The reading slump that managed to sink its claws into me in May stubbornly clung to me for much of June. At the beginning of the month I kept trying audiobooks, but eventually decided to leave it be and not force it, resulting in 20 days of not reading. Thanks to a fortunate rediscovery on my e-reader, my reading mojo is more or less back and I tried to catch up a little in the last week of the month, even though I mainly opted for easy, short stories.

Ultimately, the counter for June stands at 8 books, but together they only count 1581 pages. The average June book comes to only 198 pages/book.

June was mainly a no-reading month and what I read was little to rave about, except for one fantastic book. The average June book ended up at a mere 2.4 stars, the lowest in 2024 so far.

I did not vary in terms of target group and only read 8 adult books.

I did vary in reading style, but not very much with 5 e-books and 3 audiobooks. My unread bookcase books remained unread in June.

A little more variation in the genres with 5 genres, namely fantasy (1), horror (1), mystery (1), thriller (1) and romance (4).

For the language, I stuck to English again and didn’t read a single book in Dutch.

Below is the list of the books I read in June and my rating in stars.
Click the link to jump to the blurb and my review! As always, be aware that both blurb and review may contain spoilers, especially if they are sequels in a series! Sometimes I also start hiding spoilers behind an expandable text!

Marrs, John – The Marriage Act 🎧 ★★★
Thorogood, Robert – The Marlow Murder Club (The Marlow Murder Club #1) 🎧 ★★
Kingfisher, T. – Swordheart ★★★★★
Thorne, Sally – Rosie and the Dreamboat (The Improbable Meet-Cute #3) ★★★
Guillory, Jasmine – Drop, Cover and Hold On (The Improbable Meet-Cute #4) ★
Poston, Ashley – With Any Luck (The Improbable Meet-Cute #5) ★★
Wilson, Sariah – Royal Valentine (The Improbable Meet-Cute #6) ★
Clark, P. Djèlí – Ring Shout 🎧 ★★

🎧 Marrs, John – The Marriage Act ★★★

Genre: Thriller

What if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?

Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills — the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.

But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives — monitoring every word, every minor disagreement — and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honor and obey.

I really enjoy reading thrillers set in a realistic dystopian near future and John Marrs’ does that really well. Think Black Mirror style where subtle social and technological changes have a detrimental effect on our daily lives.
This The Marriage Act is the third story I read in this world and even though I found this one the least plausible of the three I already read, it still gave me that shivery uncomfortable feeling that kept me glued to the story.

🎧 Thorogood, Robert – The Marlow Murder Club (The Marlow Murder Club #1) ★★

Genre: Mysterie

To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible hero…

Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper.

One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar.

Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.

When another body turns up, they realise they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape…

Simple and predictable. Easy to read and somewhat cozy, but you might want to turn off most of your brain cells, because the mystery is about as complicated as a twenty-piece puzzle.
There is a lot of repetition and the clues are quite convenient and often dragged into the story in a convoluted way. Everything is hinted at from the beginning and plays out exactly as suggested from the start, no plot twists, no surprises.
What grated on my nerves was the fact that everything male was somehow bad and everything female was superior and taken advantage of by men. It was overkill.
I might continue on in the series, but I’m in no hurry.

Kingfisher, T. – Swordheart ★★★★★

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

Halla is a housekeeper who has suddenly inherited her great-uncle’s estate… and, unfortunately, his relatives. Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. When Halla draws the sword that imprisons him, Sarkis finds himself attempting to defend his new wielder against everything from bandits and roving inquisitors to her own in-laws… and the sword itself may prove to be the greatest threat of all.

In May a reading slump had set in, and as a result I felt very apathetic towards reading for most of June. I couldn’t find a book that could hold my attention and eventually I decided not to even try anymore. Because of this, I didn’t read a single word for 20 days, which is unheard of for me.

And then I found myself on the train commuting to work and feeling very bored, with only my phone, some knitwork and my e-reader as potential entertainment. Since the internet connection is kind of wonky on my commute and I want to spend less time on my phone anyway, and since it was way too hot to knit, I started going through my e-reader, with little hope of finding something that spoke to me.
So when my eyes fell on this Swordheart, which had been on my e-reader for years, it was with little expectations that I opened it up and started reading.

But oh, what a delight this book turned out to be. Endearing, cozy, funny and captivating!

I adored the characters!
Grumpy, scowling Sarkis and insecure, inquisitive Halla. I loved that these characters were older (although I would have preferred to read a little less about 36 year old Halla being old and middle aged, lol), their banter and developing feelings was utterly charming and delicious to read.

The surrounding story was a cozy, low-stakes adventure that was just as fun to read. I loved the found family and diversity in the characters.

