It’s time, once again, for my monthly wrap up. You know the drill here folks. We talk about what we’ve read, what we’ve hauled, how hard we fell on our faces when we failed our monthly TBR…you catch the drift. Let’s dive in.

Books Read

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• For the Wolf (Wilderwood #1) by Hannah F Whitten – This was my first new read five star read this year and, ya’ll, it was worth the wait. This retelling very loosely based on Little Red Riding Hood was a trip. Danger, romance, magic, perilous peril, near death experiences, this book had everything. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for anything Whitten writes in the future. 5/5
• The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms #1) by Tasha Suri – Overall this book had good concepts and the writing was it was easy to picture the settings and characters. However, the plot was so incredibly slow. If you are good with a VERY slow moving story and like adult fantasy then I highly recommend this book but it was not the best for me. I don’t have the attention span for such a slow moving story. 3/5
• The Beast (Wicked Villains #4) by Katee Robert – This was a good installment to Robert’s Wicked Villain’s series. In this one we have reimagined characters for The Beast, Gaston, and Belle except now they are more or less part of a villain mob and highly motivated by their sexual interests. I enjoyed this charged sexual romp for the most part and if you like erotica I recommend this series. 3.5/5
• The Lost Plot (The Invisible Library #4) by Genevieve Cogman – I had apparently read this book back in 2018 and completely forgot about it which is weird because it is one of my favorite series. Anyway, I (re)read this in June and absolutely loved it. This one features a 1920’s America inspired world, magic, mayhem, dragons, the most slow burn of slow burn romances, fiercely intelligent characters…it is a great installment to Cogman’s The Invisible Library series! 4/5

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• The Mortal Word (The Invisible Library # 5) by Genevieve Cogman – I just talked about how much I loved this series, and it is fantastic, but I have to admit that this is the weakest installment so far. It just lacked that certain fizz that I had come to expect. The other books all have so much friendly banter and tension between the two main characters, Irene and Kai, and this one was very lacking in Kai content. It’s like watching your favorite TV show and your favorite character disappears for an episode and everything just feels…off. Was this still a good book? Yes, but not my favorite of Cogman’s. 3.5/5
• Run Posy Run by Cate C. Wells – I think I have made it quite clear at this point that here at Literary Weaponry we love our erotic fiction. This one was highly recommended by someone with similar tastes to mine so I snagged it off of kindle unlimited. Unfortunately, it was just not for me. Something I insist upon in an erotica is consent and respect. Respect doesn’t mean treating someone like a glass flower, it means respecting their boundaries and their wants and needs. The male lead in this book had no concept of boundaries or respect and was just downright abusive and the woman accepted it like she deserved it. No thank you. 2/5
• Silver in the Wood and The Drowned Country (The Greenhollow Duology) by Emily Tesh – This novella duology was recommended by Judith @ Dead Good Book Reviews and I’m so happy I read them. Magic Wild Man in the woods, protecting the ancient forest, and hyper intellectual studying the forest meet and have good and bad times. Look, it is just good. There is forest magic and complicated feelings and a Big Bad and the whole nine yards in a perfectly sized little novella duology. Good stuff. 5/5

Monthly average rating: 4.2

Added to the Shelves

I’ve kept myself fairly well in check with book buying the last few months. However (isn’t there always a however?) I just went through what I purchased in June and there are more than I thought there were. Whoops!

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• The Dark Archive (The Invisible Library # 7) by Genevieve Cogman adult, fantasy, mystery, adventure
• The Secret Chapter (The Invisible Library #8) by Genevieve Cogman adult, fantasy, mystery, adventure
• Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft young adult, fantasy, mystery, romance, gothic
• The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah adult, historical fiction, mystery, romance, war
• The House Between Tides by Sarah Maine adult, historical fiction, mystery, gothic

I feel like my purchases had a type this month as they are all mystery which is honestly not one of my most typically read genres. Apparently I was in a mood and the last two, The Lost Vintage and The House Between Tides, were purchased on a whim after reading a thread of books recommended to Deanna Raybourn on twitter.

I do not include books I received ARCs of or read or downloaded through kindle unlimited in my monthly haul

Reflecting on June TBR

June TBR

Setting monthly TBRs is not really my thing. Actually, June was the first time I had ever done it! I set four books for myself to read. Let’s see how I did with my little TBR experiment.

• For the Wolf (Wilderwood #1) by Hannah F Whitten – Check! Read it, loved it, can’t wait for the sequel. ✔︎
• The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms #1) by Tasha Suri – Read it! I had pretty high expectations for this book and was massively let down. Don’t intend on continuing with the series. ✔︎
• What we Devour by Linsey Miller – Eh, I’ve been trying to read this but I’m likely going to end up DNFing it. This story is entirely character driven to the point I don’t think a setting or location has been described once. I have no concept of where this is taking place or how anything looks and I just don’t jive with that kind of thing. 𝙓
• Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian – I did not even open this once in June. Not so much as a glance. Yikes. 𝙓

Overall, not entirely successful. Will I try a TBR again? Maybe, but I kind of doubt it. It didn’t seem to motivate me any more than usual. Maybe if I made it a big physical check list in my office/library so I could physically check off when I finished something. Completing check lists gives me life.

That’s all folks! I hope you had a brilliant month and that July treats us all with a little bit of kindness.