoping that this one might be better. There’s been a lot of hype about it, and this edition is just straight up gorgeous, and I liked that the box was packed with merch from some of my favourite fandoms.

Free Books From BookCon:

• The Speed of Falling Objects by Nancy Richardson Fischer. This was a free ARC I was given at an in booth signing the author did. I haven’t heard much about it, but the cover was pretty and it seems like an interesting book.  I’m tentatively hoping to get around to it before it’s in stores.
• Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody. I already have a copy of this, and I absolutely adore it. But this was a freebie handed out at a signing Amanda did, which means I got my first ever American paperback edition of a book I already own, and I got it signed too.
• Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite. This was an ARC I got at a book bar, where you basically explain all the stuff you like in a book and then you get given an ARC based on your likes. Again, this sounds pretty cool and I hope to get to it soon.
• Kingsbane by Claire Legrand. I was so pleased to get a copy of this on the Sunday as I have been meaning to buy it for so long but just never got around to it. And again, it was signed, which just fills me with so much joy. I love Claire’s books and I am determined to read this in July, if not the start of August.

Physical Books from Publishers:

• Call it What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer was sent to me by Bloomsbury. This is the first book they’ve sent me to review and I was so happy with it, because Brigid is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. I’ve already read and reviewed this one, so if you like the sound of it, you should go check out my review here
• X-Men: Days of Future Past by Alex Irvine.  Another book I’ve already reviewed over here This was sent to me by Titan, again my first review for them.
• The Spider Dance by Nick Setchfield. Again, sent by Titan. I will be doing my review of this book for the official blog tour on the 18th July.
• We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal. My current read and I’m loving it. This book was kindly sent over to me by Macmillan to review before its UK release in August.

And that’s it for the haul. It’s a lot of books, much more than I’d usually buy/receive [there were nineteen this month] and I imagine July will also be crazy with YALC coming up, but I also think it was a pretty good month for hauling.

My June Wrap-Up:

Books I read in June:

I only read eight books this month, as I’ve been in a bit of a slump and super busy with uni work.

• A Girl Called Shameless by Laura Stevens
• Call it What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer
• Romanov by Nadine Brandes
• Nexus by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsey Cummings
• X-Men: Days of Future Past by Alex Irvine
• The Greek Myths by Robert Graves
• Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
• A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
• Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

And that’s about it for June’s haul and wrap up. What did you all buy/read in June? What was your favourite read of the month? Let me know in the comments section below, and thanks as always for checking out this post <3