Am I Out Of My Reading Slump Yet? | June 2023 Wrap-Up
If you’ve been following my (admittedly inconsistent) Wrap-Ups this year, you’ll undoubtedly know that my reading has been incredibly chaotic. It feels like I am perpetually shifting in and out of reading slumps. Reflecting back on my reading in June, I think I might finally be out of the latest slump! So here are the books I read, a little life update, and also a writing update! Let’s get into my June 2023 Wrap-Up…
The Books I Read in June
We’ll Never Tell – Wendy Heard
I started off the month with a Wendy Heard double feature, and I loved both books!
Ever since reading Dead End Girls, Wendy Heard has become one of my favourite authors and I was incredibly excited to read her newest releases.
I was kindly provided an ALC of We’ll Never Tell by Hachette Audio and I had such a great time with it!
The book follows a group of teens who run an anonymous YouTube channel documenting breaking into various abandoned places in LA. When they visit a famous Hollywood “murder mansion” for their final video, the alarm goes off and when they escape, one of them is found stabbed.
What unfolds is a fast-paced and immersive race against the clock to figure out what happened. I particularly appreciated the commentary on true crime content in this book!
You Can Trust Me – Wendy Heard
Up next, I read Wendy Heard’s adult debut You Can Trust Me!
I’m pretty sure that if you liked watching Knives Out, you’ll like this one.
A billionaire’s isolated island, secrets, and terrible rich people, what more can you ask for? You Can Trust Me follows Summer and Leo, two women conning their way through living on the road. When Leo sets her sights on a billionaire as her next target, things quickly get out of hand and Summer is left trying to find her friend on a private island.
You Can Trust Me is slick and thrilling and I devoured it at a rapid pace because I just couldn’t stop reading! The way the mystery came together was incredibly satisfying and has firmly cemented Wendy Heard as one of my favourite authors.
The Butcher and the Wren – Alaina Urquhart
My most disappointing read of the month was The Butcher and the Wren.
If I had two nickels for books by true crime podcast hosts I’ve read…I’d have two nickels.
Unfortunately, this one lacked any kind of depth or character development and the short length didn’t give much room for anything but the easiest solutions when it came to the mystery.
I’m not familiar enough with true crime to know what real cases this was inspired by, but other reviews made it sound like the author took quite a lot of inspiration from real cases rather than creating something of her own.
I do think that had this book been longer, it would’ve been an alright thriller but alas, it was underwhelming.
Kill Joy – Holly Jackson
Finally, I read Kill Joy, the prequel novella to the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series.
I finally bought the last book in the series this month so now I own the whole trilogy! I’m still waiting for a long weekend to binge all books because that feels like a great way to read this series.
Unfortunately, Kill Joy didn’t really do much for me. It’s probably because I’m not familiar with the characters and the story didn’t manage to make me care! It truly feels like an extra story for fans of the series rather than a useful introduction to the world. I’ll probably revisit this one after I’ve read the other books, though.
Books I’m Currently Reading
Because I am always reading too many books at one time, I thought it might be fun to show you the books I am currently reading!
Firstly, I am about halfway through If Found, Return to Hell by Em X. Liu, and my god, this is an instant favourite! Told in second person (a strange and fun reading experience for sure), we follow an employee of a wizard call center. When they’re tasked to handle a case of possession, things get weird very quickly. This book is exactly the kind of strange and funny that I adore!
Second, I’m a third into Mindbreaker and I’m loving it! It’s no secret that Mindwalker holds a special place in my heart and I am so hyped to get another Kate Dylan book set in the same universe! This one deals a lot with questions of faith and technology but still has the same wonderful humour and action scenes I loved in Mindwalker. I can’t wait to see where this one takes me!
Finally, I have started reading The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei, one of my most anticipated releases of the year! This sci-fi thriller follows a crew of a spaceship that is rocked by an explosion, causing the main character to investigate as she herself becomes a suspect. I can’t wait to finish this one and share my review with you next week when it comes out!
A Life Update
Welcome to the life update part of my June 2023 Wrap-Up! I’m going to try and keep this short because I’ve also rambled on too much this post.
As I am writing this it’s almost mid-July already (where did the time go? I have no idea), which means that my uni semester is done! Actually, I wrote my two archaeology exams this week and now have an unexpectedly free summer until September. I have one paper to write and am doing a group project but both of those will only start in September due to scheduling and professors being away on holiday.
