June 2025 Reading Wrap Up
Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!
June is over, and we are officially half way through the year. Where has the time gone?
It was another slower reading month for me. In the month of June I read a total of seven books, and they were all novels. I think this might be the first time since I started this blog that I didn't any variety in the format? That's wild to think about. Most were adult, though I did have one middle-grade book. There were a couple of classics, a lit-fic, and fantasy as per usual. There was one reread, and two new releases.
Okay, let's just into the books.
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Novels
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Adventure, Adult
Means of reading: E-book
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3.5 stars/6.49 CAWPILE
Page count: 784 pages
Day(s) read: 6.01 - 6.16
Final thoughts: Book two in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Since I've watched the show multiple times, I pretty much knew all that was going to happen in this book. Unfortunately for me, I also knew that I was going to end up being bored throughout most of it. For me, the best parts of season two of the show are Dany's whole storyline in Qarth (which is hardly mentioned in the book) and the Battle of Blackwater Bay (which I knew I wasn't going to enjoy as much since I don't like reading battle scenes very much). I am looking forward to reading book three, however, because there are a lot of big moments that happen in season three and it will be interesting to see how it all originally played out.
Translated from the German by Phyllis & Trevor Blewitt
Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Classics, Adult
Means of reading: Physical (library)
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3.5 stars/6.94 CAWPILE
Page count: 353 pages
Day(s) read: 6.05 - 6.29
Final thoughts: Read for Emma's World Tour book club. This took me forever and a day to finish but honestly that ending made it all worth while, because the ending just fully ripped out my heart and stomped on it. It felt very Romeo and Juliet, except somehow so much more painful. I didn't really like the main character/narrator for the majority of the book, but again that ending completely changed my mind about him.
Genre: Literary Fiction, Adult
Means of reading: E-book
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3 stars/4.88 CAWPILE
Page count: 416 pages
Day(s) read: 6.08 - 6.14
Final thoughts: Objectively, this was a very good book. The writing was stunning (as expected from Ocean Vuong, whether you've read from him before or just know of his books) and the characters were all so strong and fleshed out, I could easily see them all as real people. However, this book was just too damn upsetting for me to enjoy it. I knew going into it that it was going to be sad, because all of Ocean Vuong's works are sad to some degree, but it was too much for me. There were some chapters that I cannot describe in any other way than distressing. Maybe if I was in a better headspace when I read this I would have liked it more, but as it stands now, I think I just did more damage to myself finishing it.
Genre: Fantasy, Middle-Grade
Means of reading: Physical
tar rating/CAWPILE: 4 stars/7.26 CAWPILE
Page count: 240 pages
Day(s) read: 6.16 - 6.18
Final thoughts: I thought this was an extremely sweet story! It reminded me a lot of The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Both books follow children as they're sent away from their homes and find a find a magical new place, though in this case it's not a whole other world like Narnia is. It took me a while to really get into the story, but once Tom and Hatty met it was unputdownable and I breezed through it in one sitting. I can see how magical this story would be to younger children.
Genre: Fantasy, Dark Academia, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4.5 stars/8.69 CAWPILE
Page count: 480 pages
Day(s) read: 6.22 - 6.24
Final thoughts: Yo, what the fuck did I just read? Seriously, what was that? How did M.L. Wang even come up with this? I mean, I definitely see the real world implications and inspiration both, but this was insane in so many ways! I have to say, I didn't like Sciona at first. I mean, she was driven and brilliant, but incredibly ignorant and racist (even if she didn't realize it, which is somehow worse), and it was really difficult being in her head at times. But she grew on me little by little, I suppose, as she grew on Thomil. I do have to admire her ambition and bull-headedness. It didn't end the way I thought it was going to, but I liked the ending all the same.
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4.5 stars/8.50 CAWPILE
Page count: 480 pages
Day(s) read: 6.19 - 6.23
Final thoughts: I am so glad I actually got this reread in, because I didn't remember a single thing outside of character names. But once again, this was so good. Chelsea Abdullah is a proper storyteller, through and through. Not only in the way the actual story played out, but the little stories sprinkled throughout the book all felt different, like they really were stories being told by different people. I admire her ability to change her narrative voice. And this book ended on such a cliffhanger! I remember how frustrated I was the first time I read this, but at least this time I was able to jump right in to book two.
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Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4.5 stars/8.38 CAWPILE
Page count: 524 pages
Day(s) read: 6.24 - 6.30
Final thoughts: This book was just action, action, action! The stakes felt so much higher than book one, which is rather impressive considering the stakes were high from the beginning. I didn't love that our characters were all separated for so long and that it felt more like three stories all rolled into once, even if it did make sense in the grand scheme of the novel. I loved exploring all of the new places and meeting all of the new characters, even if I didn't trust any of them the same way I trust our core group. I can't wait for the last book in the series!
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Total page count: 3,277 pages
Favorite book of June: Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang
No DNFs this month
No unfinished books this month
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And that's all for June! I'd love to know what your favorite read of June was. Leave a comment below, or DM me on Instagram or Fable (links in sidebar under the heading "More Media").
Until next time, friends!
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