Mini TBR – June 2021

After a terrible reading month, personally last month, I plan to make this month a lot better. It is also Pride month – celebrate! – but you won’t find any queer books on this list. Why? Because I’m a servant to my TBR jar, and only one of the books on my current TBR pile is queer. I’ll probably try to listen to at least one queer audiobook, but I don’t know what one yet.

I’m generally reading queer books all year round, so I’m not that bothered.

This TBR post may be a little different. I’m only going to focus on the details of the books from my unread TBR that I want to read. I’ll be listing a few other books. But as I’m trying to focus on getting through my owned books, I’m trying it this way this month.

ARCS

Last month I almost exclusively read books to review. And I am a little burned out. But more than a few of the e-arcs I have are published near the end of June. So I need to get those read at some point. One of them I’m more excited for than the others, and as I’m writing this, I just realised that another one of them is actually queer too. So I guess that makes two queer books on the June TBR.

I did also receive a physical ARC of a book I am very excited about last month. That I really do want to dive into. So I may start that this month, or it might wind up being next month. So I’ll list that too. But if I don’t reach it, I won’t be mad. I’ve still got time!

• Wolves of Adalore – Morgan Gauthier
• This Poison Heart – Kalynn Bayron
• The Mix-Up – Holly McCulloch
• He’s Cancelled – Sophie Ranald
• Little Thieves – Margaret Owen

You can see why I didn’t want to go into detail about all of these books. Long post would’ve been long, ha!

Owned TBR

Now we’re onto the most important part of my TBR. Last month when I was feeling kind of low and slumpy, I decided to alter my TBR pile. So it consisted of books that I really wanted to read. So kind of a mood-read, but it’s still a pile I have to get through. I was more in the mood for chick-lit and romance then, so there’s not a lot of fantasy. Guess what I’m more in the mood for now…

But yeah, I made that pile, and I’ve only just started reading from it. I kept adding to my TBR box, and it was just getting a bit much. I’ve had to step back and put some more rules in place. Limiting myself to a certain number of books wasn’t working. To be honest, my new plan has technically already failed, but as I’m writing this post, I’ll make myself behave from now on. But I need to read – or DNF – five books from my owned TBR before I can buy a new book. I’ve already ticked three off. One was a DNF, one I finished on the 31st and the third I got over halfway through during the first day of reading it. So no worries about not finishing that. So only two more books before I can buy another one. That doesn’t seem so difficult.

So that’s my plan.

All these books are obviously books I really want to read. But I’m going to try to narrow it down to one from each of the genres!

Illusionary – Zoraida Cordova

This is the sequel to Incendiary, and I actually have the gorgeous FairyLoot edition. I’m kind of in love with the art under the dust jacket, and I really want to do something with it. There’s going to be a photo of it going up on insta at some point, so keep an eye out!

The first book followed Renata, a teenage girl who has the power to steal memories. Her people and their powers have been hunted down, and she and her friends want to take down the king. How do they plan on doing that? By having Renata kill the Prince. But secrets abound as Renata’s own memories keep coming back to her, and this mission isn’t as easy as she thought it was.

I actually had an e-arc of the first book and didn’t read it until this year. I marked it as not going to review as, at the time, I wasn’t in the mood. I even skipped that month in my FairyLoot subscription as I wasn’t feeling the book. Wish I hadn’t now. I wound up buying myself a hardback copy of the book when I was reminded the second was coming out soon. And I adored it. I’m super excited to be getting into book 2 this month.

Well Played – Jen DeLuca

Technically another sequel or companion novel. But with this being a romance novel, it can be read as a standalone. It took me a while to actually start this series. And I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed Well Met. I wound up buying this book pretty much immediately after I finished the first one. I just wanted more of that ren faire life, and I’m excited about this one too. Obviously.

Stacey is rattled when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She’d put her life on hold to take care of her sick mother a few years ago, and she’s never gotten herself out of the rut. So she decides that by the time the next renaissance fair comes around, she’ll have her life sorted, and she’ll know what she wants. But when she gets a tender email from what she thought was a summer fling, she’s surprised and continues to message the guy. Only to discover when summer rolls around again, she hadn’t been messaging who she thought she was.

This book is bound to be very cute and super fun. A perfect reading during those sunny days we’re enjoying right now. We don’t have renaissance fairs here really. But these books make me want to visit a castle during a special event where they have staff dressed up and jousting events. They’re always so much fun. My inner history geek and my rom-com loving heart collide in these books, and they do so in a very enjoyable way.

Grave Destiny – Kalayna Price

Probably not a series you’ve heard a lot about. This is an adult paranormal romance/urban fantasy series I started from the library years ago. I finally continued on with the series last year. And I’m looking forward to reading this one and the next one in quicker succession. This series does feature the fae and not in a way that I’m hugely fond of, but I love the characters and the intrigue.

Back to the plot of the first book, let me introduce Alex Craft, grave witch extraordinaire. She uses her powers as a PI, and to help out the police force when they call her in. During a murder investigation, she gets attacked by a ghost, and the only thing that saves her is her old friend, Death himself. To solve this mystery, she’ll have to team up with Falin Andrews, a homicide detective who makes his dislike of her obvious. He’s hiding something though, and Alex wants to find out what.

There is somewhat of a love triangle in this series, but it’s one that I’m enjoying quite a lot. Sometimes you just want a book with supernatural creatures and mysteries, so I’m glad this is on my TBR.

Dial A for Aunties – Jesse Sutanto

We’ll round this post out with what I’m pretty sure is a cosy mystery. It’s got the chick-lit vibes with a murder mystery, and I’m so up for that. I don’t really remember much about the book. I just thought that it looked really awesome from the first time I saw it mentioned. It’s also really short, which is a definite bonus.

Meddy has killed her blind date. It was an accident, but not exactly something she wants to go down for. So she calls her Aunties for help. They agree to help her hide the body, but their family business has suddenly got the biggest wedding of the year as a client. Oh, and did I mention the building the wedding’s going to be held in is managed by Meddy’s ex?

Does this not sound like so much fun? I’m itching to start it right now, but with it being so small, it’s actually at the bottom of the pile. I’m glad to be getting to this book so quickly though. I know it’s going to be a fun read.

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I do on top of all of these, also have a book club read for Otherworldalong. But I’m leaving that off the post this month, so I don’t have to write more.

That’s all from me for this month! Let me know what you’re reading in the comments. And if anyone is interested in any buddy reads? Leave me a comment down below, or shoot me a message on Insta or Twitter!