June/Pride Wrap

June 30, 2018

I’m starting a new thing with my wrap-ups, where I’ll be adding an emoji key to notate if the book was an ARC (?), had POC rep (?), LGBTQ+ rep (?), or was related to the month’s challenges (varies)!

NOTE: I’m not including any of my assigned reading for my class in this wrap, because that will go in a specific course wrap-up post when the class ends!

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June Reads…

KEY:
? = ARC
? = POC rep
? = LGBTQ+ rep
? = Jazzy June

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1. Scream All Night — Derek Milman ★☆☆☆☆ ?
This was an eARC that I was offered and my gut told me to say no, but I took it anyways, and ended up not being able to finish it. Not only was it full of homophobic remarks and even a rape “joke”, but the characters were awful and I hated the writing.
2. Summer Bird Blue — Akemi Dawn Bowman ★★★★★ ???
I cannot say enough how much I loved this gorgeous little contemporary about grief, art, family, and friendship. It has an ace/aro MC, and everyone in the book is biracial or multiracial (including Hawaiian, Japanese, and Korean rep).
3. Crown of Midnight — Sarah J. Maas ★★★★★
REVIEW HERE
I’ve been reserving some small doubts about this series until about halfway through this book, when it suddenly occurred to me that, yes, I can see how people love this just as much as the Court series. So many twists and turns in this one! (It does technically have POC rep, but the character’s on page times are so few and far between that I didn’t feel right about adding the POC rep emoji.)
4. Every Heart a Doorway — Seanan McGuire ★★★★★ ???
REVIEW HERE
This was a reread, and I loved it just as much the second time around. There’s Asian-American rep, an ace MC, and trans characters including bi, pan, and trans rep. ♥ It’s such a gorgeously diverse and feminist series.
5. Captive Prince — C. S. Pacat ★★★★★ ??
REVIEW HERE
If you can believe this… I loved this even MORE the second time around. ♥
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6. Prince’s Gambit — C. S. Pacat ★★★★★ ??
REVIEW HERE
This was my favorite of the series during my first reading back at Christmas time, and it’s still my favorite now. So much development!
7. History is All You Left Me — Adam Silvera ★★★☆☆ ?
REVIEW HERE
Sadly, I did not love this nearly as much as I expected to.
8. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo — Taylor Jenkins Reid ★★★★★ ??
REVIEW HERE
This book was literally one of the single most important, powerful, and captivating things I have ever read in my life. It features Cuban, biracial (black/white), bisexual, lesbian, and gay rep.
9. The Mermaid — Christina Henry ★★★★★ ?
REVIEW HERE
This was my first time working with Berkley, and they were kind enough to send me a beautiful finished copy of this book, and let me tell you guys, I’m gonna cherish it forever. It was so beautiful and immersive and feminist.
10. Kings Rising — C. S. Pacat ★★★★★ ??
REVIEW HERE
Like both of the first two books, this one was even sweeter the second go around. I cannot recommend this series highly enough.
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11. Over and Over Again — Cole McCade ★★★★★ ???
REVIEW HERE
Holy shit, this book. It is nearly 700 pages of some of the best, most angsty, adorable slow-burn romance you’ve ever seen in your life, complete with a beautifully well-done age gap, and a goat farmer/cinnamon roll/god among men as the older MC. I have never in my life been so hooked on a contemporary story, but I could not put this thing down and I literally read it for 3 hours, slept a few hours, woke up, and read the rest of it over the span of the next few hours. 700 PAGES in 14 hours, including sleep. THIS BOOK IS THAT GOOD. It has adorable farm animals, Aussie shepherd dogs, a snowstorm, cozy farmland aesthetic for days… I’m gonna make myself shut up now.
12. City of Glass — Cassandra Clare ★★★★☆ ??
REVIEW HERE
I think this may have been my favorite of the series so far; it had the best pacing and action, and a lot of character development mingled in. I can easily see how it was intentionally the finale of the series, but I’m also really happy that I have 3 more books in the series to get through.
13. Bright We Burn — Kiersten White ★★★☆☆ ???
I’ll post a review for this very soon, but all I can say is that I’m completely heartbroken over what a disappointment this book was for me. It took this series from being one of my all-time favorites to just an “okay” one because the finale genuinely ruined so much of what I loved about the characters and plot. 🙁
14. The Astonishing Color of After — Emily X. R. Pan ★★★★☆ ??
This was a solid 4.5-star read for me, and I still have not 100% decided whether I’m rounding up or down. For now, I’m thinking down, because there were definitely some parts that dragged; overall, I think the book could have very easily been maybe 50 pages or so shorter and I would’ve liked it better. That said, it’s lyrical, gorgeous, sad, important, relevant, and highly worth picking up.
15. A Conjuring of Light — V. E. Schwab ★★★★★ ??
Wow, this finale was complete and utter perfection. I can’t even describe how incredible it was, other than to say that I have never read a series finale that was so wholly satisfying. I am beside myself with joy over the unreleased comics about Maxim, as well as the next series set in this world.
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16. Escaping From Houdini — Kerri Maniscalco ★★★★★ ??
I’ve been asked by the publishers to withhold my review until closer to the release date, but what I can tell you for now is that I absolutely loved this. While it was a smidge less perfect than HPD, it was still a solid 5-star read for me, and I can’t wait to see how the finished ending differs from the ARC ending!
17. How to Make a Wish — Ashley Herring Blake ★★★★★ ???
REVIEW HERE
This was another reread, and while I’m leaving it at 5 stars for how much it meant to me (as you can see in my original review), I have to be honest and admit that if I were reading this right now for the first time ever, it might be more of a 4.
18. Autoboyography — Christina Lauren ★★★★☆ ?
This was my first Christina Lauren title, and I enjoyed them as a writing duo so much that I will definitely be checking out more of their work! That said, some things in this didn’t set well with me, and I’ll go into that a little more when I post my review. Despite some minor issues, it was a very fun, sweet read that I totally recommend grabbing.
Confession time… I put A Quiet Kind of Thunder and Clockwork Angel in the photo stack because I thought I would 100% have finished them by the 28th or 29th of the month, but it’s now about 1:30am on the 30th and I know I won’t finish them before this post goes live, if I finish them before July 1st at all. So, I won’t give my ratings or mini reviews for those just yet, but I will say that I think I will give them 4 stars each.