I have no concrete summer plans yet other than the eternal “maybe read some physical books from your TBR and catch up on review copies??” challenge. However, I am incredibly tempted to make a summer reading list for fun…even though we all probably know I won’t actually read most of whatever books I put on there. The joys of being a mood reader.
In terms of blogging, I think it’s obvious 2023 has been a bit of a rough year for me. Now we’re halfway through the year and I have yet to hit my stride and get into a routine again. But I’m trying, I swear! Right now, I have like four different posts in the works that I keep chipping away at whenever my brain blesses me with an ounce of energy and like two brain cells.
There are some fun posts and recommendation lists I’ve been meaning to write for ages now, so hopefully you’ll get to read those soon!
Honestly, I would love to hear from other bloggers if you have a writing routine and how you balance blogging with the rest of your life? Tell me about your experiences and advice in the comments, please!
Writing 25k in a Day and Trying Camp NaNoWriMo (again)
Welcome to the writing update of this June 2023 Wrap-Up! Surprisingly, I actually have some good news and progress to share through all the chaos!
June was somehow both a pretty weird and a pretty awesome writing month. After failing my Camp NaNoWriMo goals in April, I set myself some new goals in that month’s Wrap-Up post. Those goals were as follows:
- spend May rereading and outlining SpaceWIP
- write a true first draft at 80k words until August
- aim to write 40k words during June and July, adjust as necessary
Well, things didn’t go according to plan! But that’s my default state, I think.
The bad news: I still don’t have an outline and there is no chance in hell I’ll have a true first draft by August.
The exceptionally good news: I wrote 25k words in a little under 16 hours (thanks to the 24hour Novel Challenge!) and have continued writing during July’s Camp NaNoWriMo!
The 24hour Novel Challenge hosted by Rebecca Higgins on Twitter was such a blast and I am still shocked at the amount of progress I was able to make. Having the opportunity to be fully immersed in my story was delightful and it helped me figure out how I want to continue working on it.
Emboldened by the insane success of that writing challenge, my current Camp NaNoWriMo goal for July is 50k words. It’s an achievable goal. After all, I’ve hit that for six years in a row and now I just write half of it across two days! What could possibly go wrong?
Because I still don’t quite know what this space mystery about missing people in a space-station city wants to be, I have decided to simply write as much of it as I can. Somehow, I have the (potentially delusional) trust that the story will reveal itself to me if I just write as many scenes and pursue as many different plot threads as I can. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes!
Let’s Chat!
And that’s my June 2023 Wrap-Up! The downside of blogging less is that my Wrap-Ups just get longer and longer because there’s always so many life and writing things I want to tell you about.
Overall, my June was alright! I got to spend a lot of time with my friends and my partner and I just feel very loved and supported during these chaotic times. Here’s to a lovely July for us all!
As always, I love hearing from you so let’s have a chat in the comments!
⭐️ How was your June? Did you read any books you really loved?
⭐️ Have you made any summer (reading) plans yet?
I hope you have a lovely day,
If you like my work and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee!
4 Comments
abookowlscorner
I’m glad you encountered so many good books and are hanging in there amidst all the university busyness! 💙
I’m afraid I don’t have any helpful blogging routine advice for you, though – I’m so bad at balancing blogging and real life that I’m constantly returning from impromptu hiatuses 🤣 Organization would definitely be something different!
I hope you’re having a great July!
Kal @ Reader Voracious
Look at you reading and slaying that slump, Lay! We love that for you – especially with everything going on! I don’t think I knew Wendy Heard had an adult debut, so I am very excited to pick that one up. I’ve been CRAVING THRILLERS so this is my time!
My only blogging advice is to be kind to yourself. I’ve had to let go of my Type A desire to be regimented with my own blog more and more… and this year I took like 6 months off lol. Trying to find a bit of balance now but really it’s I do it when I have the time and desire, and ignore it otherwise. Not ideal!
Caro @ bookcheshirecat
Loved reading your wrapup! We’ll Never Tell sounds like such a great book, I love the premise already – it might be right up my alley 👀 I also wasn’t that impressed by Kill Joy, even though I read the books first 😅
I hope you get to do a fun summer reading list!!
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