This book made me smile and laugh and fall back in love with reading.

Thorne, Sally – Rosie and the Dreamboat (The Improbable Meet-Cute #3) ★★★

Genre: Romance (contemporary)

Rosie Whittaker and her sister are up for some Galentine’s pampering at a day spa. Getting locked inside a flotation tank is so Rosie. Enter a firefighter hero determined to pry this luckless pearl out of her high-tech shell. All Rosie has to go on is a dreamy voice and a flirty sense of humor. Remain calm, Rosie. This could be what you’ve been waiting for. Is this the man she’s waited for her whole life?

This installment in this series of short stories was okay. Cute, even though I thought the baby talk was weird at times, but it also made it funny. For the limited number of pages, the two main characters felt pretty real.

Guillory, Jasmine – Drop, Cover and Hold On (The Improbable Meet-Cute #4) ★

Genre: Romance (contemporary)

This Valentine’s Day, Daisy Murray has her heart set on binge-watching rom-coms. Instead, an earthquake traps her inside a bakery with its impossibly rude and insufferably handsome owner and head baker. They already have a history: she’s always smiled, he’s always scowled. Where better to finally get to know each other than amid the disaster? Then again, they have no choice. Besides, it could have its sweet, undeniable, and unpredictable perks.

This one had the lowest page-count of the lot and yet it dragged on immensely. I found myself skimming paragraphs to get it to be over faster. The story didn’t make much sense and the main character annoyed me.

Poston, Ashley – With Any Luck (The Improbable Meet-Cute #5) ★★

Genre: Romance (contemporary)

Audrey Love is cursed to be the person before you find your soulmate, the girl you dump for your true love. So when her best friend disappears hours before his Valentine’s Day wedding, Audrey fears that she did the unthinkable and kissed him at last night’s bachelor party. With help from the best man, she retraces her steps to find the missing groom and, with any luck, a true love of her own.

This one was just so-so. It was quite a chaotic read and felt like a story connected to another bigger novel, since it felt like we should have already known some of the backstory of the characters. I get that some references are made to events from other stories in this collection, but it just didn’t work with how short these are. Just felt overcomplicated.

Wilson, Sariah – Royal Valentine (The Improbable Meet-Cute #6) ★

Genre: Romance (contemporary)

Princess Ilaria has had it up to her tiara with the paparazzi, her own wild reputation, and the public eye. Trading places with her assistant, Ilaria wants just one blissfully ordinary weekend. Then a handsome photographer with a sexy Scottish burr offers to be her guide. Sparks fly, but how long can they last? Ilaria’s secret has to come out—and it could ruin a perfectly serendipitous romance.

I must premise this by saying that I’m generally not a fan of imaginary royal stories set in our world, so I already didn’t feel like reading this and only did because (1) it’s short and (2) I could then mark this whole collection off as read.
This story read very unnatural and forced. Also, this followed the same-ish structure of many romance novels, including a third-act break-up, which just underlined the whole thing feeling contrived and overdone.
Also, there were a number of hints to the other stories in the collection, which would only work if you read the stories back to back AND if any of the characters in these stories actually made a lasting impression, which for me was not the case, nor I thought the point.

🎧 Clark, P. Djèlí – Ring Shout ★★

Genre: Horror

In America, demons wear white hoods.

In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan’s ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.

Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan’s demons straight to Hell. But something awful’s brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.

Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?

Huh, what a weird, disorientating and often rather disgusting story… I really liked the concepts and ideas at the core, but not so much the way it was delivered.

“Y’all got a good reason to hate. All the wrongs been done to you and yours? A people who been whipped and beaten, hunted and hounded, suffered so grievously at their hands. You have every reason to despise them. To loathe them for centuries of depravations. That hate would be so pure, so sure and righteous—so strong!”

This could be read like somewhat of a cautionary tale, of not letting hatred breed hatred and keep fast to your moral compass. I mostly found the underlying messages inspiring. However, I was less impressed by how those messages were woven into a story, despite the audiobook’s excellent narrator.

It’s a very “American” book and although I know the broad strokes of the history, I felt like I probably missed much of the intended impact, due to me not knowing all the historical details.
The paranormal twist could have been good if there had been a little more work put in the build-up of both the characters and the world. Like, I still don’t understand the whole “shout” thing and why the book is ultimately titled “ring shout” when the magic sword seemed to have the biggest impact on the unfolding events.
I also did not like the choice of language. I understand it’s more authentic to use dialects or slang, but it also resulted in me not understanding half of what was being said in the dialogues.

Ultimately an uncomfortable reading experience that mostly confused me.