Other Reviews Posted this Month…

Birthday Girl
Wanna Bet? ??
Tithe ??
A Head Full of Ghosts
Crooked Kingdom ??
The Princess Trap ??


My Favorite Non-Review Posts of the Month…

T10T: My Most Anticipated Diverse 2018 Releases
T10T: Summer TBR
T10T: My Most Controversial Ratings
The 2018 Mid-Year Stats Update (Nerds, Rejoice!)
DISCUSSION: Reading Schedules
TBR Jar ReadAThon Sign-Up & Throwback Event Announcement!


Unfinished June Reads…

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Our Stories, Our Voices
In Other Lands
A Quiet Kind of Thunder
Sawkill Girls
Clockwork Angel
Pet Sematary


STATS:

AVERAGE RATING FOR THE MONTH: 4.38/5
FORMAT:
83% PRINT, 17% DIGITAL
PERCENTAGE OF JUNE TBR COMPLETED: 80% completed, remaining 20% in progress!


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More about Destiny @ Howling Libraries

Just a horror aficionado/geek girl trying to juggle motherhood, reading, blogging, gaming, and everyday life.

32 Comments
    1. I really enjoyed The Mermaid, although it’s not my favorite Henry book. But she has such atmospheric writing it’s easy to get caught up in her stories?

    1. Wow, Scream All Night sounds awful :/ No wonder you didn’t finish.
      Over and Over Again is on my TBR, but I didn’t know it was almost 700 pages O____O

      1. Yeah, it was pretty rough! :/ I won’t be picking up anything else by Derek Milman, I don’t think.
        OMG, I know, right? When I first saw the page count, I’d already been sent the ARC and I literally just blanched at it. But honestly, it FLIES by! It felt like a 300-something page book!

      1. Thank you! They’re both so freaking talented. Schwab is just a literary genius as far as I’m concerned, and Cassie is just… well, her writing is so FUN! She makes me laugh out loud all the time!

    1. I’m so glad that you liked The Captive Prince trilogy. I’ve read it this month too and I’m in love with Laurent and Damen.
      Also, I’M SO JEALOUS THAT YOU HAVE THE ARC OF Escaping From Houdini. I’m practically dying to have that book in my hands. I just miss Thomas and Audrey so much.

      1. It’s so wonderful! It was just as good the second time around. <3 They're so precious! I'm glad you enjoyed it, too!
        Oh man, it was really great! I hope you can get a copy soon! They're absolutely precious together.

    1. I love your percentages right in front of the book covers! What a cool idea 🙂 Great wrap up as well. Hopefully July is awesome for you 🙂

      1. Thank you so much! 😀 That was a last-minute addition on a whim and I wondered how it would look so thank you for saying you liked it! <3 Happy reading, friend!

      1. Right?! Talk about a great average! I’m hoping to finish Sawkill this week but not sure if I will quite that soon since my big readathon starts… well, technically, it started an hour and 25 minutes ago, but who’s counting, lol. And thank you!

    1. I adore the Wayward Children series! Seven Husbands is on my TBR so I’m glad you enjoyed it! AHH I’m so excited for Escaping from Houdini.

    1. Sounds like you had a great reading month. So many books! And that average is amazing too. Mine is like 3.6 and that is the highest it has been this whole year so far haha.

      1. I really did! Thank you so much. Oh wow! I hope your average is able to go up a little in July! <3 I wonder how much lower my average would be if I had added in my school reading, because I gave a BUNCH of those 2-3 stars… lol but I didn't want my list to be a million books long and half of it to be kids' books, so I decided to save those for their own wrap-up when the class ends the last week of July!

    1. I am so sad to hear about Scream All Night. I have been looking forward to reading that book. I have been hearing good things about how funny it is. Such a shame. I also am so happy you loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Escaping from Houdini. Both books I ended up really enjoying.

      1. Awww, I really hope you will like it more than I did! I think I probably should offer the caveat that I am REEEEALLY picky about humor in books. I have a weird and kind of dry sense of humor so sometimes what I find funny is what other people don’t, and vice versa, lol. Like, for whatever reason, I find the Shadowhunters books hilarious, and everyone always tells me they don’t think those are half as funny as I do. (Oops lmao) So maybe it would have worked better for me if I’d thought it was funny! Something about it just rubbed me so wrong from literally page one and it ruined the whole experience. 🙁

        1. Ah yeah it’s always such a shame when the book rubs you the wrong way right from the start because I feel it really sours the experience and then you don’t want to continue, so I totally understand.

            1. It really can. I feel a book needs to be like full on amazing after my experience was soured for me to like it. I feel majority of the time I usually put it down though before that happens.

    1. You had another amazing month, Destiny! I love the emoji key that you have added, 10/10 addition. 🙂
      I love the Mermaid as well – such a fun and unexpectedly feminist novel!

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